Name Drafting: Gain a Better Understanding of Overshot Drafting Principles

“I don’t remember when or where I was first exposed to name drafting, but over the years, I have developed my own approach to creating a draft for weaving in overshot. A person’s name, a song title, a motto, or just a few words can be transformed into a four-shaft draft and woven following basic instructions and weaving principles.” -Peter Mitchell

By following the steps for developing the draft and understanding the rationale, one can take their name, a song title, or any phrase and create an original draft while also gaining a better understanding of drafting principles so they can use and adapt the drafts found in most weaving books.

Get the free article PDF here to learn how to name draft for your own weaving!

The Benefits of Name Drafting

Recently, when helping a student friend to understand drafting, Peter Mitchell went back to lessons he had given on creating an original draft/pattern by a technique commonly known as “name drafting.”

Through this process of creating an original draft from the beginning and working out the treadling and examining the drawdown for pattern centers and individual motifs, the principles of drafting become clearer. Using it, weavers can begin to:

• Look at drafts more critically
• Understand the components
• Gain the ability and the courage to alter drafts to suit their own needs
• And, also create new patterns

In his article, Peter explains how a full name can be drafted into an overshot pattern and woven several ways. Learn to create original overshot patterns using your name or any word or phrase. You’ll have lots of fun developing new designs, and you’ll learn how overshot works at the same time.