Tag: weaving

SeiZenn – Brocade

Hi

For Christmas, I received “The weaver’s Inkle Pattern Directory” by Anne Dixon. In this great book, she presents lot of different technics.

Many patterns from this book can be reproduced with SeiZenn. One of the last add is krokbragd button :

Some technics would be very difficult to add to SeiZenn, and for, I think, a limited benefit. For example fringes (page 154) or pleating (page 130).

I thought it could be interesting to add an inlay mode to create brocade (page 138).

 

With this mode selected, you just click on the pattern to draw brocade pattern

 

It comes with a few tools :

 

 

 

SeiZenn – tablet pattern editor – twists and chunks

Hi
There are a few improvements in the tablet editor

Twist counter

First a twist counter that you can activate on “display panel”
At the top, display when there are too many twits, backward or frontward
For twist neutral, or almost, it display number of turns

Reference line

Second, a reference line.
Using right click on line numbers you can add “reference line”
It adds a blue mark for the reference line, and cyans marks for all line that are same as reference

Chunk viewer

Third a chunk viewer.

     => 

A pattern can be cut into chunks :

– with right click on border as marks
– using the marks (scissors “cut on marks” )
You can then choose the chunk you want to see. You can add chunk, join the present one with the next one, duplicate the present chunk.
The threading is only visible on the first chunk
The reference is the last row of the first chunk. On the different chunks (apart from first), the reference line is shown at the top.
The end of the chunk “should” be the same as the reference line so that the different chunk could be woven in anyorder. If it is OK, the square is black, otherwise it is red

The twist counter only take into account the present chunk.
As an example, I reproduced a pattern from the great book  “tablets at work” by Claudia Wollny, p406  https://www.claudia-wollny-edition.com/en/tablets-at-work.html
You can choose the chunk you want to see

SeiZenn – Krokbragd, right clic and threading notes

Hi

A few improvement for the SeiZenn inkle tool.

Right click

I was asked about the possibility of adding a thread inside a pattern. Until now it was only possible to add new threads to the right of the pattern with “width” parameter

So we had to play with the buttons

to be able to add the thread in the right place.

It is now possible to right-click to add or remove one or two threads where you want in the pattern.

This function takes into account the “symetry” option.

Turned Krokbragd

Joan Sheridan explains in this video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xtAxaL0S8BU)  how to do turned Krokbragd on the inkle loom.

That kind of pattern can be done in SeiZenn with duals

I added some functions to make it easier to create this type of pattern. From a pattern,   

 

add a double color on the bottom row with “dual half threads” button

we obtain (it uses the selected color for all the duals) :

You must then indicate that you use the double color every other row. Rather than doing it by hand by clicking on the lines concerned, you can use

We obtain

You can then adjust dual colors as you like

 

Threading notes

I slightly improved the function for generating a threading document which was accessible with the button “create instruction note” in the “load, save, export” menu  

Now this button generates a PDF document.

 

(in this example, you need to verify the grid start and end values to be able to see the grid view)

Jeff

New looms

Hi

during summer I built two new looms.

First, a new stand for tablet weaving. It looks like the one on page https://www.raktres.net/blog/2022/08/10/tissage-aux-cartes/

Raktres.net stand loom with pattern from https://www.raktres.net/seizenn

 

The second is a bit more complex. It is a vertical loom with 4-shaft for baltic bands.

 

4-shaft loom with pattern from https://www.raktres.net/seizenn

Double sided 3 color pattern with rigid heddle

From Flaab I also bought a small rigid heddle. Back home, I wanted to try it on my weighted frame and chose to experiment 3 color patterns from Annie MacHale (https://www.taprootvideo.com/preview_class.jsf?iid=12&cid=2)

As the heddle is quite narrow,  31 threads, some modifications were needed. The first idea was

I then decided to modify it to get a 3 color pattern on both sides (and changed border threads)

Modifications are very simple and not obvious with a white weft. To show them, here is the pattern with a red weft.

Everytime I pick up a thread, I drop the right next one. Very easy to do (that was my first 3color band) and result is nice.

Here is a picture of the setup

The two faces of the band.

Tissage aux cartes

Bonjour

Petite pause estivale.

J’ai commandé auprès de Flaab des cartes de tissage en bois que je recommande vivement.

Pour les utiliser partout, j’ai construit un petit chevalet qui peux être utilisé seul

ou avec une ceinture.

Les poids sont faits avec des boulons de roue de voiture (80g) enveloppés dans des petits sacs en tissus.

J’ai choisi un motif simple assorti avec le lieu.

