Interlace Patterns for Fiber Arts
Interlace patterns, also known as knotwork, date back to the late Roman period. They were used through out Europe during 7th -12th century and can be found on many types of art work including metalwork, stone carvings, woodcarvings, and illuminated manuscripts.
There are many books and website that show how to create knotwork patterns using graph paper and similar computer techniques. I'm going to show how to use those same techniques to create interlace patterns for many types of fibers arts, from weaving to needlework. My focus will be on creating double-face card weaving designs. However, the same method can be used to make other fiber art designs.
First, draw out a diamond grid on graph paper. Normally, you would do this in pencil. (I had to highlight the markings with green for them to show up better.)
Next, erase the sections where the lines cross. Then make a single cross at each section, alternating direction by rows.
Place bars over the sections where you want to change the direction of the knots.
Erase the cross sections and reconnect the new lines.
Erase the bars and you have your interlace pattern.
Using this method for fiber art designs.
First you will need a diamond grid. There are several sizes and lengths you can use to create a grid. We are going to start with a Triple Perfect 5 Grid. (I will elaborate on the significance of this nomenclature later.) In excel, outline all borders and change the height and length of the columns and rows to 10 pixels. Using the highlighting tool, color the areas like so to make diamonds.
Next, highlight the cells in the cross sections so that there is a single cross. in the same pattern as before, alternating directions by row. I have outlined the desired cells in red. Erase those sections by using the no fill option.
The result should have white cells where there is to be a gap.
Now that you have a basic grid, you can start to do fancy knots. Tip: save your basic knots on one page or book in excel. Copy/paste it to a separate grid before you play around with it. As before, put bars where you want to change directions.
Fill in the blocks to reconnect the broken lines. I have highlighted them in yellow to make it easy to see which ones you need to fill in with the blue color.
Erase the red lines by highlighting the red bars and applying no fill.
For cross-stitch, needlework and certain types of weaving, this is the finished product.
My interest is in double-face card weaving, which requires one more step, elongating one side. Make one of the sides 25 pixels long, but keep the other at 10 pixels. There are two possibilities.
Tips and tricks
Let's go back to my nomenclature. I called that grid a Triple Perfect 5.
Triple
For card weavers, the grid above is triple card pattern. For others it might be a triple stitch, triple cross, ect.
Singles can produce a nice intricate design, while triple or higher will give a bold design that can been seen from a distance.
Perfect
This applies to double-face card weaving. Depending on what type of work you are doing, perfect my apply to even numbers. For card weaving, an odd number of cards makes a perfectly even line.
Double-face tends to have a 60 degree angle, which goes to the left or right depending on the direct of the turn (forwards or backwards) and the way the cards are threaded (S or Z). A weaver can take advantage of this to get the intricate knotwork designs from a single card. To make it a 'perfect' pattern, there has to be a double block at the ends of the diamond. It is imperative that the single has double-blocks. Otherwise all of the lines will be broken and pattern will be unrecognizable.
This is the front and back of one of my single interlace patterns. See how the lines don't connect on the back side.
An odd number of cards, such as a triple card design, will allow the cards to have a smooth line. Even card numbers can be done, but they will have jagged edges.
For other types of fiber arts, such as needlework, the imperfect may be preferred for stylistic reasons. The imperfect gives pointed ends rather than blunt ones.
5 Grid
This is the number of blocks in the corner.
Why is this significant? Let's say you have a design in the 5 grid that you want to pair with another design that has more cards.
The wider design dwarfed the interlace. You could create the same designs using a 6 grid. This fills in the space without having to use a different design.
Orientation
Another important aspect of interlace designs and grids, which way they are orientated.
This could make a difference when trying to translate a design from graph paper to the computer. If you've drawn it in one orientation and have the grid step up in the other, you might have trouble identifying which lines to block out. It can be done. Speaking from personal experience, it can give you quite a headache!
It can also make a difference with single interlace patterns such as the ones in the deer pictured above. One may want to mirror the orientations around the design.
