August 2013 – Backstrap Loom Weaving

Backstrap Weaving – Seeing Double

Seeing double….it was interesting weaving these two panels for my wall hanging at the same time on my backstrap loom. I am sure that doing so helped me achieve the identical spacing and dimensions of the supplementary-weft motifs that I was aiming for. I had those specific reasons for doing it that way. Did it save time? I am not really sure. I guess there was some efficiency in warping both panels in one session.

This is not the first time I have done this. A long time ago when I made a carry bag for my backstrap weaving stuff I needed two separate narrow bands for side panels. I wanted the neatness of the third selvedge on both and so wanted to weave them as two separate bands rather than weave one long band which would then be cut in half. Somehow I thought that it would be more efficient to weave them side by side like this. It was an interesting exercise but I couldn’t find anything about the process that was more efficient.

Well, okay, maybe it saved just a little time…the time that I would have spent dilly-dallying and messing around after finishing the first band and then finally heading to the warping board to set up the second one.

I know why the Montagnard weavers weave two bands together on their backstrap looms. It is simply a question of balance and a more comfortable way to weave. The Montagnard looms are designed for very wide pieces…wide panels that will be joined to make blankets and skirts. Placing a single narrow band in the center of the loom bar that wide is awkward.

The bands shown in progress above will be bag straps for what the weavers have nicknamed their “Bible bags”.

In the next picture you can get a better idea of just how large those loom pieces are. Take a look at that mighty sword!

Now I can sit and wonder about the following piece that I saw recently on Teyacapan’s fabulous Flickr page of Mexican crafts and textiles…

The motifs are identical on both pieces but it is hard imagine that they are destined to be part of the same project because of the difference in border colors and, indeed, Karen says that they are fajas (belts). The loom bar is not extraordinarily wide so I don’t think that balance had anything to do with it. It is fun to see the different ways that weavers choose to set up their projects.

So, having finished the two red panels I am now working on the central black one…

I am using a coil rod on this warp, as I did on the two red panels, to help lock the warp threads in place and stop them from slipping around the far loom bar. It is the movement of the threads around the far bar as the sheds are opened that I believe is responsible for the corrugated look that warp- faced cotton pieces often develop. I am being a little unconventional by using one on what is not a circular warp. I have written a series of posts about the coil rod starting with this one.

I was apparently very distracted as I placed the coil rod in this warp. I placed it upside down and only noticed, even though it was very obvious, after I was three-quarters of the way through. Thankfully, the fact that the rod sits on the underside of the warp rather than on its upper face does not have any affect on its performance.

While looking through the pictures I took when I studied with the Montagnard weavers I found this shot of Ju Nie’s coil rod sitting nicely in position on her circular warp.

As I have said before, I want to play with creating the motifs by using the supplementary weft to form the motif itself as well as outline the motif in the black ground weave. You can see below, the first a row of ground weave motifs followed by the supplementary-weft ones and then a repeat of the ground-weave style.

Then I wove my adaptation of the Calcha hatband motif that I so love which inludes the flower head motif woven at the beginning of the black piece.

So far, I think that it is all working pretty well together.

And now I have decided that I need to challenge (or torture?) myself by weaving both styles side by side. That is causing me to see double all over again!

You can see what I mean by “both styles side by side” in the patterns on the Bolivian hatband in the center below

The band has two ground-weave colors with one half of the band being white and the other yellow. The bird motif is formed in the supplementary weft on the white half of the band. On the yellow half the bird shape shows in the yellow ground weave and is outlined by the supplementary weft. The turns of the supplementary wefts are along the edges of the band which means that each shed holds the ground weft and two supplementary wefts. I have tried that myself but the result of stuffing all that weft into each shed with the weight of yarn that I use is too bulky for my liking.

For the moment, a whole two rows into the next set of motifs, I am bending my brain trying to see the motif in positive form and then negative and back to positive again as I work my way picking and dropping threads across the warp. As with anything, I am sure that I will just get used to it.

I finished the three-color pebble weave band…one background color and two motif colors…another form of seeing double, I suppose, having had to think about two colors simultaneously forming patterns instead of one.

Only now that the band is finished, I fully appreciate the feel and sheen of the tencel which simply weren’t apparent when the piece was at full stretch on the loom.

