Tablet weaving is fraught with trapdoors, little mistakes that are easy to make. This pre-weaving checklist may keep you from falling into one.

Below are some motifs for Sulawesi style tablet weaving. The set up of the cards and the threading is always as indicated below (except adjusted to 16, 24, 32 or 40 cards). I use Tablet weaving draft designer to illustrate how to thread the cards. Please check my other pages on Sulawesi weaving for explanations

When I was writing the revised edition of my book Tablet Weaving in Theory and Practice: Vacant-Hole Pinwheels, I added an extra draft to the section that covers the narrow band edging the vestigial hood (the triangle shape at the centre top) of the Hildesheim Cope. I'm sharing it on my blog as well, so that anyone who already has the first edition, but doesn't want to buy a new copy just for one new draft, can grab it here. You can download the TDD file for this draft by clicking here. In the following text version of the draft, "Empty" denotes a vacant hole. Threading: Z threaded tablet White (#ffffff) White (#ffffff) White (#ffffff) White (#ffffff) S threaded tablet Pizazz (#ff8800) Pizazz (#ff8800) Pizazz (#ff8800) Pizazz (#ff8800) Z threaded tablet Flirt (#990099) Flirt (#990099) Flirt (#990099) Flirt (#990099) S threaded tablet White (#ffffff) Empty White (#ffffff) Flirt (#990099) S threaded tablet Empty White (#ffffff) Flirt (#990099) White (#ffffff) S threaded tablet White (#ffffff) Flirt (#990099) White (#ffffff) Empty S threaded tablet Flirt (#990099) White (#ffffff) Empty White (#ffffff) S threaded tablet White (#ffffff) Empty White (#ffffff) Flirt (#990099) S threaded tablet Empty White (#ffffff) Flirt (#990099) White (#ffffff) S threaded tablet White (#ffffff) Flirt (#990099) White (#ffffff) Empty S threaded tablet Flirt (#990099) White (#ffffff) Empty White (#ffffff) S threaded tablet White (#ffffff) Empty White (#ffffff) Flirt (#990099) S threaded tablet Empty White (#ffffff) Flirt (#990099) White (#ffffff) S threaded tablet White (#ffffff) Flirt (#990099) White (#ffffff) Empty S threaded tablet Flirt (#990099) White (#ffffff) Empty White (#ffffff) S threaded tablet White (#ffffff) Empty White (#ffffff) Flirt (#990099) S threaded tablet Empty White (#ffffff) Flirt (#990099) White (#ffffff) S threaded tablet White (#ffffff) Flirt (#990099) White (#ffffff) Empty S threaded tablet Flirt (#990099) White (#ffffff) Empty White (#ffffff) S threaded tablet White (#ffffff) Empty White (#ffffff) Flirt (#990099) S threaded tablet Empty White (#ffffff) Flirt (#990099) White (#ffffff) Z threaded tablet Empty White (#ffffff) Flirt (#990099) White (#ffffff) Z threaded tablet White (#ffffff) Empty White (#ffffff) Flirt (#990099) Z threaded tablet Flirt (#990099) White (#ffffff) Empty White (#ffffff) Z threaded tablet White (#ffffff) Flirt (#990099) White (#ffffff) Empty Z threaded tablet Empty White (#ffffff) Flirt (#990099) White (#ffffff) Z threaded tablet White (#ffffff) Empty White (#ffffff) Flirt (#990099) Z threaded tablet Flirt (#990099) White (#ffffff) Empty White (#ffffff) Z threaded tablet White (#ffffff) Flirt (#990099) White (#ffffff) Empty Z threaded tablet Empty White (#ffffff) Flirt (#990099) White (#ffffff) Z threaded tablet White (#ffffff) Empty White (#ffffff) Flirt (#990099) Z threaded tablet Flirt (#990099) White (#ffffff) Empty White (#ffffff) Z threaded tablet White (#ffffff) Flirt (#990099) White (#ffffff) Empty Z threaded tablet Empty White (#ffffff) Flirt (#990099) White (#ffffff) Z threaded tablet White (#ffffff) Empty White (#ffffff) Flirt (#990099) Z threaded tablet Flirt (#990099) White (#ffffff) Empty White (#ffffff) Z threaded tablet White (#ffffff) Flirt (#990099) White (#ffffff) Empty Z threaded tablet Empty White (#ffffff) Flirt (#990099) White (#ffffff) Z threaded tablet White (#ffffff) Empty White (#ffffff) Flirt (#990099) S threaded tablet Flirt (#990099) Flirt (#990099) Flirt (#990099) Flirt (#990099) Z threaded tablet Pizazz (#ff8800) Pizazz (#ff8800) Pizazz (#ff8800) Pizazz (#ff8800) S threaded tablet White (#ffffff) White (#ffffff) White (#ffffff) White (#ffffff) Turning: 5F 6B 2F 16B 6F 2B 5F 5F 6B 2F 16B 6F 2B 5F 7F 2B 4F 16B 4F 6B 3F 7F 2B 4F 16B 4F 6B 3F 13F 16B 6F 4B 3F 13F 16B 6F 4B 3F 3F 2B 8F 16B 8F 2B 3F 3F 2B 8F 16B 8F 2B 3F 5F 8B 16F 8B 5F 5F 8B 16F 8B 5F 5F 8B 16F 8B 5F 5F 8B 16F 8B 5F 5F 8B 4F 8B 4F 8B 5F 5F 8B 4F 8B 4F 8B 5F 5F 8B 4F 8B 4F 8B 5F 5F 8B 4F 8B 4F 8B 5F 3F 2B 8F 4B 8F 4B 8F 2B 3F 3F 2B 8F 4B 8F 4B 8F 2B 3F 3F 2B 8F 4B 8F 4B 8F 2B 3F 3F 2B 8F 4B 8F 4B 8F 2B 3F 3F 2B 8F 16B 8F 2B 3F 3F 2B 8F 16B 8F 2B 3F 3F 2B 8F 16B 8F 2B 3F 3F 2B 8F 16B 8F 2B 3F 5F 8B 16F 8B 5F 5F 8B 16F 8B 5F 7F 6B 16F 10B 3F 7F 6B 16F 10B 3F 9F 4B 16F 4B 2F 4B 3F 9F 4B 16F 4B 2F 4B 3F 3F 2B 2F 6B 16F 2B 6F 2B 3F 3F 2B 2F 6B 16F 2B 6F 2B 3F As with all of the free drafts/ patterns on this site, you are welcome to weave them, sell bands woven using them, and use them to teach other weavers, just as long as you state where you found them.

