I GOT MAIL!
I did an equipment swap with another weaver at Weavolution.com. When I went up into the highlands a few months ago, I bought a bunch of Bolivian drop spindles at the market and then offered them at Weavolution in return for stuff that I can’t get here in Bolivia.
An offer was made to adopt my last drop spindle and we negotiated the swap-cotton sliver in indigo, terracotta and natural. I learned to spin cotton in Ecuador a couple of years ago and have gone through my small quantity of raw material. Santa Cruz used to be an important cotton producing region in the old days but not a single boll to be found now. So I jumped at the chance to get this sliver in such gorgeous sounding colors!
My package arrived and this is what I found!
The contents of my spindle-swap package
Okay, now you can see why I am so excited! Yes, I got my gorgeous sliver. The white stuff in the middle is, in fact, tussah silk! A teeny spindle was included and there below……..TWO RIGID HEDDLES!!
It is like she read my mind. I have been wanting to weave with a rigid heddle on my backstrap loom for a long time. WHY?-when I know all these wonderful intricate pick-up weave techniques? What I wanted to do was show knitters, spinners and other never-ever weavers that backstrap weaving is not only about warp-faced fabrics with pick up patterning. You can also weave balanced weave textiles and produce kitchen towels, scarves, table runners, placemats-all the things that we like to make on our rigid heddle looms. I was also aware that most of the ready-made backstrap kits available come with a rigid heddle- so I really wanted to try it out.
First project-a red table runner in plain weave
Second project-green placemat
Now, I have tried balanced weaves on my backstrap loom without a rigid heddle with success-a log cabin piece, a simple pin wheel and a twill using three heddles but it is really fussy. You have to be constantly watching the warps as they want to stray over into warp faced. You end up unweaving and adjusting as the width varies too. Yes, it is do-able but the word TENACITY springs to mind.
It was a breeze with the rigid heddle. I used 8/2 thread doubled in the 10dpi heddle and made two lovely cloths. I am stupidly excited about being able to make something that feels like ”cloth”!-as opposed to my complementary and supplementary warp-faced weaves which are more on the stiff side.
The two cloths off the loom
Yes, those fringes are a bit unruly but they will be trimmed. I have already found good use for these two projects.
A ''camba''/ ''gaucho'' breakfast
”Camba” is the name for people from Santa Cruz. The green cloth lines my basket of ”cunape”. These cheesy bread rolls are a typical breakfast or tea time snack. The ”gaucho” or, Argentinean, part of this set up is the ”yerba mate” . Yerba mate is a kind of tea typical of Argentina and Uruguay. You put the leaves in the small silver pot, add hot water and sugar and sip it through the wodden straw. There are many different ways to prepare it. I can take it or leave it but some Argentineans are totally addicted to it and go around everywhere with their pot and thermos. The pot is usually shared with a group-passed around with each person taking a sip.
And here is the red cloth in action………….
achachairu-every good ''camba's'' favorite fruit!
This fruit is in season now, but beware, they are very acid. My teeth ache for days after eating these!
So, if you are thinking of taking up weaving and are interested in trying the portable, inexpensive backstrap loom, you can add a rigid heddle for under $30 to your equipment and make these lovely balanced weave pieces.
Here’s a place that sells rigid heddle segments-just a few inches wide- for under $10 in three sizes-
http://www.villagespinweave.com/IBS/SimpleCat/Product/asp/hierarchy/060A/product-id/373082.html
Now to get back to the highlands, get more spindles and see what other goodies show up in the mail!
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hi ,Laverne ,I was already courious about your blog since you mentioned it on Flickr.
well congratulations .it looks good and I am glad you invited me to be part of this;I like to see what you are weaving and achieving in your fiber related hobby .feel free to peep at my blog if you like:http://jskunstweven.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!9F13A829247F7571!189.entry
jeannine
By: jeannine on December 13, 2009
at 7:50 pm
Welcome Jeannine and thanks! I will indeed go visit your blog now.:-)
Laverne
By: lavernewaddington on December 13, 2009
at 8:04 pm
Thanks Laverne, I have been thing about doing the same with a small rigid heddle. What did you do with the ends as you had to cut one end to thread through the holes? Just tie in groups around the bar attached to the backstrap?
Connie
By: Connie (Spinnerholm) on December 13, 2009
at 7:52 pm
Hi Connie and welcome!
Yes, I had to cut the ends of course. The prospect was not pleasing as cutting is not necessary with string heddles, as you know. However, it was quite easy. I strapped in and set up the heddle over the warp using two small stools on either side of the warp and clamps. I actually tied each and every warp in a knot around my bar rather than tying them in groups as I figured there would be less warp waste that way and I could get a good clean start. I”ll post a photo of the set up with heddle clamped the next time I warp up.
Laverne
By: lavernewaddington on December 13, 2009
at 8:11 pm
Congratulations, Laverne on your brand new blog. You fill a niche for weavers everywhere.
