This blog records my experiments and successes with fabric and fibers, surface design, stitching, weaving, photography and whatever else strikes my fancy. Enjoy ...
I took advantage of my local public library to check out a few books of interest on this wet and snowy winter weekend.
I've had this book on band weaving before, and decided it was beyond me back in December. Now I think I'm beginning to understand it better, and I do like her patterns. She uses a double slotted (pattern) rigid heddle for tape weaving with a pick-up technique. Her patterns are designed for 5 - 7 or 9 pattern threads -- and you can buy double-slotted heddles to accommodate 5-7-9 pattern threads. The extra slots for the pattern threads make them easier to pick up, as they stand out on a level all their own. I finally decided to purchase a copy of the book. But what about the wooden heddles?
HandyWoman sells them for about $35 each. And this is not something my husband was willing to try and make for me. It involves too much precision. You can also get plastic ones, but they are not all that much cheaper.
Fortunately, Foulkes has a section at the back of her book showing how to use her patterns on an inkle loom (like the one I just acquired), with just the string heddles you'd use there. I wonder if I could but the pattern strings on separate heddles on the inkle, instead of purchasing the fancy rigid heddle? She says the rigid heddle makes learning to weave easier, and it makes the pattern strings easier to see -- but then they are probably a different color anyway, so they would very likely stand out even without the fancy rigid heddle to set them off. I can try it without a wooden heddle for the moment.
Still working things out in my mind with all this. Still trying to settle on a pattern, and colors. Then I have to purchase the right sized yarn (Size 3/2 Pearl Cotton at Halcyon?).
I also decided to purchase
this book, as it has come beautiful patterns and they are all color
coded. Using the cards / tablets is a different style of weaving. This
method claims to make it easier. We shall see ... Lots of great color
pages, and good reviews on Amazon.
There's a separate set of color-coded cards (aka tablets) that you can purchase, but I think I can just as easily color code the ones I already have.
Progress on the green strap.
Heck-- At present, I'm still practicing plain weave on that variegated green acrylic (junk) yarn, just trying to master good selvedges. Weaving on it goes pretty fast, and because I'm not worried about keeping track of a pattern, it's a nice meditation. And those selvedges are improving the more I do.
Half of the foot is knitted already. 10 more rows before I can start to turn the heel.
I am testing Paton's sock yarn on the CinDWood 1/4-in Knitted Knocker 56-peg loom -- which has become my standard with the cushier Chic Sheep Yarn by Marly Bird. But those create a thicker sock, that is fine for slippers or boots, but I'd need a bigger shoe to wear them to work. Hence, I am testing a thinner yarn ... I think the 1/4-inch gauge is the same as the KB Knitting looms.
Paton's sock yarn is rated at a 1 gauge, which means it's a finer yarn. I suspect socks made with this finer yarn can be warn in the shoes I wear for work--like normal people! Paton's is readily available at local craft stores, meaning I wouldn't have to order online unless I wanted specific colors (and oh--the colors!)
My real reason for testing this yarn is to decide if I need a new CinDWood loom in the 3/16-in gauge sock looms for finer yarns like this. Then the next question is: If so, would I need the 64 or 72 peg variety to fit my foot?
Paton's sock yarn seems to be knitting up just fine on the 1/4-inch loom. It's not coming out lacey or holey, or too tight to get my foot into it. It's a thinner sock, but still has nice stretch to it. The inside seems to be nice and cushion-y. I am wondering if it will be a smaller sock overall -- which would require more pegs to make up the difference for the finer/thinner yarn. l suspect I'll have to add more rows to make up the difference.
This photo compares the size of the resulting knit on the 1/4-inch
Knitted Knocker Loom. The speckled Marly Bird Chic Sheep yarn creates a
bigger and thicker stitch-- as expected. It's a thicker, loftier
yarn.
Here are the yarn labels comparing Marly Bird sample with Paton's.
There's a 4-to-1 difference. The finer yarn creates a finer knit.
So far as I can tell, Paton's sock yarn on my standard Knitted Knocker CinDWood look will work out just fine for my feet. I'll have to find another reason to order other CinDWood looms. ;-)
I caught some of Scarlet Royal's live session on Facebook last week. She held a question and answer session featuring her new book: Any Sock, Any Toe, Any Heel: Loom It! She confirmed that for her (and all the socks she's made in her life), the 1/4-in loom is her standard. She doesn't really go finer than that.
If you are interested in learning more, Hypnotic Hysteria is starting up a Knit-Along for making house socks on a knitting loom. She's the one I learned from. Once you have the basics, you can go anywhere! She is also re-posting many of her videos that were lost last year when her account was hacked.
The last post had a couple of videos to demonstrate how to set up the loom for weaving.