We've made a change to TDD so that it can generate drafts for vacant-hole technique patterns! In vacant-hole technique, one or more holes of the tablet are intentionally left empty. This will allow glimpses of weft on the surface of the band that would normally be covered by the warp threads. In the palette on the control panel, the box "none" can now be used to remove threads from the threading diagram. This will leave blank boxes in the turning diagram, with the same white and grey backgrounds as before to denote turning direction. Previously, the "none" box could be selected to make clicks on the threading diagram change the warp alignment/ threading direction. This was in addition to alignment changes caused by clicking on the letters at the bottom of the diagram. Now the only way to change the alignment is to click on the letters. Below is an example of a vacant-hole pattern:

Recently, I've been doing some fast weaving to build up my inventory of guitar straps. It is fun for me to line them all up and compare and contrast designs. Hopefully, you will enjoy seeing them, too. The pattern drafts are included so that you can use them to help design your own bands. I ask that you don't copy any EXACTLY, as I assure my customers that these are one of-a-kind designs. All are 2" wide and mostly use my favorite sport weight cotton. In some cases, heavier or thinner yarns were also used. FOR SIMPLICITY OF USE, CONSIDER THE TOP ROW TO BE HEDDLED THREADS AND THE BOTTOM ROW TO BE OPEN THREADS ON ALL OF THE DRAFTS. In the one above, I experimented with using the yarns doubled to produce a thicker band. For more pattern drafts, check out these other blog posts: http://aspinnerweaver.blogspot.com/p/pattern-drafts.html

I have spent six months learning tablet weaving and here are some tips that I want to share with beginners struggling with their first bands.

Below are some motifs for Sulawesi style tablet weaving. The set up of the cards and the threading is always as indicated below (except adjusted to 16, 24, 32 or 40 cards). I use Tablet weaving draft designer to illustrate how to thread the cards. Please check my other pages on Sulawesi weaving for explanations

I’m enjoying teaching myself about tablet weaving, through some reading and a lot of trial and error. Over the past few months I’ve spent quite a while experimenting with ways to make sure that I’…

Sometimes drafts pop into my head fully formed, with a name and colour scheme, and sometimes it takes a few attempts to refine them and work out what they want to be. This is one of the first kind. It came about during part of the sample weaving for my next book, when my mind wandered, and was my treat for finishing the final sample. It's twist-neutral for the pattern tablets, but you will get a build-up behind the three selvedge tablets on each side. I flipped mine every 64 picks during weaving to weave out the excess twist. The sample band for this draft was woven in King Cole Merino-Blend 4ply in the colours Bordeaux, white and rose petal. It is named for the hearts that appear above and below each knot motif. If you're finding a 64 pick draft overwhelming, it will work just as well if you only weave the first 32 picks, repeating as many times as desired. If you go that route, there will be some twist build-up behind some of the pattern tablets. Link to tdd file for this draft Link to text version of this draft As with all of the free drafts/patterns on this site, you are welcome to weave them, sell bands woven using them, and use them to teach other weavers, just as long as you state where you found them.

