Graphing a Design and the Double Interlock

Graph the design

Rölakan designs are geometric, built from vertical, horizontal, and stepped boundaries. Parkdal’s rugs keep to a few strong shapes, like Novotny’s “Little Dots,” which scattered small dots of color through a repeating diamond ¹.

Graph the design on squared paper:

• One square across equals one warp end (or one pair).
• One square up equals a few passes of weft; weave a sample to learn how many passes per inch your yarn packs to.
• Keep vertical boundaries in the same gap between two warps.
• Step diagonals one warp per pass, or one warp every two passes, for a steeper or gentler slope.

Single or double

Where two colors meet, the wefts must be joined, or the rug splits into slits. There are two ways ^{2 3}:

• Single interlock links the two wefts on every other meeting, when they move one way only. It’s reversible, and it’s the usual Norwegian practice.
• Double interlock links them at every meeting, in both directions. It’s heavier and has a clear wrong side. This is Swedish rölakan.

Working the double interlock

1. Weave with the wrong side facing you: the interlock loops build a raised chain on the back, and that side faces the weaver.
2. In each shed, lay every color bundle in the same direction.
3. When a bundle arrives at a color boundary, bring it up in the gap between the two warps where its neighbor enters.
4. Pass it around the neighboring bundle, then lay it back into its own area on the next pick.
5. Every pick, at every boundary, makes one interlock.

Laying in. Parkdal lays in the pattern “entirely by hand, not with a shuttle” ¹: draw each bundle through its section of the open shed, leave it in a gentle arc so it doesn’t pull the edges in, and beat firmly.

Blending. Each pick is a bundle of five strands. Parkdal changes the mix within an area (one red, two orange, one coral, one mauve, then two red, two coral, one orange) so color shifts without stripes ¹. Change one strand at a time, and stagger where you start and end strands so the joins don’t line up.

Try it

Weave a 4-inch sample with a single vertical boundary in double interlock. Turn it over every inch to look at the front: the boundary should be a clean line, and the back should show a neat chain.