13 Saturday Feb 2021
Posted in Daily Band Practice
Today’s motif features warp ends picked up in pairs and a mixture of three pick and five pick floats. I was surprised by the final look of the motif. It reminds me a bit of filigree belt buckle I saw once. I’d like to see how it would look with the middle long float in a different color than the rest of the motif.
From The Weaver’s Inkle Pattern Directory: 400 Warp-Faced Weaves by Anne Dixon.
Until next time,
warp, weave, be happy! ~ Jennifer
12 Friday Feb 2021
Posted in Daily Band Practice
New month new colors, no internet! Our internet was down for a few days, the internet tech laughed at how old our modem was and discovered we had some wiring that was poorly done. We are back up and running.
Welcome to February. I was not sure what colors to use for my band this month. For some weavers, choosing colors is easy peasy. Not so much for me. I suffer from the affliction of color indecision, too many choices and I struggle to settle on what is the “right” combo of colors. I mostly weave with Lunatic Fringe Yarns Tubular Spectrum yarns, 45 colors of cotton goodness, and oh my, talk about color choice! Some years back I wrote that their yarns is like having a 64 box of Crayola Crayons. I might start putting colors in a hat and just selecting at random.
My inspiration for this month came from the Pantone Color of the Year 2021 colors, Ultimate Gray and Illuminating yellow.
Of course Lunatic Fringe had two colors that fit the bill perfectly, 10 Yellow and Dark Gray. For the borders, I chose 5 Red Purple as a nod to Valentine’s Day.
These colors are making me so happy! Thanks Pantone for the inspiration. What do you think? While I might have paired gray and yellow with black or white, you know, pretty, but safe combos, magenta is outside of my normal color aesthetic safety zone, for sure.
Total random thought, how do you spell gray? I have always spelled the word g-r-e-y and find it interesting that both Pantone and Lunatic Fringe Yarns spell it with an A. According to Merriam-Webster.com, “Gray and grey are both common spellings of the color between black and white. Gray is more frequent in American English, whereas grey is more common in British English.” I am originally from the Northeastern United States . . . Not sure why I spell it like the British.
All of the motifs here are from The Weaver’s Inkle Pattern Directory: 400 Warp-Faced Weaves by Anne Dixon, pages 34 & 35.
Until next time,
warp, weave, be happy! ~ Jennifer
05 Friday Feb 2021
Posted in Daily Band Practice
The last two days of January both had such a delicate lacy feel I thought I’d share them together.
Most of my early bands were woven in 10/2 perle cotton. When I first started working with 5/2 it seemed so thick. It is now one of my favorite sizes to work with. Here it seems so light and airy. The alternating pick-up reminds me so much of lace.
I played weaving chicken with both of these motifs. They both filled the entire length of the weaving distance between the heddles and the front peg on my little travel inkle loom. I barely had enough room to fit the whole motif to be able to take a picture of it. While I was weaving it, I had to advance the motif past the front bar, finish the motif, then back the band up to the heddles to snap the picture.
Wow, my first month of daily band practice is done. It’s been amazing taking time, with intention, to weave every day, even a few inches. I thought ending the month with a flower was fitting; let it grow.
Both motifs are from Inkle Weaving by Helene Bress, page 124 (194a, e).
Until next time,
warp, weave, be happy! ~ Jennifer
05 Friday Feb 2021
Posted in Daily Band Practice
This motif unintentionally ended up being a nod to my mid century modern design aesthetic. The design reminds me of images of mid-century modern wallpapers and fabrics I’ve seen in movies and pictures. The original pattern had the six warp ends all picked up on one side. For some reason I decided to alternate which side had the thick boarder. I would love to weave this as an entire band. What a striking camera strap or belt it would be. I would love to try this with a painted warp so the motif would change colors as it advances up the band. This was a pick-up only band, but I would weave it by dropping threads too. Having it be reversible would be so pretty.
This mid century modern motif is adapted from Inkle Weaving by Helene Bress, page 124 (194f).
Until next time,
warp, weave, be happy! ~ Jennifer
.
04 Thursday Feb 2021
Posted in Daily Band Practice
Every day I have been glad I chose to do a daily band practice this year, but I was especially so on this day. I wove, in spite of it being one of those days when you have a plan but the universe has a different plan. Nothing, awful, just one of those days. Only because I have committed to make time this year, instead of trying to find time for my passion, was I able to weave at all that day. It brought me the peace and calm I needed.
