When the treadling draft is exactly the same as the threading draft, we say the draft is treadled “tromp as writ.” Sometimes, only the threading is given and the words “treadle as written” or “treadle as threaded.” Tell you to tromp as writ.
Here is an example of a draft that is treadled tromp as writ.
You can tell because the blocks in the drawdown draft are squared.
The illustration shows the treading is the same as the threading.
You can “tromp as writ” in other ways, too. For example, you can use the order the colors were used in the threading for the order of colors in the treadling. That sequence would make a plaid.
You can put the threading draft in the treadling area of a draft and the treadling into the threading area. It’s called a turned draft. You literally copy one draft into the other position and vice versa. In the next illustration, this draft will be turned.
This is a turned draft: the threading became the treadling, and the treadling became the threading from the first illustration.
I had fun with the pine trees and turned them upside down as well as from positive to negative as in this illustration and the next one.
Here the positive turned to the negative. For more information on turned drafts go to: Mastering Weave Structures by Sharon Alderman and The Complete Book of Drafting for Handweavers by Madelyn van der Hoogt.
Threading drafts vs. profile drafts Sometimes, every thread is indicated in the threading draft. The illustration shows a thread-by-thread threading draft and the complete drawdown draft that results. Other times groups of threads are indicated according to a design. The actual threads to be threaded aren’t given in the threading draft. They are indicated in words that tell which weave structure is being used. Each weave has its own rules, so only the design is shown because the weaver is expected to understand the weave and its rules. They are called profile drafts. They are for working out designs as opposed to patterns.
Profile drafts The illustration is a profile draft. The threading draft only shows sections of threads, not individual threads, and the drawdown shows the resulting design of the fabric. The treadling draft is not shown, but would be a profile, as well, and the sequence the blocks are treadled is the same as the threading sequence (often called “tromp as writ”).
The bottom line of the threading draft is called block A, and the next line up is Block B. Succeeding blocks going up away from the bottom of the threading draft will be C, D,E, etc. Read more about blocks in my previous posts.
How to use profile drafts Let’s say the weave structure you want to weave is “monk’s belt”, where Block A is threaded on shafts 1 and 2, and Block B on shafts 3 and 4. See the illustration.
The threading draft would read: 1,2,1,2,1,2,1,2, etc. for as many threads needed for the width of the block indicated in the profile draft.
In this illustration, the blocks are different widths: the size of the first block is very small—only one repeat—so only 2 threads would be threaded in the first block A section. The illustration shows the actual threading for that draft.
Summary Substitute the threading for your weave structure into the profile draft. Each structure has its special threading and weave structure. There are books that explain this method thoroughly: Sharon Alderman, Mastering Weave Structures and Madelyn van der Hoogt, The Complete Book of Drafting.
Sometimes you might want to have a certain number of warp threads threading in one direction, say in the S direction (with the slant going / ) and then a certain number of threads in the Z direction (opposite direction), and to repeat them over and over for a threading draft. You do not need to have a multiple of 4 threads for 4 shafts or 8 threads for 8 shafts, etc. Say, you want to have 6 threads going S, and then, 12 going Z and reversing (or making a point) after each number of threads. The threading would be 6 threads in the S direction, 12 threads in the Z direction, then, 6 in S and 12 in Z for as wide as your draft (or cloth).
Using the twill circle can help you greatly. Make a circle with as many points on it as shafts you are planning to use. For 4 shafts, number the points 1,2,3,4 as shown in the illustration. Now, working clockwise on the circle and also on your threading draft, begin with 1,2,3,4, and repeat the numbers until 6 threads are indicated on the threading draft. You’ll stop at shaft 2: 1,2,3,4,1,2. Next, reverse the direction of the threading (make a point and reverse directions), and work counterclockwise on the circle. You’ll stop at shaft 3: 1,4,3,2,1,4,3,2,1,4,3 for 12 threads. Since the point thread “goes with” both directions, count it as a thread in each direction. (Note that for the 12 threads, the 2 from the first set of threads is counted as thread number 1, and there are only 11 new threads written in.)
The circle can be helpful in making a treadling draft as well. I find it quite useful when I’m drafting twills, and at other times, too.
