Design for Weave

 I have attended several courses on Design and even a couple of courses on Design for Weave but I do not seem to get anywhere. This is nothing to do with the tutors but just that I find nothing in them to change/improve the way I work. I was complaining about this to Dorothy who replied in her usual way that I seem to produce nice stuff. I thought about that and realised that well yes, not bad getting fabric into the Convergence yardage show. But then Convergence always has a theme. Is there a clue there. So I thought a bit more.

I concluded that I get on best when there is a theme. For instance the theme for The Guild`s forthcoming exhibition is THE SEA. And it did not take me very long to decide what to do. 

So I looked at the. Web and found a firm called John England who design and weave a fabric for you and they outline the way they approach designing. The first topic is to choose yarn. Now that really surprised me but they have another 5 or 6 topics.

.

Now I have a lot of nice yarn to be used up. So there are two approaches.   

Select a theme

OR

Select a yarn

Or

Select the final use of fabric

After finishing Daryl striped fabric for a waistcoat (currenly the warp is waiting to be wound on,, I need something for the Guild exhibition whose theme is the SEA. Four colour double weave? I have a 32 shaft draft for such a fabric which was woven in 60/2 silk. I have given all my 60/2 silk to my niece, Cally Booker because my eyesight is not up to dealing with a fabric woven at 60 epi. So I will use colours in 30/2 yarn. Need to size fabric to use what I have already. Suitable colours for THE SEA are needed and I have blue,  green and somewhere in between. I need four colours and the weft. May have to buy some yarn. Start by looking at what I have. Actually this uses two out of the three startpoints.

I feel happier for writing this all down. So conclusion? Do not go to any more classes on design for weaving. And write up how I got to the final fabric each time I weave a piece.

I would be very interested in how other people actually selecct the draft and the yarn.