profile drafts | Tien Chiu's Blog

April 14, 2011 by Tien Chiu

Beyond pattern and background

Yesterday I was reading up on profile and drafts and blocks, and started wondering what would happen if you used more than two structures in the profile draft. Obviously you wouldn’t be able to use weaving software to handle it, since weaving software only gives you two choices (black or white), but I thought the idea was intriguing enough to investigate. Lo and behold, it is totally possible to use more than two structures, and while the resulting profile “drawdown” needs to be generated manually, this is not too difficult if you use Photoshop to copy and paste each line of the “treadling” sequence. Then you can use block substitution in weaving software to generate the draft.

This is sufficiently interesting that I may submit it as a Complex Weavers 2012 Seminars teaching proposal…I think there is enough “meat” there to do a two-hour seminar (at least!). That means I need to do some more investigation before submitting the proposal (deadline May 15) – basically a “proof-of-concept” that the method works and is interesting enough to warrant further discussion. The primary hurdle I’m running across is selecting the structures – ideally, they need to have “clean” interfaces, and that is proving tricky. So I will have to explore things further before writing up any proposal.

Meanwhile, my to-do list is piling up. I am currently committed to:

Finish, write up, and ship Kodachrome to Handwoven
Write five articles for Handwoven
Put together a class (or three) for Weavolution
2 sets of samples for Complex Weavers Study Groups

and have the following other projects in the queue:

Update website with Kodachrome, doubleweave shawl pages
Revamp weaving section of website
Fix mangle
Devore sampler
Finish and document cross-dyeing samples
Put together and experiment with silk-screening, stamping, and stenciling fabrics

Ten projects is way too many, so I think I will break it up into an immediate to-do list, and a “backlog” of things that I’d like to get to sometime, but which aren’t urgent (like fixing the mangle).

Today the yarn for the devore samples arrives! so I will start warping up tonight. It’s been a tough week generally (one of my uncles passed away on Tuesday), so I need something to cheer me up. I will be flying out to Maryland next weekend for his memorial service.

May 15, 2010 by Tien Chiu

Profile draft

I’ve finally settled on a profile draft that I think I like:

profile draft for doubleweave shawl

It’s got enough visual complexity to be interesting (yes, I know, I like things maybe a little too complicated, but since I’m the creator I get to do whatever I want 🙂 ), while retaining a pleasing symmetry. I don’t know yet how “treadling” variations will come out, but I’m not convinced it matters for what I want to accomplish. I may very well weave all three shawls using the same profile draft – there are so many other variables that keeping the same overall pattern is probably not a bad idea.

Here are some of the things I want to tweak:

which yarns show on top (some parts with warp A and weft A on top, other areas with warp B and weft B showing, A and B, B and A – you get the idea)
colors – I’m thinking one with yellow and green wefts, one with all black, and one with a single weft gradually shading between fuchsia and turquoise, or maybe even two wefts gradually shading to fuchsia to turquoise, but in different directions. (The latter sounds too complex to be visually appealing, but I can’t visualize what it would look like, so I gotta try it!)
layer interchange – whether the interchanges are “clean” or whether there are sections of stitched doubleweave. There’s an additional option of having them weave single-layered cloth for portions, but I’m not sure whether I can do that attractively in this draft, so I may just do it in samples.
different weave structures on top and bottom – 1/3 twill on top and 2/2 twill on bottom, for example, for a totally different look on the back

And here are some of the computer drafting techniques I want to try:

Block substitution using a profile draft
Pat’s technique – using Photoshop to create a drawdown, and the “Fabric Analysis” tool in Fiberworks PCW to render it into a draft
Using Photoshop and Alice Schlein/Bhakti Ziek’s technique for using presets to design the liftplan
Inventing techniques to simulate four-color doubleweave in Photoshop, starting from a profile draft

Whew! That’s a lot to get done, especially right before the wedding – but then, unlike the wedding dress, I don’t actually have to finish this before the wedding, so no time pressure.

Today I’m going to dye the yarn, which I wound into skeins yesterday on my new Crazy Monkey triple-skein electric skeinwinder. (The skeinwinder, incidentally, works beautifully and I enthusiastically recommend it to anyone considering buying one – fast, quiet, and very well-designed.) Then I’m going to tapestry lessons at 10am, and if the skeins are dry when I get back, I’ll start winding them onto cones for beaming-on.

Wedding-wise, my goal for the weekend is to finalize the ceremony structure (so the wedding programs can be printed) and to start selecting ceremony music. I think the only music that really matters is the processional and the recessional, for the rest I can give general instructions to the harpist and leave it there.

December 29, 2009 by Tien Chiu

Chicago, Convergence, and profile drafts

Today I am flying to Chicago, where I will be spending several days with Mike’s family before flying home to California. Because of the airport “security crackdown” (which I think is laughable, but let’s not go there), we’re going to the airport earlier than usual. Since the Funky Hat is already finished, that means working on one of the pairs of socks I brought along. So stay tuned for pictures!

Yesterday I had the pleasure of meeting up with a couple of VERY experienced weavers and seeing their work (gorgeous!). We were chatting along (poor Mike sitting very tolerantly off to the side with his computer, since he has very little interest in weaving) and one of the things that came up was the Convergence Fashion Show. Apparently the models wear fairly heavy makeup, with the result that some weavers who have sent in white garments have had them come back with makeup smeared on them(!). So I am rethinking the idea of sending my wedding dress to Convergence. If it came back with someone else’s makeup on it, I would go ballistic (not to mention being heartbroken!). Between that and the fact that I would have to work night and day for the next month and a half to make the Convergence entry date, I’m thinking that this year’s Convergence is not in the cards. Two years from now I may be less emotionally attached to the dress, and willing to risk it. This year, even after the wedding, I am not.

So I will probably not enter the dress, though I may enter some of the “extra” yardage if I have any. I will bring the dress to the Complex Weavers fashion show, though.

And, finally, an interesting question about profile drafts. I have been doing a little bit of weaving study while on vacation, mostly centered around profile drafts and block substitution, and think I have wrapped my head more or less around the concept. However, I’m wondering about terminology, since I have no references with me. Is it still considered a profile draft if there are more than two patterns, and if so how is that indicated in the “tie-up” of the profile draft? (I know it’s not actually a tie-up, but I can’t think of a better word for it.)

Here’s a couple of .jpgs of what I mean:

A simple profile draft

The profile draft interpreted in two 4-shaft twills

The same profile draft interpreted in three structures

I’m certain that this is not unique (surely those complex overshot patterns use more than two patterns!), but is it still called an interpretation of a profile draft, and if so how are the different patterns indicated in the “tie-up”? I’m sure this would be an easy question to answer if I were at home and had my references, but I don’t.

I’ve uploaded the .wif files in a zip archive, or you can see the profile draft and the three-structure interpretation .wifs on Weavolution.