PLAYING WITH THE SOFTWARE

Posted by Peg in South Carolina

In the sample weaving that I did at the beginning of the warp, I had tried different treadlings.  The one I saw as having the most possibilities was the last treadling.  Before I start working in earnest on the warp, I decided to work with the software.  And here is the result as displayed in a page from my e-sketchbook.

The image at the top of the page is about half the warp, reduced so as to give a sense of the fabric.

The second image is a blown-up detail to give a sense of what is actually going on.  The red wefts are the pattern wefts and they are twice as large as the other wefts, the orange and the blue, which are the binding wefts. 

The tieup and treadling are to the left.  And finally a photo of the actual fabric.

I used a black warp in the software, but I used the same colors in the weft as I did in the sampling. 

How much more garish the drawdown appears than the actual fabric.  The black warp plays into the garishness, but even so……….   It is really difficult, though probably not impossible, to get the kind of subtlety the fabric displays in the software.  The most obvious problem here is that the impact of the smaller binding wefts is far greater in the fabric than it would appear in the computer drawdown. That is why I would never trust choice of colors to the software.  Only actual sampling will work there.

I realize now that this used only 4 of the possible 6 treadles that I have available in the tieup. Looking at the tieup on the reproduced page will reveal that. So the next thing to do is to create a version with all 6 treadles next.

Related Post:  E-Sketchbook

“Playing with the Software” was written by Margaret Carpenter for Talking about Weaving and was originally posted on October 18, 2010. ©2010 Margaret Carpenter aka Peg in South Carolina

SOMETHING-A-DAY PROJECT

Posted by Peg in South Carolina

OTHER BLOGGERS

For a while, now, I have been fascinated by the daily project phenomenon on blogs.  I have seen this in art blogs, with people painting or drawing a picture a day.  I have seen it on photography blogs where people fully finish a photo a day. I have seen it on fiber blogs where people do a small surface design piece each day.  And I have even seen it on weaving blogs.

I have followed Janet Dawson’s Scarf-a-day blog with great interest and admiration.  Though this doesn’t mean that she puts on a warp a day, it still has been a very ambitious (and successful!) project for her.

I have also followed Tommye Scanlin’s tapestry-a-day on her blog Works in Progress. She doesn’t actually weave a whole tapestry each day.  Rather, she put on a long but narrow tapestry warp and then each day wove in a building.  She has been recording her progress in the side bar of her blog. Tommye called her piece a tapestry diary for the year 2009. 

If I had a second loom, I could put on a long crackle warp and weave a sample a day.  But, I don’t have another loom.  So, what could I do?

A friend suggested I already have a project not unlike this since I do something weaving-related every day.  But I want to do something that will notch my growth as a weaver up a bit more.

SOFTWARE TO THE RESCUE

Weaving software, I thought.  At first I kind of cringed since fiddling with weaving software is definitely not weaving.  Then about a week ago I woke up with the brilliant idea (ideas in the middle of the night always seem to be “brilliant”…….!)of exploring crackle drafts.  So, here is what I am going to do.

A NEW E-SKETCHBOOK

I have started called a new E-sketchbook called “A Crackle Draft Project 2010.”  I have put a shortcut to it on my computer desktop.  Each day (for five days a week) I will put in a new crackle draft. 

I will begin with the very simplest of drafts, a straight draw 4-shaft crackle threading with standard twill tie-up.  I will explore each day a new way of developing and altering this very simple draft.  Some explorations will be very simple and take very little time.  Others will be more complex. 

I will move from there to other threading possibilities and then on to six- and eight-shaft threadings of all kinds.  Everything is subject to investigation: threading, tie-up, treadling, color, texture….

WIF FILES

At the same time, I have started a folder on my computer called by the same name and will include in that folder all the drafts as WIF files that I will place in my E-sketchbook. I will try to remember with each entry in my E-sketchbook to include the location of the draft in my computer folder.
If I save these drafts as WIF files, why, then, bother putting them in an E-Sketchbook? 
In the E-Sketchbook I can make comments. 

