band weaving – Page 2 – Backstrap Loom Weaving

Backstrap Weaving – My New E-book of Patterns!

My new e-book of pattern charts, Complementary-warp Pattern Book, is now available from taprootvideo.com!

This is what has kept me really busy and excited for many months. When I missed out on my trip to Bali last year, I had time on my hands to get down and weave and weave and weave and add to the big basketful of sample bands I had started for this book. Then came the long process of creating the charts and laying out the book…not quite as much fun. I hope you will enjoy the result!

A slight technical hitch and a large case of jitters prevented me from having it online yesterday in time for my Thursday night blog post. Some sleep was lost. But, here it is, just one day late and I am so pleased! 🙂

It’s a book of patterns…one hundred of them!…for beautiful double-faced bands and other larger projects that can be woven using the complementary-warp pick-up technique that I teach in my earlier books. This collection of motifs consists of pebbly-type patterns, the ones that I like to call Andean Pebble Weave.

Weaving pebble patterns using two sets of heddles is just one option.

If you learned the “two-heddle method” in my first book, Andean Pebble Weave or the “picking cross method” in my second and third books, More Adventures with Warp-faced Pick-up Patterns and Complementary-warp Pick-up, you will be able to weave all the patterns in this new book of charts!

Using a temporary picking cross is another option for creating pick-up patterns.

I am proud to say that many of the motifs in this book have been created by my students and weaving friends around the world who have either taken my classes or used my books. I am constantly astounded by what their imaginations have produced and grateful that they have all been more than willing to allow me to include their designs in this book for your own personal use.

Inspired by all of you, I, too, have managed to climb out of my “Andean box’’ and have enjoyed creating some sweet patterns of my own… a collection of playful kitties (a row of which you can see at the bottom of the cover picture), leaves and flowers, sheep and snowflakes, to name a few. The patterns are arranged in themes such as Rivers and Oceans, Garden, and Andean Animals.

I am very grateful to my brother and sister-in-law who not only put up with me sitting on their floor and weaving all day every day for weeks and weeks last year, but also gave me valuable feedback on my new patterns.

Starting the collection of sample bands.

I have included a collection of patterns found on contemporary as well as pre-Columbian South American textiles and, in a few examples of these, I have given my own twist to some classic shapes used in Andean weaving. I give thanks to my weaving teachers in Bolivia who enjoy learning new patterns and using them in their projects just as much as you and I do.

The motifs are charted on the same block-style charts that I use in my other books. For those of you who have used my second book, More Adventures with Warp-faced Pick-up Patterns, in which you learn to use the spotted-style charts, I have included all the patterns on that style of chart in the Appendix. I know that each charting system has its own group of fans and so I have provided both.

Tutorials are included to show you how to plan the layout of your project. You will be able to adjust the charts to any width so that you can combine motifs of various sizes from different themed collections into one project. I am really looking forward to seeing how you combine the various motifs and border patterns in your weaving!

And, most of all, I hope that you feel inspired to create some patterns of your own.

You can find my e-book COMPLEMENTARY-WARP PATTERN BOOK at Taproot Video, the home of all my pattern books and instructional manuals.

By the way, if you would like to weave these patterns but you haven’t learned the pick-up technique yet, I recommend buying my last book, Complementary-warp Pick-up, which has step-by-step instructions and forty-two pattern charts suitable for bands. You will learn all you need to know to be able to enjoy the patterns in my newest book.

INKLE LOOM WEAVERS PLEASE TAKE NOTE:
The patterns in this new book range in size from eight to eighty threads. Some of the wider patterns may not be suitable for inkle looms. Weavers who use inkle looms and who learned the pick-up technique in my last book, Complementary-warp Pick-up, will know that the largest pattern in that book has only twenty threads in each of the open and heddled sheds.

About two-thirds of the patterns in this new pattern book have from eight to forty threads, a quarter have from forty-four to sixty threads and the rest have from sixty-four to eighty threads.

Much will depend on the thread size that you like to use and the size of your inkle loom. To give you an idea, I wove a band with size 3 crochet cotton (24 wraps per inch/2.5cm) with thirty-six threads in each of my heddled and open sheds (pictured above). I feel this is the widest I can comfortably weave using my tiny Ashford Inklette . Of course, I could fit in many more warp ends and weave larger patterns if I used finer thread. The Inklette is a pretty small loom.

I know that a lot of people are using the Gilmore range of Wave looms to weave pick-up patterns. Julie in the Ravelry group often shows pictures of her latest wide projects combining many patterns from my various books. She uses the Mini Wave which she tells me can accommodate up to four inches of woven width and she uses it to combine many patterns from my various books.

