Taquete: I Wove Rugs on a Summer & Winter Threading

…but didn’t know it was called Taqueté.

In the early 90’s I wove several rugs and used Peter Collingwood’s book, The Techniques of Rugweaving, as my guide.  I especially liked the two-tie unit, four-end block weaves described in Chapter 8 that use the same threading system that is used in Summer & Winter (S&W).  The weave is weft-faced, without any tabby wefts, and when 2 weft colors are used, one weft color shows on one side and the other weft color on the reverse side.  Years later, as I was browsing through Weaver’s Magazine #42, the issue about rugs, I read that when S&W is used this way the structure is called Taqueté.  Taqueté can also be woven using finer yarns and one might not recognize it as a rug technique.

Since I already did S&W related posts (here and here), I thought it’s time to write about how I wove two of my small Taqueté rugs that are being used as meditation mats.  I wove a series of these in different colors and patterns on the same warp by rearranging the treadling blocks for each design.

RUG #1

Taquete Rug #1, Wool, 30″ x 32″, 1993

Taquete Rug #1 (detail showing both sides), Wool, 30″ x 32″, 1993

Profile Draft for Rug #1:

I originally designed these rugs on graph paper starting with a profile draft.  In this Rug there are 4 threading blocks – A, B, C, and D, and 4 treadling blocks – 1, 2, 3, and 4.  A total of 6 shafts and 8 treadles are needed to weave it on a treadle loom.  Here’s what my original profile draft looked like:

Profile Draft for Taquete Rug #1 (A-D threading blocks) (1-4 treadling blocks)

Partial Weaving Draft for Rug #1:

The  Draft below shows the threading to be 4 ends per block and may be repeated as many times as desired.  In this Rug it’s repeated only one time because at a sett of 4 e.p.i. that was enough to create the design that I wanted.  If read left to right, the threading goes like this:  Block A (1,3,2,3); Block B (1,4,2,4); Block C (1,5,2,5); and Block D (1,6,2,6)

The Draft below also shows the treadling to be 4 wefts per block that may be repeated as many times as desired.  For lack of space, this Draft does not show the actual number of times each block is repeated to create the design for this Rug which is 5 times (total of 20 wefts).  Note that 2 treadles are pressed at the same time for each weft because otherwise 16 treadles would be needed instead of only 8.  If read from top to bottom, the treadling goes like this:  Block 1:   lift shafts 1+3 together and throw a weft with the color indicated; lift shafts 1+(4,5&6) together and throw the second weft with the color indicated; lift shafts 2+3 and throw the third weft with the color indicated; and lift shafts 2+(4,5&6) together and throw the fourth weft with the color indicated.  Likewise, refer to the Draft for treadling Blocks 2, 3, and 4.

The Profile draft is a shorthand notation for a thread-by-thread draft (the Partial Weaving Draft here).  Once you know what each block represents you simply follow the block order in the Profile draft when threading and treadling.

Partial Weaving Draft for Taquete Rug #1

Weft-Faced View Profile Draft for Rug #1:

By entering information a particular way into my weaving program, namely in liftplan mode with alternating colors and in weft-faced view, an amazing profile draft is generated that can easily be changed and used with the block substitution feature to create other weave structures, not only Taqueté.

Weft-Faced View Profile Draft for Taquete Rug #1 (showing both sides)

RUG #2

Taquete Rug #2 (detail showing both sides), Wool, 30″ x 32″, 1993

Partial Weaving Draft and Weft-Faced View Profile Draft for Rug #2:

Although I wove this Rug on the same warp as Rug #1, it can easily be woven using only 3 shafts and 4 treadles because it’s really just the repetition of 1 threading block and 1 treadling block.  Again, for lack of space, the Partial Weaving Draft does not show the actual number of treadling repeats but together with the Weft-Faced View Profile Draft you get the idea:

Partial Weaving Draft for Taquete Rug #2

Weft-Faced View Profile Draft for Taquete Rug #2 (showing both sides)

Additional Notes:

For both these rugs I used 5/2 warp twist cotton tripled with a sett of 4 e.p.i. (ends per inch) for the warp, and a 4-ply light/medium rug wool tripled for the weft approximately 20 p.p.i. (picks or wefts per inch).  The finished rugs are 30″ x 32″ and each weighs about 3 lbs., nice and thick and comfortable to sit on.  I have also used linen for the warp when weaving larger rugs, but I heard that seine twine is also very good, even better because fringes don’t fray as much with less overall wear and tear over time.