COMPUTER DRAFTS AND PENCIL SKETCHES

There is, of course, a limit to what can be accomplished in terms of design with weaving software.  But I can think of them as the painter’s equivalent of pencil sketches.  Many artists have kept reams of pencil or pen-and-ink sketches they made, either for fun or as preparations for a final painting.  Weaving software provides the equivalent kind of experience in weaving design.

Related Posts:  
Sketchbooks for Weavers
E-Sketchbook
Printing Out E-Sketchbooks

"Something-A-Day Project” was written by Margaret Carpenter for Talking about Weaving and was originally posted on January 1, 2010. ©2009 Margaret Carpenter aka Peg in South Carolina.

SO WHAT GIVES WITH THE THREADING?

Posted by Peg in South Carolina

I took each of my blocks and compared them with each of Zielinski’s blocks. The results quite surprised me.

Most of my blocks were to be found in Zielinski’s blocks, though clearly I had ordered my blocks quite differently. Also five of the threading units (A, B, E, G and H) looked just a little different, but in reality they were the same, just approached differently.

One of my blocks (D), however, was not to be found among Zielinski’s blocks.

I also discovered two identical sets of blocks among my blocks:  C and E, and G and H. 


Here are the details as they appear in my E-Sketchbook:

Next on the agenda?  Create a new draft, using the same block design, but substituting Zielinski’s threading units.  Here is what is now the correct profile threading draft (carefully saved on the computer……….):

Note that I have spaces in the profile threading so that I can easily distinguish the groupings.

Related Post: 8 Crackle Blocks on 4 Shafts: How Not to Thread

“So What Gives with the Threading?” was written by Margaret Carpenter for Talking about Weaving and was originally posted on September 17, 2009. ©2009 Margaret Carpenter aka Peg in South Carolina.

8 CRACKLE BLOCKS ON 4 SHAFTS: HOW NOT TO THREAD?

Posted by Peg in South Carolina

Things had been going quite well in terms of designing the green crackle project.  Or so I thought. 

Over the weekend I cleaned up paperwork from my last project.  Got everything nicely organized and put away.  Got the current paperwork nicely organized in its folder.

Then I went to work on the green crackle project.  In the process of that cleanup, I had thrown out stuff.  Important stuff.

DISCARDING AND RECOVERING

I had thrown out the paper copy of the threading for the last crackle project.  Not a problem?  After all I can just print it out again.  Oh no. I had marked with pen the various blocks. That was the valuable part, the part that was not on the computer.  I used this to work out the threadings for the current green crackle project.

So I looked for the threading block draft for this green crackle project I am working on. I had thrown out the paper copy, but I knew it would be on the computer.  What’s more,  there were no handwritten notes on it. So what was on the computer would do just fine.
I opened the file that all this stuff is stored in.  Not on the computer.

Thank heavens I am recording stuff in my E-sketchbook.  I went to it and there was the threading block design.  So I used that to create one in the weaving software and saved it.  I made sure I saved it and saved it in the right place.   And printed it out.

PROBLEMS WITH THE BLOCKS

Then I started examining the threading against the blocks and discovered that I had made an error in the block order.  I could understand how I made the error. I had simply failed to reverse part of the left side of the threading block draft to reflect the right side. That was an easy mistake to make and easy to correct. So I corrected it.  

PROBLEMS WITH THE THREADINGS?

But then as I was rechecking the threading units in the blocks I started seeing some strange things. Some things I did not understand.  Something seemed to be wrong, but what?  And how could anything be wrong, since everything seemed to be working out just fine?
So I checked out the threading notes for 8 blocks on 6 shafts in Zielinski’s book (Volume 8 in his Master Weaver series.  There I discovered that my blocks were not always the same as his blocks.  This is copied from my E-sketchbook:



As I said, I see nothing wrong with my blocks.  I don’t see why I can’t continue with those threadings.  They worked fine in the last piece.  On paper they seem to be working fine in this piece.

