Computers and Weaving Redux

Many operating systems ago I was working on a Master's degree in Craft Design at Iowa State University and my focus was on computers and the handweaving process. There were lots of little computers on the market and lots of little homemade programs that generated drawdowns. I worked with an Apple IIe computer and a program marketed by AVL Looms. I also worked with a program on an Atari computer that ran an interface with a Macomber Loom in the weaving studio at my university. (Remember Atari computers? They weren't just for gaming back then!)

The summer before I graduated I wrote an article for The Weaver's Journal about designing from a motif and generating a drawdown from the fabric analysis functions available. The drawdown was a design for block weaving and the great wealth of threadings to pick from based on the block schematic. I thought I would share that article with you all. It was published in the Spring 1987 issue of that magazine if you still have it stashed away somewhere.

Also, I scanned the slides I made of the weaving I did as research for this article:










Next up: I will be exploring fabric analysis using my new weaving software, Pixeloom. I will be comparing how this new program approaches the same schoolhouse motif. Also, I think I'll dip a bit into the importing graphics feature of the program as well. I like a challenge....

[FYI: Turns out the only way I could figure out how to post the PDF of this article in Blogger was to find an outside host for it. Apparently Google Docs doesn't do PDF's either. But the Blogger Help forum directed me to Scribd, which is hosting my article for free! Just click on the link below, which will take you to Scribd and you can read the article there, or email it, or download it. Whatever!]
Schoolhouse

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