Papermaking dryer fabric with groups of abutting machine direction threads

A dryer screen having a paper side and a machine side comprising:

• a) a plurality of machine direction threads extending in the machine direction of the screen, said machine direction threads arrayed in first and second groups and the threads of said groups are bound to the screen through different binding pattern repeats;
• b) a plurality of cross threads extend generally transverse to said machine direction threads;
• c) the threads of said first group are arrayed in first and second subgroups offset with respect to the machine direction of the screen, and each subgroup comprises at least two abutting contiguous machine direction threads having a binding pattern repeat floating on the paper side over a predetermined plurality of cross threads;
• and
• d) the machine direction threads of said second group each having a portion interposed between the threads of one of said first and second subgroups and a cross thread.