Frances L. Goodrich’s Coverlet and Counterpane Drafts

Whoever did the graphic layout for this book owes Barbara Miller and Deb Schillo a HUGE apology. The authors have done wonderful research, have great primary sources, beautiful photos, put in a lot of work to put the historical drawdowns into modern format — and the graphic artist apparently didn’t care if those were usable.I expected from both the preview and the previous Frances L. Goodrich's Brown Book of Weaving Drafts that the threadings would be small, but readable. This is largely true for the overshot drafts. However, many of the counterpane drafts have been shrunk so tiny that they are unusable. The first counterpane draft has 280 threads shrunk into 2.5 inches. That’s less than 1/100th of an inch, or 1/4 of a millimeter, per thread! It’s so small the gridlines have vanished and the drawdown is grainy. Some of the drafts are worse yet. In all, only 12 out of the 31 counterpane drafts are large enough to have visible gridlines in the threading and treadling.The book will have a place in my library for the excellent history and the somewhat better scaled overshot patterns. But the graphic layout of the drawdowns, especially in the counterpane section, is absolutely ridiculous.

Amazing compilation of historical weaving drafts!

Great resource!

Another beautifully printed book with lots of information and illustrations for those who seek old, traditional weaving drafts.This book is hefty, sturdy and begging to be read over and over. Then it's time to weave!