Powell's Shadow Weave book

So now that P2P2 is over, I have began focusing on a totally new concet: shadow weave. I reviewed the book 1000+ patterns by Powell, and wow!!!  She really packs in a lot of patterns with the method that she uses!!!  Her method was confusing at first, and I have heard that from a lot of people so I wasn't too surprised to see that it was confusing. But her explanations are really good, and if you take the time to sit and study it all out then the book has a lot to offer.  Here are some hints that I can offer from experimenting with her drafts:

• Powell's threads are labeled with letters like AaBbCcDd. Each capital letter is a dark thread and each lower case is a light thread.  They also refer to shafts, like this: A=1, a=2, B=3, b=4, C= 2, c=1, D=4, d=3
• Powell also uses numbers for threading, like 12-34-21-43 is the same as above, but the underlined number is the dark thread and the one without a line is the light thread. The number is the shaft.
• The tie up is easy. It's 2-4, 1-3, 2-3, 1-4. Each has a letter assigned to it, so don't forget that it goes ACBD.
• After you get this concept down for 4-shafts, it's easy to transfer into 6 or 8-shafts.
• If you are confused, try playing with it on a computer program. That way, there is no yarn waste and you can experiment all you want! I have already drafted out two of them, and after playing with it on the computer it made so much sense.
• Pay close attention to the drafts. Sometimes it goes AaBb and then suddenly switches to bB or aA. So watch those letter sizes and places.
• Powell places the letters in the threading on the shafts which they belong but she does it in groups of 2, so the lower numbers/letters are the odd shafts and the slightly elevated numbers/letters are the even shafts.
• The first patterns show you different profile drafts and what happens if they have colors or not. The second 2/3 of the book are different patterns broken up into 4,6,8 shaft patterns. Pictures are labeled with shaft first, number, and then the number of pattern on the set. So, 4-2-2 would be 4-shafts, 2nd draft, and the 2nd part.  Here are some examples of these below:

There are a few pages in the book that have the drafts already done.  This is the draft on page 14:

 

I actually started with this one so I could play with it on the computer to learn how to understand the new notations.  Notice the AaBbCcDd's are all filled in the threading and the treadling.  Remember, the A=1, a=2, B=3, b=4, C= 2, c=1, D=4, d=3 and the tie up is 2-4 (A), 1-3(C), 2-3(B), 1-4(D).

Example of 6-2-6:  (Translated, the first number means it's a 6-shaft project.  The second number means it is the 2nd project in the 6-shaft section.  And the third number means it's threading variation #6.)  This is a picture of page 163:

When you take all the information and plug it in where it belongs in the draft, this is how it looks: