Getting started

What a draft is, and how to make your first pattern.

A weaving draft is the plan for a cloth. It has four parts, laid out the way weavers have drawn them for centuries:

• [[threading|Threading]] (top): which shaft each warp thread (end) goes through.
• [[tieup|Tie-up]] (top right): which shafts each treadle lifts.
• [[treadling|Treadling]] (right): which treadle you press for each weft thread (pick).
• [[drawdown|Drawdown]] (the big grid): the cloth they make, worked out for you as you go.

Your first pattern

1. Choose New in the pattern settings for empty grids, or start from the twill that opens the first time.
2. Click boxes in the threading to put each end on a shaft. Try Straight draw in the bar above the draft and drag along the threading to fill it 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4…
3. Click boxes in the tie-up to choose which shafts each treadle lifts.
4. Click a box in each row of the treadling to choose the treadle for that pick.
5. Watch the drawdown change. Click any square in it to see exactly why it is warp or weft.
6. Change the colours by clicking the colour strips along the top and right of the draft.
7. Choose Save to keep it in this browser, or Export to download it.

Try it in Weave Patterner