NEXT ON THE AGENDA
Still, I need to redo the draft in terms of Zielinski’s threading units and see what gives.  So, time out from dyeing and back to work on the threading.

Related Posts: 
   Multi-Pocket Folders
   E-Sketchbook
   Preparing to Design Next Crackle Piece

“8 Crackle Blocks on 4 Shafts: How Not to Thread?” was written by Margaret Carpenter for Talking about Weaving and was originally posted on September 15, 2009. ©2009 Margaret Carpenter aka Peg in South Carolina.

PRINTING OUT E-SKETCHBOOKS

Posted by Peg in South Carolina

A while back when discussing E-sketchbooks, I mentioned that once I had finished one and was done with it, I could print it out.  At the time, what I envisioned was printing it out from within my software so that it would be kind of like a newsletter format, then taking it to a printer’s to have it spiral-bound.

One issue is that I do not have a color printer.  My husband does, but he doesn’t have the software.  The software being by Microsoft probably will not load on his computer.  The only other alternative would be to network our printers. 

A couple of years ago, a professional computer guru did just that for us when he came to our home to deal with some more important computer issues.  It was nice for both of us.  He could print black-and-white and I could print color.

But then it stopped working.

But then I discovered a particular concept of self-publishing, thanks to a piece in the Wall Street Journal (August 6, 2009).  The Journal had written an article on having one’s own cookbook put out in a form comparable to a published cookbook.  Not to sell.  Just to have a copy for one’s self, maybe a couple more for friends and family.

Most of the sites just do cookbooks.  But two of the sites will take on any kind of publication.  The two websites are Blurb and Bookemon.  

On my own, I also found Lulu. But this site seems geared more to persons wanting to sell their product.

And I found an interesting blog post on self-publishing by Gojko Adzic, whose blog focuses on computer software.

Related Post:  Sketchbooks for Weavers

“Printing Out E-Sketchbooks” was written by Margaret Carpenter for Talking about Weaving and was originally posted on August 17, 2009. ©2009 Margaret Carpenter aka Peg in South Carolina.

STARTING A NEW E-SKETCHBOOK

Posted by Peg in South Carolina

I have been neglecting my E-sketchbook as of late. The reason? I have become focused on my next crackle project. This means that weaving ideas that jump into my head during those odd moments are all about this current project. They are not free-floating someday ideas or inspirations that I like and might someday find a way to use. Or not.

When I focus on a project, all my thoughts, ideas, go into Word Perfect documents, into WIF files, and into images I keep in My Pictures folder. Except for this last, I keep these together in a folder in my Crackle folder. Sometimes I copy images into these documents.

But then Nigel’s latest blog post appeared. He is using his blog to record in great depth his experiences in his first year of intensive study in Woven Textile Design. I love his posts because they are all so exciting to read. They are not only informative but they capture something of the essence of what it is like to be doing this course. He brings all the excitement and agony of it very much alive.

But this particular post has a bit about sketchbooks. Nigel is keeping a “real” sketchbook for the course he is doing. As he talked about ways of doing this, I found myself thinking, this is exactly what I need to do!

My ideas about this next crackle project are still fuzzy and fluid. I am doing a lot of grappling and looking and thinking. Much of this does not really belong in a Work Perfect document at all. Indeed, it is hard to read it there and sort it all out. It belongs in a………drum roll here…………an E-Sketchbook dedicated to this particular project.

And so I have begun. The first two pages:

There is a downside to this focus on my next project. When I cut this warp off the loom, I am going to want to work with analyzing the samples. I have already forgot about the scarf I wove. So it is going to be hard for me to go back to it in order to fix errors, wet-finish, braid fringes………..

Related Post: E-Sketchbook

“Starting A New E-Sketchbook” was written by Margaret Carpenter for Talking about Weaving and was originally posted on July 27, 2009. ©2009 Margaret Carpenter aka Peg in South Carolina.

