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Fabric Design · Lecture 22
Spot and Figured Designs
Distributing small motifs over a ground: the six methods and the sateen-base distribution over 30 ends × 40 picks.
Sateen baseDistributionMotifPlain ground
Placing spots
A spot design repeats a small motif at regular intervals on a plain (or other) ground. The lecture lists six methods of arrangement, A to F: in straight rows, in alternate (half-drop) rows, on a twill base, on a sateen base, reversed in alternate positions, and in a diamond (pointed) order. The sateen base is the most useful because it spreads the spots evenly with no obvious lines.
Below, a 5-end sateen base with intervals of 6 ends and 8 picks spreads five spots over a 30 × 40 repeat; each spot is a small cross motif and the ground is plain weave. The blue squares are motif lifts, the grey ones the plain ground.
Spots on a 5-sateen base, 30 × 40 · 30 ends × 40 picks
Fabric effect (1× repeat)
Spot centres at ends 3, 15, 27, 9, 21 (move number 2 × 6 ends) and picks 4, 12, 20, 28, 36.
When the ground is plain weave, the motif must start on an end and pick where it continues the plain order, otherwise long floats appear at its edges — the lecture’s “plain basis, alternate order” rule.