Double-faced tablet weaving with Seizenn

Posted on by Jeff

Hi

I added a simple tool to draw tablet weaving pattern : https://www.raktres.net/seizenn/#/tablet. Here is a post to demonstrate how it works for double-faced patterns.

First, in the main menu of seizen open the «tablet weaving tool». It works the same way other Seizenn tools.

On the left menu, in the “Load, Save, Export” menu, you can choose the size of your pattern and click on the “create” button

As you want to create a “double faced” pattern, in the “tools” menu, choose a “Double-faced” threading and a “2+2” rotations (repetition of 2 fronts and 2 backs)

You now have a blank pattern, ready to draw on it.

Like with the other seizenn pages, the colors are selected from the color palette. Default threading use the 2 first colors. You can of course change them.

On the “Edit Mode” menu, choose “double-faced mode”

Now, when you click on the pattern, you flip two cases, as required to draw a double-faced pattern. You can change the weft color by left clicking on the down left square with the wanted color selected.

If you click on the first row, it will change the hole which is upside at the begin. Useful for standard tablet-weaving. Maybe less for double-faced pattern.

You also can do some actions depending on where you right clicks (add cards or pick, change twining etc.).

GTT is a very great tool, and many patterns made with it are available. You can find some on http://www.guntram.co.za/tabletweaving/patterns/df_heraldic.html

On the “Load, Save, Export” menu you can load GTT file. (GTT is very powerfull, not all kind of pattern can be read with Seizenn)

If you choose the wolf :

Watch out, Seizenn doesn’t use the colors from the pattern file. I made this choice because you may not have in your shelves (in your main and loom palettes) exactly the colors that was used by the person who created the pattern. And colors are very simple to change with Seizenn.

If you want to work with square pattern, show rotation changes, turning etc, choose the optinos in the «Display option» menu. You can get for example :

The Sulawesi tool works quite the same.

(link to this pattern https://www.raktres.net/seizenn/?sc=Kt3)

I keep working to understand how to better support tablet weaving with Seizenn (notation problems, empty holes)

Jeff

A few improvements for this new year

Posted on by Jeff

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

Posted on by Jeff

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

Posted on by Jeff

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

Posted on by Jeff

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.

Selection tool for grid patterns

Posted on by Jeff

Hi

I keep improving the seizenn tool.

After adding the possibility of making grid patterns, I tried to improve the use on the mobile device. The tool can now be installed on Android or iOS to be used without an internet connection. If you need help with the installation, you can see this article on installing a PWA .

I tested it on iPad, it’s really good.

The latest novelty is the addition of a selection function for grid patterns.

Select the button in the edition menu (the “pencil menu”).

When selected, several buttons appear.

When you click on the grid, the border of the selected cell switch to yellow.

You can select an area by holding down the mouse button.

It is then possible to:

  •   erase the selected area
  •   cut it
  •   swap colors
  •   fill it
  •   invert up-down
  •   invert left-right

 

When you have copied an area with the button, click where you want to paste it (the reference is the up left point), before pressing the button .

This function will facilitate the construction of repeating patterns.

=> => =>

Be careful, if the grid alternates, a paste may not give the expected result because of the offset. (A button might help in this case, please ask for it if needed).

The text box contains the content of the copied selection.

It can be modified, or saved in an external document. It is thus possible to share patterns or to build a library (small development to do if you find this function useful)

Do not hesitate to leave a comment to give your opinion on these new possibilities.

 

Band Pattern Editor overview videos

Posted on by Jeff

Hi

To help users get to grips with the new version of Seizenn, I started a series of videos.

They are intended to present the main functions of the tool, to show ways of using it.

The first presents the general interface of the tool as well as the principles of editing a band. https://youtu.be/-Nr8dm-IPSI Band pattern editor The second shows the use of the grid band editor. https://youtu.be/iUCrduK4Aco Grid band pattern editor

If you need a specific explanation or clarification, I encourage you to leave a comment.

Seizenn – update of V2 – improvements and grid patterns

Posted on by Jeff

Hi

First of all I would like to thank all those who support me for the creation of this tool. It is with great pleasure that I see that it is being used and that it allows many people to experiment with band patterns. It is very motivating to continue.Annie MacHale three-color pickup for inkle weavers

To celebrate the new book of Annie MacHale, I work back on the next version of the Seizenn pattern editor : https://www.raktres.net/seizenn/

Seizenn band weaving Editor

I took into account the two main feedbacks I received :

  • First an “undo” button, you can now revert for a few steps ;

  • Second an attempt to select the language used in the interface. For the moment you can choose between english, french and spanish. Everything is not translated yet, and as I mainly used an internet translator, I’m not sure everything is fine. If you wish to report mistakes or ask for a new language (danish ?), just leave a comment.

I also tried to extends the instruction page (instruction are not translated into spanish for the moment), mainly to allow users to do the link between the icon buttons and the functions.

An other major improvement is the ability to draw “grid patterns”. The aim and use are a bit different from the traditionnal hexagonal editor.

This tool may not work on old computers. I will therefore make sure to the present version available even when this one would be completely ready.

I hope you will like those improvements and that they will help you for your patterns experiments. Video would be probably needed to show the different functions.

Jeff

 

Basic Instructions for using Seizenn − Band Weaving Pattern Editor

Posted on by Jeff

Hi

While creating my Seizenn Band Weaving Pattern Editor, I exchanged a lot with Annie MacHale (https://aspinnerweaver.blogspot.com/) to try to offer a simple and efficient tool for weavers. As one of the first users, she did very interesting things with it. Her book of course – https://www.etsy.com/fr/listing/658320160/inkle-weaving-design-book-par-annie – but also some posts on her blog (for example https://aspinnerweaver.blogspot.com/2020/04/baltic-pickup-part-two.html).

She told me that when she presents this tool, new users are frequently confused by very basic tricks. I tried times ago to write some instructions on this blog but they are obviously not sufficient.

As I am working on an major update, Annie very kindly proposed to me few days ago to write basic instructions for beginners. And she improved it after presenting it to some of her friends.

She did a great job, on 4 pages you have enough instructions to let you understand how the tool works and it gives you keys to continue to explore it by themselves.

You can get it here : Instructions for using V1 Seizenn by Annie MacHale

 

http://www.raktres.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Instructions-for-using-V1-Seizenn-by-Annie-MacHale.pdf

With her permission I will translate it into french. And adapt it and include it directly into the next version.

Jeff