 

A few improvements for this new year

Hi

For this new year I present to you some small improvements for Seizenn.

Lists of patterns

When you save a pattern, it is by default visible for everyone in the public list. It’s now possible to make it private using the “restrict” button in you private list.

Loom colors

You can have colors in your «loom palette» that are not used in your pattern. Now those colors are bordered with brown like this :

Rigid heddle pattern

In loom editor you can load default pattern for some popular rigid heddle

You then get

New tools

Seizenn was first designed for plain weave or baltik bands. I then added a grid tool. I recently wanted to explore some other weaving technics.

Now you have two new tools.

The first one to draw heddle loom patterns

https://www.raktres.net/seizenn/#/heddle

A second one to draw tablet patterns

https://www.raktres.net/seizenn/#/tablet

Those tools are very simple, I mainly created them to undestand how those kinds of pattern work. They reuse main principles of seizenn, and I just added a few new things like right-click menu in tablet tool.

I could improve them if they would be useful for someone.

Jeff

Extract colors from a picture

Hi

In Celebration of plain weave (page 27) Annie MacHale explains how to extract colors from a picture to create a color palette.

I tried to add a basic function like this in Seizenn. (https://www.raktres.net/seizenn/).

Open the Palette tool and go down the page to

You first need to load a picture. You can get a random picture from unsplash.com with  or load your own picture with . If you use Seizenn on a smartphone, you can get access to your camera !

For example, with a random picture, you can get :

Then Seizen use two different algorithms to extract colors from this picture :

With the first button, you take all those colors to create a new main palette

But it could be tricky to find yarns with the wanted colors. So instead of getting all the colors in a new color palette, use the second button.

Imagine that you use this main palette (the default one) and that you have all those colors at home

When you click on the “filter” button, Seizenn will try to find de nearest colors in your main palette that will fit the colors from the picture. You then get

(Sometimes, if main palette quite poor, it chooses colors that doesn’t seem to be very relevant)

Clic on “Add colors…” to get those colors in your loom palette and remove colors you don’t want to use.

You are now ready to design a pattern inspired by your picture

Link to the pattern : https://www.raktres.net/seizenn/?sc=Fa8

Maybe not the perfect tool, but a first try to see if it would be useful for someone.

Jeff

 

Seizenn interface evolutions – text buttons

Hi

The first version of seizenn (https://www.raktres.net/seizenn/editor.html) was created to work on desktop computers. When I began v2, I wanted it to work both on desktop and mobile devices and not to limit it to English speakers. I thought icons should help me for that two goals.

I received feedbacks saying the new interface was too disturbing.

As I continue to learn new programming things, I’m now able to adapt the new interface https://www.raktres.net/seizenn/

Now on top right of the screen there is a new menu :

  • the broken chain only appears when you are offline
  • clic on the icon with the profile to log. It’s red when you are not connected.
  • the third one shows if seizenn detect a desktop or a mobile device.
  • with the first checkbox, you choose if you want menu on the left of the screen or at the top
  • with the second checkbox you choose if you want to use icon or text button
  • use the selector to change language.

As an example, with the icon/text checkbox you can choose between

  or

When you open Seizenn on a desktop, the tool uses text button on the left by default. On a mobile device, it uses icons on top. You can change as you want.

You may notice that I now use the new link https://www.raktres.net/seizenn/ for the new version in replacement of https://www.raktres.net/seizenn/v2/. The old version remains available on https://www.raktres.net/seizenn/editor.html

I hope those new evolution will help you.

Jeff

 

A new way to register patterns

Hi

From the start, the method of saving and registering pattern was a bit clumsy.
You had to save the pattern in Seizenn’s screen, get two codes and then go and register it in the blog. It was the only way I had found to be able to assign a pattern to an author with a very simple Seizenn tool and without an authentication system (https://www.raktres.net/blog/2018/10/06/display-your-patterns-in-the-gallery/)

The new version of Seizenn ( https://www.raktres.net/seizenn/) allows me to develop much more efficient functions, for example a new way to save and share patterns.

First you log in the tool.

For that, open the main menu with and choose the  menu.

Type in the username and the password you use on the blog.

When it’s done, a little character appears at the top right of the screen. You are connected.

If you then save a pattern with the    button, you only get the shortcode to your pattern :

Go to the gallery page from the main menu.

The screen is devided into two parts, “List of public patterns” and “List of your patterns”. Click on the title to open the panel you want to open and click on “load” to refresh the list.

Your pattern should now be visible :

I will now work on improving personal page and gallery screen, adding functions, improving the interface.

Do not hesitate to leave a comment if you have any remarks or proposals.