Tuesday, July 29, 2008

16-Shaft Draft with No Shaft 11

This is a real 1990's Airhead talk, but I decided to work smarter, not harder, meaning, I didn't risk a 16-shaft draft, but made up a 15-shaft design. Now onto the loom.

9 comments:

  1. Meg, if it matters to the piece, you can delete shaft number 11 from the treadling and also from the liftplan. Then check float length front and back. Bonnie Inouye

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  2. Looks good to me assuming you have checked float lengths as per Bonnie's statement. It's hard to tell from the picture, but it looks like you've got a complicated treadling which changes from time to time. How will you keep track of where you are? I do like changing the treadling. It not only creates a more interesting piece, it keeps the weaving process interesting as well.

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  3. Yup, Bonnie, I don't know why I didn't think of that. On the other hand, there were lots of plain weave area, and I think that was the reason why I went ahead and made a new draft. It made quite a difference to the look.

    Peg, it's computer-controlled, meaning it's more like a table loom where we're not restricted by the number of treadles, but any (mathematical) combination can be lifted when I just press the air compressor pedal.

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  4. So, while you are in the midst of the weaving, can you give the computer new directions? Or can you over-ride the computer? If you can't do either of these I would be most unhappy with a computer-driven loom!

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  5. I could choose where I want to weave, and whether I go forward or backward. I can also skip a pick by not throwing the shuttle.

    But to ignore Shaft 11, I'd have to physically remove all the ends from the heddles and let them hang down the back, or I'd need to later the draft and take out every pick from Shaft 11. But I'm not sure if I'm understanding your question correctly. Hummm...

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  6. Meg, let me try again. As I understand it, you program all the treadlings (i.e., which shafts will raise when)into the computer and then every time you step on the treadle, the pre-chosen shafts are raised. So you are weaving merrily along, watching what is happening, and then you change your mind about what you have programmed in. You decide you really want to repeat one particular pattern where certain shafts were lifted again either instead of or in addition to what is already programmed in for the rest of the piece. Can you stop in the middle and reprogram the shaft lifting?

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  7. Peg, the short answer is yes. Depending on the draft, with some difficulty, but yes, I can. But if it's not a one-time thing, so for e.g. I want to have two repeats of a certain section (say, 36 picks) within a larger repeat (say, 320) for the rest of the piece, (8 times if the piece is around 2400 picks) then it's easier to include the changes in the draft rather than at the loom.

    I could do a series of posts as to how I work, not including the warp and the loom-dressing, I think.

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  8. I think a series of posts on how you work would be marvelous!

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  9. Right-o. First I have to think about how I actually do it, Peg.

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