Reading drafts

[Barbara Zwadyk]

I’m a newbee–only one project on the loom. I’ve watched the 4-minute video on reading a draft but am still confused. If we read the threading right to left, do we also read the treadling and tie-up right to left? I thought Jane said that lefties would read left to right. Doesn’t that reverse the pattern? Thank you.

[Sandra]

Barbara, if it’s easier for you to thread left to right, then look at the threading chart and just thread starting at the left and finishing on the right.  When you have finished – your warp will be threaded correctly and won’t even be able to tell the difference 😉

[Melissa Corfield]

Another Newbie here. I’m really struggling understanding how to read drafts. I’m working out of Marguerite Davison’s “A Handweaver’s Pattern Book” that Jane shows in her drafting video. I’m still not super clear on that but even worse – I have a table loom. Google has pointed to me instructions about lift plans, but…I still don’t really get it.

Is there a good “how to ” for converting a draft for use with a table loom?

 

Thanks,

Melissa

[Sandra]

A draft works on any loom that has the number of harnesses that the draft is designed for.  Weavers all over the world, in incredibly diverse communities, that wanted to weave the design in a 4 shaft draft could, as long as they had a four shaft loom.  However, mostly they weave by memory and don’t draw down their designs – they have them memorized!

If I were you, I’d work through the lessons that Jane has laid out for us, learning more and more about weaving as you move though the lessons.  Jane eventually covers reading and creating drafts as you go along, but spending the time in learning to weave and the magic of colour and design in Plain Weave is well worth the journey.  I’ve learned a lot from those first seasons and I’ve been weaving for years 😏

[Author]

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