I've started to learn a little about weaving and am looking for any & all info/tips about doing weaves from scratch. Several folks have patterns for sale, but I'm interested in learning how to come up with my own patterns.

Vic Dunaway's book, "Sport Fish of the Atlantic" appears to have fairly good color pictures of east coast/gulf fish to work from, and I'm working on a Red Drum pattern.

What is the best way for coming up with useable weave designs, etc.? Technique? I build fairly small diameter rods for inshore saltwater fishing (surf, sound & tidal rivers). Doc Ski's video is helping a lot.

Thanks,

Stan

Stan;

You've got Doc Ski's video -- that will be a great help. The second thing that will help is get some patterns so you can study them. also look at the photo pages on this site.

I am going to explain in some detail and parden me if I too elementary but I for this response will assume you are starting from scratch and are in the early stages of learning the craft.

In any case -- First you need to understand left lists and how it they are used to weave a pattern. A pattern is placed on a grid with x and y axis. Each row or column on the grid represents a thread in the pattern. The vertical axis (x) represents the thread wound around the rod. The horizontal axis (y) represents the thread the generates the pattern. Depending on whether or not the thread is moved right or left dictates the resulting pattern. To imagine the grid think of an excel spreadsheet, a cross stitch template or graphing paper. Each row and column is numbered.

The cheapest way to generate a pattern is to get some tracing paper ( I use drafting vellum paper) with grids and trace an image and fill in the cells (boxes) to color in the area of the pattern. Depending on the image you will also want to add some contrast. e.g. if a fish with a fin on the side you will want to offset the fin from the body of the fish so that it stands out. Generally this is done by leaving the area blank (no thread). You will likely need to blow the image up and will need large enough tracing paper so that you have enough thread count in the actually resulting weave pattern that it will fit your rod. You'll need to plan this out -- and will be different for different size threads.

another way is to use microsoft excel and import the image and set the image as a background watermark. A little more work is required but it works. There are also crossstitch programs out there that will allow you to import and image, recolor and set grid sizes. I have found this to be the easiest and cleanest method. In all cases, you still have to manually generate the lefts list. You should number each row and column starting at 1 where the first thread is located. For the columns number 1 ... ## starting from the left. For the rows number 1...## starting from the top left. If you don't have a lot of space number in increments of 5 or 10.

About creating the left list;
To figure out how many wraps you will need to make - count, starting from the left all the columns. This will represent the number of wraps you will need to complete the weave. So for instance there are 50 rows and 70 columns that make up the image you will have 70 wraps to complete and require 50 threads you will work into the weave.

Then for each column starting from the top identify each cell in the columm that contains a thread and note the numbers of the cells the threads are in for the column (wrap step) you are working on. So lets say you are on column 1 and you have filled in cells in rows 25-28 and 37,50. This would be the left list for wrap 1. So when you start a wrap -- all the threads are to your right (unless you set your pattern up as a lefty but lets assume right). When you are adding threads to the pattern you need to move them left. The pattern is acctually formed when you move the left thread to the right back over the wrapping threads you just wrapped around the rod. This make sense?

Tools
I highly recommend that if you start to weave with any frequency you go get a weaving jig. You can get them from a number of sources; Mudhole has a 50 thread weaving jig, Renzetti sells the Wonder Weave. I think this was designed by Jim Upton which does 360 deg. weaves and Jim Kastorff sells different sized weave jigs which are what I use. I believe with each you will get some number of patterns. A worth while investment.

Hopefully this helps. You can email me with any additional questions and I can actually send you a pattern or two with the left list so you can study them. Also, if you email me I can tell you the program I use to create the patterns.

Happy Weaving
Mark

Doc Ski himself has been posting here for the past few days. Maybe he'll chime in.

Bill in WV

Thanks Mark,

That info is very useful to me, and many others taking up weaving.

Appreciate the help/guidance.

Sta

Be patient, there is a great weaving program in the works which hopefully will be released soon. I'm hoping it will greatly simplfy developing weave patterns. I still use the old graph paper method, tracing a pic after I've reduced/enlarged it to the size I want on the graph paper. then developing the left list like previously posted.

I've never used a commercial pattern. Always made my own on graph paper. One square equals one thread each way. I use A size for weave and wrap.

I also have never made a left list. I just use the pattern. In the weaves I've done I could probably make a left list, but I just use my pattern and a highlighter. For me, it's easier than looking at numbers.

Stan,
I would highly recommend getting one of Jim Kastorff's weaving jigs. It's quick and easy to set up and the jig will last a long time without having to replace the foam inserts. He's also very supportive with instructional assistance and his works speaks for itself. He'll even throw in many patterns with a purchase. Can't beat it!

If you can learn to weave right from the graph paper image...you will be light years 'ahead of the game'. I believe this is easier for a new weaver to learn ,rather than to wean a person off the 'left list'.....

one of those magnetic board & ruler gizmos work well, just slide the ruler to the right one row at a time & move threads accordingly. ( practice,practice,practice)

RodMaker had Jim Upton's article on this in a past issue. If interested, just check the back issue page. It was in one of the volume 6 issues.

.........

Hi Stan
Sorry to take so long in chiming in. Been working YUK. Looks like you have gotten some pretty solid advice. Feel free to contact me any time for some hints. One I can think of right now is get an IGFA book. It is a great sourse for accurate details. Also my phone number is on the tape so use it and call me, just remember I am on Pacific Time and usually dont rise til 9am and dont answer after 9pm. I love to yak. It really is way easy until you start getting crazy like Hiro and Jimbo (just kidding buds) Honest I am here to help

Thanks, everyone, for your responses. You've gotten me on a good track!!

Stan