TREADLING WITH FLOATS OF 4: 8 CRACKLE BLOCKS ON 4 SHAFTS

Posted by Peg in South Carolina

Here are some drawdowns for treadlings.

I have kept the images small in order to give a better feel of what the fabric might look like woven.

INTRODUCTION

I have taken the threading drawdown I designed earlier for getting 4-thread floats instead of 3-thread floats. The basic threading I worked with was a threading that allows me to get 8 blocks on 4 shafts.

The warp is all one color, blue. The block on the very left, however, has green warps. This is the same block as the block on the far right. It is there to test the join between first and last block. It is green so that I don’t forget that this block is a repeat.

Using that drawdown, I tried some treadling variations I am particularly fond of. Well, the first one I am not particularly fond of, but I use it because it shows the block structure so clearly.

THE TREADLING VARIATIONS

Treadling #1 is overshot- style treadling. I have used red throughout. *Tabby is required but not indicated in the draft.

Treadling #2 is treadling on opposites. In each block I have used green for the first weft color, and rose pink for the second. I repeated the sequence twice. In the repeat, it is the rose that appears as the first weft color and green for the second. The result is the appearance of more blocks than there actually are. Theoretically this should not require *tabby, but I’m not sure.

Note: there are no such things as genuine opposites on this threading, despite the fact that the tie-up makes it look like there is. One result of this is that there are no genuine tabbies.

Treadling #3 is a kind of pseudo summer&winter treadling. For one block I alternate treadles 1 and 2, then I move on to alternate treadles 2and 3 and so forth. As in #2, I have alternated green and red weft threads. Like #1, the long blue warp floats clearly visible in the draft mean that weaving this requires *tabby.

Treadling #4 is polychrome treadling---i.e., treadling the six treadles and repeating. I used green for the one treadle in a given group and red for the others. Tabby is not required.

MY PERSONAL FAVORITE

My favorite of these, at least on paper, is #3. I had not realized how much interplay of weft and warp there is in this treadling. The interplay is there in my current weaving, but it is not nearly as vibrant and demanding in its attention. The idea of weaving *tabby does not, however, please me, for I would be adding yet another shuttle into the mix, and I would probably use 120/2 silk to make it as little obvious as possible.

On the other hand, I really like what I did here. That is the same treadling as #4. The same treadling as my current piece. Hard to believe! It was just a different way I used the colors as I treadled.

3 FLOATS VERSUS 4 FLOATS

Extending the weft pattern floats from 3 to 4 seems to have no impact on the drawdown. Had I done this with the 3-float drafts I have been using, I am sure no one would have noticed any real difference. This leaves two questions in my mind:

1. Why bother with this?
2. Why not jump to 5- or even 10-float drafts to see what happens?

A NOTE ON TABBY

In this structure there is no true tabby (unlike ordinary 4-shaft crackle). So one has to think in terms of binder threads and get creative. Zielinski is of enormous help here in suggesting some possible solutions.

A NOTE ON THE IMAGES

Those of you who have clicked on the above images to see them larger will have learned that there are not four images but only one. What I did was to copy and paste these images into a page of my E-sketchbook (kept in Microsoft Publisher) and once pasted, to arrange them as I wanted them. Then I locked them into position. I then copied the locked group and pasted it into this blog post. On my E-sketchbook page I can unlock the group any time I want. I assume that any of the publishing programs would allow you to do this.

Related Posts:
Crackle with Floats of Four (or More)
Summer and Winter and…….Crackle (of course)
Crackle Treadled as Overshot

“Treadling with Floats of 4: 8 Crackle Blocks on 4 Shafts” was written by Margaret Carpenter for Talking about Weaving and was originally posted on July 1, 2009. ©2009 Margaret Carpenter aka Peg in South Carolina.

3:00 IN THE MORNING

Posted by Peg in South Carolina

My E-sketchbook is both a blessing and a curse. It allows me to wake up in the middle of the night and open it up. So much for sleep. But it allows me to get my ideas down in a format that is much more useful to me than simply taking linear notes, especially in my pretty much illegible handwriting.