The first thing to do is to make some string heddles.
Here I am using some cotton rug warp because I have it on hand, and I know it's stable and strong.
Once the heddles are ready, you can begin running the warp, one strand at a time.
Every other string gets a heddle.
This appears to be the most I can put on this loom. If I wanted a longer warp, I could ask my husband to add more pegs and do a longer zig-zag. One run around the pegs = about 110 inches -- which is longer than I expected! Keep in mind, you'll lose a certain amount to loom waste (12 inches maybe?)
I am using a verigated green acrylic chenille-like yarn.
One of the videos I saw on You Tube said varigated yarns add interest if you're just doing plane weave. And the acrylic stays stable, doesn't stretch or distort. Just what I need as a beginner!
I'm using the Lacis stick shuttle, because the yarn is a little bulkier than would easily fit on the other shuttles.
I know -- It's crap yarn, but good enough for practice.
Here's a detail shot of the open shed with the heddle strings pulling keeping 1/2 the strings in the same place.
You can push the heddle-free strands up or down to make the opposite shed for common cloth or plain weave. Here I am demonstrating the opposite shed.
First attempts at weaving on the Inkle Loom!
It seems to go pretty fast.
Here's I an getting used to / practicing
1) getting good selvedge edges along the sides
2) the rhythm of right to left / left to right and altering the shed.
3) beating the weft yarn into place.
It's getting a little tighter and cleaner as I go a long.
At one point, I realized, I'd skipped on the the warp strings, and had 2 heddled strands next to each other. You can see it towards the bottom of the photo, if you know what to look for.
I decided to fix it by moving one of the loose edge strings to the left to fill in the space.
Almost immediately, the weaving got cleaner and more stable. ;-)
Inkle loom weaving is known as a weft facing weaving, meaning you could almost use anything for the weft (the yarn on the shuttle) becuase you don't really see it except for the edges rounding the corners. When it goes through the shed, the weft strand pushes up all the warp strands. Those are the ones you see in the patterning.
After attending the Holiday Folk Fair in Milwaukee last November (as we do most years), I was once again fascinated with the woven belts many of the dancers wear. Woven belts that were very likely done on an inkle loom.
So that's what I asked my DH to make me for Christmas. We found some plans on the internet (This one is very similar to the Schacht Inkle Loom.), and he disappeared into the basement to pick out some wood, and set to work on it ... Mostly made from wood already in his stash. He did buy some of the hardware. The tension rod (closest to the foreground) is cot off from a recycled shovel handle. It's bigger than the other dowels
BOOKS
I also ILL-ed the classic Peter Collingwood reference on the subject. It covers everything, but is really more of an academic treatment. It would be more useful if I already knew what I was doing with this technique. So I returned it, knowing it was far too advanced for me at this point. I may return to it some day ... For now, the Candace Crockett book above is enough.
I
did purchase this book as a good reference to keep on hand. It covers
the basics, along with more advanced patterns and techniques. An inkle loom is not required for card weaving, but it is the structure that holds the warp without other means, such as a belt. Be aware that his book is not specific to inkle looms.
I also got this one from my local public library, but it seems like a much more advanced book than for where I'm at at present. I may revisit it later. She also uses a different method -- more like a rigid heddle or pick-up method. My little brain wasn't ready to do the required translating for cards.
Tablet Weaving Made Easy with John Mullarkey DVD - ILLed through my local public library. I'd read about and seen the set-up for card weaving, but I just could not picture it in motion. What were they really doing with those cards? Now I get it! It's really quite simple and ingenious! He does use an inkle loom.
CARDS - which sort of act like shafts on a floor loom, but not quite.
SHUTTLES
HandyWoman on Etsy makes hand-made and affordable weaving tools. I was able to order a variety of shuttles from her to let me get a feel for which style I might like / prefer. As with the larger looms, it may depend on the yarns I'd be using for any given project, which shuttle would work best.
I bought 2 of these smaller curved shuttles -- one maple and one cherry. They are very thin and light, but still sturdy. Nice finish on them, too. One edge is sharper than the other, which is designed to act as a beater, or to push the new weft yarns into place.
The next two 2 inkle shuttles take bobbins.
The first one one is more like a regular boat shuttle, in miniature. It's really lovely in cherry--and light. And she sent a glass bobbin to go with it.
The one on the bottom is a Lacis stick shuttle purchased on Amazon, along with the cards.
WEFT - YARNS AND THREADS
I picked up a variety of crochet threads at the local thrift store. I thought I'd start with these to practice with, before I invest in some more expensive Pearle cotton with a nice sheen. Red, white and black should be basic enough to start with. I can dye small quantities of the white to get other colors, too. Another video I saw said you could use a variegated yarn -- acrylics might be good to start with, just to get the hang of the basics, and will give a nice patterned effect for an otherwise plain weave. Otherwise, once you get into specific patterns, you'd want to stick with single color strands, so that you can control the pattern.