A special kind of point There’s another kind of point that is nice to know about because sometimes the regular point discussed above can look a little odd at the tip. It just isn’t crisp or sharp because of the floats of threads. If this phenomenon happens with point twills, beat the wefts at the points more gently than usual to avoid the wefts from packing in too close together there.
A broken point can solve the problem and create very sharp points. Again it can be used in either threading or treadling drafts, or both. At the point, there is a “hitch” in the threading. To find out how to make the hitch, use the twill circle. When you have enough threads going in on direction (S or Z), go directly across the circle and begin going in the opposite direction with that number. In the illustration with 4 shafts, if you stopped at shaft 3, working clockwise, you would go across the circle to shaft 1 and work counterclockwise to determine the threading or treadling.
This illustration shows a twill circle for 8 shafts. If you had stopped at shaft 5, the next shaft to use for a broken point would be shaft 1. If the last shaft before the direction change were 7, the next shaft would be 3.
This illustration shows a broken point threading on 8 shafts.
To identify blocks, look for identical vertical columns! I wish I’d learned another phrase, perhaps look for vertical columns that are exactly alike. But that’s not much better. Knowing how many blocks there are in a pattern is important to know.
So, looking at the two illustrations, how many blocks are there? There are two. Looking at the draft on the left and beginning at the right edge (as we do in threading drafts traditionally), assign the first area (or block) as “Block A”. Move your eye across to the left and when something else happens, that’s a second block—“Block B”. As you continue working across the warp toward the left, you come to a column that is identical to the right-hand column which was assigned as block A. Hence this design has two blocks.
Now look at the draft on the right and go through the same process, starting on the right and working left looking for columns that are exactly alike. Again two blocks.
Now look at the draft above on the left and count the blocks. Notice that there isn’t anything going on; i.e. there is no pattern on the right. That counts as a block because there is cloth to be woven there. So, again there are two blocks in the draft. The draft on the right is for two blocks as well—the same two blocks as a matter of fact. Are you catching on now? You can name the sequence of the blocks, working from right-to-let: A Block, B Block, A Block; or A, B, A.
Now count the blocks in this illustration. Remember, the key is looking for identical vertical columns. Vertical, because we are looking for how the threading will be. At the right edge is Block A, the usual–you can give it any letter, but usually, we start counting on the right and name the first section Block A. Move along until you get to a vertical column that is different; it is Block B. Moving along, there is some more Block A. The next column is one that is completely different from any so far; so that will be Block C. (so far, there are three blocks.) Moving along, there is some more of Block A then, there is a change again. Look at it carefully. Is it a block already identified, or something completely different? Is there any other place in the design where the vertical column is exactly the same? There is no other exactly identical column, so this must be called block D. The left-hand edge is Block A again. How did you do? Were you tricked because Blocks B and D are the same shape and size? See that they are different by looking from the top to the bottom of the design in both areas—the vertical columns are different. Where Block B is shown, there is nothing special going on in the area where Block D is threaded.
The order of the threading of the blocks is: (reading right-to-left): A, B, A, C, A, D, A. Notice that there is only one C Block mentioned even though it occupies two vertical columns. The reason is that that block is twice the width of the other blocks.
How many blocks are in this illustration? They can be read as A, B, C. D, A.
If you are weaving a specific design, you need to weave it from the bottom up, because that’s the way weaving “happens”. To weave the above figure (repeated from above), you would begin at the bottom of the treadling draft and weave as follows:
Weave the bottom border with the treadles that weave all the blocks alike in your chosen background weave structure.
Weave with the set of treadles used for Block C in pattern, and with all the other blocks weaving in background.
All the blocks are in background again; use the first set of treadles.
Blocks A, C, D are weaving background with Block B weaving in pattern—another set of treadles is needed.
Weave with the first set of treadles for all background again.
Another set of treadles is needed to weave where only Block D is weaving pattern. You will need four sets of treadles: 1 set where all the blocks weave alike for the background, 1 set with just Block B in pattern, 1 set with just C in pattern, and 1 more set with Block D in pattern.
