April 2022 – Backstrap Loom Weaving

Backstrap Weaving – Elementary Stuff!

I don’t have any finished projects to show you in this post. That’s because I have been too busy learning new stuff. It’s not anything that most people will get excited about because it is what experienced cotton spinners, sewers and “conventional” loom weavers will consider really elementary stuff. But it’s all new to me and I am having a blast learning and using it.

First of all there’s the cotton spinning. I just finished spinning up a tiny ball of what I will call version 4 and am telling myself to stop there and weave a sample. I wove two samples with version 3 in the kind of sheer open weave that has drawn me to trying to spin and weave with my own hand-spun cotton singles.

**This is what I wove with a Guatemalan spinner’s hand-spun cotton. I would like to do more of this with my own hand-spun.**

I boiled version 3 to set the twist but found that it was still a bit too lively when I wove my samples. I can only assume that I am putting in way too much twist which boiling simply cannot settle. Hence, version 4.

Above, you can see version 3 woven without a reed on the left and with a reed on the right. Neither is as sheer as I would like it to be. In version 3 I experimented with different thicknesses of inlay. The thickest one wins. The finer ones virtually disappeared after washing and pressing. So, I will be trying a more open sett next time and hoping that I have less wobble in the weft shots.

It’s a bit of a head-scratcher as I spun this natural brown cotton several years ago and used it as singles in a similar sheer-cloth experiment. I didn’t boil the cotton singles yet it behaved so differently when woven. Perhaps the brown cotton just has different characteristics. There’s so much to learn! I saw a post on Facebook the other day where someone had made a study to find which breed of sheep has the best wool for knitting cables. How amazing to have learned so much about the unique characteristics of all those different kinds of wool. Why should cotton be any different?

In weaving news, I have been weaving with my finest bamboo reed which I believe has 23 dents to the inch (makes me crazy trying to count those things!). This is nothing new. I have used my bamboo reeds a few times in the past including the time that I used it for the original sheer cloth experiment with the Guatemalan spinner’s hand-spun. What was new to me was doubling threads in dents. Elementary stuff, right? But new to me!

I first tried a bent piece of wire as a threading hook which was very tedious and I was willing to persevere with it until online weaving friends suggested cutting a hard plastic card. Those with experience will immediately understand why a wire hook is not ideal…elementary stuff, right? I would happily buy a proper hook if only I could find one here. I can’t say that I am big fan of reed-threading. ‘Use one of those annoying shopping cards”, someone said. I don’t have a single one but managed to dig up this card from one of my visits to Australia.

**I like the view through the reed and the swirl pattern optical illusion that creates. It gives me ideas for ikat patterns.**

I am using doubled 20/2 cotton and, after sampling, found that it needed to be sett at 27 for tabby. That meant that I needed to double some of the doubled 20/2 cotton in some dents. Elementary stuff, but I had never done this before. I know that floor loom weavers do this all the time. Yes, I understand why and I understand that the each thread in the pair will be in a different heddle and performing a different role in the structure of the cloth. What I was never able to fully understand is how two threads that are supposed to be separated can remain so when with every beat of the reed, they are being squeezed back together again. How does that not show up in the cloth? Well, I did it and yes, of course it works. When I held the cloth up in front of the window I could make out evenly spaced stripes. I guess that is evidence of the dent sharing but I wouldn’t say that it is at all noticeable when just looking at the cloth in normal conditions.

It’s ridiculous how excited I am about this “new experience” :-).

**Doubled 20/2 cotton tabby in a color called Old Gold. I lightly tacked down a doubled hem before wet-finishing.**

If you have read my most recent posts you will know about the bag project which grew from the fact that I had woven a strap in a 3-color reversible pebble weave structure.

This gold cloth is part of that project. Using the gold thread that I was given by my friend Betty is a stash-busting project by someone who does not typically accumulate stash. Betty gave me a large cone of luscious Old Gold and a much smaller one of black. The went together beautifully for a Finnweave cowl that I wove.