I found that there are lots of great sites online with free bag sewing patterns…no need to link to any particular one…there are LOADS of them. There is one for a cute backpack that I just might have to try. I will sew this band onto it. Now, should I weave the fabric for the backpack with a tiny bit of three-color pebble accent or should I go out and buy fabric? Seeing as I know nothing about fabric, that alone will be a challenge. Actually, I wouldn’t mind weaving a very wide piece of plain-ish fabric on my backstrap loom.

Now to get that four-color band finished…something to relax with when all that positive and negative stuff on the black panel starts to flip me out! The other thing that is relaxing is thinking about and planning the weft-twined pattern that I hope to use to join the three panels along the top….down on the floor with charting paper and pencil and eraser…love that!

And again, while looking through my pictures of my Montagnard weaving teachers I found this one of a beautiful skirt woven by Ju Nie with its kteh work, the weft twined finish. Ju Nie often sends her skirt pieces back to Vietnam for her sister, who is more expert in kteh than she is, to add the twined and beaded finish.

To finish I would like to show you one of the most beautiful pictures of a collection of bands I have ever seen…

These are some of the tablet-woven bands by Louise Ström in Sweden. Those of you who have my second book may recall Louise’s contribution of some of her tablet-weaving motifs. I show how these can be adapted to Andean Pebble Weave. In fact, I recognize one of the bands that she allowed me to use for patterns is in the basket above. Louise recently completed a booklet in English on tablet weaving entitled Krusband – Tablet Woven Poetry. A booklet about tablet weaving without using a chart. The appendix, which can be bought separately, has over 100 original patterns.

Back to my loom now. Let’s see if now, with a clear head, row three on the black panel is any less confusing!

Backstrap Weaving – An Early Start on the Finish

I have two out of three panels for the wall hanging finished. That sounds like a lot but these two panels are just the “quiet companions” for the center black panel which will be heavy with supplementary-weft patterning. So, while it might sound like 66% of the work is done, it isn’t so. Still, it feels good to have this project well under way. I have even wound the warp for the center panel and now need to install 312 heddles and wind 624 ends around the coil rod….it’s worth it!

The black panel will have a lot of supplementary-weft inlay filling both positive and negative space. Then I would like to join the three panels across the top using weft twining and need to plan a design for that which will suit the woven patterns.

The Montagnard (Vietnamese hilltribe) backstrap weavers with whom I studied in the US use weft twining across the ends of the panels they sew together to make blankets. Two or three panels are sewn together once off the loom and then weft-twined patterns are added to one edge.

Above you can see my teacher Nagch working on a piece draped over a frame. The colored threads that she uses to encircle the hanging warp-ends are held on small cement bobbins that she made.

You can see how it is necessary to have the warps-ends under tension while the twining takes place. Nagch pulls the ends tight with one hand while twisting the bobbins with the other.

LEFT: Twining class with Nagch at Betsy's house. At right, Ju shows me how she gathers the warps in groups and sizes them before twining. — LEFT: Twining class with Nagch at Betsy’s house. At right, Ju shows me how she gathers the warps in groups and sizes them before twining.

Here are some the beautiful examples of twining on the edges of Montagnard skirts and blankets made by Nagch and Ju Nie…just the right colors for my project!

Twining on the bottom of a loin cloth. This image was shared with me by Susan Stem.

I have tried weft twining both on and off the loom and it is far easier for me to control while the pieces are still on the loom with the warp ends under tension. As my wall hanging is nowhere near as wide as the Montagnard blankets and skirts, I will be able to put the three panels on my backstrap loom side by side and twine all the way across them. That will be the only place that the three panels will be connected.

Then I will add some twining to the bottom of each individual panel. Again, it will be fun coming up with a design that works well with those on the panels.

I think they will need the weight of the twining at the bottom to help them hang well. I have always imagined that one of the possible reasons Montagnard weavers add twining and beads to the bottom of the loin cloths they weave is for the added weight. You wouldn’t want the flaps of those loin cloths blowing about in the breeze!

Anyway, that is what I envision for my wall hanging for the time being. Who knows how this plan will be modified along the way.

I have other ideas for perhaps edging the piece with a tubular band. So, I took some time off from the wall hanging project and brushed up on a tubular band structure that Marijke van Epen and I studied together when I visited her in the Netherlands last year. We had a picture from a book and were able after a couple of attempts to figure it out.

