Tutorials

Sue Farley

pixeLoom Tutorials
Editing Drafts
The Line Tool ................................................................................. 1
Advancing Lines............................................................................. 3
Color Tools and the Color Palette.................................................. 4
Copy, Paste, Move, Repeat ........................................................... 5
Profile Drafts and Block Substitution ............................................. 7
Fabric Analysis............................................................................... 10
Designing in the Tieup ................................................................... 11
Thick and Thin Threads ................................................................. 13
Picking Colors out of a Graphic Image .......................................... 15
Important Functions
Draft Browser ................................................................................. 17
Project Planner............................................................................... 17
Printing ........................................................................................... 18
Adding Labels ................................................................................ 19
Exporting Graphics ........................................................................ 19
Block Substitution
Block Substitution........................................................................... 20
Half-Unit Structures........................................................................ 22
Straightening Things Out ............................................................... 24
Turning Drafts ................................................................................ 26
Rep Weave .................................................................................... 27
Extracting a Design ........................................................................ 29
Create Your Own Weave Structure ............................................... 30
Double Layers
Double Width with One Shuttle ...................................................... 32
Double Width with Two Shuttles .................................................... 33
Double Width with Two Shuttles, in Three Pick Sequence............ 34
Interchanging Layers ..................................................................... 35
Plain and Basket Weave Blocks .................................................... 37
Four Color Double Weave ............................................................. 38
Warp / Weft Faced Designs
A Warp Faced Design .................................................................... 40
Weft Faced with Three Colors ....................................................... 42
Boundweave .................................................................................. 44
Network Drafting
Pattern Lines .................................................................................. 45
A Turtle Morphs into a Flea............................................................ 47
The Shaft Rule for Turtles.............................................................. 49
Using the Ribbon Template ........................................................... 51
Overlaying Treadlings .................................................................... 53
Echo Weave................................................................................... 55
Reference Material
Keyboard Shortcuts - Windows...................................................... 57
Keyboard Shortcuts - Mac ............................................................. 58
Where to Use the Editing Tools ..................................................... 59

Editing Drafts

The Line Tool

Open a new draft and set its Properties

8 shafts and 8 treadles.

to

The Line Tool

has three styles: Straight, Point,
and Advancing. The small triangle next to the
button on the toolbar provides access to these
settings.

With the Line Tool, draw in a Point threading.

Likewise, draw a point in the treadling.

Next, fill in this tieup with the Line Tool. Be sure

to change the tool style back to Straight.

Click and then drag all the way across the tieup so
the line hits all the treadles.

Some tips:
Use the Left mouse button for a line with
increasing slope.
Use the Right mouse button for a line with
decreasing slope.
Hold the Shift key down to erase all or part of a
line.

The Home and End keys select the first and

last threads.
Use Threading->Clear to erase the threading,
and Treadling->Clear to remove the treadling.
The Tieup->Direct and Tieup->Clear
functions will reset the tieup.

Sue Farley 2011

Editing Drafts
Can you also enter these threadings (and as treadlings) using only the line tool?

Sue Farley 2011

Editing Drafts

Advancing Lines
Open a new draft and set its Properties
8 shafts and 8 treadles.

to

Draw in the first part of this threading

using the Line Tool with Advancing style, then put
in the last segment with Straight style.
Repeat the threading and flip it back on itself in one
fell swoop with the Threading->Reflect function.
Duplicate the threading in the treadling with:
Treadling->Tromp as Writ (star) or
Treadling->Mirror Threading (rose)
Use the Edit->Undo and Edit->Redo commands to
see how the two methods affect the draft.
Draw lines in the tieup that make it structurally
sound. (Always be sure to change the Line style
back to Straight before working in the tieup.)
Flipping or rotating the tieup produces more design
possibilities. To do this, select the entire tieup with
Tieup->Select All, then right-click in the selection
window, and
Flip Vert,
Flip Horz, or
Rotate one way or another
The Treadling->Wrap function also provides
several variations of this draft.
Notice that a wrap to the right or left slides all the
treadling columns over and brings the one on the
end around to the other side. The keyboard
shortcuts for the wrap functions are highly
recommended.

Sue Farley 2011

Editing Drafts

Color Tools and the Color Palette

The color palette contains two color selection
buttons as well as a set of color swatches. The color
selection buttons (the pair at the top) identify the
colors to be placed by the left and right mouse
buttons. The color swatches allow you to swiftly
pick up a color for either button.
If you only have black and white on your color
buttons, you need to setup a default color palette.*
You can import a color palette from another draft
with the Color->Import->Color Palette function.
For example, import the palette from the
palette-brassard-cottons.wif file.
To add specific colors to the palette, click on one of
the top two buttons. Use the color chooser window
to pick a color and press OK. That color has been
added to the palette and becomes the active color
for that button.
To use a different color from the palette, click on a
color swatch with either the left or right mouse
button. That color then becomes the active color for
that button.
*Once you have set up a palette, you can make it
the default for new drafts with the
Color->Set Default Palette command.

Ignore the Add to Custom Colors

button on this window!

Lets add some color to one of the drafts from the

first exercise using these three color tools:
The Paint Bucket dumps solid or alternating
color into the warp or weft colorways.
The Paint Brush
paints in a portion of the
threading or treadling. It can also be used to paint
directly in the drawdown.
Of course, you can also use the Pencil
to paint in
a particular end or pick. Play around with these
tools to get the feel for what they do. Be sure to use
both the left and right mouse buttons!