**Pieces of the bag project coming together**.

But now I am pretty much out of the black thread and with nothing else in my stash to combine with the gold, I decided to use it to weave the lining for the bag. Let’s get one thing straight first…I am pretty much always looking for a reason/excuse to weave. I don’t need any of this stuff. I just like to weave, especially if it gives me the opportunity to learn something new. With dwindling stash, long drawn-out projects are good value. So, I decided to weave the lining which no one will see once it’s inside the bag except me. Yet, I know that I will feel very happy every time I open the bag and that glow of gold greets me. This also gives me a chance to learn about “drop-in” linings….elementary stuff for sewers…totally new to me! Also, I have only ever cut my own dense warp-faced cloth. Cutting into this tabby will also be a new experience.

**I also wove a wrist cuff in Finnweave using the gold and black 20/2 cotton. I love being able to wear and carry small samples of the structures and techniques I use this way.**

And I have been able to add “fusible interfacing” to my Spanish vocabulary (entretela adhesiva) and enjoy the excuse to poke around the little hole-in-the-wall fabric shops and stalls in one of the nearby street markets. It’s always amusing getting the vague directions to the right stall from the various vendors who don’t carry the item in question…a vague wave of the arm accompanied by más allá, al frente, or a la vuelta. Finally, one gentleman, seeing the look on my face after having already received several no hay responses and a half dozen directions that had led me nowhere, told me to go to the store with the red pick-up truck parked outside. Bingo!

**An intermesh strip of cloth which will be the sides of the bag. It sits on top of the Old Gold lining.**

It was also interesting to learn from renowned weaver Bonnie Tarses via a Facebook post that she likes to use doubled warp and weft in tabby because it makes for cloth that is more supple. And there…I learned another “something new”(after I had already woven the cloth). Bonnie kindly gave me permission to share her photo of the beautiful tabby cloth that she has just taken off the loom in doubled 8/2 cotton warp and weft.

And so, it’s back to boiling my hand-spun cotton singles and hand-stitching this bag together. Both activities are a combination of online research, video classes on cotton spinning and a good ol’ dose of “make it work”.

See you next time.

Backstrap Weaving – The Simple and the Complex

Every now and then when I am sitting at my loom, I am reminded of the years that I spent teaching English here in Santa Cruz, Bolivia. The institute had received a visit from a teaching consultant from the U.S State Department who introduced us to the concept of what she called “barefoot teaching”. She had developed this after having spoken with many teachers, especially those living in countries of the developing world like Bolivia, who had convinced themselves that they simply could not teach effectively without flashcards, computers, interactive boards and all other kinds of audio-visual aids. The barefoot teaching idea basically involved setting yourself the challenge of leaving all the tools at home and going into class with nothing more than a lesson plan and a piece of chalk (as well as a lot of enthusiasm and creativity)…in other words “barefoot”.

Then I get to thinking about Maxima, my favorite weaving teacher in the Bolivian highlands, and what simple tools one really needs to get started in backstrap weaving…basically your back, some thread/yarn and a toe! (and instruction or guidance, be that in person, or virtually via books, blogs, video or a multitude of other ways to connect online). Real barefoot weaving! Maxima doesn’t even use a backstrap.

Maxima has made a picking cross and is selecting the warps from each side of the cross for her design. Her warp is attached to her toe and for a while so was mine. Then I also attached my warp to her toe when mine had had enough! Finally we moved to the post to tie my warp up and later Maxima did the same.

There’s not a single stick in use.

Ten-year-old Peruvian weaver Juan Miguel, above, has a stake driven into the ground to which his warp is attached – his only real piece of equipment. If it were a shorter warp, he could use his toe. (Maxima deals with longer warps by wrapping the warp once around her toe to securely grip and tension it. A string passed through the end loops of Juan Miguel’s warp goes around his waist and acts as his “loom bar” and “backstrap”. He is using a string loop for one shed and string heddles for the other. He isn’t even using a beater or sword. His hands do the trick. After passing the weft, he opens the other shed and pulls the upper layer of threads up while pulling the other down in order to squeeze the last weft shot into place.

A warp can be wound in a figure-eight around a finger and a toe. The thumb and a finger of the free hand are used to gather up the cross when the warp is complete while the weaver uses the other hand to tuck one end of the warp into the waist-band of her skirt. The other end stays on the big toe. A length of yarn is inserted to hold the cross leaving two hands free to make string heddles.

