Author: Jeff

SeiZenn – tablet pattern editor – twits and chunks

Posted on by Jeff
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

Posted on by Jeff

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

Baltic grid mode

Posted on by Jeff

Simple idea may take time to emerge.

Baltic grid mode presentation

Up to now, in Seizenn, there were two ways to draw a baltic pattern.

1) In the mode “ Edit an inkle loom pattern”, you can play with pickups and drops thread by thread. I will refer to this as the “realistic tool”.

2) In the mode “Edit a square pattern” you can create a grid (or block) chart. I will refer to this as the “Baltic grid” mode.

Grid charts are more common for Baltic pickup patterns, but they do not give a realistic preview of what the resulting band will look like.

As both are useful, I was asked several times to be able to switch from one to the other and back. I was quite reluctant because it would have been very difficult to program and it would have work in very few cases. The two tools work a very different way, you can draw pattern in one tool that would be impossible to create with the other (three color pattern, carpet pattern etc).

With the experience of what I did with tablet weaving tool (sulewasi mode), I tried an other way to fulfill the need, far simpler.

In the realistic tool, in the “Edit Mode” panel I just added a feature that allows you to select “baltic grid”. It will not work for 3-color pickup patterns, it’s just for simple 2-color baltic patterns.

For a 5 min video => https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQToadxlWv8

When you select it, you switch from

to    

 

Grid parameters

To use this mode, you need to adjust where the baltic grid begins on the left and where it ends on the right.

In the threading pattern, you see the first blue dot is done with the 11th thread, and the last one is done with 29th thread

When you select “baltic grid”, new options become available in the “display options” panel.

In this panel, where it says “Threads” set the “first” and “last” values, 11 and 29 in this example.

Grid use

You can then click on the grid to create your pattern

If you leave the “baltic mode”, you can see the result

In the “Display Option” panel you can also adjust opacity of the grid with the “baltic visibility” slider.

If you create a picture while you are in “baltic grid”, the grid pattern will be visible. Thus you can choose the pattern representation you want during weaving.

When you use   or Sunna Heddle pattern, first and last parameters are set automatically.

Selection tool

In the “Edit Mode” panel,  when you select “baltic grid” mode, a “selection tools” checkbox appears. If you check this function, new buttons appear.

You can then select an area on the grid with you mouse. The area is surrounded with dashed blue and yellow line.

When an area is selected, you can act on it using the different buttons. For example you can flip it horizontally.

You can also copy and paste an area. With this selection, click on “selection copy”

 

Animation showing copy and paste

Use clipboard to copy pattern from square tool

you may notice that a representation of the selected area appears on the tool panel.

You can then select the up-left point of the place you where you want to paste the pattern.

 

Then click on “selection paste”, you then get :

 

Animation showing how to copy a pattern from square tool.

Conclusion

There are limitations. For example it may not work if you have two baltic patterns side by side on the same band with a plain weave gap between the two. When you save a pattern, grid position is not saved. Of course will not work for 3-color patterns.

Hope this new mode will help you.

 

Double sided 3 color pattern with rigid heddle

Posted on by Jeff

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

Posted on by Jeff

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.

 

New way to locally save pattern

Posted on by Jeff

Hi

In a previous post https://www.raktres.net/blog/2022/01/28/sharing-patterns/  I explained how to share patterns.

Since this post, I added a way to locally save patterns on your computer. You can use it to save you drafts in “inkle” and “grid” tools. I will think about adding this function to “heddle” and “tablet” tools.

In the «Load, Save, Export» left menu, there is now a button to save your patterns on your computer.

The saved patterns appear at the bottom of the pattern page

Don’t forget to share some patterns from time to time to show your work.

A few improvements

Posted on by Jeff

First, I was asked to add a some keyboard shorcuts to the grid tool. It’s now much more efficient if you use a lot the selection tools.

 

I also added some visual helps to the realistic tool.

On the left threading description, a red line show the middle of the band.

 

In the display panel, there are two new options.

 

First the ability to show row numbers. 

In fact, this option not only show row numbers but also heddle thread number.

With the «vertical guide» option you can add vertical lines to you pattern display. You can choose between no line, just a line on the middle or a red line on the middle and a blue line every 4 thread.

 

Last modification, on the weaving ruler you now have information of the picks, drops and dual colors of the previous row.

Here :

  • the dual color is used for heddle threads 2,3, 11, 21, 29 and 30
  • on the previous row, it was the open threads 3, 4, 7, 11 etc
  • the thread between heddle threads 5 and 6 is picked up
  • the heddle thread 7 was picked up during the previous row.
  • …

Stoorstalka heddles

Posted on by Jeff

Seizenn offers facilities for creating patterns for stoorstalka rigid heddles.

The pattern presented here are mainly taken from the stoorstalka sets available on the site https://shop.stoorstalka.com/en/products/handicrafting-diy/yarn/weaving/

We first choose a common color palette for the Nordic patterns. In the palette creation tool , let choose palette “30”.