Sue Farley 2011

Editing Drafts

Copy, Paste, Move, Repeat

Open a new draft and set its Properties
8 shafts and 8 treadles

to

Using the Line tool:

1. draw in this threading
2. put in a Point treadling, and then
3. fill in the tieup with this 3/2/1/2 twill (be
sure to change back to the Straight style).

Heres a simple way to add a border.

Draw two lines on the left side of the threading by
clicking on the last end and dragging over. Dont
worry about overshooting it, you can use the
Backspace key to remove any extras afterward.
With the Selection
tool, select one of the new
line segments and move it to the far right of the
threading.
Note that moving a section just rearranges the
contents, the number of ends remains the same.

Sue Farley 2011

Editing Drafts

This is not the case for the Repeat function, of

course. Select the middle portion of the threading,
right-click in the window and
Repeat it 2 times.
With the new section inserted, the status bar now
reports that we have 44 warp ends in the draft.

Next, select one of the straight segments in the

threading and copy it with Edit->Copy, or
Ctrl/Cmd+C.

Then paste it with Edit->Paste or Ctrl/Cmd+V,

placing it over one of the outermost mini-points.
You can paste another copy with another paste
command.
Note that copy and paste operation doesnt change
the number of ends there are still 44 in this draft.

Use the Float Search

tool to determine the
length of the longest float.
A list of the most commonly used keyboard shortcuts is provided in the Reference Material. Its worth
committing the ones for copy, paste, undo and redo to memory as soon as possible.

Sue Farley 2011

Editing Drafts

Profile Drafts and Block Substitution

Open a new draft and set its Properties
4 shafts and 4 treadles.

to

Set the notation to show numbers in the threading

by checking Threading->Numeric.
With the Pencil tool, click on the first cell in the
threading and then type in this sequence on the
keyboard, using the Backspace key to undo.

Treadling->Tromp as Writ will copy that

threading into the treadling.
Drawdown->Interlacement can be toggled off to
show a grid in the drawdown area of the draft.

Use Edit->Supersize to get three repeats in each

direction.
Edit->Single Repeat is the complement to this
function.

Sue Farley 2011

Editing Drafts
Highlight the middle section of the threading with
the Selection tool . Right-click in the selection
window and click on Flip Vert from the drop-down
menu.

In a similar manner, Select and Flip the middle

section of the treadling Horizontally.

This is a profile draft - its not weavable,

but rather a design showing
background and pattern areas.

Use Tools->Block Substitution to drop in a

structure: lets use overshot-4shaft.
The status bar reports the dimensions as well as
shaft and treadle requirements for the result.
View->Heddle Count reports the number of
heddles needed on each shaft for this draft.

Sue Farley 2011

Editing Drafts
Heres another easy way to add borders to a design.
Go back to the profile draft (make it the active
window), and use the Line Tool to draw a couple of
straight lines on the left side of the threading, where
its easy to insert ends.
Threading->Reverse. Add the other border on the
left (just like before). Threading->Reverse again so
its back to the original order.
Use this same procedure for the treadling, adding
picks to the bottom, then Treadling->Reverse,
adding picks to the bottom again and
Treadling->Reverse for the original order.

The Treadling->Wrap function provides an easy

way to derive several variations on a draft.
Note that it leaves the tieup in place but moves the
last treadling column to the first. The keyboard
shortcut comes in handy here.

Now substitute overshot-4shaft into this design to

get the resulting draft with borders.

Sue Farley 2011

Editing Drafts

Fabric Analysis
Open a new draft, and set its Properties to
4 shafts and 4 treadles.
Turn on fabric analysis mode by checking
Drawdown->Fabric Analysis.
Use the Pencil in the drawdown to enter this
design. Shafts and treadles are added and combined
as they are needed in this mode.

When youre done, turn off fabric analysis mode by

unchecking Drawdown->Fabric Analysis.
The Move tool can be used to rearrange shafts and
treadles, if necessary.
Edit->Supersize it a couple of times to see how the
repeat looks.

Larger drafts may be easier to generate from a scan

rather than entering by hand. Heres an a scan of
figure 641 from A Handbook of Weaves, by G. H.
Oelsner.

Open a new draft (not necessary for the Mac).

File->Open Graphic: oelsner-641.jpg
Edit->Grid Squares: 24 x 34
Tools->Generate Draft
Use Treadling->Arrange: Sequential to straighten
out the treadling (or use the Move tool).

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Sue Farley 2011

Editing Drafts

Designing in the Tieup

Open a new draft and set its Properties to
8 shafts, and 8 treadles.
Use the Line tool to enter a straight threading and
treadling.

The View->Tieup command will open the tieup in a

separate window, which you can then zoom out to
make it easier to work on.

Lets enter this triangular motif in the lower left

quadrant of the tieup with the Pencil tool.

The Stamp
tool has the same effect as Copy and
Paste. It is greyed out unless something is selected.
Select the lower left quadrant of the tieup (as if to
copy it) and then use the Stamp tool to place copies
of it in the other three quadrants. Press the Escape
key to get rid of the stamp tool when youre done.

Portions of the tieup can be flipped, inverted, or

rotated if they are square.
Select each of the quadrants and rotate them into
this arrangement.

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Editing Drafts

Finally, select and invert to the Top Left and Lower

Right quadrants.

Back in the draft view, the Pencil can be used in the

drawdown to eliminate the long floats.
Since we are not in Fabric Analysis mode, the
threading and treadling are unchanged, only the
tieup is modified.

