A better doubleweave pattern

I had a friend try out the doubleweave pattern I used for the other blankets and she didn't like how the threading bounced around.  Originally, the threading was to help make sure you threaded the lights and darks on the correct heddles.  But she was right, it was a pain in the bum bum!  While working on the 4-shaft doubleweave project, I thought and thought about re-vamping the entire thing.  Here is the pattern I have come up with.  When you weave it, you will also have a straight treadling.  This is just showing the separation of the 2 layers.

Here is the pattern in the way I want to thread it and weave it.  Between the small stripes would be a perfect place to hide the middle fold in the blanket!

When unfolded, each layer should weave up to look like this:

The tie-up was the most confusing part to come up with, especially if we are keeping a straight threading and treadling.  Here is an easy way to see (and draw) the layers yourself:

#1.  Figure out what shafts your layers 1 and 2 will be on.  Red is layer 1 (odd shafts 1-3-5-7) and blue is layer 2 (even shafts 2-4-6-8).  Here they are marked on an 8-shaft tie-up so you can see it:

The pattern seams to skip around because of the order we weave the layers.  It is done in 8 moves, and kind of looks like this, from the side looking across:

This is why you need to skip a few columns between the treadlings on your pattern.

#2.  Fill in the first layer with 2-2 twill.  Layer 1 will be a 2-2 twill done like this: 1-2, 2-3, 3-4, and 4-1.  Layer 1 is also on only the odd shafts and they have to appear in this order because we are weaving the layers back and forth in this order.

 

#3. Fill in the 2nd layer with the first layer treadles up, so that they can be out of the way when you are threading.  All the odd shafts (layer 1) need to be raised out of the way.  This is what it will look like with layer 1 marked and raised out of the way, before we mark layer 2:

#4.  Fill in a 2-2 twill your treadling draft for layer 2.  Make sure it continues correctly with layer 1's 2-2 twill.  We are making this one continue opposite of the other one so that when it changes squares, the direction changes. 

This is the tie-up for 2-2 twill to look like this: 

So while layer 1 is doing the 2-2 twill that looks like this: 1-2, 2-3, 3-4, 4-1, layer 2 has to start where layer 1 left off.  Since layer 1 is 1-2, layer 2 will be the other shafts, or 3-4.  Layer 2's twill will look like this: 3-4, 4-1, 1-2, 2-3.  Also don't forget that layer 2 is only on the even shafts.  This is our final tie-up:

I hope this helps you understand 8-shaft doubleweave just a little bit more and maybe even want to try something yourself!  Have fun!