#draft tutorial

Introduction to weaving drafts (patterns)  

The image above is a portion of the weaving draft I used for my first 8-shaft table runner in the previous post.  Don’t worry if it looks like Egyptian hieroglyphics, it’s not.  It is, however, a very ingenious way of documenting the pattern for a weaver.

Let’s start at the top.

In the section marked Shafts (above) documents the threading of the yarn through each shaft of the loom. It is read right to left which makes 8 the first shaft to get a thread and brown is the color as indicated above it. This is followed by shafts 7, 6, 5, and so on follow on each of the following heddles in the shaft indicated by the number.

As you can see, the pattern soon switches to gold yarn and the way the heddles are threaded changes to create a different pattern shown.

We’re going to ignore the Tie-Up grid in the top right with all of the circles, for now, and move onto the right side below the grid.

Treadles are foot pedals

These indicate the order to push the treadle on the loom for each row.  This pattern uses one treadle per row.  

This section is read top to bottom and the columns are numbered 1 through 8 (left to right) since 8 treadles are used for this particular pattern. 

I’ve added arrows to each of the sections in the graphic above for easy reference.

Don’t let the 8 shafts get confused with the 8 treadles, since 8 shaft looms often come with more than 8 treadles.  Mine has 10 and 8 shaft patterns can use all 10 or any number fewer between 2 and 10, but other than that it is up to the pattern.

The red column down the far right of the Treadles section indicates what color to use in the weft.  It does not have to be the same color for each row, but on this one it is.

Now for the circles in the corner.

The upper right of corner shows a grid of circles, also known as the Tie-Up. It is called that because it indicates how to tie up the treadles to the shafts for the desired pattern.

Now that you know how the top and right sides are read, you might have guessed that each column in this grid is a treadle and each row is a shaft. (I wouldn’t have guessed it when I first saw a draft, but maybe you’re smarter than me!)

Let’s examine the first column, treadle 1.  There are circles in rows 1,2,3 and 5. This means that every time treadle 1 is pressed, the threads in these shafts will be lifted so that the weft yarn goes UNDER them.  These are colors that will be shown on top.

Let’s look at the draft holistically

One thing you might notice when looking at the draft is that the patterns in the threading (top) and the treadles (right) seem to correspond to features in the fabric.  

In the Shafts section, you will notice a lot of W shapes and the weaving has a lot W shapes in it also.

In the treadling, there are sideways Ms and Ws and that is also repeated in the finished fabric.

OK, but how do these sections create the pattern?

I use a software program on my iPad to calculate the pattern once these three sections are defined, but it can be done manually.  Kind of like multiplication (don’t let that scare you).

Let’s look at how a single row is created on the draft.

This is the first row of the pattern showing when Treadle 1 (first column in Tie-Up) is pressed.  On this treadle, we have tied shafts 1,2,3 and 5.  So the first row will indicate the color of the yarn in each of these shafts.

All of the other shafts will remain below the red weft.

Reading from right to left again, the first thread lifted will be on shaft 5 with brown (it is the 4th thread from the right after the three red threads).  The next brown thread is lifted on shaft 3, leaving a red weft thread visible it and shaft 5.  Shafts 2 and 1 are also lifted, so more brown threads.

The process repeats across the first row.  Any thread not lifted is represented on this pattern in red for weft color.

Repeat this process across each row and following the pattern, and you get something like this:

More on the software I use and how it helps me keep track of the weaving progress in the next post! 

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