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Editing Drafts

Thick and Thin Threads

Thick threads can be handled individually or in
groups.
Open individual-thick-threads.wif
To make the purple threads in this draft thick,
highlight one of them in the threading (i.e. click on
the 5 with the Pencil) and then use the space bar to
toggle its thickness. Press the space bar again and it
changes a thick end to a thin one.
The arrow keys can be used to move the selection
over to the next purple thread.

Oftentimes, the thick threads in a draft are

distributed in a regular pattern across the entire
warp or weft.
Open dots-dpw-single.wif
Lets suppose we wanted to replace each of the
doubled ends and picks in this draft with a single
thick thread. Since they occur at regular intervals
across the draft, we can do this in two easy steps.

The first step is to eliminate the doubled ends and

picks. Select Threading->Remove from the menu,
and fill in enough squares to accomodate the size of
one unit - in this case four ends. Then specify the
end(s) in the sequence that should be deleted.

Remove the duplicate picks from the treadling in

the same manner with the Treadling->Remove
command.

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Editing Drafts
To designate the thick threads, use the
Threading->Thickness function. Fill in a single
unit size - now just three squares, and then specify
the sequence. For this draft, we want a repeating
pattern of thin, thick, thin.

Do the same for the treadling with

Treadling->Thickness.

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Editing Drafts

Picking Colors out of a Graphic Image

Heres a fun and very efficient way to build a color palette.
Open a new draft and set its Properties to
5 shafts and 5 treadles.
Clear the slate for this draft with the
Color->Clear Palette command.
Now open the image file: uki-colors.jpg with
File->Open Graphic (Windows version) or
Color->From Image (Mac version)

Use the Eyedropper tool to pick up colors from the

image. Theyll be added to the color palette for the
active draft.
Once you get a color palette you like, you can use
Color->Set Default Palette to make it the default
for new drafts. Keep in mind that you can always
import a color palette from another draft too.

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Sue Farley 2011

Editing Drafts
Use the Line tool to put in a few straight lines in the
threading and treadling. Then extend the canvas
canvas with Threading->Repeat (10x) and
Treadling->Repeat (5x).
Use the Pencil tool to fill in this tieup. Setting the
Tieup->Notation to Numeric might help. Also,
remember that with the pencil, the right mouse
button erases.

Then change the face of the fabric with

Tieup->Invert.
Zoom way out (either by using the keyboard
shortcuts or with Ctrl/Cmd and the mousewheel) so
the whole draft fits in the workspace.
Then load up a couple of good colors and use the
Paint Bucket to dump them into the warp and weft
color bars.
Now use the Paint Brush to paint in some stripes in
the warp.

You can print out a color table from

View->Warp Color Order.
The color names are editable fields and are saved
with the draft.

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Important Functions

Draft Browser
The draft browser comes in very handy for locating
drafts saved in your pixeLoom folder**.
File->Browse opens this multi-paned window that
contains a fabric view for the selected file.
Some tips for using the file browser:

Use the Tab key to switch between panes

(on Windows)
Scroll through the drafts with the and keys
Use Ctrl/Cmd+<Plus> and Ctrl/Cmd+<Minus>
to change the scale of the fabric view.
The status bar shows number of shafts and
treadles as well as the dimensions for the
selected draft
Double-click, or press the Enter key to open a
draft from the list

**The root folder for the browse function can be

changed by modifying the Browse Folder entry on
the File Locations tab in the preferences window,
which is under Tools->Options (for Windows), or
pixeLoom->Preferences (for Mac).

Project Planner
One of the most important pages in my project notebook is a printout of the project plan. The Project
Planner
walks you through all the calculations required to determine width in the reed and warp
length, as well as quantities required for a particular warp and weft yarn. Use the View->Project Plan
command to bring up the project data for a draft. Any notes put into the draft under File->Notes will be
printed out at the bottom of this record sheet.

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Important Functions

Printing
Windows version:
When printing out a draft, its a good practice to use the Print Preview
command to display the page
as it will be printed out. On the toolbar for the preview window are controls for adjusting the scale, paper
orientation, etc., before sending it to the printer.

Mac version:
Use the File->Print command or the Printer icon on the toolbar to bring up the Print window, then click
on the disclosure triangle next to the printer selection to reveal a preview of the printout and make
adjustments to the pixeLoom settings for scale, interlacement and color.

On either platform, to print out just the threading, or

just the treadling, first open it in a separate window
with the View->Threading or View->Treadling
command.
Then use Print Preview
to lay out the page
before sending it to the printer.

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Important Functions

Adding Labels
You can identify sections of the threading and/or
treadling of a draft by adding labels to them.
Highlight a section of the threading with the
Selection
tool, then right-click in the selection
window and choose Label.
Double-click on the label you just added to change
the text or its end points. Why not add one to the
treadling too.

Exporting Graphics
The Copy to Clipboard command allows you to
incorporate graphics from pixeLoom into another
program.
Windows:
Right-click on the file writeup.rtf and select Open
With, then choose either Word, WordPad, or any
text editing program that accepts graphics.
Mac:
Double-click on the writeup.rtf file to open it in
TextEdit or other program that accepts graphics.
Back in pixeLoom, use Edit->Copy to Clipboard
to put a graphic image of the current view on the
clipboard or pasteboard for the system.
Switch back to the text editor and use Edit->Paste
to drop the graphic into the document.
You can also copy just the threading, treadling or
tieup portion of a draft into the document by
opening that view, zooming in or out to get the
desired scale and then copying it as described
above.