As luck would have it, just ten days after I got home from that trip, I went to Peru and came across a weaver from Chahuaytire, in the Cusco region, weaving and sewing one of these very bands to the edges of a large piece of woven cloth. I saw how he had set up the warp and separated the threads into their various heddles and was able to buy a prepared warp from him.

It was a long loooong warp!

It was designed to go all the way around one of the typical large carrying cloths.

Look at all that luscious handspun thread! The thread was colored with natural dyes and some of the shades of green were very similar. This means that the pattern is a little hard to discern.

The example that Marijke and I had been studying in Nilda Callañaupa’s first book had been done in very bright and distinct colors…six in all counting the border color.

I have made a few examples and have decided that I prefer a quieter version. The minimum number of colors could be as few as two. That’s just as well as my wall hanging uses only three colors.

I have been sewing them along the edge of a wool band for practice. The one on the right is probably closest color-wise to the one in Nilda’s book. There is one fewer color in my wool version in the center.

Here is the three-color cotton version I made that I would prefer for my project:

Here is one from Chahuaytire that I photographed at the CTTC stall at the Santa Fe International Folk Art Market in July….those colors are so gorgeous!

Weft twined bottoms and tops and tubular edgings…it seems that I am more intent on thinking about the finishing touches for this project before I can even get started on the meaty part of it.

And, while on the same break…basically dithering around before getting into what I was really supposed to be doing, that is, winding the warp for the black panel….I decided to continue the three-color Andean Pebble weave sampler. It was coming out so well that I decided that I really needed to use it for something. I will probably sew it onto a woven piece of fabric. Too bad we won’t be able to appreciate the fact that it is reversible that way but it just so happens that all the mistakes are on the back! Never mind, there are some bigger and better projects yet to come using this structure!

The flower head motif is the center and I am now working my way backwards repeating the patterns. There you can see the hummingbird sipping from its flower.

Now, if only I were as talented with fabric and sewing needle as Julia….

Julia and Cindy, who are both in the Ravelry group and live on opposite sides of the US, got together at the Mannings to show and share their backstrap weaving work. Cindy lives in the northwest and has woven with me and Julia and I have gotten together a couple of times too. That’s Julia on the left and Cindy on the right.

That’s an impressive display of their collective backstrap weaving work! I see some weft inlay work in there amongst the pebble weave and there must be a bunch of tubular bands there too.

Father Kyriakos in Australia sent me a picture of his Andean pebble weave work. He has both my books and is playing with color changes as well as working on using narrow patterns with reversals and reflections to create wider designs. I would say that he is a natural!

Well, that’s enough thinking ahead about how my wall hanging will be finished. It’s time to knuckle down and continue weaving it. I am off to dress up that black warp with its heddles and coil rod….see you next week.

Backstrap Weaving – Pebbles and Panels

If I needed an excuse to be a little less productive than usual this week, I had one. It was my birthday!

Another was the arrival of another wave of cold weather. It was perfect for lying on the sofa under a blanket with a hot beverage and a pile of textiles books. I was getting and consolidating more ideas for the next series of wall hangings.

The dilemma: My current wall hanging project has been woven in three colors: red, black and white. I have three pieces so far and have just started the fourth…

These are two of three panels that will form the whole piece pictured with the weft inlay sampler I made with this project in mind. I have a plan for a special way of uniting the three panels once they are done. There will be two identical red panels flanking a black. You can see that I have decided to weave both the red panels at once. Why? Because I am simply not confident about being able to weave one red patterned panel alone and then go on to produce a perfect replica.

And this is the thing about backstrap weaving and the fact that part of the loom itself is ME, a living, breathing thing with changing moods and attitudes which are so easily reflected in the cloth I am producing.

Just the way I am seated in any one weaving session and a change in the amount of tension I am applying can have an effect on the way the motifs look…more rounded, more elongated. Some days I weave in half hour bursts and barely settle into it. On others I can sit for three hours at a time and get into a wonderful flowing rhythm.

This means that if I write down the fomula for my first panel, for example, the number of picks of plain weave I need to do between motifs and follow that to the letter for the second panel, there is no guarantee that panel number 2 will be identical to number 1. However, I am happy to report that this is less and less of a problem for me as years go by and I become increasingly experienced. BUT I am not taking any risks with this wall hanging project and its two red panels!

Solution: weave them both together!

