Playing with Huck

It's likely that lace in all its woven forms will be high on my list of 4-shaft projects. I've been playing with drafts for 4-shaft lace. Huck seemed like a good place to start, since the constraints of the structure make decisions easy. There are two primary pattern blocks: A, and B. A can be warp spots or weft spots or plainweave, and must be surrounded by PW or B; B can be warp spots or weft spots or plainweave, and must be surrounded by PW or A. You can't weave both A and B as warp spots at the same time, or as weft spots at the same time; warp spots and weft spots, if adjacent, must alternate. If you try to bend this rule, you get some extremely long floats! A third threading block can weave true plainweave.

I created a design that includes borders threaded in plainweave, with a center field of alternating A and B blocks. Lots of different possibilities on this same threading, just by changing the treadling:

I'm sure I could have thrown in a few more design variations just for fun. Now, if only I had 2 more treadles, so I could weave a towel (or table mat) in each one of these variations without changing tieups! Hmmm. I may have to add this to DH's honey-do list...

BTW, my resource for this design exercise was Donna Muller's excellent book Handwoven Laces, published by Interweave Press in 1991, ISBN 0-934026-66-1.