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Block Substitution

Block Substitution

Open 4blk-rose-star.wif.
This is a profile draft it shows the background and
pattern areas of the design.

Use the Tools->Block Substitution function to put

summer-winter-birdseye structure into this design.
The resulting draft shows how you would thread
your loom, tieup the treadles and weave the fabric.
However, the warp and weft colors in this draft are
reversed from our original design - we wanted a
blue pattern on a mostly white background.

To fix this, go back to the profile draft (make that

window the active window by bringing it to the top
and/or clicking on the title bar).
Change the Properties
have a sinking tieup.

of the profile draft to

Then use Tieup->Invert to maintain the same

relationship between pattern and background.

Substitute summer-winter-birdseye again. Now

the resulting draft looks the same as its profile.
Open a fabric view (and close the full draft
window). Zoom in and out, as desired.

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Block Substitution

Lets see what happens when we drop a different

structure into this design. Make the profile draft the
active window again, and this time use
overshot-4shaft in the substitution.
The Float Search tool
span 8 ends!

reports that weft floats

We can reduce the scale of the profile draft by half

to alleviate this.
Make the profile draft the active window, then use
the Threading->Remove and Treadling->Remove
to delete every other end and pick.
Here we are specifying that for every two threads
we want to delete one of them (in this case, the first
one).
From this reduced profile draft, substitute
overshot-4shaft again.
Much better weft float length this time.
Edit->Supersize for a birds-eye view of this
snail-trail-like draft.

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Block Substitution

Half-Unit Structures
Open a new draft and set its Properties
4 shafts and 4 treadles.

to

Notice that new drafts open up with a direct tieup.

Using the Line tool with Point style, draw in a few
repeats in the threading and the treadling. Then use
the Paint Bucket to dump in a couple of colors with
similar values into the warp and weft colorbars.
We can change the Threading notation to Alpha
and turn the Drawdown Interlacement off since
this is a profile draft, i.e. it specifies background
and pattern as opposed to an actual threading or
treadling draft.

Now lets add structure to the draft with the

Tools->Block Substitution function, using
huck-sequential-lace.

What happens if we change the tieup of the profile

draft to something like this and then try to drop in
this structure again?
Block Substitution with huck-sequential-lace fails
for this profile. The error message complains about
tieup combinations because this weave structure file
cannot handle combined blocks in the tieup of the
profile draft.

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Block Substitution
So, lets try Block Substitution with
huck-blocks-lace instead.
Success! Notice the difference in scale between the
two drafts 95 warp ends vs. 285 ends.
The threading key for the non-sequential (block)
version of huck-lace contains twice as many ends
per block as the sequential (half-unit) version. It
also uses two pattern shafts vs. just one.

Weave structures with sequential- in the filename are often half-unit structures. They require a
sequential threading and/or treadling sequence in the profile draft and may also put constraints on the
tieup.
Refer to Doramay Keasbeys book Designing with Blocks for more information on many of the structures
in pixeLooms Block Substitution folder.

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Block Substitution

Straightening Things Out

Generating a profile draft from a graphic image is
often a good way to start a design.
Open a new draft (not necessary for the Mac) and
then use File->Open Graphic to open the JPEG file
odd-block-16x16.
Edit->Grid Squares : 16 x 16
Tools->Generate Draft

To make this draft look more like a profile draft

than a weavable draft, change the format to block
notation with:
Threading->Alpha and
Drawdown->Interlace turned off
You could add color to the design at this point.

Then use Tools->Block Substitution

with the double-two-tie.wif structure.
Fill in the ground cloth with
Treadling->Add Tabby.
The Tools->Optimize Draft function brings the
draft down to 6 shafts and 10 treadles.
At this point, we can remove the tabby picks with
Treadling->Remove.

Some structures are more optimizable than others. Double-two-tie and warp-rep often result in duplicate
rows and/or columns in the tieup that can be reduced after block substitution.
For tied weaves, always add the tabby picks before optimizing or youll lose essential elements of the draft
in the process.

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Block Substitution

Make the profile the active draft again, and this time
substitute diversified-plain-weave.wif
This structure requires sequential threading blocks
(no repeating blocks) in the profile draft. So the
challenge is to make the profile draft compatible
with it.

Behold, the magic of

Tools->Straighten Threading and
Tools->Straighten Treadling
We now have a sequential, non-repeating
threading and treadling in our design, and can
successfully substitute diversified-plain-weave.wif
into it.

After block substitution, Tools->Optimize Draft

brings the resulting draft back down to 10 shafts.
The status bar also reports that there are 48 ends and
48 picks in one repeat.
Note that block substitution brings in a thick and
thin sequence as well as structure and color.

To change the colors in a draft like this, its best to

use the Color->Replace function.
Supersize and zoom out to get the full effect!

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Block Substitution

Turning Drafts
You can always turn a tied-weave draft after
substitution (and after adding tabby picks).
This would turn the design as well, though, if its not
a completely symmetrical one, such as
heart-sinking.

