2012/01/03

The Trapunto-de Ruiter Conundrum

In studying Erica's Magic-Step Towels draft, I learned the following.  (This is exactly the kind of wordy writing about weaving I loathe, but unless I write this, I can't even tell if I am not understanding something.  And it's weird for me but I'm going to read the draft threading from left to right, as yo use it in the linked draft.)  

You have two choices in the threading:
2-2-2-1-2-2-2-1-2-2-2-1-2-2-1-1-2-2-1-1-2-2-1-1-2-1-1-1-2-1-1-1-2-1-1-1-2, or,
1-1-1-2-1-1-1-2-1-1-1-2-1-1-2-2-1-1-2-2-1-1-2-2-1-2-2-2-1-2-2-2-1-2-2-2-1.
 (Consider the two threads in red a convenient spacer so the sub-blocks appear identical.  But if you want to weave anything, consider carefully where these go, as I haven't figured out yet, but they probably go between blocks, rather than inside.  Or not??)

Changes of warp colors coincide with changes of the shaft, and Erica started with the dark thread:
d-d-d-l-d-d-d-l-d-d-d-l-d-d-l-l-d-d-l-l-d-d-l-l-d-l-l-l-d-l-l-l-d-l-l-l-d

Woven as drawn in, it's easy to see we have a choice of 2x1, or two block, a vertical and a horizontal "stripes", with lighter color always coming from either the top or the right of each square in the draft, or the bottom and or the right in the cloth.)
The mild-OC in me wondered how many expressions I would get if I used 2 threading schemes x 2 color order, or four combination; I didn't get 4x4 or 16 different expressions, but four.
Light (or dark) colors coming from top, right, bottom and left.
Two expressions in each column/row.  I was quite pleased with this draft, but I do so like mirrored looks, so what would happen if I mirror-repeated each block. And, well, I can see it's a logical extrapolation of the above, but a bit disappointing, don't you think?
A little more contemplation needed, I think.

But the walnut husk dye should be finished.

3 comments:

Trapunto said...

I started thinking this way a little bit as I was weaving--much less visually than as I can't hold near this much in my head and haven't got software. But yeah, exciting, isn't it?! I was starting to envision the potential for big pieces, big geometric designs in grayscale, since that is pretty much what you get at a distance if you use high contrast threads. Or playing with the spectrum as well as shading

Meg said...

Do you have the Best of Handwoven: Thick 'n Thin? I've read one of the articles by Erica three times now, and the others a couple of times. There is really a heck of a lot we can do with this, and it's very exciting. I've played around with a few more drafts in the software, too, but I think structure wise, keeping it simple seems to be the key. I look forward to seeing some more of this stuff on your blog. And thank you so much for the link, Trapunto.

Meg said...

Check this! http://trapunto.wordpress.com/2012/03/12/eternity-napkins-magic-step-pattern-woven-on-a-rigid-heddle-loom/