Star and Rose Treadling

Handwoven Magazine Ask Madelyn

Could you please comment on star and rose treadling? I gather star = tromp as writ. Rose is more confusing. Is it the name given to a variety of lift plans that result in more circular patterns than those created by the star treadling on the same threading?
––Betsy Tabac


Hi Betsy!

The terms “star” vs “rose” have most often been applied to the treadling order of blocks in overshot, but they are actually also used with other block weaves, particularly in traditional doubleweave coverlets and damask tablecloths.

A star motif

You are correct that a star-fashion treadling means weaving the blocks in the same order as they are threaded. (This is not really tromp as writ. Tromp as writ means you treadle each individual pick following each individual thread in the threading, not blocks.) You can recognize a star-fashion treadling by a a diagonal line of pattern squares through a motif.

  A rose motif

In rose fashion, you trade a pair of blocks in the treadling order from their order in the threading. That is: you follow the threaded order of the blocks, just like you do for star fashion, but when you see an A in the threading, you weave B, or D for C or…it can be any pair. Usually you are trading two blocks within the same motif. The resulting motif will be symmetrical, as with a star-fashion treadling, but without the diagonal line of squares.

Both are simply ways of getting symmetrical designs. For some drafts that have two 2-block motifs, one motif might be treadled star fashion, the other rose fashion, or vice versa.


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