Pat Foster: Weaving

Figures 1 and 2 show a photo of a Warp Fan Reed. When the fell-line lies along the red line at the bottom of the reed, then there are alternate sections which are crammed and loose. If the fell-line is halfway up the reed, the sett is uniform across the cloth and when the fell-line lies at the top of the reed, again there are crammed and loose sections of warp but they are reversed from those along the lowest line. The immediate implication is that there has to be a mechanism for moving the reed up and down relative to the fell-line in a controllable fashion. Specialist reeds which can alter the warp or weft setting of a cloth have been known for many years. Sometimes referred to as an 'ondule' (=wavy) reed, they appear in 19th century literature [1]. Sutton and Sheehan [2] show how to make use of a Fan reed and show some fine examples of weaving.

I have a warp Fan Reed mounted in a Louet Kombo (Figure 3) where I have rebuilt the beater and reed-holder to allow my Fan Reed to be wound up and down by hand (Figure 4). The mounting is hand-driven using two long screw threads, one at each end of the reed and a wing nut to drive the reed and its holder up and down the screw thread (Figure 5 to 8). Figure 8B shows a close-up of the warp clearly indicating the warp and weft faced sections.

The weaver has to decide what shape is required in the cloth. For example, if a uniform number of picks is thrown for an equal amount of vertical movement of the reed, then a straight line pattern will result. Figures 9 to 11 show a fabric of green cotton done in a linear pattern. The pattern will not have a sharp change as the reed movement is reversed but will be curved as the most crammed warp threads are pulled sideways. Figure 9 shows the characteristic variation between warp faced and weft faced fabrics as the pattern progresses. The pitch of the pattern can be varied by altering the number of picks thrown per 1 mm of reed movement. If the number of picks per mm of reed movement is varied as the reed is moved, then the pattern can be shaped in different ways (Figures 12 to 15). Scans of some silk samples with differentpattern pitches are shown in Figures 16 to 19. These show very clearly the changes in colour in going from a warp-faced to a weft-faced fabric. The silk is 60/2nm and is sleyed at 45epi.

A length of fabric woven with a red-brown weft (60/2 silk) is shown in Figure 20 and one in Mint Marl silk in Figure 21. Three different lengths woven on the same warp with with different wefst are shown in Figure 22

Fan reeds are generally made to order and the version discussed here had 15 dents per inch and has two inch sections along the centre line. The height of 110 mm was selected to fit in with the Louet Kombo's dimensions but the whole of this height cannot be used since it is impossible to get a viable shed when the fell-line is less than 20 mm from the top of the reed. To make the pattern balanced, weaving has to stop at a similar distance from the bottom. Thus the working height of the reed is actually 70 mm. A counter-march loom would be an advantage with a fan reed

1. E A Posselt, 'Textile Machinery. Part 3, Wool Cotton, Silk from Fibre to Fabric', published 1905, P173-174, Section on 'Reed and Reed Motion for Specialities'. 2. Ann Sutton and Diane Sheehan, 'Ideas in Weaving', Batsford, London, 1989, p97-101

Figure 1 Photograph of Warp Fan Reed showing fanned arrangement of reeds	Figure 2 Close-up of Fan ReedText	Figure 3 Louet Kombo with Fan Reed fitted	Figure 4 shows the Fan Reed in use on the Louet Kombo
Figure 5 Detail of winding Mechanism	Figure 6 Drawing of Fan Reed in its mount, showing it in the central position	Figure 7 Drawing of Fan Reed in its mount, showing it in the highest position	Figure 8 Drawing of Fan Reed in its mount, showing it in the lowest position
Figure 8B Close-up of Green Silk Fabric showing crammed spaced sections of the warp	Figure 9 Close-up of Green Cotton Fabric	Figure 10 Length of Green Cotton Fabic	Figure 11 Green Cotton Cushion
Figure 12 Silk Sample 2 Silk Cloth showing sinusoidal variation of picks per mm while the reed was moved uniformly	Figure 13 Silk Sample 3 Silk Cloth with sinusoidal variation. Half the pitch of Figure 12	Figure 14 Silk Sample 4 showing a different type of variation	Figure 15 Silk Samples 1 to 4 together showing the variation in pitch and pattern shape.
Figure 16 Scan of Silk Sample 1	Figure 17 Scan of Silk Sample 2	Figure 18 Scan of Silk Sample 3	Figure 19 Scan of Silk Sample 4
Figure 20 Brown Silk Scarf	Figure 21 Warp as Figure 20. Weft is a mint silk marl	Figure 22 Three different cloths from the same silk 60/2 warp as Figure 20