Oh, and is it just me of does this motif look like a robot? It didn’t resemble a robot in the book. . . This little robot, who aptly represents the energy I needed channel that day, comes from Inkle Weaving by Helene Bress, page 124 (194g).
Until next time,
warp, weave, be happy! ~ Jennifer
04 Thursday Feb 2021
Posted in Daily Band Practice
Is it strange that this pattern made me smile? This fun motif looks like two sassy X’s stacked on top of each other. When I told that to a friend she laughed and showed me a picture of her sassy little niece, proudly standing with a hand on her hip, the other raised in the air, and her foot kick out in ta-da pose. She was the personification of this sassy little X.
The motif has an interesting heavy and light feel. By mixing groups of three threads and single threads the pattern creates motion and depth. This could be useful in designing a more pictorial type of designs.
Day 27 comes from Inkle Weaving by Helene Bress, page 124 (194i). Until next time, go be sassy!
Warp, weave, be happy! ~ Jennifer
03 Wednesday Feb 2021
Posted in Backstrap Weaving
Do you see a butterfly? The pattern in Inkle Weaving, by Helene Bress, page 124 (194b) looked like a butterfly to me. “Aw, how sweet, I get to weave a butterfly,” I thought. But upon completion, I am not so sure. Ok, maybe an abstract butterfly or a bat? This is one of those designs that looks one way on paper, but doesn’t translate the same once woven. I do like it, nonetheless. It also reads as a crown to me. Maybe I’ll add some glass beads to it at the top…
What do you see?
Until next time,
warp, weave, be happy! ~ Jennifer
02 Tuesday Feb 2021
Posted in Daily Band Practice
And today’s design is brought to you by Helene Bress, from the book Inkle Weaving, page 117, published in 1975.
Inkle Weaving is the first book I owned about inkle weaving. The friend who taught me to inkle weave suggested the book, and I am so glad she did. I find myself referencing it often when I am in a design phase.
After working with one author’s designs for a month it was interesting to weave a design from another author. Their unique design sensibilities of the patterns presented by the two authors definitely highlights different aesthetics. With the groupings of right-side up and upside down triangles, the motif has a bit of an Aztec or Southwestern feel. I wonder how the feel of the motif would change if multiple warp ends were picked up in each pick instead. So many options!
Until next time-
warp, weave, be happy! ~ Jennifer
02 Tuesday Feb 2021
Posted in Daily Band Practice
This motif of a human figure is the first that I have woven. I’ve always enjoyed the backstrap designs of South American that depict human figures. It was fun to finally weave one. I did modify this design a little by adding one more pickup row in the head, and elongating the hat.
Weaving this motif was pretty straight forward, picking up warp threads in pairs for the entire design. While this is from Evelyn Neher’s book, Inkle, it is not a printed pattern in the book. I adapted it from a picture on page 50, exhibit 1, which she captioned as “Student’s first belt with pickup design”. This was the end of her section on what she calls alternating, so the next post will feature a motif from a different book. Which one will it be, hmmmm?
Until next time,
Warp, weave, be happy! ~ Jennifer
02 Tuesday Feb 2021
Posted in Daily Band Practice
Why is this one folded, you may ask. This motif was about making the design reversible. All the other motifs clearly have a “right” and “wrong” side. Unlike Baltic style pick up, only picking up threads does not make a pretty reverse pattern. You only see the weft floats on the backside. For this diamond in a diamond pattern, every thread I picked up I dropped its heddled partner. Picking and dropping takes a bit longer, but is very worth the effort for a reversible band.
The wrong side of the band doesn’t look bad, but, it is clearly the back side. The back side of Day 13 illustrates what I mean. The areas where I picked up on the front, show the green weft on the back, not a reverse image.
The observant among you may have noticed that the folded motif is off the loom. How could this be since the month had yet to finish? Well, I miscalculated and didn’t put enough warp on my loom, so I ran out of warp. I had to warp my little inkle to finish out the month. Ah, the best laid plans of mice and men, oft go astray.
The reversible diamond is a motif from Inkle by Evelyn Neher, page 43.
Warp, weave, be happy! ~ Jennifer
inkled pink 