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Name Drafting is a method of incorporating a name or phrase into a weaving pattern such that it creates a unique graphic. There are many ways to name-draft, none of which is “the right way,” but all serve as a tool to assist the weaver in the design process and make the draft uniquely theirs. What all Name Drafts have in common, however, is a coding protocol that assigns letters to individual shafts, blocks, color or any other variable in a woven piece.
A very simple example would be name-drafting by color blocks. Letters of the alphabet might be assigned to colors as in this chart (for accessibility purposes, we will be using grayscale colors in Light, Medium Light, Medium Dark, and Dark to demonstrate this concept). Let’s say we wanted to use JANE SMITH as our name draft and create colored blocks.
The color block order would be Medium Light - Light - Medium Light - Light - Medium Dark - Light - Light - Dark - Dark.
Depending on the length of the word and how many warp ends are in the piece, your blocks may be repeated, they may be wide, or they may have variable widths. They could be in the warp and/or the weft.
Extending this concept to structure blocks, there are few things that need to be decided first:
Once those questions are answered, you can:
These were the steps I took to design the Name Draft Cuddle Blankets and Lace Stroller Blanket patterns, which I will use as an example of how to create a successful Name Draft in woven lace.
If you would like a refresher of Lace Weaves, I encourage you to read Amanda Rataj’s blog post series on different lace structures.
When designing the Cuddle Blankets, I knew I wanted the total width in the reed to be 18-20” and that my sett for the 8/2 Beam yarn would be 18 EPI, for 324-360 total warp ends. I wanted 1-2” of Plain Weave borders around the pattern to give the fabric stability, so I aimed for a range of 288-324 ends for the pattern portion.
Next I chose Huck Lace as my pattern structure. Huck Lace requires 2 shafts for the Plain Weave and one additional shaft for each pattern block. So on a 4-shaft loom, 2 different Huck blocks are possible; on an 8-shaft loom, 6 different blocks are possible.
For these patterns, each block (A and B) required 5 ends plus an incidental thread to separate repeating blocks. If the overall pattern was going to alternate between A and B, I could divide my available pattern ends by 5 to determine how many blocks I would thread. However, knowing that I’m going to have areas of repeated blocks (AAA, BB, etc.), I started with 300 ends (midpoint of my estimated pattern ends) and divided by 6 ends/block, to include the incidentals. Some blocks will have only 5 ends. The extra ends can be added to the borders or adjusted later.
300 ends divided by 6 ends/block gives me 50 blocks to play with. I might end up with more or fewer, but this is a place to start.
There are numerous ways to define a code for a word, name or phrase.
Similar to the grayscale example above, a common Name Draft protocol is to assign a number of threading blocks to each letter, cycling the letters over 4 blocks numbered 1 through 4. (You could choose any number of blocks for each row in the table, such as 1, 3, 5 and 7, instead of 1, 2, 3 and 4.)
In this code, the name ELISE (my granddaughter) would be coded 1-4-1-3-1.
Another common method is a simple substitution of the letter’s place in the alphabet. A=1, B=2, C=3…Z=26. So E-L-I-S-E would be coded 5-12-9-19-5. Thus, E is 5 blocks wide, L is 12 blocks wide, and so forth. ELISE works well for a straight substitution like this, but if you used a name like Zelda, you would get 26-5-12-4-1. Since there’s such a huge difference between 26 and 1, the block arrangement might look a little wonky once woven. Now you can take charge as the designer! You may decide instead to use the chart above, making ZELDA 2-1-4-4-1.
Yet another code is to put the letters in alphabetical order and assign the letters based on their new order. ZELDA in alphabetical order is ADELZ. Since Z is now the fifth letter in this sequence, it is assigned number 5; E is third, so is assigned 3; L is fourth, so assigned 4; D is assigned 2; and A is assigned 1. Then your ZELDA code is 5-3-4-2-1. ELISE (EILS, in alphabetical order) would be 1-3-2-4-1.