By: ML on December 13, 2009
at 8:21 pm
Thank you and welcome to the niche ML!
Laverne
By: lavernewaddington on December 13, 2009
at 8:32 pm
Great start to your blog! The towels are beautiful and seeing them at work on the table really brings life to the process.
You have some great cotton there for spinning too.
Thanks for the invite to your blog.
Have a good day!
By: Franco Rios on December 13, 2009
at 8:38 pm
Hi Franco! Thanks so much for dropping by.
Laverne
By: lavernewaddington on December 13, 2009
at 8:48 pm
Wow, I can see why you were excited to get such a great package in the mail!! Hope the spinning is going well.
Thanks for letting me know about your blog!
By: Cindy (mischiefmanaged) on December 13, 2009
at 8:47 pm
Hi Cindy,
I haven’t started spinning this cotton yet. I think I need to get my hand back in with some ”rough” stuff. This cotton is just too too lovely to risk!
Thanks for visiting.
By: lavernewaddington on December 13, 2009
at 9:04 pm
Congratulations on biting the bullet! I’m sure this will be one of the most popular blogs on the net!
By: Caroline Alexander on December 13, 2009
at 10:28 pm
Hi Caroline and thanks!
”the most popular”……ooh…. now you have put the pressure on! 🙂
By: lavernewaddington on December 13, 2009
at 10:39 pm
And I thought that weaving was such a simple pleasure. I can see from your blog that there can be so much more. Love the gaucho breakfast picture. Beautiful photography.
Kim
By: Kim Decosta on December 14, 2009
at 1:53 am
Thanks for the invitation, Laverne. Congratulations on your new blog! It looks great! Looking forward to reading about your adventures.
Great to see a nice big copy of the photo of you at the loom, with the Guarani piece. That is an amazing weaving! Do you know how many hours you put into that one?
By: Aunt Janet on December 14, 2009
at 3:35 am
Thanks for visiting Aunt Janet. I think the Guarani piece took 3 weeks working 2-3 hours a day. Pebble weave is a bit faster than the other pick up techniques I know as every second row is loom controlled. I told my friend in Utah that I would make a bookmark for him but somehow the message got crossed and I heard back from him saying how happy he would be to have a wall hanging from me and that he had reserved the perfect spot for it!!
By: lavernewaddington on December 14, 2009
at 3:56 am
very funny when internet helps !!!
By: Michelle on December 15, 2009
at 6:05 pm
Hi Laverne,
So nice to see your blog. I’ll be looking forward to reading your posts.
I should take your example and return to updating my blog regularly – it as been almost a year since my last post 🙁
It’s lovely to see your cloths in action. It is inspiring.
When I become a bit more proficient in warp-faced weaving, I’m going to have to try balanced weave.
By: Filomena on December 14, 2009
at 12:40 pm
Do get your blog going again Filomena and give me the address so I can put you on my blogroll. You have all your new backstrap experiments to write about!
By: lavernewaddington on December 14, 2009
at 12:43 pm
I am so excited about your blog. I have been enamored of the hispanic culture for many years now – studying Spanish and visiting Latin America countries (Peru, Costa Rica, Mexico). And I love weaving too. So – your blog is the perfect combination of both. Can you tell more about “going to the highlands”? Were you born in Bolivia? If not – what brought you to be living there now? oh – I have a million questions, but I’ll stop there.
By: sandi smith on December 14, 2009
at 2:18 pm
Hi Sandy!
Ooooh…..long story. I will email you! Bits and pieces will come out in the blog but I will give you a preview 🙂
By: lavernewaddington on December 14, 2009
at 3:09 pm
Congratulations, you said it, and you did it !!!
Well, now you just have to tell us because we are waiting to read… and please, don’t make us jealous we all are curious to know your long story !!!
hope to read more and more
by the way, help me, I couldn’t find any real explanation about what is “pebble weave”
By: Michelle on December 14, 2009
at 6:48 pm
Hi there Michelle,
I have added a page about my journey to Bolivia just for you(!) As for pebble weave, the weaving on my blog header, the Guarani piece and the red weaving in the invitation I sent you are all done in pebble weave. This weave is characterized by the little spots, or pebbles, that you can see on the surface.
By: lavernewaddington on December 15, 2009
at 12:57 pm
muito muito obrigada Laverne ! ok, I’ve seen what is pebble weave, now I’m just waiting (patiently…) for learning this technique !!!
As for the special page on your journey… rendez-vous on this page !
By: Michelle on December 15, 2009
at 6:10 pm
I’m delighted that you’re blogging now, and looking forward to learning more about the possibilities of weaving with backstrap looms 😉
By: Dot on December 14, 2009
at 7:58 pm
Welcome Dot,
Thank you so much for visiting and for your support.
