I MUST CONFESS THAT I used to be a doup leno snob. I assumed the only way to get fancy patterning in leno weave (aka crossed-warp or gauze weave) was to add doup heddles to my loom. Bead leno, although much more common, is only used for featuring highly textured or unusual yarns in a simple 2/2 crossed-warp structure-or so I thought. I realized that if I was going to hold this biased opinion, I should at least give bead leno a chance. After all, how could I believe such a thing if I'd never even tried bead leno? The beads in bead leno are used on the loom, not in the final product. They create the sideways movement of some warp ends under others. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that bead leno can produce complex crossings on a multishaft loom! Its only limitation is that it needs two warp ends to cross under the stationary end instead of the one used in doup leno. Challenging myself further, I found that with just four shafts, I could get two threading units which, although not completely independent, can produce the warp crossings at different times.
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