Showing posts with label drafts. Show all posts
Showing posts with label drafts. Show all posts

Saturday, September 21, 2024

Weaving Stool Cushion: About That Draft

After deciding on the project and the yarn, I started working on the weaving particulars. The project is a permanent cushion for my table loom stool, the weave structure is crackle, and the pattern is from Mary Meigs Atwater's Recipe Book. It's the same one I used for my bathroom rag rug

I started my calculations by taking a look at the threading and thinking about how it needed to be modified to fit the project width. As I stared at it, it occurred to me that for the rug, I was so focused on following the threading order that I forgot the structure.


By concentrating only on which dot and which heddle came next, I forgot that it was crackle weave. I was thinking more about keeping my place in the draft than in the threading patterns.

The pattern rotates the four crackle threading blocks in a particular order. For one motif, it is:

Block A: 1-2-3-2
Block B: 2-3-4-3
Block D: 4-1-2-1
Block C: 3-4-1-4

Rather than trying to keep track of where I am on the draft, it's actually easier to keep remember a 4-number sequence, such as 1-2-3-2 while I'm threading heddles. I'm even clever enough to remember which shaft the sequence starts on, so that I can count them at the same time. Block A, for example, (1)-2-3-2, (2)-2-3-2, (3)-2-3-2, etc. 

With that in mind, I thought it might be easier to make and follow a profile draft. Profile drafts are shorthand drafts. Each square or line on the grid represents a particular threading sequence. The number of squares in the line represents the number of repeats. The columns represent which block is being threaded. Hence, the above threading draft looks like this:


That doesn't include the incidentals, however. Incidentals are extra threads added to transition from one block to another as needed. To visualize that, I added the incidentals in red.

(read from right to left)

I have no idea if this is the proper way to make a crackle profile; if incidentals are even notated in crackle profile drafts. The incidentals simply repeat the first thread in the block, so I'm probably supposed to have their use memorized. I'm not there yet. I'm just hoping this will be easier to follow. The exercise definitely made it easier to visualize.

I don't have a printer, so I didn't actually get to test this out at the loom. Instead, I wrote it out in my weaving notebook thus:


So far so good and threading is going quickly.


In contemplating thinking patterns, I realized it's about mentally visualizing information. I'm sure there are labels for things like this. I idly wonder if it's connected to personality types or some such. That might be interesting to read about, but on a practical level, the important thing is that I figured out what works best for me.


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Friday, June 14, 2024

Chain of Hearts Sample

Draft


Particulars
  • Loom: 4-shaft table loom
  • Yarn: 10/2 cotton for warp and weft
  • Warp length: a little over a yard
  • Warp width in reed: 5.5 inches
  • Sett: 30 e.p.i.
Liftplan:

  1. 1 - 3 - 4
  2. 1 - 2 - 3
  3. 2 - 3
  4. 1- 2
  5. 1 - 4
  6. 4

Photos


First impression:  They look more like little faces than hearts, lol. 


I think this is because the bottom point of the heart is embedded in the top of the heart. Without color to distinguish one from another, they lose their heart identity. 

Observations
  • Sett is good
  • I like the color scheme
  • It's fast to weave, not having to change weft colors
  • I think it could be cute kid fabric, sort of an aliens from a flying saucer theme
  • Or, do the "faces" in orange warp and the remaining warp and weft in black for a jack o'lantern look
  • I don't want to use it for the project I had in mind.

Even so, I will still experiment for as long as I have warp!


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Monday, December 18, 2023

Bath Mats Continued

These are weaving up pretty quickly and bath mat #2 is progressing. 

The treadling is one of the no-tabby twills I experimented with during the end of warp sampling session for table runner 2. It's a variation of a bird's eye twill treadling from Marguerite Porter Davison'sA Handweaver's Pattern Book (John Murphey's Bird's Eye VII).

Click to enlarge

Changing weft color makes it look somewhat complex, but with the 4-ply worsted weight cotton yarn, it's fast and fun to weave. I should have both bath mats off the loom soon.


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