What new weavers don't always understand is that a weaving draft is just a set of possibilities. The draft shows how a loom can be set up with a threading progression (in this case point over 16 shafts) and then how the shafts can be combined in a particular sequence to achieve a motif.
That's it.
The draft does not contain any information about what threads to use, how dense they should be used, or the colours. There is no information about dimensions of a textile because a draft isn't about a particular textile, it's about a weave structure. How the threads move through the cloth.
A few years ago (quite a few now) I looked at the threading for a pattern/design referred to as Swedish Snowflake in North America. Then I condensed it so that something similar could be woven on four shafts (and brazenly called it Canadian Snowflake).
The motif isn't as 'strong' or obvious as the 8 shaft version, but it allows people with only four shafts to do something complex.
Yes, I still offer the Canadian Snowflake draft but it comes without any information on yarn to use, epi/ppi, or colours. Because that isn't the point. The point was - is - to just provide the set up that can result in the snowflake motif for four shafts. (email me if you want the draft - I send it as a Word file.)
One of the reasons I like having 16 shafts is for the flexibility one has. With a point progression over 16 (or 20 or 36 etc) shafts, a multitude of 'fancy' twills can be woven. There is even a book that has documented a number of drafts for 16 and a few for 20 shafts.
Called "16 Harness Patterns; the fanciest twills of all" taken from the weaving notebooks of Fred A. Pennington, written and compiled by Irene K Wood, I bought it when it first came out in 1984.
I also have the book by Oelsner, which is a similar compendium of drafts, many on straight or point progressions for various numbers of shafts and treadles. The scale motif comes from Oelsner's book.
Patricia Hilts work on the weaving manuscripts from the 1700s (I think) is also a favoured resource of mine.
These resources are available for anyone to use. Weaving drafts cannot be copyright protected, only the specifics of what you do with them - so a particular combination of threads, colours, to make a specific cloth and published.
A new weaver won't have the experience to know enough about yarns to make choices on their own, necessarily, so they rely on published patterns. Or they do as others do - weave a LOT of samples, examine them, learn what happens when they do x, y, z.
In the 21c we have many resources literally at our fingertips. We can dip into on line resources. We can take on line classes. We can participate in weave-a-longs or now Zoom guild meetings.
The other night I had my first Zoom meeting with three weavers who live in TN, one in NC and moi, up here in BC.
When you think about it, we live in pretty amazing times. How much has changed since I first picked up a shuttle in 1975, since I chose to become a weaver.
Weaving can be a life long journey into discovering how the craft works, or an expression of ones creativity or however one may want to practice the craft.
2 comments:
Amazing. I fell in love with plain weave and so don't do notation anymore. Ypu have reminded me that it is still important tp note down a notation. Thank you :)
The best thing I ever wove was the Canadian Snowflake you shared. I did the warp in Tencel and the weft in silk. I was blown away when I counted the rows per inch on the weft, I had 20 epi in the warp, but was getting 40 rows. It turned out with fantastic iridescence and no mistakes.
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