Design Process
I often get the question, “How long did that take to make?” in regard to woven items. I confess I haven’t kept very good records in the past. There are nine major parts of the process: Designing, Measuring, Warping, Threading, Sleying, Winding, Tieing, Weaving, and Finishing. The actual act of sitting at the loom, throwing the shuttle, and beating the fell — the actual making of the cloth — is often the shortest part.
My design process looks a lot like this:
Thinking.
Sketching.
Contemplating.
I jot weaving ideas down everywhere.
This is a chart of rosepath ideas in my date book.
Calculating.
Some of the calculations you need to make:
Yarn grist (how fat is your yarn)
Finished cloth sett (how dense do you want your cloth to be?)
Warp length (loom waste + sampling + finished project)
Warp width / cloth density = ends per inch (how many warp threads do you need?)
Weft length (warp width + 10% x number of weft picks per inch x number of inches in total project and samples)
Numbers, numbers, numbers . . .
Recalculating.
Starting over.
Contemplating.
Thinking.
With all the thinking and math figured out, it’s time to wind the warp!