Monday, November 10, 2014

The teleological problem in polyphase unit weaving


Though it seems desirable to use longer unit weavers in the interest of fabric strength, a difficulty arises: the entire work must be predesigned in order to know the correct placement (orientation and phase) of new crossing pieces as they are encountered in the work. (Recall that the entire basket could be a an alternating knot, in that case the orientation and phase of every unit would have been fixed by the first crossing.)

To avoid this troublesome rigidity in the weaving process it is necessary to use non-directional unit weavers ( "S"- and "Z"-shaped, not "W"-shaped) and non-directional layering (i.e., brick-laid, not shingled.)

Also, there must be a splice everywhere it is possible to have a splice, otherwise the question of how to phase the next crossing weaver would arise.

Due to these condiderations, the only possible not-teleological unit weavers are "Z"- and "S"-units two triangles in length. Placing "Z"-units on one face and "S"-units on the other, covers all the splices on both faces.

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