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IN SEARCH OF THE 16 SHAFT BLENDED DRAFT

For The 16's Study Group, Complex Weavers

Rosemarie Dion

July 25, 2002

Having achieved successful blended drafts using two 4 shaft drafts to create an 8 shaft pattern, I move to 16 shaft blends with a heady feeling that I know what I am doing.

Analysis of my procedure:

After studying Josephine Estes’ book of Miniature Overshot Patterns for Hand Weaving I chose two that seemed compatible Cambridge Beauty and Small all Over, version C.
I will use all 16 shafts.
I will rotate the patterns so that I can weave with one shuttle.
2 shafts will provide a neat plain weave selvedge to the weaving

1. Using Weave Point 5.3 recreate the threading, tie-up and treadling as shown in Estes’ book.

2. Reduce the drawdown to one repeat.

Cambridge had 70 ends, Small All Over had 10 ends to a motif.

Cambridge Beauty Draft Small All Over Draft

3. Check the patterns to be sure they will repeat correctly.

4. Balance the pattern to see which ends and how many ends will be needed to do this.

Cambridge Beauty needs 36 ends to balance, Small All Over needs 3.

5. Check the tie-ups, are they both the same?

No. This should not make any difference, as each tie-up is entered on the blended draft tie-up separately.

6. Rotate the pattern. (Also referred to as turning the draft in the literature.)

7. Again, check for repeat accuracy and balance.

    Cambridge Beauty now needs 34 ends to balance, Small All Over needs 5.

   CB repeat accuracy check

8. To stay within 16 shafts, remove one shaft from Small All Over.

It is reduced to a 3 shaft pattern, however, there are still 4 treadles.

SAO reduced

9. Check the new configuration for number of ends in the revised pattern: 8. Ends to balance: 5.

10. Add Tabby to each threading draft.

11. The threading is now expanded.

        Cambridge Beauty has 136 ends in one repeat.
        Small All Over has 16 ends. 136/16 = 8.5.
        As both patterns must be the same length for a successful blended draft, 8 ends must be removed from Cambridge Beauty.

        C.B. now has 128 ends. The treadling has not been altered.

reduced to 128 ends

12. Repeat Small All Over 8 times. It now has 128 ends.

13. Save both drafts to .wif file

14. Open Fiberworks Bronze.

       Call up each draft in turn.
          Make sure the size of the threads are all the same. Go into Print Preview and print a copy of each draft. The size of the numbered spaces should be the same.         The Design Page Set-up should be the same for both drafts. (I switch to Fiberworks at this time because of this special feature.)


            CB threading

15. Align the two printed drafts so that Small All Over is above Cambridge Beauty.

Fold the paper to do this, tape the edges to keep them from moving. The lines should match perfectly.

16. Shaft Assignments:

Small All Over: 1 2 3 3 3 3 4 4 4 4 5 5 5 5

Cambridge Beauty: 1 2 3 4 5 6 3 4 5 6 3 4 5 6

Blended Draft: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 shafts

17. Using the above table (the assignments can be anything you wish) look at your two printed drafts.

        If the top draft has a 1 and the bottom draft has a 1, write 1 as the first end in the blended draft. Move to the second set of numbers in your drafts. The top has         a 4, the bottom draft has a 4, the above table shows the blended draft is 8, etc.

   Another way of looking at it:

   SAO CB   Blended draft

    1       1       1               Hint:
    2       2       2               Make sure you move from column
    3       3       3               SAO or CB to the Blended draft
    3       4       4               Column, cover the column you are
    3       5       5               NOT working with.
    3       6       6
    4       3       7
    4       4       8
    4       5       9
    4       6       10
    5       3       11
    5       4       12
    5       5       13
    5       6       14 shafts

Blended tie-up SAO

Blended Tie-up Original Tie-up

Small All Over

Begin with the pattern shafts. Look at the original tie-up for Small All Over.

