Hi all,

I've been playing around with woven shibori (http://www.tienchiu.com/2010/10/woven-shibori-wowza/ has my most recent samples) and am wondering what is the best way to interleave in Fiberworks PCW at more than a 4:1 ratio.  So far I've been designing my cloth with a tie every fourth thread, by interleaving the liftplan for the ties with the liftplan for the cloth at a 4:1 ratio, and simply deleting the extra ties when needed.  (4:1 is the upper limit for interleaving using Fiberworks PCW.)  However, with 2000 thread repeats, this is starting to get a bit time-consuming.  Is there a better way of doing it in Fiberworks PCW? and if not, is there weaving software out there that will let you interleave threading/treadling at an arbitrary ratio?

Tien

Comments

Sat, 11/06/2010 - 02:25

Bonnie Inouye (not verified)

Tien, this same question came up on WeaveTech some months ago. That person wanted to weave 1 or 2 picks of pulling thread and then 8 picks of ground cloth, I think. WeaveIt offers interleave ratios of a to b where both a and b can be integers from 1 to 20. WeavePoint has 1 to N which is from 1 to 99. I requested more options from PCW and they want to do this in a future version I did find a way to do it in PCW but it wasn't straight-forward. I sent it to WeaveTech. Will see if I can find it on my computer again, but I have tons to do in the next 24 hours.

I think I opened up a blank pick every 8 or as needed, then created one for the remaining picks. I used transparent paste to place the pulling threads into the blank parts of the liftplan. Transparent paste is a nice tool. I needed 2:8 for my honeycomb pieces, but the outliner threads had an easy design and I could create the design with spaces using PCW tools.

Hope this helps. Bonnie

Sat, 11/06/2010 - 03:43

tien (not verified)

I searched my archives (Gmail is so wonderful!) and found your email.  The method is indeed complex, and I'm not sure if it will work for nonrepeating designs (it looks like you were doing it using an advancing twill, for which you could simply repeat a pattern).  But I will give it a try...

Marg Coe also came up with an interesting method using pattern presets in Photoshop - again, works best with relatively simple patterns, but also worth exploring.

I think in the long run I will probably invest in other weaving software (if I stick with woven shibori), but your method and Marg's will help in the interim.

Thanks!!!

Tien

Sun, 11/07/2010 - 03:26

Bonnie Inouye (not verified)

Tien, the method I used isn't restricted to advancing twills by any means, but for longish drafts it is restricted to sequences that can be generated using software tools. I had a sequence of outliner threads for the honeycomb that made a point design, longer on one leg than the other. I advanced that sequence by some number greater than 1, to get a progression of points. Then I added to the last one, selected that, and made it move the other direction (decreasing by some number) for a while, etc. I use this technique or variations of it fairly often as it allows me to "draw" a design line at a large scale. I posted some photos of this honeycomb on my Facebook page in a Weaving folder.

But I do have WeavePoint, and after proving that I could make PCW do this, I used WeavePoint for the rest of my honeycomb drafts. WeavePoint's current version has thread thickness and yarn information.  It will also make more than 2 parallel lines from one.

Bonnie

Tue, 11/09/2010 - 14:26

tien (not verified)

Thanks for describing your technique...and that honeycomb is NEAT!  I will take that off and think about what (if anything) I can do with it on my current warp, which is threaded up on a point threading.  I'm worried about the length of the floats at the reversals...

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