This pattern was inspired by work done by Shelagh Lewins on a band from the Oseberg ship burial (buried in 834 CE). It's a simple threaded-in pattern and is woven by turning the tablets continuously forwards (or by turning the tablets continuously backwards to work out built up twist). It's reversible, so the pattern appears on both sides of the band and would make a great selvedge pattern as part of a larger band. This is an easy weave, as the tablet threadings produce the pattern so there's no need to make turning direction changes or keep count of numbers of turns. A perfect pattern to work on if you're new to tablet weaving. You can download the TDD file for this draft by clicking here. The text version of this draft is as follows: Threading: S threaded tablet White (#ffffff) White (#ffffff) White (#ffffff) White (#ffffff) Z threaded tablet White (#ffffff) Blue (#0000ff) Blue (#0000ff) Blue (#0000ff) Z threaded tablet Blue (#0000ff) White (#ffffff) Blue (#0000ff) White (#ffffff) Z threaded tablet White (#ffffff) Blue (#0000ff) White (#ffffff) White (#ffffff) S threaded tablet Blue (#0000ff) Blue (#0000ff) Blue (#0000ff) Blue (#0000ff) S threaded tablet White (#ffffff) White (#ffffff) White (#ffffff) Blue (#0000ff) S threaded tablet Blue (#0000ff) White (#ffffff) Blue (#0000ff) White (#ffffff) S threaded tablet Blue (#0000ff) Blue (#0000ff) White (#ffffff) Blue (#0000ff) Z threaded tablet White (#ffffff) White (#ffffff) White (#ffffff) White (#ffffff) Turning: 9F 9F 9F 9F 9F 9F 9F 9F As with all of the free patterns on this site, you are welcome to weave them, sell bands woven using them, and use them to teach other weavers, just as long as you state where you found them.