Shaft 1 is a 1 plus 4 & 5
Look at the blended shaft assignments and write down the new numbers: for 4 (7, 8, 9, 10) and 5 (11, 12, 13, 14) plus tabby 1.
Place these in shaft 1 of the new blended tie-up.
Shaft 2 is 2 plus 5. The new assignment will be 11, 12, 13, 14 plus tabby 2.
Shaft 3 is 1 plus 3. The new blended assignment is 3, 4, 5, 6 plus tabby 1.
Shaft 4 is 2 plus 3 & 4. The blended assignment is 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7, 8, 9,
10. Treadle 1

Check your drawdown to see that the pattern is the same as the original draft

Notice there are blank spaces in the tie-up for the other drafts. We will fill the Cambridge Beauty tie-up next.

CB blended tie-up

Blended Tie-up Original Tie-up

Tie-up for Cambridge Beauty

Look at the original tie-up for Cambridge Beauty.
Shaft 1 is 1 plus 3 & 4.
Look at the blended shaft assignments and write down the new numbers.
3 (3, 7, 11) & 4 (4, 8, 12) plus tabby 1.
Put these in treadle 5 of the new blended tie-up.
Shaft 2 is 3 & 6. The new assignment will be 3, 7, 11 and 6, 10, 14 plus tabby 2.
Shaft 3 is 5 & 6. The new assignment will be 5, 9, 13 and 6, 10, 14 plus tabby 1.
Shaft 4 is 4 & 5. The new assignment will be 4, 8, 12 and 5, 9, 13 plus tabby 2.
Check your drawdown for accuracy of pattern.

Plain weave treadling (this is NOT the tie-up)

Tie-up for Plain Weave

    You remain in tie-up mode for this step.
    In Treadling, be sure to have a blank area (see diagram),
    alternate treadle 9 with treadle10 for as many picks as you want for your plain weave. 4 or 6 are adequate.


tie-up for plain weave

Move to the tie-up.

Choose Treadle 9, shaft 1, watch your drawdown as you do this.
Choose shaft 2, notice, in this draft that you now have half of the plain weave.
Move to Treadle 10, shaft 3. Watch your drawdown and continue selecting shafts until you have the second half of the plain weave.
In this draft it is shafts 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14

This is the tie-up

This is the treadling

Plain weave tie-up added

The tabby ends 1 & 2 are combined for half the weave.
All the rest of the shafts lift to form the second half of the plain weave. This can be difficult treadling as there are many shafts and ends being lifted. If you are able to spread the tabby ends over 4 shafts rather than 2, it helps to balance the weight. In this 16 shaft blended draft I did not have enough shafts.
Tie-up the plain weave edges

This is a turned overshot draft that has rough selvedges. To avoid this a plain weave border is added. Treadles 11 & 12 are used for the selvedge.

In this diagram you see the plain weave treadling just below the plain weave border. They have a different treadling and tie-up. It is in the lift plan mode that you understand this more clearly. However, the planning is done in tie-up mode, it is simpler to see.

In the tie-up, shafts 15 & 16 are selected.

In the threading you see the border of plain weave on shafts 15 & 16.

In the drawdown you see the border.

Lift plan conversion

THE LIFT PLAN

The tie-up has been converted into a lift plan. You see the plain weave and Cambridge Beauty but the selvedge has yet to be entered.
This is done after the conversion.






                   Completed lift plan with selvedge entered.
                            selvedge added

18. Save each weave separately as a lift plan, complete with selvedge.

In this way, as you weave, you can call up the different patterns whenever you want them.

19. The blended draft is now ready for finishing touches:

   Extend the draft to the full 210 ends, be sure to include the balancing end threads.
   There are 128 ends in one repeat of the Cambridge Beauty pattern.
   There are 16 ends in one repeat of Small All Over.
   There are 8 repeats of Small All Over in every repeat of Cambridge Beauty.
   210/128 =1.6
   Need 62 ends to balance 128+62=190
   Tabby edges need 10 ends each side,190+20=210

   Because this was a 6 inch square sample, only 1 repeat of Cambridge Beauty was considered, the process is the same for a full coverlet.