Then we will open the tool for “realistic” patterns

 

In the left menu, go to the “load, Save, Export” submenu. There is a drop-down list with the different heddle models. Just choose a pattern and click on the “heddle pattern” button.

The models available are basic, sigga and sunna. By default the models use the first colors of the palette.

Basic Pattern

Basic heddle is for simple plain weave band. 4 size are available corresponding to the total number of threads : 31, 63, 103, 131.

For “basic 31” you get this default pattern.

You can then modify it to get, for exemple (beginner-level-1/weavekit-basic-vardag-red) ,

Sigga Pattern

Sigga heddle are for dual color float pattern. There are three sizes , 8, 16, 24, corresponding to the number of floating threads.

The Sigga 8 default pattern looks like  

You note that there are 8 green dual color floating thread. Pattern is 35 threads wide and 8 threads have dual colors.

Using the dual color mode and the pickup mode you can get a pattern like (https://woolery.com/stoorstalka-band-weaving-kit-advanced.html)

Sunna

Sunna heddle is for pickup pattern (baltic). 4 sizes are available, 5, 7, 9, 13 corresponding to the number of pickup dots, the width of the pattern. Sunna 5 pattern has a total of 37 threads.

The Sunna 5 default pattern in seizenn is

You can modify it according to https://shop.stoorstalka.com/en/products/handicrafting-diy/yarn/weaving/band-weaving-kit/professional-level-3/weavekit-professional-yellow-red.html  using the pickup tool.

You could also use the grid tool to create you pattern

Application

This is a personnal project using Sunna 13 heddle. I didn’t use all the border holes.

Starting from default Sunna 5 pattern, you can do this in Seizenn by removing threads and using arrow buttons to move threads and patterns.

Sharing patterns

Posted on by Jeff

Hi

Following some recent exchanges, it seems important to me to clarify certain points concerning the registration of patterns with Seizenn.

The different tools work in much the same way, what is explained here is as valid for realistic patterns, grid patterns, card weaving patterns or heddle.

Share a pattern

In the “Load, Save, Export” menu there is the button   (or depending on your choice). Until now the accompanying text was “save”. Following a few misuse, I decided to rename it to “share” which better corresponds to its objective.

This button save your pattern on my personal database that I make available so that weavers can present their work, make it available to others. It’s a service that I offer, but storage is not infinite and has a cost. If I want to keep service free, I can’t afford to everyone to save every draft. And it appears that I unfortunately have to monitor a little what is saved.

By default, any shared model appears on the page https://www.raktres.net/seizenn/#/list 

From the list of your patterns you have the possibility of not displaying a pattern in the public list (‘restrict’) and of no longer displaying it in your list (‘delete’).

Attention, in all cases your model remains accessible via its short code. It is not deleted from the database. Only its visibility in the list page is modified. (If you need to do a specific action on one of your pattern, ask me.)

The patterns you saved remain yours. If not deleted, your name and recording date appear next to the thumbnail  .

 

An attribution problem

Nothing prevents a user from opening one of your patterns (that’s the goal of Seizenn !!!) and sharing it in turn (it’s a misuse). In this case, the same pattern therefore appears twice in the list, with two different authors.

That’s what happened when an undoubtedly well-meaning user recorded all the patterns (s)he liked. That is to say almost all of them. Not only does it take up space on the server for no benefit, but it can also give the impression that this user is appropriating the work of others. And ultimately discourage other weavers from sharing their work.

I had to email this user and remove the duplicate patterns.

I also added a confirmation screen before sharing to disambiguate:

As there was obviously a real need that I hadn’t thought of initially, I added a “like it” button which allows you to build a list of the models you like.

This list is only saved on your computer, it has no impact on the server.

Local pattern saving

It can be particularly interesting to publish very close versions of the same pattern in order to discuss the preferences of other users, to gradually improve a pattern with several people via network sharing. When you look at Annie MacHale’s work, the quality of a band can be tied to a very small detail (see for example http://aspinnerweaver.blogspot.com/2014/02/design-elements-take-good- design-and.html).

But when building a pickup-type model, it is not useful to use the button at each stage of the work.

With the new version, the model you are working on is automatically saved in your browser. This is what makes it possible to have a function for undoing the last actions.

If you shut down your computer and then open Seizenn again with the same web-browser you should see your pattern.

No need to upload your draft before it’s finished.

In some cases you may wish to avoid using the button. For example when you are in a place without a network but want to save your work. Or you consider that you are taking too big a risk by hosting your work on my server (if you use Seizenn to write a book, don’t forget to contact me please). In those cases, you can find your pattern description in the “load, save” menu on the left.

Copy the content of the textarea (“m=…”) somewhere to keep track of your pattern. You can send it by mail etc. To load your pattern back, just paste the text in the textarea and click the button.

Other technical solutions would be possible with more work and if there is a clear need.

EDIT 04/01/2022

There is now a button to save your pattern on your computer.

The saved patterns appear at the bottom of the pattern page

I hope these details will be useful to you.