As some readers may already know, Tablet Weaving Draft Designer (TDD for short) is a free, browser-based tablet weaving drafting tool, which you can also use offline if you already have it loaded on your device. It's a joint project by my husband, James, and I that we started back in 2015 as a way for me to draft out my tablet weaving ideas more easily. It's changed quite a bit in the intervening years, most significantly over the Christmas holidays of 2020, when James did a full rewrite of the code and we implemented some new features. As part of the rewrite, the draft that TDD generates is now an SVG (scalable vector graphic) image meaning that you can highlight any of the numbers and letters on it with your cursor, should you so desire. We also added new collapsible menus for the Control Panel, as it was getting pretty big and cluttered. In this article, I will walk you through the different tools of TDD and what they do. Before we get started, I want to define a few of the terms and assumptions that TDD uses. Tablets are labelled clockwise from A onwards (as shown above) and the drafts use a tablet starting position with A and whatever the letter of the final label is (this will vary based on the number of holes the tablet has) at the top. For four-holed tablets, it will generate a draft with quarter (90 degree) turns in the threading diagram; for two-holed tablets, it will generate a draft with half (180 degree) turns etc. TDD displays both the threading direction of the tablets, as used by Peter Collingwood (the way the threads pass through the tablet), as the letters S and Z at the bottom of the threading diagram and warp alignment (the way the tablets appear on the warp when viewed from above) as the slant of the ovals within the threading diagram (threading direction and warp alignment are covered in more detail here). Click on the S or Z beneath the column for a tablet to change its threading direction/warp alignment. This will automatically update the turning diagram to match. To change the turning direction for a particular tablet in the turning diagram, click on the square you want to change and it will automatically change all the squares above that point too. The TDD Control Panel has nine sections, but you don't have to use all of them to create your draft if you don't want to; the bare minimum you need is the Controls section at the top and the Palette section further down. Click on the name of each section or the plus symbol next to the name to expand that section of the Control Panel. Click on the name or the minus symbol next to the name to collapse it again. Draft Name Type the name of your draft in the empty box at the top of the Control Panel. This will be the name used for any files or images you save or export. If you leave this empty, TDD will use the file name "draft" instead. Controls Enter the number of picks (rows) you want the turning diagram to have, the number of holes the tablets will have and the number of tablets you want, using a keyboard to fill in the boxes or with the plus and minus buttons on either side of the boxes. You can always change these values later if you need to. TDD will add any extra picks to the top of the turning diagram and any extra tablets to the right of the threading diagram. *New for 2022: you can now lock and unlock the draft using a tick box here. Rulers TDD comes equipped with horizontal and vertical rulers, the position of which can be controlled by entering a value in the text box or by using the plus and minus buttons. The horizontal ruler is particularly helpful if you weave from your computer screen, as you can advance it up the page to help you keep track of your position in the turning diagram. I like to use the vertical ruler to mark the centre of the draft if it is a really wide one with a line of symmetry down the middle. You can also use the vertical ruler to mark the next tablet you need to thread in the threading diagram when you warp your loom. You can enter a minus number for the horizontal ruler position to make it appear in the threading diagram rather than the turning diagram. If you would prefer not to use the rulers, you can remove them by clicking to un-tick their boxes. I always do this before exporting the draft as an image file. Display You can un-tick the Show Threads box to remove the thread ovals from the threading diagram. This is helpful if there's an error in your turning diagram that you can't pin down, as it lets you see the pattern of forward and backward turns more easily. *New for 2022: You can now use the Show Turning Diagram tick box to hide or show the turning diagram. Tick the Show Threading Diagram box to include the threading diagram at the bottom of your draft. If you're generating a large number of drafts that all use the same threading, leaving it out after the first draft will save you some space on your page. If you prefer to mark the points in the turning diagram where the turning direction of a tablet changes, rather than which tablets are turning backward or forward, tick the Show Reversals box to add a red line to the draft at these points. *New for 2022: You can now choose whether the tablets in the draft are labelled clockwise or anti-clockwise. This will also be reflected in the text description for the draft. The Show Text Description box will produce a set of written instructions equivalent to your draft, which will appear below it. The threading diagram is described tablet by tablet, with hexadecimal codes and names (more information about these names is given below) for each of the thread colours, with a list of turning instructions broken into groups of tablets below it. The description below is the text version of the example draft above: Threading: Z threaded tablet Yellow (#ffff00) Flirt (#990099) Yellow (#ffff00) Flirt (#990099) Z threaded tablet Flirt (#990099) Yellow (#ffff00) Flirt (#990099) Yellow (#ffff00) S threaded tablet Flirt (#990099) Yellow (#ffff00) Flirt (#990099) Yellow (#ffff00) S threaded tablet Yellow (#ffff00) Flirt (#990099) Yellow (#ffff00) Flirt (#990099) Turning: 4F 4F 4B 4B 4F 4F 4B 4B The Backwards Turn Saturation slider can be used to increase or decrease the level of contrast of the grey background squares on the turning diagram. If you slide it all the way to the left, you can make the background of all the squares white instead to get a quick preview of what the draft might look like when woven. When I'm creating a draft for weaving double-face, I un-tick the Show Threads tool and set the Backwards Turn Saturation to about 75%, as I'm using the draft to show the placement of the background colour and contrast colour rather than what the individual tablets are doing, but I still want to be able to see the borders of the boxes on the turning diagram. This charting method is also useful in producing drafts for brocaded bands. A simple draft for either brocade or double-face Since the big December re-build, the Visual Scale of the draft can now be used to both increase the size of the draft on your screen and decrease it (if you input a negative number into the box), which is really helpful for getting an overview of very large drafts. Repeats We initially took out this tool during the update, as we weren't happy with the way it was functioning. Now that it's back, it works a bit differently, but it's now no longer possible to use it to generate a band mock-up that won't work when woven. Select the Show Repeats box and TDD will add a mock-up of your band to the right of your draft; it will look the the same as your draft, but all the squares will have white backgrounds and it will be missing any red lines or rulers. Specify which picks you want to be included in your mock-up using the Repeat Start and Repeat End fields and TDD will show you what a band would look like if you repeated that turning sequence using the threading diagram you have input. You can change how many times TDD repeats those picks using the Number of Repeats field. More information about how the Repeats tool works can be found here. Resets Treat the Reset All button with caution! It clears everything away and resets your draft to 1 pick high and 1 4-holed tablet wide at 0 Visual Scale. It's really helpful if you want to start a new draft from scratch, but there's no undo function, so always save your work before using it. *New for 2022: You can now use the Reset Palette button to set the palette back to its default settings, without making any other changes in the draft. The Clear Pattern button will reset your turning diagram to the default, with every square set to forward turn, with no turning reversals, but won't change your threading diagram or the number of picks in it. Palette To change the colours of your threads, click the Foreground Colour you want, then click on the thread you want to change in the threading diagram. If you want that tablet hole to be empty so you can produce a vacant-hole draft, select "None" from the left side of the Palette before clicking on the threading diagram. This will give you an empty box instead of a thread for that tablet hole on the threading and turning diagrams. The numbers underneath the colours in the Palette tell you how many times that colour is used in the threading diagram to make warping for your band easier. The Palette will display a Colour Name for the colour you have selected, taken from an open source java-script library by Chirag Mehta. This colour name is also used in the Text Description below the draft, if you have it turned on. If the colours in the Palette aren't to your preference, you can adjust them by selecting a colour's box and changing it using the Red Green Blue sliders below it. Alternatively, you can enter the RGB values for the shade you want next to the sliders. If the colour you have changed is used in your draft, the draft will be automatically updated with your changes. Export TDD can export images for both your draft and for your pattern repeat mock-up. Fill in the number of pixels wide you want the image to be in the box, then click on any of the three buttons below it to download your image. If, for example, you want your image to be 5cm (2 inches) wide with a resolution of 250dpi, enter 500px in the Export Width box.. TDD can export your draft as an .svg file, a .jpeg file or a .png file. The file name will be the same as the name you gave the draft at the top of the Control Panel. The image will be the same as your draft, so if you have the rulers or red reversal points turned on, they will be included in your exported image. Files One of the big behind-the-scenes changes that we made this past December is the way TDD saves files. Previously, it used the .json format which produced a large amount of coded information, the vast majority of which would be gibberish to the lay-person. The new .tdd files are much shorter and actually resemble your draft if you open one up in a text editor (like Notepad++, Sublime Text, Emacs, Vi, Atom, or any programmers' editor); if you do open one, make sure that you don't accidentally change the file extension or TDD won't be able to open it again. You will still be able to open any of the .json files you previously made using TDD, but you will only be able to save in the new format. We don't intend to remove this capability to open old files, so there's no rush to convert them. When you click the Save button, TDD will download the .tdd file for your draft to your device using the draft name you specified at the top of the Control Panel, in the same way as the Image Export tool. Clicking the Choose File button will open an Open File dialogue box. The text below is the contents of the save file for the example draft above. //\\ //\\ \\// \\// //\\ //\\ \\// \\// 7997 9779 7997 9779 ZZSS 0 - #ffffff 1 - #000000 2 - #ff0000 3 - #009900 4 - #0000ff 5 - #dddddd 6 - #999999 7 - #ffff00 8 - #00ffff 9 - #990099 a - #ff8800 b - #ff8888 We will be continuing to add to TDD's features over time to support a wider range of drafting styles and I'll publish information about any changes on my blog as we make them. If you have any suggestions for new features, you can leave them at my blog or on Github, where you can also view TDD's code, but keep in mind that TDD is a project that we work on in our spare time, so it may take a while for them to be implemented. I hope this tutorial has been instructive and inspires you in creating your own drafts.