PLANNING THE WOVEN PIECE

Choose the materials to be used for warp and weft.

Use the Project Planner in WeavePoint 5.3 for ease of calculation.

I created a WordPerfect table form to verify the number of spools required, estimate of yards per spool.
Remember, for every 100 yards, add 5 yards for beam build up:

I created a WordPerfect form for Weaving Patterns and Samples to write weaving information for future use.

WEAVING PATTERNS AND SAMPLES
Weaving Library of Rosemarie Dion

DATE: July 14, 2002

PATTERN NAME: Blended draft–Small All Over/Cambridge Beauty

PATTERN CLASSIFICATION AND TYPE: Overshot (turned) and blended

REFERENCES: Josephine Este’s Minature Overshot Patterns for hand weaving also see References for Complex Weavers 16's study group on Blended Drafts, attached.

SUGGESTIONS IF REPEATED: Care must be taken to be sure the two drafts match after they have been balanced.

LOOM: AVL 16 shaft compu-dobby REED: 15 SLEYING: double

MATERIALS:

WARP: 10/2 unmercerized cotton, 20/2 unmercerized cotton

NUMBER OF THREADS WOUND: 210
NUMBER OF YARDS WOUND: 7

WEFT: 20/2 Navy worsted wool

PATTERN THREAD: this is a turned draft, pattern thread is in the warp (10/2 unmer. Cotton)

SPECIAL INSTRUCTIONS: final size should be 6 inches square, 18 samples

SIZE IN REED: 7 inches SIZE FINISHED: 6 inches

Finishing: wash in cool water, mild detergent, line dry, steam press.

Completed Sample Squares

REFERENCES

8, 12 . . . 20: An Introduction to Multishaft Weaving, Kathryn Wertenberger, Interweave press, Loveland, Colorado, 1988. pp 61

Adventures in Weaving, Gertrude Greer, Chas. A. Bennett Co, Peoria, IL, 1951. Chapter on Blended Drafts.

The Complete Book of Drafting for handweavers, Madelyn van der Hoogt, Shuttle Craft Books, Couperville, WA, 1993. “Understanding Blended Drafts”,Chapter 13, pp 114-115.

Complex Weavers Greatest Hits,: In Celebration of 21 Years, Judith Eatough and Wanda Shelp editors, Complex Weavers, Provo, Utah, 1999. pp 6, “Blended Draft” Mimi Smith, 12 shaft.

New Key to Weaving: a Textbook of Hand Weaving for the Beginning Handweaver, Mary E. Black, Macmillan Publishing Co., Inc. N.Y. 1957. pp 329 “Combined Drafts”.

Weaving Overshot: Redesigning the Tradition, Donna Lee Sullivan, Interweave Press, Loveland Colorado, 1996. pp 111-115 “Blending two four shaft Overshot threading”.

“Complex Weavers Journal”, May 2002, # 69, p 14, Georgean Curran,“Twill Ground in Overshot”

“Handwoven”, March/April 1985,   pp 37-40, Carol Strickler, “Blended Drafts: for two distinctly different weaves on one warp, blending drafts makes an endless array of possibilities.”

“Threads”, Feb/Mar 1986, pp __, Rhoda London, “Combining Weave Structures: Multiple Threading System for an Eight Harness Loom”.

“The Weaver”, Volume 6, #2, 1940, pp 25-26, Donald W. Greenwood “Blended Drafts and Weaves: Something New in Honeysuckle and other Patterns”

“Weavers”, Issue 12, 1991, pp 26-27 & 29-31, Koramay Keasbey, “Blended Drafts”.

“Weavers”, Issue 27, 19__, pp 8, Alice Schlein, “A Weaver’s Puzzle”.

rdion@cox.net