After all the editing and proof-reading I am not sure I can look at another red-and-white block chart for a while! I close my eyes and see a blurry scroll of red and white figures! Thanks go to Sharon with all her speedy and accurate help with the charting. Fortunately, my current paisley pattern is charted in pencil on oval cells and will give my eyes a nice change.

I had to leave the silk scarf project aside for some time just as I got over the halfway hump so that I could focus on putting the finishing touches on the e-book. I’ll be happy to get back down on the floor to weave again. I will certainly get a good night’s sleep tonight after a long day of preparing to launch my new Complementary-warp Pattern Book.

Backstrap Weaving – Complementary-warp Pick-up…my new ebook

I have been home after my trip to Australia for quite some time. The dreaded jet-lag has washed off. You would think that I would be back in my loom working on my next large project. I do, after all, have a tremendous list of ideas in my head especially after having bought all that luscious silk from the super folks at Red Fish Dyeworks when I was in Canada.

Well, yes, I have been back at the loom, but not at a large project. Instead, I have been weaving lots of lots of lovely bands! What fun it has been weaving these small projects after having spent so much time at one very large one…the black silk wrap…for a great part of this year. It was particularly fun using wool for some of these bands.

And, why have I been weaving bands? Because I have just published a new e-book on taprootvideo.com.

I have been at the loom, the computer keyboard and at the camera…back and forth, back and forth, from one to the other…. while I finally finish off one of the several book projects that have been lurking around the middle of my project list for quite some time. You are probably tired of hearing about these books that have yet to appear! I am excited to be able to present one of them now….Complementary-warp Pick-up…

The complementary-warp structure produces lovely double-faced bands like the ones you see at left.

The method I teach in this book can be applied to any loom that allows the weaver to create warp-faced bands.

The warp threads are divided into two simple sheds from which they are selected to create the patterns. Generally, two colors are used…one light and one dark. One shed on the loom holds all the light threads, and the other all the dark threads.

Inkle loom weavers, for example, could place all the dark threads in the open position and all the light ones within the heddles.

Weavers who like to use a rigid heddle to weave warp-faced bands need to thread all the ends of one color through the holes and the ends of the other color through the slots.

While weaving some of the samples for this book, I enjoyed using the band lock and wooden rigid heddle that Becky and friends at Vavstuga so sweetly gave me the first time I visited. Vavstuga stocks various sizes of these cute band locks!

But, I am sure that you know that I am a continuous-string-heddles gal at heart!

And, of course, the other fans of those lovely continuous string heddles, will set up their warps for the complementary-warp pick-up technique by enclosing all the threads in one of the two colors in the string heddles and the others in the nifty shed loop. Remember that you can always refresh your memory on the warping technique by watching Method 2 on my free video.

My Inklette set up for the complementary-warp pick-up technique.

Here are some of my backstrap weaving students from my recent visit to Australia getting their complementary-warp groove on…

And, look at the fabulous guitar strap that Helen Deighan has woven since our Complementary-warp class in Australia!

She has taken an idea that I would like to encourage further with my latest book, that is, using small motifs as border designs alongside larger patterns. I have provided charts for a variety of such pretty border patterns. These smaller patterns alone would make lovely lanyards, shoe laces and straps for pouches. They also add a lot of interest along the edges of wider patterns.

The charted patterns in the book range from four to twenty threads. For those of you whose loom allows you create wider pieces, it is just a simple matter of piecing together two or more patterns from the book, just like Helen has. They work wonderfully together. Or, you can always weave two columns of the same pattern and add a lot more border threads to create something wide enough to hold a cell phone, for example…

After finishing this latest book, I really want to thank all my weaving teachers, weaving friends and students who give me so many ideas and who are always so inspiring.

And now, I find myself with a basketful of bands. The bands are pretty to look at and I might just leave them there. Or….. I could use the dozens of little jewelry findings I have been collecting such as, split rings, lobster-claw clasps and ribbon clamps, and make these bands part of my woven bracelet collection.

From band to bracelet…quick and easy…no sewing required…I love that! I have to admit that I was really lucky to find that I had just the right size of ribbon clamp for this band. I have them in four or five sizes and various metal colors.

Now I have some teaching warps to work on which will take me back to my loom once more….my happy place! I’ll be sitting there thinking about the other book project which is part-way done. I hope to have that ready early next year 🙂

I might also make some more jewelry with various closures, like buttons and braids, and give you some ideas for those in the next post.

If you decide to buy my new book, I hope you enjoy it and I welcome any feedback. Of course I would love to see anything you weave using it.

Backstrap Weaving – Multiple String Heddles in Action

The lanyards are done and packed away ready to be sent off. I made six in the end and really enjoyed the task.

