My Own Design

[The brown warp threads, arranged roughly in order]

This week marks an important milestone in the development of my weaving. It's the first time winding my own full-width beam to produce my first line of merchandise.

Before I start, though, it's important that I know where I'm going. Computers are amazing. With the software that I use, I can visualize in great detail what my finished cloth will look like. I can test my design with various plied weft threads and see an accurate picture of the result.

The software is called Arahweave, and it's the Rolls Royce of weaving CAD software. You need to have a Linux workstation to run it, but the demo version is FREE! The demo doesn't save files, but it can export images. When I have the money, I will certainly be buying this program, but at over $2,000 it's not an expense to take lightly.

If you try Arahweave, expect a steep learning curve. It can do way more than other weaving CAD programs once you learn how. In the beginning, however you're going to wish you could save your work because it takes hours to create anything like what you want. In the end, the accuracy of the result makes it extremely worthwhile, especially if you're doing production. It's much easier to spend the money to wind a 150-yard beam knowing that the finished cloth is going to be what you want. I'll write a whole review of Arahweave one day, but today let me just show you the plan for my first production-scale cloth and a few of the weft combinations I've tested.

[The plan]

[Two-tone dark weft]

[Two-tone light weft]

[Three-tone green weft]