Reading Drafts part XI

 

Helene Bress The Weaving Book

threading draft and photos of options

I would be remiss if I neglected this tome, put together by Helene Bress.  When I purchased it, it was $60 US (or $100 Canadian) and worth every penny.

Several weave structures are covered, and as usual, I hand drew down (because no weaving software yet existed) in order to better understand the relationship between threading sequence, tie up and treadling sequence.

As always - read the beginning bits.

And if there is no other message the readers of these posts takes, that should be the one!

Bress set out to explore the possibilities involved in several commonly used threading systems for four and even more shafts, then wove them to find out if they actually worked.  Because just because something is a possibility, doesn't always make 'good' cloth.  

And that's ultimately the bottom line, isn't it?  Are we making 'good' cloth?  Not 'perfect' cloth - GOOD cloth.  Is it good for it's intended purpose?  Only by putting the threads in the loom, weaving a sample, wet finishing it, then analyzing it, will we know for sure if we are on the right track.

So I did drawdowns.  Hundreds of drawdowns.  By hand.  In pencil, on graph paper.  And wove samples.  In order to learn.  To expand my knowledge.  To understand.

Two other smaller books I also did drawdowns from are:

I drew down every single given draft in both of these booklets and...found errors.  So even 'experts' sometimes get it 'wrong' - or make mistakes.

Bottom line? 

Learn as much as you can from as many different sources as you can.  When you know more, change your mind.  An open mind learns.  A closed mind stays stuck in whatever it has closed around.

While I have not presented all of the books in my library, I am going to stop this series with tomorrow's post.  I think I have given you, dear reader, plenty of fodder to chew on.  Books you may not be familiar with just because some of these date from my early years when I relentlessly searched for more information and brought home my treasures to pore over.  Books which may have fallen out of fashion but still have really good information, even if it means digging for it.

When we know better, we can do better.  

And suddenly Leonard Cohen's sage advice pops into my head:

"Forget your perfect offering.

There is a crack in everything.

That's how the light gets in."

Let the light shine into an open mind.  Grow your knowledge. Work to be better.  Accept 'good' and do not despair because you are not 'perfect'.