By: lavernewaddington on December 14, 2009
at 9:05 pm
Hi, Laverne. I’m so excited about your new blog!
By: Kim on December 15, 2009
at 4:55 pm
Hey Kim,
Thanks for being here. I have you on my blog roll!
By: lavernewaddington on December 15, 2009
at 5:15 pm
I just blogged about receiving my two new Beka rigid heddles. You’re quite an influence!
By: Kim on December 15, 2009
at 5:24 pm
Hi ! just me again !
do you know about this technique ?
http://l.yimg.com/g/images/spaceball.gif
????
By: Michelle on December 15, 2009
at 7:47 pm
http://www.flickr.com/photos/eyerai/3515058490/in/set-72157605916255300/
hmm, that should function better !!
By: Michelle on December 15, 2009
at 7:48 pm
Isn’t that spectacular!! I learned some spplementary weft patterning with two teachers in Guatemala but nothing as intricate as that! I suppose it is a matter of taking the basic technique and exploring with it. Thanks for that lovely link, Michelle.
By: lavernewaddington on December 15, 2009
at 8:18 pm
Laverne, I post now and then on your blog, your weaving has been a guiding star for me, indirectly and directly… even more so than the famous blogging weavers of modern times who dominate the internet. You, in your little nest down in Bolivia, have helped me immensely! Even though (at first) I wanted to weave balanced plain weave, not even realizing this is what I wanted, but loved your blog I found maybe about 8 years ago, not sure when that was, but summer of 2023 I started, and have been making up for lost time!
I wanted to comment to this early post because I am reading your whole blog from its beginning, at least I intend to. I wonder so many things about your journey, and figured, the only way to really understand this is to start from the beginning of the blog. I’m sure there are some things I will find out by reading, what you were doing in your early years weaving in Bolivia, teaching English I know that much, but in the 90’s. I keep remembering what I was doing in the mid 90’s; was the tail end of a decade of attending a local spinning group, and learned to spin and knit, but nothing with weaving. The 90’s seem to me a renaissance of hand-made and global ethnic treasures… I lived in a small cabin in the mountains of Napa, and at this time in my life I live very close to that spot, in so many ways, I’m back at the beginning of the journey I began in the late 80’s and early 90’s. I just wanted to say that reading your blog from the beginning, I feel like I recognize my own aspirations. Revisiting those aspirations of long ago , in your blog, is helping me reorganize my priorities in weaving, having been so amazed and wowed in the last several years by production weaving of basic balanced cloth, such as the Donegal Weavers, etc… but now, feeling like I am once again having to adjust my goals. I am still charmed by the simplistic apparatus that is the backstrap weaving, I have all the sticks, and tools, in several sizes, I have explored balanced weave, and now I am better educated about weaving, enough to seriously appreciate your work!
This has become quite a long letter, but I know that you are kept company by your readers and their replies to your great posts. I am also an old-school blogger (not quite as old-school as your blog, but close) and feel like it is time to weed out the internet influences in my life, off of all social media (except for the wordpress blogs, is that considered social media?) and simplifying. I feel now that my life is about retiring into what I really want to accomplish, in my early 60’s, I am perhaps slowed down a little by age but thrust forward at the same time by knowledge gained. Your blog is a major influencer in my life now, and I want to let you know that your whole epic journey, of documented experience, so carefully and well written, is much appreciated by many . Thank you!
Jen from the hills of California
By: Jen on September 8, 2024
at 4:08 pm
Hi Jen,
Thank you so much for this thoughtful message! I can’t tell you how much it means to me.
I’m also in my early 60s. I feel sad for the numerous times I was in your neck of the woods and we never got to meet. I know that once I’m back in Australia, I’ll be visiting all my west coast weaving friends and I hope that we can weave together one day.
I’ll apologize in advance for some of the old blog posts in which you’ll no doubt find that many of the links to inspiring videos and products no longer work. That’s the way it goes on the web, unfortunately. I also took down a couple of tutorials once I’d published books on the topics as I’d updated my approach to teaching them and my way of charting etc.
I haven’t been back to read those early posts in which I was bursting with enthusiasm to share everything having suddenly found that people actually wanted to know. I often rambled on way too long! And I used to faithfully post once a week. I’m not up to that these days!
I hope you enjoy the reading. I hope I don’t contradict myself too much. I know there were times when I’d write convinced that I’d sorted something puzzling out only to find out later that I hadn’t!
What is your blog called?
I look forward to hearing again from you!
Laverne
By: lavernewaddington on September 8, 2024
at 7:29 pm
ps. I think I linked this post to you before, last year when I was trying backstrap weaving and asking a lot of annoying questions about how to make it more balanced, must have been so frustrating for you.
By: Jen on September 8, 2024
at 10:03 pm
Oh yes, I do remember seeing that post now….those gorgeous colors!
By: lavernewaddington on September 10, 2024
at 5:28 am