Design Repeats

What It Does

Design Repeats duplicates your threading and/or treadling patterns to extend your draft. Whether you need to repeat a small motif across a wide warp or tile a treadling sequence down a long piece, this tool handles the expansion while preserving colors and yarn thickness.

The dialog offers two approaches: Quick Repeat for simple duplication of your entire pattern, and Advanced Repeat for selective, controlled repeats with optional shaft/treadle shifting.

---

Opening Design Repeats

• Ribbon: Design tab > Repeats group > Design Repeats button

---

The Dialog

The dialog has two tabs: Quick Repeat and Advanced Repeat.

---

Quick Repeat

Quick Repeat is the simplest way to extend your draft — specify how many additional copies you want, and the entire pattern is duplicated.

Warp Section

Repeat Warp — Check this to repeat the warp threading.

Times — How many additional copies to add (1–9,999). A value of 1 doubles your warp; a value of 2 triples it, and so on.

Include Colors — When checked, warp thread colors are repeated along with the threading. When unchecked, only shaft assignments are copied (new threads get the default color).

Include Thickness — When checked, yarn thickness values are repeated. When unchecked, new threads get the default thickness.

The dialog shows the calculated result — total thread count and the resulting width in inches or centimeters based on your sett.

Weft Section

Repeat Weft — Check this to repeat the weft treadling.

Times — How many additional copies (1–9,999).

Include Colors — Repeat pick colors.

Include Thickness — Repeat pick thickness values.

Shows the calculated pick count and length based on your beat.

Using Quick Repeat

You can repeat warp and weft independently or together. Check whichever you need, set the repeat counts, and click Apply. The pattern extends immediately. After applying, the checkboxes are unchecked to prevent accidental double-application.

---

Advanced Repeat

Advanced Repeat gives you fine-grained control over what gets repeated, where it goes, and how the shaft or treadle assignments change with each repetition.

Warp or Weft

Choose whether to repeat the warp threading or the weft treadling.

Source Range

From / To — The starting and ending thread (or pick) numbers that define the pattern to repeat. This lets you select any portion of your existing draft as the source — you don't have to repeat everything.

Destination

Start At — The thread or pick number where the first repeat begins.

Repeats — How many copies to place (0–9,999).

The dialog shows a preview: "Repeats will end at thread: X" along with the resulting measurement.

Repeat Modes

Three modes control how the pattern changes with each repetition:

Regular

Copies the source pattern unchanged to each position. Every repeat is identical to the original. This is the standard "tile" behavior.

Advancing

Shifts shaft (or treadle) assignments forward by a step value with each successive repeat. The first repeat shifts by the step amount, the second by twice the step, and so on. Assignments that exceed the available shafts wrap around to the beginning.

For example, with a source threading of shafts 1-2-3 and a step of 1:

• Original: 1-2-3

• Repeat 1: 2-3-4

• Repeat 2: 3-4-5

• Repeat 3: 4-5-6 (wrapping if needed)

This creates gradually shifting patterns — useful for advancing twills, gradual transitions, and decorative effects.

Decreasing

The opposite of Advancing — shifts shaft assignments backward by the step value with each repeat. Assignments that go below shaft 1 wrap around to the highest shaft.

Step — The amount to shift per repeat (visible only for Advancing and Decreasing modes).

Options

Include Colors — Copy source colors to each repeat.

Include Thickness — Copy source thickness values to each repeat.

---

How to Use It

Quick Repeat

1. Set up your base pattern (threading and/or treadling)

2. Open Design Repeats from the Design tab

3. On the Quick Repeat tab, check Warp and/or Weft

4. Enter the number of additional copies

5. Click Apply

Advanced Repeat

1. Open Design Repeats and switch to the Advanced Repeat tab

2. Choose Warp or Weft

3. Set the source range (the portion of the pattern to repeat)

4. Set the destination start and repeat count

5. Choose a repeat mode (Regular, Advancing, or Decreasing)

6. If using Advancing or Decreasing, set the step value

7. Click Apply

---

Step-by-Step Example: Extending a Sampler

You've threaded a 4-shaft twill motif across 20 threads and want it to repeat 10 times for a sampler warp:

1. Open Design Repeats > Quick Repeat

2. Check Repeat Warp, set Times to 9 (9 additional copies = 10 total)

3. Check Include Colors and Include Thickness

4. Leave Weft unchecked (you'll set that up separately)

5. Click Apply — your 20-thread motif now spans 200 threads

Step-by-Step Example: Creating an Advancing Twill

You want a threading that gradually shifts upward across the warp:

1. Thread a simple 4-shaft straight draw (1-2-3-4) in threads 1–4

2. Open Design Repeats > Advanced Repeat

3. Set Source: From 1, To 4

4. Set Destination: Start At 5, Repeats 8

5. Select Advancing mode with Step 1

6. Click Apply

7. The threading now progresses: 1-2-3-4, 2-3-4-5, 3-4-5-6, etc. (wrapping as needed)

---

Tips

• Undo works — Ctrl+Z reverts the entire repeat operation.

• Check your measurements — The dialog shows the resulting width or length based on your sett/beat. Use this to plan your warp or weaving length before applying.

• Quick Repeat resets after apply — Checkboxes uncheck automatically after applying to prevent accidental double-repeats.

• Advanced for partial repeats — Use the source range to repeat just part of your pattern (e.g., only the border motif, not the whole threading).

• Advancing creates movement — Advancing repeats are powerful for creating gradual pattern evolution across your draft — the same motif slowly shifting through the shafts.

• Wrap is automatic — In Advancing and Decreasing modes, shaft numbers that go beyond the available range wrap around seamlessly.

---

Quick Reference

Tab	What It Does
Quick Repeat	Duplicate entire warp and/or weft N times
Advanced Repeat	Repeat a selected range with Regular, Advancing, or Decreasing shift

Mode	Behavior
Regular	Each repeat is identical to the source
Advancing	Shafts/treadles shift forward by step per repeat
Decreasing	Shafts/treadles shift backward by step per repeat

Option	Effect
Include Colors	Copy thread/pick colors with repeats
Include Thickness	Copy yarn thickness with repeats