Of course, the weavers here in Bolivia and Peru don’t have that option when weaving the panels for their carrying cloths. Due to the width of the pieces, they can only manage one panel at a time on their backstrap loom. Look at the Peruvian piece above. You can see the zig zag red stitching that joins the two panels. All that patterning you can see on the right is perfectly duplicated on the left. They can weave for months and months with the myraid of interruptions and distractions that running a household entails and still produce two perfectly identical panels.

And then my mind is blown completely when I see the competition pieces that are made for the annual events held by the Center for Traditional Textiles in Cusco (CTTC). The 2010 event required weavers from each community to work as a team to produce pieces comprising many individual panels. Some communities challenged themselves to the max!

This is one of the winning pieces (I believe that it is from Sallac) from the 2010 competition and is being presented in this picture at the Tinkuy. I don’t know how many weavers were involved with this but I imagine that they must have had to work very closely together to achieve such consistency in those individual squares. Each weaver would have had to include the same amount of pattern with exactly the same dimensions as the others in his/her square. A weaver who applied more tension or who didn’t beat as hard would have created motifs that were slightly more elongated than the others and would have not been able to fit as much pattern into the square. Goodness knows if or how many squares had to be rejected. There were stories of tears, disappointments and frustration when weavers representing the various communities spoke on the podium.

I can see that the top ikat panels on the left and right don’t have the same orientation. I bet there is quite a story behind that!

The community of Pitumarca added yet another dimension by weaving panels of pattern within panels using the discontinuous-warp, or scaffolding, technique for which they are famous…

The CTTC has been posting pictures of some of the finalists in this year’s competition on their Facebook page (see below). I don’t know what the theme or requirements for this year’s event have been. The winners will be presented at the tinkuy in Cusco in November.

Some more detailed pictures posted by the CTTC….

Any guesses for the possible theme?….animals? twill?

And, are you going to the Tinkuy this year? It’s in November. There’s still time to register. Sadly, I am not. It was a tough decision but with my idea of going to Australia and possibly a trip to Mexico some time in the near future, I have to sacrifice some things. Even Australia is a bit iffy at this point.

Two of my backstrap weaving students, Dorothy and Karen will be going and I am already pestering them to send me daily reports. You can read my reports on the 2010 event here and here.

As for the dilemma that I mentioned way back in the beginning….before getting sidetracked by spectacular panels….I have taken up my studies of 3 and 4-color pebble weave again after having put it aside for several years and I now I want to include the 4-color version as part of my wall hanging series.

Four colors in a series of red, black and white….does not compute. So, a whole new series will be born. Those of you who have been following my blog and looking at my weavings for some time may already have a pretty good idea of what colors I will choose. If so, do tell, because I haven’t made that decision yet myself!

The red, black and white series will continue as I still have a bunch of ideas for that. However, while I have the 3 and 4-color pebble weave studies fresh in my mind, I would like to start a large piece with these techniques. I am still at the sampling stage, of course.

My first task will be to make a new strap for the four-color bag I wove years ago when I was still living in Chile.

It’s a wool bag with a cotton strap that is too short. It must come off. I have some wool that might work and I want to make a strap with a very small 3 or 4-color motif that won’t be overpowering.

I will have to dye the wool to suit and must look for wool dye in this land of cotton.

I continued with the three-color piece that I had started last week. This was more about creating some of my own patterns. I am sticking with flowery type things for the time being so that the band has some kind of theme. There’s a hummingbird which comes from a two-color pattern on a sash from Taquile Island. Carolyn’s bee pattern, that I included in my second book, would look good on this band. Sharon sent me embroidery designs for butterflies which were helpful.

There isn’t enough contrast between the light blue and yellow to be able to appreciate the figures on the reverse of the blue band. This band is made with tencel.

The four-color one in the next shot is cotton. There it is, mistakes and all.

Julia was taken with the multi-colored Bolivian hatband that I showed last week and wove a multi-colored band of her own…

Andean Pebble Weave…there’s a lifetime of study and creation for just this one structure.

It is not a beginner technique. With some warp-faced band-weaving experience and a bit of pick-up under your belt, you can start with my first book to learn the basics of the Andean Pebble Weave structure. Then you can go on to the second volume to deepen your understanding of Andean Pebble Weave and other complementary-warp structures while learning how to design and chart your own two-color pebble weave patterns. If you are new to warp-faced band weaving there are plenty of free tutorials here on my blog to get you started. Don’t rush into pebble weave.

Jennifer is enjoying the simple pleasure of creating plain weave without ridges (there has been much written on this blog about the pesky ridging problem and the final logical solution!)

Here are her pieces ready for finishing touches. The small needle case will have a tubular band edging. Jennifer followed my Cutting Corners tutorial but notes that the wood glue she used does not dry clear (the glue I get here known as carpenters’ glue does). Look at that lovely smooth plain weave.

I have added a coil rod to my two red panels to eliminate the ridging that often occurs in warp-faced cotton pieces on the backstrap loom. Coil rods are often applied by backstrap weavers to circular warps. Mine is not circular but I am using one anyway. The most common way to eliminate ridging on cotton single-plane warps is to weave an inch or so at the “wrong” end of the loom to lock everything into place before starting to weave at the “right” end. However, I didn’t want to do that on this project because I believe that it will make my planned finishing and joining technique for the three panels more awkward. The coil rod is doing the trick…what a marvellous piece of equipment!

Curious about the coil rod? Read here.

Until next week, let’s enjoy this beautiful old four-color piece that I found in an antique store right here in Santa Cruz about ten years ago…

And here is a last minute addition because I just went to Facebook and this leaped right off the page at me!

These are sashes woven by the Pueblo weavers and owners of Woven Dreams Textiles. This is part of their inventory for the Santa Fe Indian Market this week. One year I will get to that! Go to their Facebook page and take a look at the kilts they make.

Backstrap Weaving – Outside the Andean Box

I came back from Santa Fe with a different mind set…time to CREATE!

I told myself….Enough of the endless sampling and experimenting and getting distracted with new structures and designs from here, there and everywhere.

Use all the things you have been studying all these years and create some large pieces to hang. Perhaps it was because I was still so thrilled by how well my wall hangings had been received at the ANWG conference or perhaps I had soaked up some of that special sort of arty atmosphere in Santa Fe….

In any case, it seems that I just can’t help myself. I am back to sampling, sampling and playing with structures. Meanwhile, the ideas for those large pieces that I am talking about stack up in my head. I’ll get there.

I spent the whole week playng with the three-color reversible pebble weave. Slow going but fun….LOTS of fun. And that is why I keep coming back to experimenting like this.

And so, another band takes its place in the sample basket, mistakes and all…many lessons learned.

And yet another gets under way…

This one is in tencel and was a lesson in the selection and placement of three colors that would work well together in this structure on both sides of the fabric. I didn’t manage it. The reverse of this piece has a yellow background with the design outline in light blue and the design gets rather lost due to the lack of contrast between those two colors. This motif has a small element of a two-color pebble weave piece from the Colonial period that I had seen in a book. I added several of my own ideas to it, expanded it and inserted a third color.

I am really happy with this motif as I want to try to start thinking more outside what I call the “Andean box”. I would like to create designs using the structures that I have studied here in South America that are more and more my own and which do not necessarily have anything to do with traditional Andean patterns. The second motif that I have just started will be an original – a butterfly. Let’s see how that turns out. And then I have a few leaf motifs and some flower ones that I need to sample.

The plan is to weave something using the three-color technique in this color scheme…

The base color will be navy blue and then I will need to choose two of those three tencel colors which will interact on the two faces.

And, speaking of thinking outside the Andean box, here is Julia’s latest pebble weave creation…

Julia calls this River with Eddies. She used four shades of blue for the river and I love the various browns that border it…pebbles along the shore.

Of course, Julia has been venturing outside the Andean box for some time now. Once she got the hang of the Andean pebble weave technique, there was no stopping her.

From an adaptation of a tablet weaving pattern on the left and back to a traditional Andean one on the right…all her work is beautiful.

I am happy to see that Jennifer is back at the loom. We have missed her in the backstrap group. Summer tends to take people away.

Her latest warp is lovely. She says that it is going to be plain weave but I don’t know what the final product will be yet. Perhaps she is like me and doesn’t decide that until the piece is finished!

And, for something completely different, Bethan in France sent me a picture of the twill tartan piece that she made on a backstrap loom using her own handspun wool. She will weave another identical piece and sew them together for a shawl. Spinning for the second panel is underway.

Janet handed her young granddaughter a pencil and had her “connect the dots” on the pebble weave charting paper that I use in my second book to create her own design. She chose the colors and Janet wove the piece which Celia will have for a bag.