**My weaving friends in the Bolivian highlands were excited about the opportunity to try out cotton that had been donated by Cotton Clouds.**

Don’t get me wrong, I won’t be tossing out my loom bars. I like using them even for the tiniest of warps but it is nice to think back to how I got started. We used pencil-width sticks about five inches long for loom bars, slightly longer ones for cross sticks and we had a beater. My teacher tied a cord around my waist and lodged the stick under it. Cord was passed through the other end of the warp which was attached to a bush so we could weave tiny pebble weave bands.

**Twenty-six years ago, I sat on that pillow between my mother-and-daughter teachers to take my very first “watch and do as I do” lessons in weaving on a backstrap loom.** **They were lessons not only about the pebble weave structure, but also about how to use your body to operate the loom. Most importantly of all, they were lessons in how to learn by simply watching.**

Last year was the twenty-fifth anniversary of that very first experience and I wove a piece as a representation not only of my vision of a post-pandemic world, but also as a recognition of the twenty-fifth anniversary of the happy scene above. The very first pattern that these ladies showed me was a hummingbird (although it took me several years to recognize it as one!). Hummingbirds, therefore, also became a part of the piece that I wove. In it, we are together again. The bush has grown into a tree with strong and extensive roots and although our warps have widened, the simplicity of the tools remains the same.

**Panel 4 from the Within These Walls series.**

Even something as simple as long thumb nails can be very useful. I appreciate them most when I am making string heddles. Sometimes I am unaware of the part they play in other stages of the process and only realize when I have had to cut them. Then I really miss them.

I love the simplicity in this picture….one’s entire weaving kit rolled up and neatly stored away.

And I wish that I could be organized enough to create a simple, clear weaving space like this…

My teacher Felicia’s weaving space…sticks, a bone tool, a bit of plastic-wrapped wire, and a sheep skin on which to sit. Simple tools don’t necessarily need to be made from natural materials. Hat and cat are optional. She was weaving for a museum’s gift shop and needed to adhere to precise pre-agreed measurements…hence the measuring tape.

I have an out-of-sight-out-of-mind way of operating and so my weaving space is strewn with things that serve to remind me of ideas for future projects as well as samples and works in progress. Yes, I now have a lovely weaving journal in which to jot down those ideas but it’s not the same as being constantly reminded of them when I have to step over and around them every day..

The thing that really motivated me to write this post was the completion of the simple fabric with which I will, hopefully, construct a bag….a simple blue bag to go with the highly decorated and comparatively complex reversible three-color strap. I even opted out of adding a motif to the cloth here and there using supplementary weft. One of the joys of supplementary weft is that you can treat your base cloth as a blank canvas and just add pattern wherever you please. The cloth can be covered with pattern from edge to edge or just show a few scattered motifs here and there. I used both options in this scarf…

**60/2 silk fabric for a scarf on the loom with the simple tools that were used to create it.**

One of the other many joys of using supplementary weft is that if you decide that you don’t like the motif you have woven, you can simply cut it out. Your base cloth will remain intact. I started adding a motif to the cloth for my bag, decided it was too much, and removed it. I actually unwove to remove it rather than cut it out.

Having got the urge to decorate the cloth out of my system, I sailed along enjoying the simplicity of the “dance” of just rhythmically operating the two basic sheds on the loom and passing my shuttle. Well, “sailed along” might not quite be the right way to describe it. It was a sticky wool warp and required a slower pace, stopping to advance the warp more frequently and performing strumming and other operations a lot more gently than I normally would….but I so enjoyed weaving it!

And here’s the contrast between the simple and the complex in the finished cloth and strap….

**The cloth is in industrially-spun wool and the strap is in my own spindle-spun wool.**

I am showing the string heddles because they are almost perfectly clean despite the stickiness of the wool warp. There is the faintest film of blue fluff on their tips which makes it look like the tips have been dyed.

I will leave you now with this lovely hummingbird piece that showed up in my Facebook feed from the Museo Chileno de Arte Precolombino. I visited that museum many a time when I was living in Chile but haven’t been there since its major renovation some years ago. They were even selling my woven bookmarks in their gift shop at one point…wow, that was so long ago!