Have you ever wanted to set up your loom for a weaving, but you’re unsure of how to read the instructions? Let's learn how to read a weaving draft!

In Sulawesi you form pairs of 2 cards, both ZZ or SS, that always turn together (below, card 2-3, 4-5, etc). Also, you always do 2 picks before you change turning direction of the cards. I have used the Tablet Weaving Draft Designer (TWDD) to illustrate my designs and the turning diagrams. Below is a

The draft for this tablet woven strap comes from Babette’s Editor for tablet weaving (sadly off-line, now). The inspiration for the colors comes from Laverne’s beautiful “Turkoman yurt band repro...

Recently, I've been doing some fast weaving to build up my inventory of guitar straps. It is fun for me to line them all up and compare and contrast designs. Hopefully, you will enjoy seeing them, too. The pattern drafts are included so that you can use them to help design your own bands. I ask that you don't copy any EXACTLY, as I assure my customers that these are one of-a-kind designs. All are 2" wide and mostly use my favorite sport weight cotton. In some cases, heavier or thinner yarns were also used. FOR SIMPLICITY OF USE, CONSIDER THE TOP ROW TO BE HEDDLED THREADS AND THE BOTTOM ROW TO BE OPEN THREADS ON ALL OF THE DRAFTS. In the one above, I experimented with using the yarns doubled to produce a thicker band. For more pattern drafts, check out these other blog posts: http://aspinnerweaver.blogspot.com/p/pattern-drafts.html

Explore rabbitbrushstudio's 254 photos on Flickr!

I've proposed a class in tablet weaving for our local OLLI. I don't know how the proposal will fare, but I'm having fun doing the research. Tablet weaving has been resident in my box of tricks for a long time....

Below are some motifs for Sulawesi style tablet weaving. The set up of the cards and the threading is always as indicated below (except adjusted to 16, 24, 32 or 40 cards). I use Tablet weaving draft designer to illustrate how to thread the cards. Please check my other pages on Sulawesi weaving for explanations

This pattern was inspired by work done by Shelagh Lewins on a band from the Oseberg ship burial (buried in 834 CE). It's a simple threaded-in pattern and is woven by turning the tablets continuously forwards (or by turning the tablets continuously backwards to work out built up twist). It would make a great selvedge pattern as part of a larger band. This is an easy weave, as the tablet threadings produce the pattern so there's no need to make turning direction changes or keep count of numbers of turns. A perfect pattern to work on if you're new to tablet weaving. You can download the TDD file for this draft by clicking here. The text version of this draft is as follows: Threading: S threaded tablet White (#ffffff) White (#ffffff) White (#ffffff) White (#ffffff) Z threaded tablet White (#ffffff) Red (#ff0000) Red (#ff0000) Red (#ff0000) Z threaded tablet Red (#ff0000) White (#ffffff) Red (#ff0000) Yellow (#ffff00) Z threaded tablet Red (#ff0000) Red (#ff0000) White (#ffffff) Red (#ff0000) Z threaded tablet White (#ffffff) Japanese Laurel (#009900) White (#ffffff) White (#ffffff) S threaded tablet Japanese Laurel (#009900) Japanese Laurel (#009900) Japanese Laurel (#009900) Japanese Laurel (#009900) S threaded tablet White (#ffffff) White (#ffffff) Japanese Laurel (#009900) White (#ffffff) S threaded tablet Red (#ff0000) Red (#ff0000) Red (#ff0000) White (#ffffff) S threaded tablet Yellow (#ffff00) Red (#ff0000) White (#ffffff) Red (#ff0000) S threaded tablet Red (#ff0000) White (#ffffff) Red (#ff0000) Red (#ff0000) Z threaded tablet White (#ffffff) White (#ffffff) White (#ffffff) White (#ffffff) Turning: 11F 11F 11F 11F 11F 11F 11F 11F As with all of the free patterns on this site, you are welcome to weave them, sell bands woven using them, and use them to teach other weavers, just as long as you state where you found them.