Thinking outside the Andean box…this idea first requires a definition of what exactly I mean by “Andean” . That may become harder and harder to define as Andean weavers these days look at their surroundings and often weave “non-traditional” patterns for themselves. Take a look at this Bolivian hatband…

It has three colors in play and I SO want to see what’s on the other side! Don’t you?

PS….This showed up in my Facebook newsfeed the morning after writing this post. Just had to throw it in here!

Backstrap Weaving – Cutting Corners

CUTTING CORNERS

Guarani weaver, Angela's cell phone pouches. — Guarani weaver Angela’s cell phone pouches.

Amongst other things, I have decided to do a little tutorial this week on cutting backstrap woven fabric and covering the raw cut edge with a protective band.

This is my latest favorite way to create the flap on a bag and I was given the courage to try this when I saw some of the work of my GuaranÍ weaving teacher here in Santa Cruz. She makes cell phone pouches with rounded flaps. I don’t know the steps that Angela takes to create these and so, have come up with my own. Possibly I am a bit over-cautious in my ways, but my system works for me and I am pleased with the results.

Making cell phone pouches is one of my favorite ways to use a piece on which I have been sampling structures or patterns. You can see the different ways in which I have formed the flaps. This often depends on just how much fabric I have to use. The alpaca sample bottom left, for example, is closed with a drawsting as there was not enough cloth to make a flap. The example at top left has a flap that was cut to shape and then covered with a tubular band.

Here are a couple more examples. The flap on the black bag was woven with quite a lightweight fabric compared to that used for the cell phone pouches. The tubular band, therefore was a bit heavy for it and caused the edges of the black flap to curl inward giving a convex shape. As it turned out that actually had its advantages! When the bag is filled with things and takes on a rounded shape, the flap curves nicely around it.

My latest bag project also has a rounded flap which is edged with a tubular band…

I had been calling this latest project “Tales from the Subcontinent” as it comprises designs from Bhutan and Afghanistan.

However, now it carries an element which has been influenced by Central Asia. Its closure tab was inspired by tablet- woven trim on Uzbek ikat-patterned robes.

I showed you pictures last week of the Uzbek garments that I saw at the International Folk Art Market in Santa Fe NM with their tablet-woven edging bands.

I give many thanks to Ute for writing to me and sharing what she knows about the Uzbek bands as I was about to launch myself onto the wrong path trying to weave one using threads in 4 holes of the tablets. Ute told me that they are created using only two holes. With my limited tablet-weaving experience, I would have been lost without that valuable tip.

The little wristband that I bought at the market is in the center. I changed things a little in my experiments eliminating the dark outer color and altering the way the red stripe was set up. I made a sample in a medium weight cotton to start and then made the final piece for the closure tab on the left. Originally I had wanted to make the entire strap for the bag in this technique but decided that it was a bit too “busy” to play such a major role in this piece which was already highly decorated.

In this picture I just placed a silver button on the closure tab but I was not all together happy with the way that looked.

And then I remembered that I had coins from my trips to Nepal back in the 80s and 90s.

The smaller one would do perfectly and would be in keeping with the “subcontinent” theme.

I just had to polish it up and then get creative in finding a way to attach it.

You can see the more subdued strap pattern, above, that I used in the end. I used the same pattern as that on the edging band for the flap.

So, “Tales from the Subcontinent” is in search of a new name. I won’t say that it is finished yet as I am now thinking….Wouldn’t it be cool to have some black and white ikat patterned cloth with which to line it?….a sort of “inner bag” with a drawstring top…

So, now we get to “cutting corners” and transforming a straight-edged flap into a rounded one…

I am using the lavender Andean Pebble Weave fabric that I was on my demo loom during my last trip. I really don’t like it much and decided that I could at least use it for a tutorial…

STEP ONE: Choose the curve…

I have a small plate that has the right curve for the width of fabric that I am using. I used it for the black bag and saw that it would also work just fine for the lavender piece.

STEP TWO: Make a template.

I traced the curve on paper and cut it out.

STEP THREE: Pin the template to the fabric and sew along the edge.

I sewed by hand and used crochet cotton for the thread. It’s a good thing that beauty does not count! I backstitched from one end to the other and then returned using a running stitch for extra security.