With so many structures and techniques at my disposal, it was hard to decide which to use for the sixth. I made another Andean Pebble Weave one. I would have liked to have made one in double weave and another with supplementary weft patterns but the idea was to weave them quickly and Andean Pebble weave was better suited to the use of multiple string heddles. I could still make a fairly complex pattern without having to go overboard with the number of heddles. One day, when I am in less of a hurry, I would like to make a set of lanyards representing each of the structures that I have learned in my twenty years of backstrap weaving.

The lanyard on the right is the last I made using a 2-ply crochet cotton that is similar in size to #10. In addition to the two Pebble heddles, this one only needed four sets of string heddles. One shed was repeated within the pattern which made things even more efficient.

I made a short video of myself weaving this last band. The two light green heddles nearest to me hold the threads in the Pebble Sheds. They are alternated with the other four sets of Pattern heddles. I use a Pebble heddle and then a Pattern heddle, a Pebble heddle and a Pattern heddle and so on.

I work one Pebble heddle against the other as an aid to opening a clean shed. The idea of the video is just to show you the use of multiple heddles and what that involves. There is a constant process of straightening and moving the heddles so that the sheds furthest from me can be cleared to the front of the loom. After a few pattern repeats, the sequence becomes second nature. I was surprised, when viewing the video later, how gentle my little tappity-tap beat looks. There is actually quite a bit of firmness in that beat.

On a visit to Peru, I was able to watch a weaver from Chahuaytire using multiple string heddles to weave the tubular band that is used in her community to edge textiles.

You can see the pattern on the band emerging along with the weaver’s hands hard at work. This pattern requires four sets of heddles. I used it myself to edge a tool pouch that I wove using my own handspun llama fiber….

It is certainly a faster band to weave than the ñawi awapa of Chinchero, the pattern for which requires some fairly radical moves and, therefore, all manual pick-up.

In this next video you can enjoy watching a weaver from Chahuaytire using her various sets of string heddles while she weaves and sews the tubular band to the edge of the cloth.

And, finally, I would like to show you a weaver from San Ignacio de Loyola in Peru who uses many sets of string heddles to make her complex band pattern entirely loom-controlled. I think there is a definite limit to the number of heddles that I would want to use while remaining comfortably positioned at the loom. This weaver spends a lot of time with arms extended and leaning forward to reach the far heddles. I imagine she has a strong back and firm abs.

She is using a similar method to that which I showed in my video in that she alternates the Pattern sheds at the back of the loom with the two heddles nearest her. She also works one of the two front heddles against the other in order to easily open a clean shed. This is the two-heddle intermesh technique that I teach in my second book. This is the structure that I used for the blue and white silk lanyard. I only needed six sets of heddles for the simple pattern…four pattern heddles and two intermesh heddles.

Here is a video of the weaver from San Ignacio de Loyola showing how she works her multiple heddles….

I’ve decided that I am not entirely finished with lanyards. I want to make one for my nephew who is a triathlete. Some time ago, I attempted to weave a silk bookmark for him with the words of one of his favorite inspirational quotes for training… ‘’The pain of discipline is nothing like the pain of failure.’’ My letters are adapted from fonts provided in Linda Hendrickson’s tablet-weaving book ‘’Please Weave a Message’’.

I felt that the bookmark looked too cluttered with its three lines of text and so I am now weaving it as one long line of text on a lanyard. I would like to flank the text with triathlon symbols…a swimmer, a cyclist and a runner. This is one of the many nice things about warp-faced double weave….it gives a lot of designing freedom. However, I only have 35 pattern threads with which to work. Let’s see what I can squeeze in there. The bookmark has been washed and pressed to show off the glorious sheen of the silk.

I wove a width sample for the lanyard in 60/2 silk. It looks quite dull in its unfinished state. It was quite some time ago that I wove the bookmark and I didn’t trust it to give me a reliable width reading. Years go by, your weaving changes, and old pieces can’t be relied upon to give accurate information.

And it’s a good thing I sampled as my width estimation was off and the band widened. Now it has settled into a consistent inch and I can start over with a fresh warp and get the pencils and eraser out for some charting.

The heddles you see there are not pattern heddles. They simply hold threads in the two sheds for the two layers of the double weave. I was initially taught this structure using only two heddles but I find four heddles handy when using many warp ends or very fine thread. With few threads or heavier yarn, I find it easier to use just two heddles and use my fingers to select the threads. The pattern sheds in both methods are all picked up manually.

Narrow warps like this one have also been on some of my weaving friends’ looms. Janet made a hatband in cotton using the Andean Pebble Weave structure. It’s gorgeous….

And, Anne decorated her hat with an intermesh band in cotton…

There are so many cool things for which narrow bands can be used but, even if you don’t have a particular use in mind, they are simply fun to weave. They can be displayed on a wall with no other purpose than to delight the eye. They can be kept rolled up in a trinket or treasure box and taken out now and then simply for the fun of running them through your fingers and enjoying the different textures.

I hope that whoever gets my lanyards will enjoy them.