This pattern was inspired by work done by Shelagh Lewins on a band from the Oseberg ship burial (buried in 834 CE). It's a simple threaded-in pattern and is woven by turning the tablets continuously forwards (or by turning the tablets continuously backwards to work out built up twist). It would make a great selvedge pattern as part of a larger band. This is an easy weave, as the tablet threadings produce the pattern so there's no need to make turning direction changes or keep count of numbers of turns. A perfect pattern to work on if you're new to tablet weaving. You can download the TDD file for this draft by clicking here. The text version of this draft is as follows: Threading: S threaded tablet White (#ffffff) White (#ffffff) White (#ffffff) White (#ffffff) Z threaded tablet White (#ffffff) Red (#ff0000) Red (#ff0000) Red (#ff0000) Z threaded tablet Red (#ff0000) White (#ffffff) Red (#ff0000) Yellow (#ffff00) Z threaded tablet Red (#ff0000) Red (#ff0000) White (#ffffff) Red (#ff0000) Z threaded tablet White (#ffffff) Japanese Laurel (#009900) White (#ffffff) White (#ffffff) S threaded tablet Japanese Laurel (#009900) Japanese Laurel (#009900) Japanese Laurel (#009900) Japanese Laurel (#009900) S threaded tablet White (#ffffff) White (#ffffff) Japanese Laurel (#009900) White (#ffffff) S threaded tablet Red (#ff0000) Red (#ff0000) Red (#ff0000) White (#ffffff) S threaded tablet Yellow (#ffff00) Red (#ff0000) White (#ffffff) Red (#ff0000) S threaded tablet Red (#ff0000) White (#ffffff) Red (#ff0000) Red (#ff0000) Z threaded tablet White (#ffffff) White (#ffffff) White (#ffffff) White (#ffffff) Turning: 11F 11F 11F 11F 11F 11F 11F 11F As with all of the free patterns on this site, you are welcome to weave them, sell bands woven using them, and use them to teach other weavers, just as long as you state where you found them.