Treadling blocks Multi-shaft looms often need a lot of treadles. One way to keep track of your treadles is to organize them so that when you are weaving, you alternate your feet, called “walking the treadles.” I think beginning from the outside treadles and working in is a good idea, because your feet can always “feel” the outer most treadle without your having to look down at the treadles. So, the treadles for weaving all the blocks alike might be the left one, the far right one, the next-to-the-left, and the next-to-the-right one. I try to put the treadles I will use more often nearer the center of the loom, so my feet don’t have to reach so far for them. If possible, I like to leave a treadle down between my sets of treadles, so my feet can feel their way easier. Always try to set up the treadles so you don’t have to look at them and can feel them with your feet. Walking your treadles makes keeping track of them easier.
Use a template to find blocks
Make a template with a card or the edge of a piece of paper. To find the blocks in the illustrations above start with the column on the right as usual . And working up and down along that column, mark the position of the filled-in-squares on one edge of the template. Slide the card along and as the vertical columns remain the same you will have one block. Use another template and mark the edge when a new block appears. Shielding the design with the template as you go can make it a lot easier to count the blocks.
How many blocks can I have? Different weaves require different numbers of shafts for each block as well as different rules to weave them. The chart can tell you the number of blocks you can have for the number of shafts you have. When you read about these weaves, you will learn how the blocks are threaded and woven for each weave.
There is much one can weave with only 4 shafts! According to the chart any weave using these structures can have 4 blocks with only 4 shafts: Crackle, Overshot, and Shadow Weave. There’s no need for “shaft envy”!
Samper or Sample? Here is a post from May 25, 2020, that I found interesting. It shows samples and finished pieces I made awhile back. See it HERE
I’ve been thinking lately of the different weave structures you can easily get with only 4 shafts. I’m going to be teaching a 4-shaft workshop to very experienced weavers in April. I want them to see the extensive ideas that you can accomplish with only 4 shaft and the 14 different tie-ups possible. It is in coordination with a talk about Dorthy Liebes given by Liz Schott to be given to the Santa Rosa California Weaving Guild.
Just in case some weavers have forgotten how to read a weaving draft, I’ve included it here. I think most weavers know the upper left quadrant is the treading draft. So, how do you know what to do to get different weaves? This information is given in the remaining two quadrants of the weave draft. The tie-up draft quadrant shows all the combinations of shafts that will be used for a weave. The treadling draft quadrant shows the order these combinations are to be used.
Now, this is a real sampler! I wove off a warp I’d made for a class and tried warp face and weft twills on the 4-shafts. I found out later this is called damask. I got the inspiration, then, to make a third level: warp face twill, balanced twill, and weft faced twill. I made little compositions within the sampler thinking about pages in a book. It is still intact. I call it my “Clown Sampler” and it has never left my studio.
My last post was about my sampler that came before my overshot wall hanging. In the final piece I corrected the draft for the circle to make it symmetrical. That is, I used the rule about turning blocks. You’ll find it when reading the instructions for drafting overshot.
Here is the circle I began with which was in my sampler.
In the wall hanging I made more circles at the top but with white pattern weft as well as white tabby weft for white on white. An idea to think about.
Here at the bottom of the hanging you can get an idea of the drafts I used from the sampler. For most of the hanging the texture won’t give a clue as to the blocks threaded in the sections.
The draft I used directly from the sampler was in sections 2 and 4. The corrected circle draft was used for the sections 1, 3, and 5.
I made the texture by just treadling the same pattern block over and over. With the tabby wefts as usual. The warp is a smooth rayon and the pattern weft in the textured area is a nubbly yarn. The tabby might have been the same as the warp or some other appropriate smooth yarn.
Introduction: All but two illustrations are from my book, Weaving for Beginners. The 2-shaft drafts come from the book shown in a previous post, Adventures in Weaving on a 2-harness loom. NOTE: harness is a common word used for shafts. Shaft is the more correct word and is used here and in my books.
The book, Adventures in Weaving on a 2-harness loom” shows the threading for 2 shafts like in the illustration. (Shafts are often called harnesses.) The two rows represent the 2 shafts. Dots show every other thread on the bottom line and the alternate threads on the top line. And, to show a different color of threads for a stripe, the squares of the graph paper are filled in. In other words, for one color area, both shafts are that color and for another area, both shafts are threaded with another color. The first shaft is always indicated on the bottom line and shaft #2 is on the line above it in American books.