The two pages above are the result of a recent middle-of-the-night awakening.

One thing I was easily able to do, because this is a computer and not a physical notebook, is to pull out from another page an idea that I thought might be useful to the current thinking these pages applies to. Copying and pasting is the greatest!

The images and notes in the upper left hand corner of the second page were pulled from an earlier page I noticed as I was skimming through this sketchbook. And I didn’t have to bring those in by copying each item one by one. I simply held down the shift key, clicked on each of the items and so created a group which I could move as a group. I can ungroup them any time I want. This is one of the nice gimmicks of Microsoft Publisher.

The items on the bottom half of the second page are also grouped, at least temporarily. They belong together. But should I want to move any one of them, I can easily ungroup them.

Another thing I have started to do is use two different type faces. I use plain Times New Roman for stuff that is pretty much purely technical or for things that I need/want to do. But I use a script type (Viner Hand ITC) for the idea notes. I had begun by doing all the notations in script simply because it looked attractive. But I thought the visual separation of the notes through typography might be more useful.

I do not make a point of making entries on a daily basis, though I had planned to do this. But keeping this sketchbook, even erratically, is proving to be enormously useful.

Another thing I have done in the hopes of making this e-sketchbook more useful is to create a kind of table of contents at the beginning of the book. I thought that I would just list some of the things in the sketchbook. I assume that someday I will have multiple sketchbooks and I want to try to make things a bit easier to find. Of course, a lot of the value of the sketchbook is simply browsing through it randomly.

But now I have started to add page numbers to some of the items to make it easier to find things. I am up to 19 pages and will probably have a fair number more before I decide to start a second sketchbook.

By the way, the faint gray lines that surround all the entries do not print. They are simply the guidelines for what is being entered into them.

Related Posts:
Latest Entries in Sketchbook
Software for E-Sketchbooks

“3:00 in the Morning” was written by Margaret Carpenter for Talking about Weaving and was originally posted on June 4, 2009. ©2009 Margaret Carpenter aka Peg in South Carolina

DESIGNING THE SCARF

Posted by Peg in South Carolina

I decided I needed some visual concept of the overall scarf before I began weaving it. Not the details; just a general layout. I had never felt the need for to do this before. But also this is probably the most complex design I have ever tried to develop. I wonder how keeping my E-sketchbook has played into this new development.

DESIGNING IN PAINT SHOP PRO

I opened Paint Shop Pro and did some playing. The yellow marks, which are just erratic dashes, represent the motif designs, their general idea, not how they will appear in fact.

The design on the right is the first one I came up with. It’s a symmetrical design. OK, but boring.

So I came up with the design on the left. Still symmetric, but some changes. The solid red spaces are all the same size. Well, they are supposed to be. My “drawing,” despite using the ruler PSP offers, was a bit slapdash. But the motif designs have changed.

CHANGE IN MOTIF DESIGNS

• I have added the blue shadow crackle on either side of each motif. That is represented by the erratic blue dashes.
• Then I have changed the sizing of the designs. The center design is twice the length of the others. This gives a focus.

So now I have a sense of the overall design. Once I have figured out the actual sizes, I can start weaving and work on the details as I weave.

SOME DESIGN DETAILS

• Working out each design, both pattern and color
• Creating ways to make the background look interesting without overpowering the major design elements

Related Posts:
Latest Entries in Sketchbook
Hot off the Loom and On To My Shoulders

“Designing the Scarf” was written by Margaret Carpenter for Talking about Weaving and was originally posted on May 13, 2009. ©2009 Margaret Carpenter aka Peg in South Carolina

LATEST ENTRIES IN SKETCHBOOK

Posted by Peg in South Carolina

I had not expected to enjoy making entries in this sketchbook as much as I do.  Nor had I expected how much value keeping this sketchbook was going to be.

One thing I find really nice about keeping this on the computer is how easily I can move things around and change things.  I can lift, for example, any or all of the three drafts on the right-hand page and either move it to another page or copy it into another page.

It is also easy to look through the sketch book by reducing it to 75% and “flipping” through the pages.  At 75%, both pages, side-by-side, are visible on the screen and still large enough for the print to be readable. I find that when I do this more thoughts will come that I can enter onto the page I am looking at.

I have been working on the sketchbook some almost daily.  And it is becoming apparent that doing this daily, as opposed to occasionally or when I feel like it, is of value. 

I know there will be dry days when I will feel there is nothing to record.  But I will try to record at least a little something because I can feel that turning the keeping of this sketchbook into a habit is going to be when it really becomes important to my weaving

Related Post: E-Sketchbook

“Latest Entries in Sketchbook” was written by Margaret Carpenter for Talking about Weaving and was originally posted on April 28, 2009. ©2009 Margaret Carpenter aka Peg in South Carolina

SOFTWARE FOR E-SKETCHBOOKS

Posted by Peg in South Carolina

Leigh mentioned in a comment on an earlier post that she has a desktop publishing tool on her computer called Scribus. This is an Open Source piece of software and works on Linux, Mac and Windows. The program can be downloaded from their website.

Also available on their site is part of their manual. The developers there offer a pdf download of the table of contents and chapter one. I did download these and it seems from a brief read-through that this program might be a bit more complex than Microsoft Publisher. This is not necessarily a bad thing. It means you can probably do more with Scribus than with Publisher.

For those who might be a little shy, here is the last paragraph on their web page:

There is an enthusiastic and friendly community around Scribus that assists beginner and pro alike through our mailing list, IRC channel, wiki, contracted support, and the bugtracker.

For a good review of other desktop publishing software, go here. the price range of the program goes from $15 to $111.

For a review of more software, including Scribus and Adobe (neither of which is reviewed in my first link), go to this web site.

Related Posts:
E-Sketchbook
Sketchbooks for Weavers

“Software for E-Sketchbooks” was written by Margaret Carpenter for Talking about Weaving and was originally posted on April 22, 2009. ©2009 Margaret Carpenter aka Peg in South Carolina

E-SKETCHBOOK

Posted by Peg in South Carolina

I have been enjoying working with my E-sketchbook. Earlier I had shown an example of a page using both images and words. Here is an example of what a two-page spread looks like:

There are no images, only words. The two red quotation marks might be considered design elements. The pages are not complete either in words to be entered or in the design layout. But possibilities for making an attractive and also useful layout are, I hope, clear.

Some of this you may recognize as having been pulled from a blog post. Entered here in the E-sketchbook, that information should be easier to access. It will also be easier to add additional information, ideas, and/or images.

What you see on these two pages are ideas I am using for my next crackle piece. For now I am keeping them in this E-sketchbook because of their applicability to all sorts of future weaving projects. I am close to being ready to start developing ideas specifically in relation to my next project, and those will go into my folder for that project, not here in my sketchbook.

SOME ONLINE RESOURCES

To read more about E-sketchbooks, check out this article: Electronic Sketchbook and Electronic Portfolios.

Another article to check out: How Keeping a Daily Sketchbook Benefits Artists and Designers. This particular article raises a serious question for me. Should I make this into a daily sketchbook? My fear, if I do that, is that this E-sketchbook will take over my life. Is this a realistic fear?

Related Post: Starting a New E-Sketchbook

“E-Sketchbook” was written by Margaret Carpenter for Talking about Weaving and was originally posted on April 20, 2009. ©2009 Margaret Carpenter aka Peg in South Carolina

SKETCHBOOKS FOR WEAVERS

Posted by Peg in South Carolina

FIRST

Today is my birthday. When I came to my computer, there was a paper copy of the web page with the camera tripod I asked for. On it was written the note: “if you still want this, please order it.” Hurrah!

