Drafting it out
Feb. 9th, 2024 12:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
merrileemakesI really like playing with weaving software. I find it fun to play around with colours, patterns, combinations of both and just experimenting. I currently have Fiberworks, which is the most popular and 'industry' standard, but I also used Weave Design for a few years, which is free to use and has pretty good functionality. And the draft editing fuction in handweaving.net is also brilliant, especially the colour picking and editing options.
So here's my recent dabblings.
I tweaked the treadling for my planned placemat weave. A subtle change: the line of larger 'feature' diamonds running horizontal across the fabric now has dots in the centre, same as the line of vertical feature diamonds (before the horizontal lines had crosses in the centre). A tiny shift but I think helps bring the fabric together a bit more.
Making the feature diamonds in this draft, and with the subtle changes in warp thread colour got me thinking... could I make a draft with changing diamond shapes in a gradient? Going big diamonds > medium > small > tiny and back again? I tried it out:
Isn't is just awful. It really dazzles the eye, I think because there's no resting point, the pattern is constantly changing. Like a herd of zebras. Bleh. It might look better woven, but it would be a marginal improvement, I think.
So I toned the draft down a bit and put 4 diamonds of the same size next to each other in the gradient.
Better. You get a more restrained sense of movement and the repitition creates more of a pattern. I think I might try this draft. I put the threading into the handweaving.net 'search by draft' function and there were no results, so this might be something few people have tried. I'm calling it untulating diamonds.
I was having a google at similar drafts and came across Margaret B Windeknecht's undulating rosepath, which is just lovely. Something else to try!
So here's my recent dabblings.
I tweaked the treadling for my planned placemat weave. A subtle change: the line of larger 'feature' diamonds running horizontal across the fabric now has dots in the centre, same as the line of vertical feature diamonds (before the horizontal lines had crosses in the centre). A tiny shift but I think helps bring the fabric together a bit more.
Making the feature diamonds in this draft, and with the subtle changes in warp thread colour got me thinking... could I make a draft with changing diamond shapes in a gradient? Going big diamonds > medium > small > tiny and back again? I tried it out:
Isn't is just awful. It really dazzles the eye, I think because there's no resting point, the pattern is constantly changing. Like a herd of zebras. Bleh. It might look better woven, but it would be a marginal improvement, I think.
So I toned the draft down a bit and put 4 diamonds of the same size next to each other in the gradient.
Better. You get a more restrained sense of movement and the repitition creates more of a pattern. I think I might try this draft. I put the threading into the handweaving.net 'search by draft' function and there were no results, so this might be something few people have tried. I'm calling it untulating diamonds.
I was having a google at similar drafts and came across Margaret B Windeknecht's undulating rosepath, which is just lovely. Something else to try!
Thoughts
Date: 16 September 2025 04:47 am (UTC)Eh, those are all less legible to me than the first, which I really liked. But I'm glad you're having fun experimenting with tweaks.
>>I'm calling it untulating diamonds.<<
I like that one; would work well as a curtain or wall hanging. As a placemat or rug the distortions could get distracting.
I've seen "black hole" carpeting and oh hell no.