To change from 2 shafts to 4 shafts we often think of odd and even numbers. With a threading on 2 shafts, you could think of shafts 1 & 2 alternating as “odd, even, odd, even, etc. rather than 1,2,1,2,1,2. You would use that idea to switch to 4 shafts. The odd shafts are 1 & 3 and evens are 2 & 4. Then you would use the rows in the threading draft 1 & 3 instead of the bottom row (shaft #1) and 2 & 4 for shaft #2. In the illustration the sequence of 1,2,3,4 is shown for the threading. When weaving, you would raise shafts 1 & 3 for a row and 2 & 4 for the alternate rows. Then you would be getting the same plain weave (or “tabby”) as though you were weaving on only 2 shafts, alternating rows with shafts 1 & 2.
In weaving drafts for more than 2 shafts, the American convention is always to show shaft #1 on the bottom line and each additional shaft on the lines going upwards from the bottom. The illustration shows how the threading for 4 shafts would work. If there were 8 shafts, shaft #1 would still be on the bottom line, but there would be 7 more lines above that to indicate 8 shafts. The same principle would be for 12, 16, or 32 shafts, etc.
In my previous post on January 27, 2021, Log Cabin patterns were the subject. That particular pattern depends on threading alternate threads in light and dark. The illustration shows an example of a threading and some patterns on 2 shafts. In the illustration, dots represent light threads and solid squares, dark threads. Note that in the area on the left the lights (dots) are on shaft #1 with darks on #2. In the right area of the draft, it is the reverse with darks on shaft #1 and lights on shaft #2.
To change from 2 shafts to 4 shafts, think again of odds and evens. What was shaft #1 becomes #1 & # 3 –both odd numbers. What was on shaft #2 becomes #2 & #4 –even numbers. And notice carefully that in the illustration, the lights are on the odd shafts on the 4 threads at the ends of the draft and the darks are on the odd shafts for the center 8 threads.
The illustration shows that by switching the placing of the lights and darks, the pattern changes. Note too, that the WEFTS also alternate dark and light to create the patterns and the changes. This is typical log cabin. Often the blocks are all the same size, but they don’t have to be. The widths in the threading determine the widths of the blocks. The height of the blocks is determined by the number of rows woven in a light/dark sequence.
This illustration shows a different way to think of 2-shaft weaves. With 4 shafts you can think of 2 looms: 2 shafts (1 and 2) for one loom. And shafts 3 & 4 can be thought of another 2-shaft loom. That means you could have two different things going on at once. For example, log cabin on shafts 1 & 2 and what every you might like on 3 & 4 for example solid areas or stripes. We call the different “looms” block A and Block B. With more shafts and different patterns, you can have more blocks, say C and D.
Another illustration of 2 blocks. This would be a good idea when using thick and thin WEFTS like in my post on January 29, 2021. You decide what you want to show in Block A, (e.g., lights) and in Block B: lights as well, or darks. Because the blocks are on different shafts they can act independently. See the next illustration.
Thick and thin wefts are woven in this variation of rep weave. Notice that the 2 blocks can be alike (at the top) or different when weaving. The threading can never change, but which shafts you choose to have showing at any one time is up to the weaver. More information about this weave is in Weaving for Beginners. Here I just want to show how 4 shafts can be thought of as 2 looms with 2 shafts each.
Here’s a draft showing an example of the shaft numbers for a two-block design: a center field with borders on the edges.
This book from 1950 was in my Two-Shaft file. It specializes in color placement in the warp and weft using Maysville yarns. I’m not sure if they exist anymore.
I like the weave structure, log cabin. There were interesting photos in the book.
Here is the draft from my book, Weaving for Beginners, which shows how the dark and light threads in the warp and weft create the pattern for 4 shafts. The next photo shows how this could be threaded on just 2 shafts.
Here is the threading draft in the Adventures in Weaving book. Dark and light threads alternate.
Of course the blocks don’t have to be all the same width in the warp. Or the same height in the weft, either. Another photo from the 2-shaft book.
Rather than thread every other thread on shafts 1 and 2 or every 2 threads, you might try this variation of every 3 threads, or any number. Of course, you could do the same or something different in the treadling.
