Sunday, January 03, 2010

How to keep track of your weaving?

At the moment I'm using my table loom. This warp is on 8 shafts. The deflected double weaving has so many possibilities. I've made lots of drafts to weave. The weft weaving is like the warp threading and in this case that is a lot to keep track of. So I use my magnet strips on a metal bar. It looks like this:



I have written down the sequence in 4 blocks. Block one being shaft 1&2, block 2 shaft 3&4, block 3 shaft 5&6 and block 4 is shaft 7&8. The magnet strips come out of an old fridge door.

On the warp I have a paper roll like this:

Thanks to Cally for this idea. I have written cm's on it for the length of the warp, also I have a copy of the draft that I'm weaving, so I'll know which shafts have to be lifted. Each time I cut out the draft that I'm weaving:

But to know where I am in the sequence I use the above metal bar with the magnet strips telling me what block I'm weaving and the draft tells me which shafts to lift.

This weaving is a complicated sequence for a table loom and I find by doing it this way, I can walk away and still continue weaving when I come back to the loom.

For an easy sequence I use the buttons

They hang in front of the shafts, so, easy to remember to move along a button after each move.

I wonder what others do to keep track of their weaving.

6 comments:

  1. I blogged about different ideas people use at a workshop last spring, and then had a followup post because some one sent me pictures of her method.

    I mostly use post-it notes on the front of my loom with the treadling sequence written down. (It's a floor loom). But recently when I was doing a shadow weave project where I had to alternate shuttles, I had to keep count mentally (or out loud) or I'd lose my place.

    Your idea about cutting out the draft and attaching it to the tape seems great!! I'm still trying to figure out what works best for me, so I'll be interested to see what other weavers say!

    Sue

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  2. Good post! Forgive me for cheating here:
    http://weeverwoman.blogspot.com/2008/05/new-tricks-and-resources.html

    Happy New Year!
    Susan

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  3. Thanks Sue for pointing to your posts, I remember the first one, the second I must have missed.

    Susan, also good to be pointed to your posting.
    I do not use the cash register tape all the time but when weaving samples I find it a good way of remembering what has been woven. I have used adding a thread at the side too when it was not very clear where one sample ended and other starts.
    I just found this method handy for what I'm weaving just now on a table loom.
    If I weave on the big Glimakra, it might be totally different as you than have to remember what order the treadles have to be used.

    Thanks for sharing.
    Margreet

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  4. This was a very smart way of keeping track! Up til now I've had no method at all, except for hoping that nobody interrupts me, which of course is quite hopeless!

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  5. What an excellent idea! In the past I wrote the treadling out on cards and checked them off as I competed them. Later I tried the bead method and found that easier. I haven't done a really difficult treadling sequence in a long time however. I'll have ato remember your method.

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  6. I write out the treadling sequence too, allocating 1 to 8 for each treadle.

    Then each block is just, for example: 1, 6, 8, 3, 1, 7, 8 ...

    And I've got one of those doorman's tally counters that advance one number with every click, to keep in step.

    The only problem is remembering to advance the number after each pick. I use the counter for winding my warp as well.

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