Loomy Squatch

Open a little weaving studio in a wool-mill town. Clients bring a picture of the cloth they dream of, and you work out how to weave it on a real floor loom. THE WEAVER'S DRAFT Weavers have planned cloth on squared paper for centuries. Choose which shaft each thread goes through, which shafts each pedal lifts, and which pedal you press for every row. The cloth appears square by square as you go, exactly as it will come off the loom. FIND THE HIDDEN PATTERN Your loom only has a few shafts and pedals, so you can't just copy the picture. Spot which columns and rows of the cloth are the same, and the whole design folds down into a tiny tie-up. It's a real piece of algebra hiding in a craft.