This could be an interesting threading variation. Think of how you could use different colors of threads as well in different areas.
In this post I go through the process of color drafting the 2-shaft weave from the previous post. For those who are new at drafting, there’s a whole chapter on drafting in my book Weaving for Beginners. Note thatI begin the threading on the right and work right-to-left.
Be sure to use pencil and have a good eraser. You’ll see that I had to use it. This was my 3rd start on this, it’s easier to start over when you find mistakes.
First draw the lines defining the part of a weave draft. The chapter on drafting in my book Weaving for Beginners explains the parts of a weave draft.
Put in what you can see on the cloth—both the warps and wefts.
Assign threading to those known. I saw the weft floats first, so I assigned them to Shaft #1. Remember, I work a draft from right to left here and in my books.
Assign what colors you know: the wefts are the horizonal lines.
Add the warp colors now, the vertical lines.
Then I looked for what I could find next: verticals for warps on top on either side of yellow weft areas. NOTE: the colors are not always in the same place! Assign them a shaft: see in the tie up that shaft #2 is lifted so all the lifted warps must be on shaft #2.
Now discover what the last warp threads will be. Now I need to look below to the rows below to discover those and I see the first is orange. Again, looking for vertical threads in the cloth.
Fill in the same way for the missing spaces: see that they are all shaft 1’s and watch out to get the colors right. I see below, a warp lifted in the first rows is followed by a weft every time.
We know the weft color from the photo of the cloth so fill in the wefts (horizontals).
We see on the cloth that each warp missing is orange. See that the single warps have 1 orange and one yellow since we know the yellows (wefts) already, so the rest must be orange.
Now we know all the warps in the threading draft AND we know some of their colors, too. So fill in the colors we know. Then we can fill in the yellow wefts but that’s easy. We still have to determine the colors of some of the warps. Again, look for rows below for the clues needed. The vertical floats are easy to see.
Now put in the treadling 1 & 2. What’s under the grey floats, check wefts so check the image and you can see shaft 1 should be up from the treadling and see the color from the photo or further down the draft. Notice I tried to erase grey in rows 5 & 7. They should be yellow wefts colored in the treadling draft.
What goes on under all the floats you can check out first in the treadling draft: what shaft is up. Then, fill in the blanks for the wefts (horizontals). Then clean up the draft and you’re done. (I hope I haven’t made any mistakes! Let me know if you find any.)
I discovered weavers with many shafts often become interested in weaves for just two shafts. I’ve kept a file, and these fabric samples were on top. The label on the sample card says Konwiser inc. When I looked them up on the web, I found they are on the MoMa website with two furnishing fabrics dated before 1955. I don’t think they are in business now.
There are 6 colorways in the collection: all the same weave.
The third in the stack of samples. So interesting how the different colors make such a difference.
These are 52% cotton and 48% wool upholstery fabrics.
The price on the label is $14.25 and the width, 54”.
The name given to this collection is “Bahia”. My next post will be about drafting these and color drafting. In the meantime, see if you can work out the draft and if we agree.
I love getting comments from my Post readers. And I love learning new things. A comment from Jon gave this threading to catch the outside warp thread. With it you don’t have to think and you don’t need a floating selvedge. I might not use it if I thought I would weave other structures besides twills in a piece, but it beats a floating selvedge if you plan a big twill project. Try to figure out how it works just from the threading.
Here is the regular 4-shaft twill tie-up. Can you see how a thread is always caught on each edge with every weft shot? Notice the circles in the tie-up. That’s because it’s showing shafts lifted. Remember that bubbles rise.
Now add the treadling. Can you figure out what the edges will look like from this information?
Here is the complete draft. The edges make a sort of plain weave. Perhaps you could thread more threads for the edges and make a border. Maybe an idea to ponder and worth trying? This is how my mind works—I’d want to do a sample first to see how the two weaves work. Now I’m thinking again…you could thread the edges: 22, 44 and 11, 33 to get a real basket weave on the edges and I think that should surely work with the twill. When I want bands of both twill and plain weave in a cloth, I often use basket weave instead of real plain weave because they both draw in the same. (If you use plain weave bands, they will turn out to be wider than the twill areas.)