A “Distribute over 4” code assigns four letters in a row to the same number, then the next 4 letters to the next number and so on, with the ending letters lumped together since they are so infrequent. ABCD = 1, EFGH = 2, IJKL = 3, MNOP = 4, QRST =5, and UVWXYZ = 6.
Or you might make up a different code. Don’t be afraid to be creative!
I set up a spreadsheet of different codes and how many blocks they would use for each letter.
Then I made a chart of the options for my personalized blanket. I tried options with both ELISE and ELISESILE, for a more symmetrical version that mirrors the name. The totals on the right indicate the number of profile blocks necessary for that code. In the charts below, since the Alphabetical order blocks were pretty small, I nudged them up by 2 each (Alphabetical +2) to make a larger total number of blocks.
Whatever code you pick, use graph paper or any drafting software to make a profile draft.
A profile draft is not what you thread; it simply represents the distribution of your blocks, but it will give you an idea of what the overall design will look like.
Going back to my original estimate of 50 blocks to play with for the cuddle blanket, I looked at the tables to find a code that fit. For my cuddle blanket, I decided on the “Place = number” code and translated ELISE as 5-12-9-19-5. Here’s the profile draft, showing 4 different threading blocks, read from right to left:
If the lace you pick or the number of shafts on your loom limit you to just 2 different pattern blocks, ELISE would look like this:
The asymmetry of this is striking to me. It’s outside my box, but sometimes that’s a good thing!
If you have weaving software, block substitution is simple. Play around with the different Lace substitution options, and see if any work. Make sure to check for floats! Some laces, like Swedish Lace, must always alternate blocks A and B and cannot be strung together. Other laces, like Huck, require an incidental thread to separate repeating lace blocks.
For my blanket, I used Fiberworks and the “Huck Lace Effect” block substitution. For a 4-shaft loom, the 2-block profile draft resulted in 295 ends, without any Plain Weave borders. Although difficult to decipher at this scale, here’s what it looks like:
The resulting pattern may surprise you and be perfect. If so, add some Plain Weave borders to give the Lace some structure around it, and move ahead. I added 1” (18 ends) of a Plain Weave border to each side, resulting in a total of 331 ends, 18.4” in the reed. That’s within the 324-360 end range I was aiming for.
If the pattern doesn't look right, you have limitless options for adjusting it. Here are some ideas to get your creative juices flowing:
These directions are for designing the Name Draft in the warp. As a designer, you can code a Name Draft into the warp or the weft or both. Using the same draft in the warp and weft (“treadle as drawn in”) will generate a square piece with diagonal symmetry. Again, this is relatively simple with weaving software.
Playing with the tie-up can give you different effects in the cloth. For Huck Lace, a tie-up can give you warp or weft floats in one block and plain weave in the other, or lace in both. In any case, weaving so the weft floats are on the top of the fabric makes it easier to see if you make a mistake.
Here’s my resulting 2-block Cuddle Blankets design on 4 shafts. Note the diagonal line of symmetry from the upper right to the lower left.
For the Lace Stroller Blanket, a larger design, I chose the Alphabetical +2 design using ELISESILE. I threaded 2 repeats in the warp, and repeated it 3 times in the weft. The repeats are set within a plain weave grid. There are 4 blocks, so it requires at least 6 shafts to weave.
The most important thing to remember is that you are the designer. You can implement any code you want to and modify it in any way you want to. Be creative and have fun! In the end, you can choose to reveal the code or keep it as your own secret design element.
Name Draft Cuddle Blankets
Lace Stroller Blanket
Penny is a weaver, spinner, teacher, historian, manager, learner, creator and general lover of all things fiber. When she’s not actively learning something, she’s sharing with others in one way or another – making something by hand, demonstrating at historic events, or teaching a class. With past careers as an engineer, a mom, a museum educator and a museum director, combined with her hobby as a historical reenactor, her worlds interweave in the creation of textiles and the study of historic textile tools. Penny is active in several local guilds and teaches weaving and spinning locally and on Zoom. She lives in Massachusetts with her husband and their furry friends.