As some readers may already know, Tablet Weaving Draft Designer (TDD for short) is a free, browser-based tablet weaving drafting tool, which you can also use offline if you already have it loaded on your device. It's a joint project by my husband, James, and I that we started back in 2015 as a way for me to draft out my tablet weaving ideas more easily. It's changed quite a bit in the intervening years, most significantly over the Christmas holidays of 2020, when James did a full rewrite of the code and we implemented some new features. As part of the rewrite, the draft that TDD generates is now an SVG (scalable vector graphic) image meaning that you can highlight any of the numbers and letters on it with your cursor, should you so desire. We also added new collapsible menus for the Control Panel, as it was getting pretty big and cluttered. In this article, I will walk you through the different tools of TDD and what they do. Before we get started, I want to define a few of the terms and assumptions that TDD uses. Tablets are labelled clockwise from A onwards (as shown above) and the drafts use a tablet starting position with A and whatever the letter of the final label is (this will vary based on the number of holes the tablet has) at the top. For four-holed tablets, it will generate a draft with quarter (90 degree) turns in the threading diagram; for two-holed tablets, it will generate a draft with half (180 degree) turns etc. TDD displays both the threading direction of the tablets, as used by Peter Collingwood (the way the threads pass through the tablet), as the letters S and Z at the bottom of the threading diagram and warp alignment (the way the tablets appear on the warp when viewed from above) as the slant of the ovals within the threading diagram (threading direction and warp alignment are covered in more detail here). Click on the S or Z beneath the column for a tablet to change its threading direction/warp alignment. This will automatically update the turning diagram to match. To change the turning direction for a particular tablet in the turning diagram, click on the square you want to change and it will automatically change all the squares above that point too. The TDD Control Panel has nine sections, but you don't have to use all of them to create your draft if you don't want to; the bare minimum you need is the Controls section at the top and the Palette section further down. Click on the name of each section or the plus symbol next to the name to expand that section of the Control Panel. Click on the name or the minus symbol next to the name to collapse it again. Draft Name Type the name of your draft in the empty box at the top of the Control Panel. This will be the name used for any files or images you save or export. If you leave this empty, TDD will use the file name "draft" instead. Controls Enter the number of picks (rows) you want the turning diagram to have, the number of holes the tablets will have and the number of tablets you want, using a keyboard to fill in the boxes or with the plus and minus buttons on either side of the boxes. You can always change these values later if you need to. TDD will add any extra picks to the top of the turning diagram and any extra tablets to the right of the threading diagram. *New for 2022: you can now lock and unlock the draft using a tick box here. Rulers TDD comes equipped with horizontal and vertical rulers, the position of which can be controlled by entering a value in the text box or by using the plus and minus buttons. The horizontal ruler is particularly helpful if you weave from your computer screen, as you can advance it up the page to help you keep track of your position in the turning diagram. I like to use the vertical ruler to mark the centre of the draft if it is a really wide one with a line of symmetry down the middle. You can also use the vertical ruler to mark the next tablet you need to thread in the threading diagram when you warp your loom. You can enter a minus number for the horizontal ruler position to make it appear in the threading diagram rather than the turning diagram. If you would prefer not to use the rulers, you can remove them by clicking to un-tick their boxes. I always do this before exporting the draft as an image file. Display You can un-tick the Show Threads box to remove the thread ovals from the threading diagram. This is helpful if there's an error in your turning diagram that you can't pin down, as it lets you see the pattern of forward and backward turns more easily. *New for 2022: You can now use the Show Turning Diagram tick box to hide or show the turning diagram. Tick the Show Threading Diagram box to include the threading diagram at the bottom of your draft. If you're generating a large number of drafts that all use the same threading, leaving it out after the first draft will save you some space on your page. If you prefer to mark the points in the turning diagram where the turning direction of a tablet changes, rather than which tablets are turning backward or forward, tick the Show Reversals box to add a red line to the draft at these points. *New for 2022: You can now choose whether the tablets in the draft are labelled clockwise or anti-clockwise. This will also be reflected in the text description for the draft. The Show Text Description box will produce a set of written instructions equivalent to your draft, which will appear below it. The threading diagram is described tablet by tablet, with hexadecimal codes and names (more information about these names is given below) for each of the thread colours, with a list of turning instructions broken into groups of tablets below it. The description below is the text version of the example draft above: Threading: Z threaded tablet Yellow (#ffff00) Flirt (#990099) Yellow (#ffff00) Flirt (#990099) Z threaded tablet Flirt (#990099) Yellow (#ffff00) Flirt (#990099) Yellow (#ffff00) S threaded tablet Flirt (#990099) Yellow (#ffff00) Flirt (#990099) Yellow (#ffff00) S threaded tablet Yellow (#ffff00) Flirt (#990099) Yellow (#ffff00) Flirt (#990099) Turning: 4F 4F 4B 4B 4F 4F 4B 4B The Backwards Turn Saturation slider can be used to increase or decrease the level of contrast of the grey background squares on the turning diagram. If you slide it all the way to the left, you can make the background of all the squares white instead to get a quick preview of what the draft might look like when woven. When I'm creating a draft for weaving double-face, I un-tick the Show Threads tool and set the Backwards Turn Saturation to about 75%, as I'm using the draft to show the placement of the background colour and contrast colour rather than what the individual tablets are doing, but I still want to be able to see the borders of the boxes on the turning diagram. This charting method is also useful in producing drafts for brocaded bands. A simple draft for either brocade or double-face Since the big December re-build, the Visual Scale of the draft can now be used to both increase the size of the draft on your screen and decrease it (if you input a negative number into the box), which is really helpful for getting an overview of very large drafts. Repeats We initially took out this tool during the update, as we weren't happy with the way it was functioning. Now that it's back, it works a bit differently, but it's now no longer possible to use it to generate a band mock-up that won't work when woven. Select the Show Repeats box and TDD will add a mock-up of your band to the right of your draft; it will look the the same as your draft, but all the squares will have white backgrounds and it will be missing any red lines or rulers. Specify which picks you want to be included in your mock-up using the Repeat Start and Repeat End fields and TDD will show you what a band would look like if you repeated that turning sequence using the threading diagram you have input. You can change how many times TDD repeats those picks using the Number of Repeats field. More information about how the Repeats tool works can be found here. Resets Treat the Reset All button with caution! It clears everything away and resets your draft to 1 pick high and 1 4-holed tablet wide at 0 Visual Scale. It's really helpful if you want to start a new draft from scratch, but there's no undo function, so always save your work before using it. *New for 2022: You can now use the Reset Palette button to set the palette back to its default settings, without making any other changes in the draft. The Clear Pattern button will reset your turning diagram to the default, with every square set to forward turn, with no turning reversals, but won't change your threading diagram or the number of picks in it. Palette To change the colours of your threads, click the Foreground Colour you want, then click on the thread you want to change in the threading diagram. If you want that tablet hole to be empty so you can produce a vacant-hole draft, select "None" from the left side of the Palette before clicking on the threading diagram. This will give you an empty box instead of a thread for that tablet hole on the threading and turning diagrams. The numbers underneath the colours in the Palette tell you how many times that colour is used in the threading diagram to make warping for your band easier. The Palette will display a Colour Name for the colour you have selected, taken from an open source java-script library by Chirag Mehta. This colour name is also used in the Text Description below the draft, if you have it turned on. If the colours in the Palette aren't to your preference, you can adjust them by selecting a colour's box and changing it using the Red Green Blue sliders below it. Alternatively, you can enter the RGB values for the shade you want next to the sliders. If the colour you have changed is used in your draft, the draft will be automatically updated with your changes. Export TDD can export images for both your draft and for your pattern repeat mock-up. Fill in the number of pixels wide you want the image to be in the box, then click on any of the three buttons below it to download your image. If, for example, you want your image to be 5cm (2 inches) wide with a resolution of 250dpi, enter 500px in the Export Width box.. TDD can export your draft as an .svg file, a .jpeg file or a .png file. The file name will be the same as the name you gave the draft at the top of the Control Panel. The image will be the same as your draft, so if you have the rulers or red reversal points turned on, they will be included in your exported image. Files One of the big behind-the-scenes changes that we made this past December is the way TDD saves files. Previously, it used the .json format which produced a large amount of coded information, the vast majority of which would be gibberish to the lay-person. The new .tdd files are much shorter and actually resemble your draft if you open one up in a text editor (like Notepad++, Sublime Text, Emacs, Vi, Atom, or any programmers' editor); if you do open one, make sure that you don't accidentally change the file extension or TDD won't be able to open it again. You will still be able to open any of the .json files you previously made using TDD, but you will only be able to save in the new format. We don't intend to remove this capability to open old files, so there's no rush to convert them. When you click the Save button, TDD will download the .tdd file for your draft to your device using the draft name you specified at the top of the Control Panel, in the same way as the Image Export tool. Clicking the Choose File button will open an Open File dialogue box. The text below is the contents of the save file for the example draft above. //\\ //\\ \\// \\// //\\ //\\ \\// \\// 7997 9779 7997 9779 ZZSS 0 - #ffffff 1 - #000000 2 - #ff0000 3 - #009900 4 - #0000ff 5 - #dddddd 6 - #999999 7 - #ffff00 8 - #00ffff 9 - #990099 a - #ff8800 b - #ff8888 We will be continuing to add to TDD's features over time to support a wider range of drafting styles and I'll publish information about any changes on my blog as we make them. If you have any suggestions for new features, you can leave them at my blog or on Github, where you can also view TDD's code, but keep in mind that TDD is a project that we work on in our spare time, so it may take a while for them to be implemented. I hope this tutorial has been instructive and inspires you in creating your own drafts.

