Bolivian hatbands – 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 – Re-defining “fine”

Internet fail yesterday kept me from blogging. All kinds of crazy specials and offers by the phone company here have the whole system on the point of complete saturation. Goodness knows how long it will all keep running before everything comes crashing down. Of course, the phone company tells me that everything is just “fine”. So, I couldn’t write my blog but, never mind, there is always plenty to do.

Once again I was immersed in the warm woolly smells and happy colors of the highlands as I took out the beautiful bands made by the weavers in Independencia, Bolivia from their handspun yarn colored with natural dyes.

You know how much I love to dress up little bags and pouches. I am cutting up the bands just as the weavers themselves are doing in Independencia to make cell phone pouches and other such things to sell. So, I have been weaving and sewing tubular bands, braiding and embellishing away and having fun.

Here is one partly dressed-up pouch with a brown and red tubular band, braids and tassels. These projects give me the perfect opportunity to put into practice the many little finishing techniques that my weaving teachers and sling braiding instructor have shown me over the years.

The two-color edging stitch that my sling teacher in Peru taught me for decorating the cradle section of the sling looks lovely along the edge of fabric. I have used it to edge a table runner.

Now that it is not so hot here, it is really nice to feel the wool in my hands. It is also nice to have something off-loom to play with.

On the loom, I have the black warp that I took on my last spring trip away. I am using the fine Guatemalan cotton which I recently wove into black and purple scarves decorated with supplementary-weft patterns.

As I am still in my supplementary-weft phase, I have been thinking about what to do with this black demo warp. I created it with nothing in particular in mind…just something to show one of the ways in which a warp can be put together for backstrap weaving.

Now I am thinking that since I used patterns based on Bhutanese motifs on the black scarf and Guatemalan inspired patterns on the purple one, I should base the designs on this new project on supplementary-weft patterns from another weaving culture….either Bolivian hatband motifs or the designs used by the Montagnard weavers with whom I studied in the US.

I have a few hatbands that I have gathered over the years. The problem with studying the motifs on these supplementary-weft patterned bands is that the thread that Bolivian weavers use for these is so incredibly FINE!!

What I like about some of the Bolivian hatbands that I have seen is that the supplementary weft is used to fill the negative spaces.

Look at the flower pattern at bottom left on the hatband from Calcha, Bolivia. The ground weave is white and the colored supplementary wefts fill the negative spaces so that the ground weave below is exposed in the shape of a flower. The thread used in that flower band is unbelievably fine….almost like strands of hair! I can’t count the threads and will need to get a magnifying glass to do so. The fineness of the thread means that the weaver has been able to get away with making some very long floats of supplementary weft. As the piece was designed to be worn around a hat, long floats are not really a problem as it is unlikely that they will catch on things and get pulled.

For my sample piece I have had to modify the pattern to eliminate some of the long floats as my Guatemalan cotton, as fine as it is, is nowhere near as fine as the Bolivian thread.

You can just see the top half of the flower head in my sample as I weave to check the proportions. Look at the difference in size between my sample with my “fine” cotton and the Bolivian band. I think that I will have to re-define “fine”!

The Bolivian weaver has used a colored stripe to border the pattern so that the colored wefts don’t just end “in space”. Besides looking good, this also saves her the trouble of having to count threads to see where the wefts need to dip back down within the shed. I was trying to just eyeball it when I was doing it and found myself one warp thread off the mark many times. So, to weave this, I really need to make a new warp with stripes included or….maybe I can come up with another plan by doing some more sampling.

Hopefully the sampling will become something acceptable and I will be able to make this little black piece into a pouch with lots of embellishments.

In the Ravelry group, Cindy has been doing pebble weave on a Gilmore Wave loom making what might become a backstrap. The pattern is one that my teacher Maxima taught me and is charted in my second book.

Betsy is making guitar straps on her backstrap loom with her own handspun. Janet is her spinning teacher and Betsy works hard at her spinning every day, so you can imagine that her handspun is really lovely and works beautifully for backstrap weaving.

Jennifer demonstrated how using a coil rod eliminated the annoying corrugated look in her cotton warp and gave a new life to this abandoned project. She then used the warp to create a really interesting solid-color warp-float pattern using a pattern stick and heddles to raise the warps for the floats.

Well, it’s back to sampling on the cotton warp, embellishing the wool pouches and playing some more on the inklette project for the article. My internet is running again and all is “fine”.

Thanks to everyone who wrote with suggestions about the embroidery stitch on the pillow cover from Peru. I think that it would make a nice cover stitch for joins and hope to experiment with it soon.

In the meantime I have also found out that the word used by Spanish speakers for tatting is frivolité….love that word!…and that a few of my online friends do it. I follow the Textile Museum of Oaxaca on Facebook and they are even giving a workshop on it. Let’s see how I can add a bit of frivolité to my weaving!