Heres the result after substitution with

summer-winter-birdseye, and
Treadling->Add Tabby,
Edit->Turn Draft, and
squaring up the treadling.*

A better approach to this type of design would be to

turn the profile draft before substitution, so that
when we turn it again afterward, the design has the
intended orientation.
Make heart-sinking the active draft again, and then
duplicate it with File->Clone, and turn it with the
Edit->Turn Draft command.
To maintain a red pattern weft, lets swap the warp
and weft colors (using the Eyedropper and Paint
Bucket tools) and then use Tieup->Invert to reverse
the pattern and background areas.
Then once more, substitute
summer-winter-birdseye,
Treadling->Add Tabby, and
Edit->Turn Draft, and
square up the treadling.*
A much better result!
*To square up a draft like this that has tiedowns in it
(which in the actual cloth will meld together with
the supplementary pattern thread) its sometimes
useful to make the opposing threads - weft in this
case - all thick. Treadling->Thickness with a
pattern of one thick does it in this case.

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Block Substitution

Rep Weave
Open a new draft, and set its Properties to
2 shafts and 2 treadles.
Turn on fabric analysis mode by checking
Drawdown->Fabric Analysis.
Use the Pencil in the drawdown to enter this
design. Shafts and treadles are added and combined
as they are needed in this mode.
When youre done, toggle Fabric Analysis mode
back off.
Threading->Reflect
Treadling->Reflect
Change the Properties of the profile draft
to warp-faced with 2 colors this puts all the color
in the warp.
Colorize using the Paint Brush in the drawdown.

Visualize the entire piece by repeating first the

flower and one of the border blocks 3 times.
Do the same for the treadling (or use
Treadling->Tromp as Writ).

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Block Substitution

Tools->Block Substitution with warp-rep brings

in color, structure, and the alternation of thick and
thin threads in the weft.

Challenge:
Turn the warp-faced profile draft and substitute summer-winter-poly2 or taquete-2color. What changes
are needed in the profile draft to get the proper result?

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Block Substitution

Extracting a Design

Heres a way to pull a design out of a weavable

draft so it can be woven in a different structure.
This technique works for drafts with a fixed unit
size, like the tied-weave structure in
tree-summer-winter.wif

First, determine the size of a single threading unit

and a single treadling unit.
Then remove all but the tiedown ends in the
threading with the Threading->Remove function.
Fill in the boxes for a single unit (in this case 4) and
then click on the tiedown ends (the 1st and 3rd here)
to mark them for deletion.
Likewise, use Treadling->Remove to delete the 1st
and 4th picks of each treadling unit.
The Tools->Optimize Draft function will get rid of
all the unused shafts and treadles.
A final step would be to change the threading
notation to Alpha and turn off interlacement in the
drawdown.
This profile draft can now be used for block
substitution with a completely different structure.

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Block Substitution

Create Your Own Weave Structure

Lets draft a plain and basket weave damasse that
we can use in the block substitution process.
As Madelyn van der Hoogt describes in The
Complete Book of Drafting for Handweavers, to
define a weave structure we only need to draft two
blocks of it.
To draft two blocks of this plain and basket weave,
well need 8 shafts.
Open a new draft and set its Properties
8 shafts and 8 treadles.

to

With the Line tool, draw in the threading and

treadling for two blocks, where:
Blk A = 1234
Blk B = 5678
With basket weave as the pattern and plain weave as
the background, these are the tieup keys for the
pattern (PTN) and background (BKG)
interlacements.

BKG

PTN

Put the PTN tieup key in areas where the block is

both threaded and treadled, and BKG tieup keys in
all other areas of the tieup. The Stamp tool comes
in handy for this.

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Block Substitution

Set Edit->Defines Structure to identify this draft

as a weave structure definition file.
Now select Edit->Weave Structure to set the
following parameters:
Number of blocks = 2
Ends per block = 4
Picks per block = 4
Pattern shafts = 4
Pattern treadles = 4
The defaults for all the other settings are sufficient
in this case, so just press OK.

The block parameters should now be labeled

properly on the draft.
Save as plain-and-basket in the Substitution Files
folder.

Now we can drop this structure into the checks

profile draft with the Block Substitution function.
How does it look in III-8-profile-7?

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Double Layers

Double Width with One Shuttle

The Double Width tool folds the threading in half,
so its best to start the process with a full threading
sequence in the draft. (A single repeat of the
treadling is sufficient).
Open twill-blanket.wif
Then use Tools->Double Width to create a folded
draft.

The resulting threading has the same number of

ends as the original draft - its just been folded over
onto itself. Of course, it would be sleyed twice as
dense as a single layer cloth.
To compare the folded threading with the flat one,
make the original draft the active window and
View->Threading. Then split the window
(Windows only) to see both ends of the threading at
the same time. See how one end from each side are
alternated in the top and bottom layers of the folded
draft?
In the treadling, a single repeat requires twice as
many picks in the double layered draft. The layers
in this case are woven in the sequence: TBBT,
where T=top and B=bottom.
Note the four quadrants in the tieup that control the
top and bottom layers of the threading and treadling.

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Double Layers

Double Width with Two Shuttles

Folding a draft to weave it double width is slightly

more complicated for a two shuttle weave such as
the overshot draft in blooming-leaf-oshot4.wif.
Before translating this tied weave draft into a
double width draft, we need to incorporate the tabby
picks with the Treadling->Add Tabby function.

Then, in the Tools->Double Width window, set

both the Number of shuttles and the Picks per unit
to 2 to take the two shuttles into account in the
treadling sequence.
As in the previous example, the original threading
has been folded on the left and the layers
interleaved with each other.
The treadling sequence is a little different for the
two shuttle case, though. First the tabby shuttle
weaves both layers, then the pattern shuttle weaves
both layers. On the fifth pick, the tabby shuttle
comes back up from the bottom and then weaves the
top layer, and so on.
As wed expect in a double weave draft, the lower
right quadrant of the tieup lifts the top layer out of
the way when weaving the bottom layer.
Threading->Arrange : Sequential can be used to
rearrange the shafts for an easier threading. To
weave this on a treadle loom, a skeleton tieup would
probably have to be derived.

