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Simple pictures are best

Simple Pictures book

About a million years ago when I taught preschool, I remember reading this book to the kids. I was surprised to see that I’d used this same photo back in 2012, and that I’d commented then that I often forget this lesson. Well, I forgot it once again.

Back in August I hand painted a silk warp that has sat there ever since, waiting for me to get to it. It’s another skein vs. warp dye job, this time reverting to the coral & turquoise I’ve done before, although a bit more muted than on the tencel I’ve done. I decided now is the time to weave this piece. I’m loving it going on the back beam.

beaming coral & turquoise silk

I had a draft planned on my computer.

lace dots weave draft

I was prepared to start threading, and then I realized that because of the width of my warp and the design of this draft, I’d have to move 120+ heddles on my loom. Not a fun job. So I came back to the computer and tried my colors and width in one draft after another. Spent over an hour doing this. Ended up rejecting them all.

“Simple pictures are best,” I said to myself. But how would I deal with all those heddles?

I spent a bit of time looking more carefully at the draft. Wait a minute! Shafts 5 & 6 don’t weave lace, so clearly I can modify the draft to spread the tabby heddles over 4 shafts instead of just 2.

I had a few false starts on this, and spent probably 90 minutes getting the draft fully designed. Much better; I’ll only need to move a few heddles to accomplish this. Whew!

lace dots 2 weave draft

I wonder how many more times I’ll have to re-learn this same lesson about simple pictures. I’m guessing many.

I’m going to start threading now.

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