My favorite large Taqueté rug that I wove in 1990 is in our living room and we really do use one side in the summer and turn it over to the reverse side in the winter because both sides are equally nice.  It’s the second image on my Gallery – 1985 & 1990 page.

By the way, I posted an image of a new shadow weave sample I wove this year for the Fine Threads Study group at Complex Weavers, it’s on my Gallery 2010 page, the fourth image down.

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Summer & Winter, Dukagang-Fashion Fabric

After I finished the Summer & Winter Table Runner, I decided to weave something that would look very different but make use of the threading that was already on the loom by tying on a new warp.  The same threading for a traditional type of S&W can be used to weave in Dukagang-fashion, as in the Scandinavian inlay weave.  There’s an excellent chapter on the many S&W weaves, including Dukagang, in A Weaver’s Book of 8-Shaft Patterns, edited by Carol Strickler, Chapter 15.

Below are images and weaving drafts of the finished woven fabric with some additional notes.  I plan to make a pillow from this fabric and I wove part of it in plain weave to use for the back of the pillow.

Summer & Winter, Dukagang-Fashion Fabric

Summer & Winter, Dukagang-Fashion Fabric (with detail)

Summer & Winter, Dukagang-Fashion (Draft 1)

Summer & Winter, Dukagang-Fashion (draft 2)

Summer & Winter, Dukagang-Fashion (Weaving Notes)

Additional Notes

The sett is 36 e.p.i. and 30 p.p.i. (the plain weave yardage); 5 colors of 20/2 cotton each wound in a separate warp and “mixed” by eye when tying on to the old warp so one color sort of blends into the next; 20/2 cotton for the plain weave weft and 5/2 pearl cotton for the pattern weft.  The fabric was finished by washing by hand and ironing while still slightly damp.  Overall shrinkage is about 8%.

It’s a bit narrower than the Table Runner because I removed the side warp ends that were used for the border and the pattern threads were on shaft #3.  However, the weaving drafts above do incorporate shaft #3 because I think it would look better this way even though I wove the fabric without it since I was tying on to the old warp.  The difference is hardly noticeable.

In the threading and treadling chart you can see that treadling Dukagang-fashion is different in that only one of the tie-down (plain weave) shafts is lifted for all the pattern weft shots while the other shaft is always down.  This way the pattern wefts produce the vertical columns.  It looks best if each treadling block is repeated at least twice.

When this type of weave is woven on a treadle loom with many shafts tied to one treadle it’s difficult to weave without some kind of device that assists in the lifting.  I weave only short yardages and do the best I can with the tie-up to make it as easy as possible to lift when I do this type of weaving on my Macomber.

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Summer & Winter Table Runner

I recently wove the Summer & Winter Table Runner that is described below.  I usually design a profile draft first for this type of weave to see what the overall pattern would look like and then create the weaving draft by choosing the type of Summer & Winter weave I want to use.  With the help of my weaving program, in this case I decided to skip the profile draft and first create a threading and treadling draft for 14 blocks of a traditional type of Summer & Winter weave and then design the pattern in the tie-up.  I tried many patterns and chose the one that reminds me of embroidered cross-stitching of an intricate pattern with soft colors, subtle yet complex.

Summer & Winter Table Runner

Summer & Winter Table Runner (other side)

Summer & Winter Table Runner (detail)

Summer & Winter Table Runner Weaving Draft 1

Summer & Winter Table Runner Weaving Draft 2

Summer & Winter Weaving Notes

Additional Notes:

I wove this 14 block table runner on my 16 shaft Macomber loom.  One of the treadles for the plain weave ground weft had to be tied to 14 shafts, too heavy for me to lift with one foot.  So I tied it to 2 treadles in the center of the other treadles with 7 shafts each and pressed with both feet to lift all 14.

For the warp I used 20/2 cream and pale yellow cotton sett 36 epi; for the weft 20/2 pale yellow for the ground and 5/2 lavender pearl cotton for the pattern.  The finished piece measures 43″ x 16″ after washing by hand and ironing while still lightly damp.

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