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Double Layers

Double Width with Two Shuttles, in Three Pick Sequence

Dot-dpw.wif is a case where youd use
Number of shuttles = 2 and Picks per unit = 3
Rather than just alternating shuttles, this diversified
plain weave structure has a three pick treadling
sequence of:
shuttle 1
shuttle 2
shuttle 1
------------shuttle 1
shuttle 2
shuttle 1

Setting the Picks per unit to 3 allows for the thin

pick on shuttle 1 to be thrown twice in succession
between units.
Treadling->User-Defined notation can be used to
type in the Top and Bottom designations in the
treadling.

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Double Layers

Interchanging Layers
Another form of double weave is when the two
layers of cloth interchange in accordance with a
design.
This can easily be accomplished with a profile draft
and block substitution.
Open two-blocks.wif

Make a selection in the drawdown with the

Selection tool to crop it down to one quarter of the
original draft.

Lets change the color scheme for this design. First,

load a the color palette from the stripes.wif file
with the Color->Import->Color Palette function.
Using the Paint Bucket, change the weft color.
Then use the Paint Brush in the drawdown to make
the corners a different color.

Tools->Block Substitution:
double-weave-pw-blks
The Block Substitution function brings in color as
well as structure.
When the draft is zoomed out, its easier to see
design in the resulting draft. The threads from the
bottom layer do peek through, but looking at the
front and back views side by side can give a good
approximation of the finished cloth. (Make sure
Drawdown->Interlace is checked.)

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Double Layers

To separate the layers in the draft, use

Threading->Arrange: Parallel and
Treadling->Arrange: Parallel
With the layers separated, the top and bottom layers
become apparent in the tieup. The lower left and
upper right quadrants show the plain weave
interlacement for both layers, while upper left and
lower right quadrants are complements of each
other - their shape is determined by the tieup in the
profile draft.

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Double Layers

Plain and Basket Weave Blocks

Open tiny-plaid.wif

There are several variations of double weave

structures included with the software. This time
lets try Tools->Block Substitution with
double-weave-pw-basket.
To simplify the weaving, we could try to find a
single weft color for the top layer that works with
both warp colors.
Use the Paint Bucket with Alternating style to
dump two new colors into the weft. A right mouse
button click changes the order of the colors try it
both ways to find the best result.

Use the Move tool

to rearrange threading and
treadling into a better sequence for the loom.

Finally, Edit->Supersize gives you three repeats in

each direction to help visualize an entire piece.

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Double Layers

Four Color Double Weave

Another fun thing to do with double weave is to
explore all possibilities of interlacing the threads
from the top and bottom layers.
To start with, open the profile draft
windowpane.wif.

Then use Block Substitution to drop in the

doubleweave-pw-blk structure.
Lets make it more interesting by bringing in two
different weft colors using
Color->Import->Weft Colorway from
dw-window.
Now the drawdown has areas of
blue crossed with green, and
yellow crossed with red.
By modifying the tieup, we could also have areas of
blue crossed with red, and
yellow crossed with green.

Two-blocks-four-colors shows all four of the

interlacement possiblities, each producing a
different color blend on the face of the cloth.

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Double Layers
View->Tieup opens the tieup in a separate window.
Zoom in to examine it more closely.
There are four (4x4) quadrants in the tieup for a two
block double weave draft. Each of these 4x4
sections can specify a different color combination.
Directly out of block substitution, our draft only has
two of these flavors, YR, and BG. By plugging in
the other tieup keys, we can get those color blends
into the cloth as well.

In the two-blocks-four-colors draft, use the selection

tool to highlight the quadrant of the tieup you want
to copy, and Edit->Copy (Ctrl+C) it.
Then make your new draft the active window and
paste it into that tieup with Edit->Paste (Ctrl+V).
In this case, the BR section was pasted into the
lower left quadrant, resulting in blue-red areas of
the draft that are threaded and treadled for block A.

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Warp / Weft Faced Designs

A Warp Faced Design

Lets convert the color and weave design in
VI-5b.wif into a warp-faced design for use with a
structure like rep weave (where all the color is in
the warp).
From this single repeat of the pattern, we can see
that its a 3 block design with 2 colors in any one
threading block (i.e. vertical column).

So well start with a new draft, setting its

Properties
to 3 shafts and 3 treadles with a
Rising tieup.
In the middle section of the window, make this a
Warp-faced draft with 2 colorbars.

Enter a three-block wide straight threading to start

with, and then Treadling->Tromp as Writ to
duplicate that pattern in the treadling.
Now erase the current tieup with the Tieup->Clear
command.
Well need three colors in the color palette:
Green, Brown and Purple.
Either use Color->Import->Color Palette with
VI-5b.wif or add these colors to your palette with
the color picker buttons.

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Warp / Weft Faced Designs

Dump green into both colorbars with the Paint

Bucket , holding down the Ctrl key to fill the top
one.

In threading block A, we need green and brown, so

with the Pencil tool, lets fill in the first three blocks
of the background color bar with Brown.
Then use the Pencil in the drawdown to modify the
tieup so the first threading block matches the
design.
See how a left mouse button click brings one color
to the top, while a right mouse button click brings
the other color to the top? Thats what the tieup in
this draft is managing for us.