BACK TO THE BUSINESS AT HAND

Nigel had mentioned in an email a book by Kay Greenlees called Creating Sketchbooks for Embroiderers and Textile Artists. I purchased this book, perhaps six months ago. I skimmed through the whole thing and then started reading it. I stopped about a third of the way through and put it away.

I loved the book. It was beautiful. But how does a weaver create a sketchbook? The notion of drawing rocks or manhole covers, or leaves, or flowers and working from them to a weaving just didn’t seem to work for me as a weaver.

I had been following Nigel’s blog. He is using sketchbooks in the Bradford course. I knew that was part of the Bradford course. But still, though sketching is nice, I still didn’t see any real sense in it for weaving. Maybe for tapestry weaving. But not regular weaving.

And then Nigel mentioned the Greenlees book. So I got the book back out. I began to read it a bit more carefully.

Greenlees says that a sketchbook can be a written journal. In a sense, that is what I keep on the computer. So if I were doing the Bradford course, or something similar, I would have to transcribe the written sketches on the computer into an actual sketchbook. And of course it would include actual weaving drawdowns.

E-SKETCH BOOKS

This time I noted that Greenlees discusses what she calls E-sketch books. She doesn’t seem overly enthusiastic, though she admits others are. She discusses pros and cons and suggests things to keep in mind as the artist looks for the most appropriate software for her purposes.

One of her concerns is the ease of mark making. So she is still thinking of an E-sketchbook as a computer equivalent of a literal sketchbook. I am not concerned with mark making or making sketches in a journal. I am interested in collecting ideas, both verbal and visual.

Any mark making I might be interested in doing can be done in Paint Shop Pro and I can bring anything I do there into other software.

HUNTING FOR SOFTWARE

I have some journaling software on the computer. I tried it a bit. It is a good way to keep the kind of stuff you would keep in any ordinary Word or Word Perfect document. But it fails miserably as an art journal.

Why? You can’t put objects anywhere you want on the page. You simply cannot design a page. And you can’t look at two pages next to each other.

MICROSOFT PUBLISHER

A number of years ago I did a newsletter for our weaving guild in Atlanta. Always interested in new things, I purchased Microsoft Publisher. Easy to learn. Creates an effective newsletter.

Microsoft Publisher. Why not? You can design pages freely. You can view two pages side-by-side. So I went to work. And here is a page I put together rather quickly, just to see how it might work:

SOME OBSERVATIONS

The blue and pink lines are simply margin guidelines and do not print out. Also, the light squares around the various pieces of writing do not print out. They are simply guidelines.

And my name at the bottom is for the purpose of this post and is not on the actual page. Also, since this is the first page, only that page can be viewed. But when I work on the inside pages, then I can view the two pages side by side, as if I were looking at the real thing.

And of course, when I have filled a volume (I can add as many pages to this volume as I want), I can always print it out and have it bound. If I want to.

I can’t attach actual samples, actual yarns, actual leaves…….. But otherwise I do believe this offers exactly the flexibility I need to create a sketch book.

I checked the latest version of Publisher. Mine is 2000 and the latest is 2007. But the latest version has no advantages for me over my version to warrant spending the money.

USING IT?

Now what I need to do is to figure out a system for using it. Ideally, putting in something once a day would be great. But I do not have that kind of time. So I am going to have to do it like one day a week or some such thing. Maybe Greenlees has some ideas.

Or I could just keep it open on the computer. Right now that is a bit dangerous for the novelty of it keeps me at it to the point that it becomes a time waster. But the novelty surely will wear off (though the novelty of blogging hasn’t worn off yet……….).

Related Posts:
Playing with Color
PixeLoom, Paint Shop Pro and Gradated Warps
Painting a Mock-up – with Paint or Computer Software
Crackle Jacket: First Rumblings

“Sketchbooks for Weavers” was written by Margaret Carpenter for Talking about Weaving and was originally posted on April 13, 2009. ©2009 Margaret Carpenter aka Peg in South Carolina