Sometimes, choosing colors can be a place to get stuck before you even get started. How do you choose? How do you know which colors will go...

The snowflake twill warp is now off the loom and complete. I feel very pleased with how they turned out. There were two scarves but I'm only showing you one today. If I showed you both, then one would be your favourite and I think they both are lovely and deserve equal billing. This one is the brash, louder version. The "show off" if you like.... The warp is the new ecru shade of 8/2 tencel at Web's, sett 24 epi and despite the complexity of the pattern, its only eight shafts and eight treadles. The weft is 8/2 tencel in silver. In the picture above, it almost looks like it has a touch of blue to it. While weaving it I was amazed at how blue it did look... almost a wedgwood blue. That was indoors in warm lighting and outdoors, it turns silver. Its a twill progression, with point twill in-between and on the borders. The first I saw of this design it was being used by Jane Evans and Gudrun Weisinger and I fell in love with it. You can find the design in Weavers Magazine, or in their compilation "Twill Thrills". I modified the draft to fit my scarf dimensions. If this sort of twill is something that you like and want to learn more you can find information in: Weavers magazine issues 13 and 18 ( and maybe more! ) For those of you with access to older copies as its now out of print. An older post of mine here (have you checked out Topic Shopping above?) Heddle Craft is a new online weaving publication by Robyn Spady, which features twill progressions, or advancing twills as come call it in her first issue. Check it out! Twill Thrills and Madelyn van der Hoogt's Complete Book of Drafting for Handweavers I have woven many many projects of snow flake twill over the years and so now have the treadling run embedded in my brain. I don't need a cheat sheet any longer. It does seem like I must work to keep my attention on the task at hand though! Have you ever driven a car and got to your destination and then realize that you can't recall how you got there? You did it on "cruise control" of the brain? I did that with weaving this time. I was saying the twill runs out loud and had a good pace going.... and then I zoned out (or zen as some weavers like to say). When I came to again by repeating some numbers which to my zenned brain were too soon to be repeated again, I stopped and really looked down at the cloth. It was quite something and none of it resembled a snowflake or even twill. OOPs..... I had to cut the weft out as I would have to step on almost every treadle, every time to find the right one. Sadly I forgot to take a picture. I can't recommend weaving on autopilot unless you have a dobby loom. So this scarf measures 8 inches by 76 inches and has a long delicate fringe. Next time.... its quieter cousin ......and a visit by a genuine antique.

Recently, I've been doing some fast weaving to build up my inventory of guitar straps. It is fun for me to line them all up and compare and contrast designs. Hopefully, you will enjoy seeing them, too. The pattern drafts are included so that you can use them to help design your own bands. I ask that you don't copy any EXACTLY, as I assure my customers that these are one of-a-kind designs. All are 2" wide and mostly use my favorite sport weight cotton. In some cases, heavier or thinner yarns were also used. FOR SIMPLICITY OF USE, CONSIDER THE TOP ROW TO BE HEDDLED THREADS AND THE BOTTOM ROW TO BE OPEN THREADS ON ALL OF THE DRAFTS. In the one above, I experimented with using the yarns doubled to produce a thicker band. For more pattern drafts, check out these other blog posts: http://aspinnerweaver.blogspot.com/p/pattern-drafts.html

Telar de Tablillas o Card Weaving ... Y Otros Menesteres

In 2013 I saw a picture of this band and its draft by Ms. Ursel Studemann in an old issue (Fall 2003) of TWIST. I’ve woven it using cotton thread n. 20/5 in two different shades of blue for the c...