In threading block B, we need brown and purple, so

fill those colors into the next three cells of the warp
color bars. Then use the Pencil in the drawdown to
bring the proper colors forward.

Purple and green are the colors needed for block C

in the threading. Again, click in the drawdown to
modify the tieup according to the color blocks
needed in the design.
Edit->Supersize shows how the repeat will look.
Use Tools->Block Substitution to create a draft for
warp-rep [rep weave] or turned-taquete.

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Warp / Weft Faced Designs

Weft Faced with Three Colors

Open a new draft, set the Properties
to
4 shafts and 8 treadles, and enter this pattern into
the threading with the keyboard.
Duplicate this pattern in the treadling with
Treadling->Tromp as Writ, and wipe out the tieup
with Tieup->Clear.
Since this is a profile draft, its probably best to
change the threading notation to Alpha.
Now lets make this a weft-faced design by
changing the Properties of the file to Weft-faced
with 3 color bars, and using a Sinking tieup.

Then dump three colors (light, medium and dark

values) into the color bars.
Hold down the Ctrl key to access the 2nd bar, hold
down both Ctrl and Alt to dump into the 3rd bar.
Since there are more than 2 colorbars, we need
another set of symbols in the treadling to designate
the second color bar. The third color bar is the
background color in this case.
The symbols in the treadling that correspond to the
color bars are as follows:
Ctrl key
Ctrl + Alt key

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1st color bar

2nd color bar
3rd color bar

Sue Farley 2011

Warp / Weft Faced Designs

Using the Pencil with the Ctrl key held down, draw
in a treadling for the second color bar on the right
half of the treadling mimicing the first. This
treadling (marked with the plus signs) governs the
color in the second color bar.

Next, were going to fill in the tieup to form this

design, where:
L = Light (1st color bar)
M = Medium (2nd color bar)
D = Dark (background color)

Select, then Copy and Paste the section of C blocks

onto the end of the threading and treadling, then
Threading->Reflect and Treadling->Reflect.

This design can be woven in summer and winter

polychrome, samitum, or taquete with 3 colors.

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Warp / Weft Faced Designs

Boundweave
In this example, well create a boundweave design.
Start with a 4 shaft, 4 treadle draft, that has a
Sinking tieup.
Using the Line tool, draw in a point threading.
Next, well make it a weft-faced draft with 4 color
bars - each tied to a particular treadle.
In the Properties
for the draft, set it to
Weft-faced with 4 colors. The Direct correlation
checkbox becomes active when the number of color
bars matches the number of treadles click on it to
set it.

A design can be filled in using the Paint Brush in

the drawdown.
Once some picks have been entered, the Paint
Bucket can also be used, with the following
modifier keys determining which bar the color will
be dumped into.
Ctrl
Ctrl + Alt
Ctrl + Alt + Shift

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1st color bar

2nd color bar
3rd color bar
4th color bar

Sue Farley 2011

Network Drafting

Pattern Lines
Open flea-16x48.wif
The threading for this draft contains a pattern line
with the flea shape that Alice Schlein describes in
Network Drafting: An Introduction.
The first step is to scale the pattern line to fit the
size of the initial and the dimensions of the network
youre going to plot it onto. *
Tools->Scale Pattern Line
Size of the Initial:
4 x 4 with a base of 0
(from Weave Structure: twill-3-1LR)

Size of the Network:

Height = 8 shafts,
Length = 48 ends

Use Digitize as the Scaling Method

When you click on Finish in the wizard, a new draft

opens, with this pattern line in the threading. Note
its on 8 shafts and the drawdown area is 48 x 48.
Now we can plot this pattern line onto a network to
get our networked threading.
* The network drafting technique overlays the structure on top of the design, so the dimensions of the
design are the same as the resulting draft. This is in contrast with block substitution, where each block in
the design gets expanded by the unit size in the woven draft.

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Network Drafting

With the 8 shaft pattern line as the active draft,

select Tools->Plot onto Network.

The result is a networked draft that could be woven

on a dobby loom or a table loom. For an 8 shaft
treadle loom, well take one more step.
Copy the networked threading into the treadling
with Treadling->Mirror Threading.
Then use the Line tool to fill in a twill tieup, like
the one shown here.

Edit->Supersize to visualize three repeats in each

direction and either Ctrl+Mouse wheel or the
Ctrl/Cmd+<Plus> and Ctrl/Cmd+<Minus> to
Zoom in and out.

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Network Drafting

A Turtle Morphs into a Flea

Open turtle-20x128
The threading here has what Alice Schlein calls a
turtle shape.
Again, the first step is to scale the pattern line to
suit the initial (structure) and the network (number
of shafts as well as the dimensions of the draft).
This time were going to telescope the line rather
than digitizing it.
Tools->Scale Pattern Line
Size of the Initial:
4 x 4 with a base of 0
Size of the Network:
Height = 8 shafts, Length = 128 ends
Scaling Method:
Telescope

the telescoped pattern line

With this telescoped draft on top, select

Tools->Plot onto Network.

While this draft could be woven as is on a dobby

loom, it requires 14 treadles on a traditional loom,
so again well duplicate the threading in the
treadling and fill in a twill tieup.

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Network Drafting

Treadling->Mirror Threading
Use the Line tool to draw in a twill-compatible
tieup, such as this 3/1/1/3 pattern
View->Tieup might come in handy here

Use Edit->Supersize to visualize three repeats in

each direction.
Try Treadling->Wrap >> (Ctrl+W) for a
kaleidscope of variations on this draft.