STEP FOUR: Paint diluted white glue onto the stitches.

I used white glue, or carpenters’ glue, carpi cola , as it is known here. I diluted it with water, painted it onto the stitches on both sides of the cloth and waited until it dried before proceeding.

STEP FIVE: Cut the cloth and glue again.

I cut close to the stitches and then applied more diluted glue along the edge of the fabric. The glue goes on white but dries clear. The fabric I am using is dense and I needed to make sure that the glue got right into the weave. As the glue was drying I pinched the threads along the edge together to seal the edge. Once it was almost completely dry, I gave the edge a final trim (this is easier to do when the edge is still damp and supple). You may need to trim some loose weft ends or tidy up the edge a bit. Once it is dry and stiff, it will be harder to make fine cuts.

STEP SIX: Weave and sew your band to the edge.

Now you have a nice stiff secure edge to which you can attach a band. See this tutorial for instructions on weaving and attaching tubular bands.

Judge the width of band needed to bend around the edge and cover the stitches and create a warp accordingly. Note that it is easier and often neater to weave these bands using a heavier yarn and few warp ends than fine yarn with many ends. I used a finer yarn here as I did not have a matching color in my heavier yarns. I used a heavier yarn on my recent black bag project and feel that that band is more attractive.

Make sure that your needle clears the glued stitches on both sides when it pierces the cloth. This way, the stitches will be completely covered by the band. Practice weaving and sewing bands many times on scrap fabric. It takes a while to have them turning out neatly and you don’t want to spoil your good fabric until you feel confident with the technique.

As for what to do with the warp ends when the band is done, I have suggestions for that on the tutorial page.

So, with the black bag finished to the point of being able to use it, I am now supposed to be getting on with the next in the wall hanging series. I had gotten as far as winding the yarn off skeins into balls for warping. And then came a distraction.

I don’t know what it is about arriving home after a trip. I have this urge to get rid of stuff that goes on for about a week. It’s great! It feels so liberating. So, stuff has been given away and ejected. The above piece was the cover of a photo album that I was given.

I removed the album to toss and kept the cloth. It reminded me that it has been a long long time since I last played with three colors in complementary-warp pick-up.

I have done three and four-color pieces (see the header of this blog) which are not double faced.

Here you can see what I mean by “not double faced”. I made this years ago and decided to hang it unfinished on the wall. It also reminds me that I used to get this beautiful fine wool/alpaca yarn when I lived in Chile. I used some leftovers of that yarn when I first came to Bolivia to weave this. How I wish I could get that yarn again.

The piece on the cover of the photo album is double faced. Only two colors show togther on each of the two faces at any one time…color A and B on the upper face and color B and C on the lower one. It is a bright and jolly piece and I love how the weaver flipped colors for just that one small section along the way…you can see how the yellow eyes on the green suddenly change to a red eye in just that one small part. Whether that is the center of the piece, I will never know as it was cut up to make the album cover.

So, this is what I am playing with and what kept me up past midnight last night. These are the two faces. I wish I could make a smoother transition from the red background to the beige but this defeated me at 12.30am. I suppose it would be easier if my design weren’t continuous. This is a sampler to get my head back around the technique.

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Some news… Deb McClintock has started setting up her blog again after losing most of her web page content some years ago in some sort of internet glitch…..heartbreaking. It’s all about simple looms in SE Asia and promises to be wonderful. Deb was invited to lecture last month at the Textile Museum in Washington DC about Laos textiles, looms and techniques. Her new blog is entitled Looms of South East Asia.

And, of course, don’t forget my Australian mate Wendy Garrity’s blog about Asian textiles and looms…Textile Trails. Wendy provided a link in last week’s comments to a picture she took of a notched stick on a loom in Nepal that looks very much like the one I was admiring on the backstrap loom from Myanmar at the Santa Fe Folk Art Market. She was also able to extract more information about the tablet woven bands from the Uzbek representatives at the Folk Art Market than I was!

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More news…..AUSTRALIA!

I will most likely be going back to Sydney for a visit in late November and would very much like to meet other weavers!

The decision to make this trip has been a very recent one which makes getting people together for this a little difficult as it is so close to Christmas.

I haven’t been back in 4 years and am very excited. I’m looking forward to hitching my loom to a eucalyptus tree and weaving while listening to the magpies and kookaburras.

The kookaburra picture at left was taken by my brother.