Computer Design and a Finished Fabric

In May I taught a workshop on using the computer to design woven fabric. If you have been following my blog this fascination came out of a workshop I took with the UKWSD Online.

Learning how to take thread you already have in your stash and get to see the way it looks before doing all the weaving has been something I have tried to do for years. Back in the 80's, I designed and sold a computer drafting program for the Commodore 64 and the Amiga. While this program could show the resulting draft and analyze a pattern to show how to weave it, the result was a drawdown and not the woven fabric.

The program I use today is WeavePoint and it has a view that displays a closer rendition of the fabric. Getting the program to replicate more complicated yarns was not possible. In the workshop we used scanning and also taking photos as a way to display the yarn on screen. The above yarn was a bit of a challenge because of the fuzzy nature of the yarn. When I had the picture of the yarn on screen, I tried making the background transparent, but that was next to impossible. In the end, I was satisfied with taking the colours into a draw program and then using them in WeavePoint.

Once I applied the colours to the draft in WeavePoint, I then copied the fabric and moved it into my drawing of a cape. This is just the beginning of working on this and I still need to do some work to get the fabric clearer but it does give me a closer vision of the final product. The fabric is just off the loom and has not been finished.

I used a lace threading and treadling that produces a good hand for a soft textile. Years ago, I created a similar fabric and produce a cocoon from the fabric. The lighting on the photo is not the greatest, but if you click on the picture you can clearly see the weave structure.

Once I wet finish and complete an article with the above fabric sample, I will post it to my blog.