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Network Drafting

The Shaft Rule for Turtles

Open sine-wave.wif
Since this pattern line starts and ends on
approximately the same point, it has a turtle shape.

Again, use Tools->Scale Pattern Line

for a 4 x 4 initial

This time, leave the Height of the network at 16

shafts, but change the Length to the 64 to expand
the scale of the draft.

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Network Drafting

Finally, scale by Digitizing with the Shaft Rule on.

The resulting pattern line has a height of 13.
Scaling with the shaft rule leaves a little head room
for the size of the initial to fit on top of the pattern
line and still be within the height of the network.

Now we can use Tools->Plot Onto Network to

create the networked threading with that shape in
the line.
Use a ribbon width of 8 and the double-weavepw-blks structure for this one.

Edit->Supersize the result and since we used the

Shaft Rule for this turtle shaped line,
Treadling->Wrap >> and
Treadling->Wrap <<
can be used to vary the design.
Wraps must be done in pairs to maintain the
integrity of this structure.

Challenge:
Tangent-16x54 is also a good example for doubleweave structure try scaling to 108 in length, with a
ribbon width of 6 and lots of wrapping after the plot.

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Network Drafting

Using the Ribbon Template

Open ribbon-16x32
Here, the design is filled into the liftplan, and the
threading is a straight 16.
Were going to dump 3/1 twill into the dark areas of
this design and 1/3 twill into the light areas.

Proceed directly to Tools->Plot onto Network.

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Network Drafting

You can change how the structure aligns within the

design by wrapping the treadling on the design draft
and plotting the structure onto it again.
Go back to ribbon-16x32
Treadling->Wrap >> (Ctrl+W) once or twice
Tools->Plot onto Network again with the same
parameters as before.
Compare this draft to the previous result. To cover
all the possibilities for a 4 end initial, youd need to
wrap and plot three times.

Edit->Supersize to get the full effect.

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Network Drafting

Overlaying Treadlings
Make ribbon-16x32 the active draft.
Use Tools->Plot onto Network to fill in just the
background of the template with the broken-twill
structure.

This draft has been saved as bkgnd-broken

Go back to ribbon-16x32 again
This time, fill in the ribbon portion with
twill-3-1-L with Tools->Plot onto Network.

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Network Drafting

Now, put the two together with

Treadling->Overlay, using the Browse button to
point to bkgnd-broken.

As always, Edit->Supersize, and then check the

float length.

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Network Drafting

Echo Weave
Open turtle-16x40
Its already been scaled for a 4-end initial on 16
shafts.

Tools->Plot onto Network again with

twill-3-1-LR, but lets use a ribbon width of 6 this
time.

Add another harmonic to the threading with

Threading->Echo. A second threading has been
interleaved with the original, doubling the number
of ends.

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Network Drafting
A thicker weft is used to compensate for the echo in
the threading. We can simulate this in the draft with
the Treadling->Thickness function.

Finally, use the Paint Bucket to dump two

alternating colors into the warp and a solid color
into the weft. Complementary colors seem to work
well for the two warps.
Of course, we always want to Edit->Supersize.

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Reference Material

Keyboard Shortcuts Windows

F1
Esc
Ctrl+Z
Ctrl+Y
Ctrl+C
Ctrl+V
Ctrl+<Plus>
Ctrl+<Minus>
Ctrl+<Enter>
Insert
Delete
Ctrl+H
Ctrl+R
Ctrl+B
Ctrl+M
Ctrl+D
Ctrl+W
Ctrl+Q
Ctrl+T
Ctrl+G
Home
End
Ctrl+S

57

Opens context-sensitive help

Select default tool for this view
Undo
Redo
Copy the selection
Paste
Zoom in on current view (also Ctrl+mouse wheel)
Zoom out on current view (also Ctrl+mouse wheel)
Size window to fit contents
Insert ends or picks
Delete ends or picks
Browse drafts
Color replace
Super size it (3 repeats both ways)
Single repeat (both ways)
View the full draft (from Fabric - or any other - View)
Wrap treadling forward
Wrap treadling backward
Wrap threading up
Wrap threading down
Go to first end or pick in the draft
Go to last end or pick in the draft
Save the draft

Sue Farley 2011

Reference Material

Keyboard Shortcuts Mac

Esc
Cmd+Z
Cmd+Shift+Z
Cmd+C
Cmd+V
Cmd+<Plus>
Cmd+<Minus>
Cmd+<Enter>
+
Delete
Cmd+Shift+D
Cmd+R
Cmd+B
Cmd+M
Cmd+D
Cmd+->
Cmd+<Cmd+^
Cmd+v
Home
End
Cmd+S

58

Select default tool for this view

Undo
Redo
Copy the selection
Paste
Zoom in on current view (also Cmd+mouse wheel)
Zoom out on current view (also Cmd+mouse wheel)
Size window to fit contents
Insert ends or picks
Delete ends or picks
Browse drafts
Color replace
Super size it (3 repeats both ways)
Single repeat (both ways)
View the full draft (from Fabric - or any other - View)
Wrap treadling forward (thats the right-arrow key)
Wrap treadling backward (thats the left-arrow key)
Wrap threading up
Wrap threading down
Go to first end or pick in the draft
Go to last end or pick in the draft
Save the draft

Sue Farley 2011

Reference Material

Where to Use the Editing Tools

Pencil
Line
Paint brush
Paint bucket
Eyedropper
Selection
Stamp
Move

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