I am also planning to use the box of embroidery floss I was gifted a few years ago.
I think I can also use some of the Rayon slub, leftover from a recent weaving project.
PATTERNS
Weaving on an inkle loom is an ancient craft, literally. There are lots of patterns in the public domain, and freely available on the internet. Try Pinterest ...
I picked up this card weaving pattern book as a reference. The cards let you do more complicated patterns, but they are not necessary if you just want to do some simple plain weave patterns. I was already familiar with Anne Dixon, as she published other books for hand weaving.
Plus -- one of the Amazon reviews for this book was rather amusing, by Paul Morse:
"Never
have I heard as much fowl language from my wife than after Christmas,
than due to this book. Moments of quiet focused work followed by loud,
vulgar cursing. I don't think I have enjoyed a Christmas present this
much in years. I will say however that when she finished her weaves,
they are OUTSTANDING! The patterns are simply described and just takes
time to go through them. Great book."
Now to choose a pattern and start playing with it!
Here are a couple of videos showing how to set it up. The loom my husband built for me is very similar to this one by Schacht.
I know what you're thinking -- Another loom? Another hobby?
This one is infinitely more portable than my Kessenich floor loom! I was also attracted to the idea of smaller projects that could be finished sooner.
What can you use those woven bands for?
Remember a couple years ago at Quilt Camp, when one of the ladies had a pretty woven blue trim on the ankle cuffs of her jeans? Trims and embellishments was one idea.
These woven belts are also very strong -- that's why ancient peoples used them for utilitarian and practical purposes, for belts and straps. You could use them for camera straps, or guitar straps, or straps for a bag / purse. Any place you'd use webbing or strapping. Lots of options! Shorter bits could be used for book markers, or key chains.
The center blocks were a 2-1/2 inch strip set (jelly roll) from Keepsake Quilting in the Autumn Copper Batik color way from a year or 2 ago.
I added the purple framing and the outside border.
Detail shot of some of the batik blocks.
This is the same pattern as the Stained Glass quilt top from a few months ago. I liked the pattern so much that I made another one. It comes together quick and easy with 2 jelly rolls (40 2-1/2 strips), an accent fabric, and the borders.
The Fuzzy Logic pattern comes from this booklet, Brenda Henning's Strip Therapy.
Of course this means I have a stack of quilt tops awaiting to be sandwiched and quilted. That was something I always like to do at Quilt Camp where I could spread out and get it done. But I only get to 1 quilt camp a year now, not 3. Sigh! I'll have to work out another space to get that done.
They fit! They fit! Even though they look really big as they were
growing out the bottom of the loom. I had to bind them up with a rubber
band to keep they tucked up and out of the way as I worked.
I asked him what color he wanted and he said green, so of course I had to first dye they yarn back in November. Leaf Green Procion dye on 2 balls of 100% merino yarn (Chic Sheep). I used the same method as explained in this post. They were dyed in the same pot at the same time, and still came out with slight variations, but are still close enough to be a pair.
The specifics of the pattern re-sized for his foot:
Kitchener Cast-on (I like this because it feels like weaving, and leaved a seamless join)
Work the toe box with with 10 decreases / increases
Then start working in the round for 85 rows
Work the heel with 12 decreases / increases on the opposite half of the toe
Work in the round 50 rows for leg
For Ribbed Cuff: 30 rows of 2 Knit and 2 Purl
Super Stretchy Bind off.
Detail of the ribbed cuff made with 2K 2P for 30 rows.
This time, I marked the pegs to KNIT with rubber bands. This helped keep me on track for the K2-P2 rows for the cuff of the leg. It was easier to knit the marked pegs, as purling would catch the rubber bands on the down stroke. Here you can see the super stretchy cast-off ready to be popped off the loom.
What to do next?
I have a new stash of Knit Picks yarn from the November sales. I want to try some of the finer sock yarns as these socks are nice and toasty, but the Chic Sheep yarn is too thick to wear in my every day work shoes. Not sure if that means I need a finer gauge knitting loom (3/16?) to go with the finer fingerling yarns? That will take some experimentation ...
I've learned that the secret to taking a good picture of a black dog is to use lots of light.
Here the sunlight picked up on Sophie's brown Newfie highlights from her father.
I was in Chicago for the Bauhaus Weaver's exhibit at the Art Institute last weekend. All the Christmas decorations and lights are still up downtown. I caught this photo near our hotel. If you look closely, you can see the street signs amid the sprays of light.
May the new year bring you love, light, creativity, and anything else your heart desires!
