For the Wandering Vine Coverlet, I decided I needed some weaving software a bit more robust than iWeaveIt on the iPad, one that would let me design borders, visualize the whole thing, and print out threading and treadle tables for the big loom.
The screenshot above shows Davison's Wandering Vine draft rendered in Fiberworks software, which I can use on my "big computer." It offers a bit more functionality than the iPad. Although I manually wrote out threading tables for several different wandering vine patterns, it became overwhelming to do it for a 36-inch panel at 24 epi. It was too easy to get lost ... I shuddered at the thought of having to re-thread all of that if I made a mistake in my calculations. The software is a little clunky, but since we lived through the 1990s, there's something familiar about it.
Thank you to my husband who helped to map this out, and adjust the borders at the sides top and bottom so that they finish with a more pleasing vine. And to figure out a suitable overlap for where the panels will come together in the middle. This pattern also took a bit more mental gymnastics to figure out how the panels would come together. We kept it as simple as possible.
Doesn't it look nice and tidy?
Yup -- This is what I've spent weeks winding on a 12-yard sectional warp. And it will be several more weeks before I can start weaving. Now it's on to threading nearly 900 heddles.
Using the sectional warp is a whole new thing for me because you warp the loom back to front. It's supposed to be a revelation for keeping even tension. Up until now, I always warped front to back, using the reed as a comb and raddle to keep the threads in line. I am more than a little worried about threading the reed last and having crossed threads ... I will wrestle with that when I get to that step.
