Colour in woven design

When this class of designing and colouring is executed in woollen yarns for rugs, the fabrics are covered with pile on both surfaces, causing the colourings to possess a very mellow aspect. Pattern I on Plate XXXII. is an example of this kind. The design (Fig. 199) is made on the same system as that for the preceding style. The arrangement of shades is as follows:⁠—

217. Colouring of Figured Designs containing Double Plain and other Weaves.—One illustration in this type of fabric will show the principles of colouring and weaving which have now to be considered. The object is to obtain three or more effects in figured fabrics mainly composed of double plain crossings, and at the same time to develop with special emphasis the ornamental forms combined. A feature to be avoided in the construction of these designs is the employment of such quantities of the single weaves as will result in the production of a fabric irregular in build. Fig. 200 shows the manner of combining the different crossings to obtain such effects. Intricate orders of colouring are feasible here, providing the thread-and-thread scheme is retained: the more ingenious the system of grouping the shades, the more valuable the results.

218. Reversibles arranged Two-and-One.—This type of textiles is produced in various kinds of yarns, such as worsted, woollen, fancy cottons, and mohair. It is a useful build of fabric, being developed in dresses, suitings, mantlings, vestings, and quiltings. An example in cottons is given on Plate XXIX. A section of the design used in producing this fabric is Fig. 201, from which it is evident there are two ends and picks of ground weave to one end and pick of figure. The weave applied to the ground may be plain, twill, mat, or any other simple crossing, but that applied to the figuring threads is invariably plain in order to secure a texture quite fast in build throughout. The following is the method of colouring practised here:⁠—

When the following scheme of shades is adopted, the aspect of the design is completely changed:⁠—

This latter order gives a solid blue ground with a clear figure.

There are several distinct methods of colouring these designs. First, the figuring threads, as in the first of these examples, are coloured variously, while the ground threads are of one shade. This affords a clear development of the design, particularly when the ground and figuring yarns are of contrasting shades. The production by such arrangements of a monotonous groundwork is obviated by spotting here and there with the figuring yarns, as in the patterns on Plates VII. and XXIX. A second system admits of the ground being composed of stripes or checks of any dimensions over which the figuring in bright colourings is distributed. Third, for woollen vestings, to which this type of design in simple twill and spotted effects may be applied, such orders of colouring as are given below being practised:⁠—

The ground shades in the first method should be of similar depths of hue, while the twists must not only harmonize with them but also with each other. The checks of light and dark grey in the second example may, in practice, be of different sizes. One feature of this system is that the groundwork may be varied in colour composition, but the twist yarns making the small ornamental effects suitable for fancy coatings, are of the same shade in both sections of the pattern.

219. Figured Compound Weave Patterns.—In general colouring these are treated on similar principles to reversible double plains—such duplicate schemes of shades as are workable in the single weaves being employed. Double cassimeres are coloured on such various methods as to be used in the manufacture of plain and figured textures. From Fig. 202, which is a plan of the weaves for the curve effect seen in Pattern 2, Plate XXXII., it will be apparent how the designs are constructed. It is the same weave which is run on to the ground as on to the figure, only in the former the odd threads appear on the face, and in the latter they appear on the back, while the even threads come on to the face. The order of warping and wefting is one thread of blue and one thread of stained white, so that the structure of the weave-design produces the ground of the texture in blue, and the figure is stained white. The opposite effect obtains on the reverse side of the fabric from that represented in the illustration, the colours which form the ground on one side composing the figure on the other.

220. Compound Colourings in Compound Weaves.—This is a good principle of colouring for vesting styles, either in woollen or worsted yarns. Some diversity of yarn structure is used, that is to say, woollen combined with worsted, or with worsted and silk, in order to obtain a difference in brightness of surface in the texture. No. 1, Plate XXXIII, is an example. The ground colouring is one-and-one in a double cassimere twill; and by reversing, the square spots in the illustration are developed in other methods of colourings which harmonize with the thread-and-thread order. A section of the design is given in Fig. 203, showing how the reversing is effected. This brings on to the face in one portion of the design the two-and-two colouring, and in another part of the design the four-and-four colouring. Other compound arrangements may be used.

The method of designing consists in arranging, first, the face warp and weft, usually in some simple order of colouring; and, second, a compound scheme for the back, of two or more simple orders of colouring, which, by combining reversible double weaves, may interchange with the face to give the style required. In addition, it is usual in such patterns to colour the face to form either a stripe or a check, irrespective of the special design or pattern due to reversing the backing scheme of colourings to the face, as shown in No. 1, Plate XXXIII. In this pattern, for example, the face colouring is as follows:⁠—

Face Warp.

Face Weft.

One colour thus alternates with the white woollen and white silk, and, in the last portion, the white silk alternates with the green worsted warp and olive brown weft.

The backing warp and weft are:⁠—

Warp.

Weft.

Or three simple orders of colouring, either the two-and-two or four-and-four being brought on to the face to form the squares.

221. Colouring of Double Cloths, such as Golf Cloakings and Rugs.—These are compound in structure, so that a different scheme of colour may be employed for the face from the back of the fabric. It is not, as in the preceding example, a question of reversing the position of the colours, but of confining one scheme of colour arrangement to each side of the fabric. In Pattern 2, Plate XXXIII., the face side is one colour, khaki, and the under-side a tartan check; but, as seen from Fig. 205 (weave 205a), both sides of the fabric may be coloured variously. This applies both to the ordinary golf cloaking or wrap, and to double-weave rugs, where the material, as well as the colouring, may be different on the face and the back of the texture: but in the example on Plate XXXIII., the weave, Fig. 204, is of a special structure in order to produce on the face side a sateen warp effect, in which the colouring for the back does not penetrate on to the face, nor the face colouring penetrate on to the back. The weave for the under-side is [2/2] twill, suitable to the development of such colouring. The scheme of colouring for the backing warp and weft is as follows:⁠—

Backing Warp.

Backing Weft.

The weft is similar in colouring but the number of picks is not the same as the threads of warp. The colour compound forming the check consists of red, black, blue, blue green, and yellow, the method of finishing the fabric having toned the colours into each other, and softened or mellowed the style of the check. The difference between the effect on the face and on the back is here extreme, but it serves to illustrate how distinct in colour quality each side of such a fabric may be, by employing a suitable weave and counts of yarn.

The method of colouring Fig. 205, produced in Fig. 205A, is as follows:⁠—

Face Warp.

Face Weft.

Backing Warp and Weft.

Contrasts in form of pattern—on the face and back of the cloth respectively—as in this example, are applied to golf cloakings and rugs, in stripe and check combinations.