08 Monday Mar 2021
Posted in Daily Band Practice
This one is my favorite. How many times will I say that this year, I wonder.
Electric. That is the best word I can think of for motifs like this. They exude such energy and movement. Similar to the motifs of Day 14, 15, and 16, this one is what really excites me about the possibilities of weaving on this warp background.
It is time for me to get out my color pencils and and graph paper and start playing. So, so many possibilities…
Until next time,
warp, weave, be happy! ~ Jennifer
07 Sunday Mar 2021
Posted in Daily Band Practice
To shorten the length of today’s motif I only wove a potion of it. But choosing what portion to weave…
There were so many possible ways to combine these two shapes. For example: the triangles pointing away from the diamond or diamonds on the outside of a triangle or two… I could easily get lost playing with design.
Until next time,
warp, weave, be happy! ~ Jennifer
Playing
04 Thursday Mar 2021
Posted in Daily Band Practice
Today’s motif is a sweet little diamond, the key word being little. It is only nine warp ends wide and nine pick tall. I felt it needed a friend, so I wove one. The orange diamond is the original design from page 38 in Anne Dixon’s book, The Weaver’s Inkle Pattern Directory: 400 Warp-Face Weaves. It is woven mostly using the unheddled threads, all except the two warp ends in the middle. Mine is woven on the heddled threads.
In counting out my pickup threads today, I realized I warped 26 pattern threads instead of 25. Hopefully some upcoming designs will not look too askew with a random line of color in the band. We shall see. Saturday’s motif is intense in pickup and is 25 ends wide.
Did you spot the mistake in yesterday’s motif? Someone wrote wondering where it is. See the little blue dot of weft peeking through. There should be an orange warp end there. I didn’t drop it from the front and it acted as a picked up warp end. Oops. I am always in awe of people who do wonderfully intense pickup and don’t skip any threads.
Until next time,
warp, weave, be happy! ~ Jennifer
03 Wednesday Mar 2021
Posted in Daily Band Practice
The technique of pickup with both heddled and unheddled warp threads makes it very difficult to maintain a consistent band width. (Ha, that’s a good pun.) When picking up many threads, the band will naturally want to draw-in. This happens even more the more threads picked up. One way to counter the draw-in is to drop the partner (heddled or unheddled) thread for every thread picked up. When the partner thread is dropped, the reverse of the motif will be on the other side.
The motif on the left is the original pattern from page 38 in The Weaver’s Inkle Pattern Directory: 400 Warp-Faced Weaves by Anne Dixon. The motif on the right is the band flipped over. And as I look at reverse side picture, I see a spot where I didn’t drop a thread. Oops. Weaving goes much faster when picking up only, and for simple patterns I usually only do pickup. This motif in the book only calls for pickup. But picking and dropping threads really makes a striking band. How do you usually do this type of pickup?
Until next time,
warp, weave, be happy! ~ Jennifer
02 Tuesday Mar 2021
Posted in Daily Band Practice, Design
If I were a statistician I would run the numbers on how any different ways a group of threads on a horizontal striped warp can be woven into a diamond. I almost skipped this motif, sure I had woven one exactly like it. Looking back over the band from January, I realized that I had not. A few diamonds are similar, like Day 6 and Day 23, but none are the same.
When I wove an outlined diamond the first time it was in a single color. Combining the two colors is striking.
Did you notice the brown is a bit bolder today? The brown seemed muted by the blue and orange, and was not present in a proportion that reflected my inspiration picture. It’s subtle, but I added another stripe of brown to each side of the band. And, I did it with out unweaving yesterday’s weaving. I simply tied on to the front peg, wound the new yarn on in the path of the band, sliding the yarn under the warp in the places where I needed to go under and over a peg. Since I heddle after I warp anyway, adding new heddles to the new warp ends was a snap. Then, I started weaving. This is what it looks like after the new warp ends are incorporated into the band.
After the band is off the loom, I will use a blunt, large eye needle, like a tapestry needle, to weave the ends into the shed, or space, where the weft is. The band will be a bit wider at that point, but otherwise, you won’t even notice a thing.
Until next time,
warp, weave, be happy! ~ Jennifer
01 Monday Mar 2021
Posted in Daily Band Practice, Inspiration
For the last week I have been pondering what the colors would be for the March daily band practice band. Orange was speaking to me as a color to work with, but I was at a loss for what the other colors would be. That is, until I found my inspiration picture on Saturday of the Namibian desert posted by Visages d’Afriques to their Facebook page.
I took a screenshot of the picture, printed it out and went to my Lunatic Fringe Yarns stash. Natural was perfect for the low brush, 5 Yellow Red for the rich orange clay, Burnt Umber for the mountains, and 10 Blue was the right blue for the sky.
I really like the combination. Why wouldn’t I, who am I to argue with nature? The brown doesn’t show the way I anticipated. I am tempted to add a bit more for it to stand out…
Inspiration comes without warning, and this was perfectly timed. This may be the first time I have used a picture as color inspiration. What inspires you in your weaving?
Motif from The Weaver’s Inkle Pattern Directory: 400 Warp-Faced Weaves by Anne Dixon, page 38.
Until next time,
warp, weave, be happy!~ Jennifer
28 Sunday Feb 2021
Posted in Daily Band Practice
Someone asked if I have learned anything so far in my daily band practice. At the time my answer was not yet, but what I would answer today is, if I get behind by one day of blogging, it is not as easy to catch up as I’d like. Time seems to melt away. But, isn’t that the point of why I am doing a daily band practice. If I do not commit to make time for weaving, I will definitely never find time. That being said, let’s get caught up.
Day 46: Seems very similar to Day 44 to me, but with a more modern feel. Day 47: Do you see honeycomb? Day 48: I was ever so grateful to have my daily band practice on this day. It was stressful day and weaving this meandering chain was just the meditation I needed.
Day 49: We have a lot of creepy crawly things here in Florida. Maybe I have lived here too long, but this motif reminds me of a few of them. Day 50: I made a mistake in this one and didn’t notice until I had taken the picture. Can you spot it? Day 51: I was excited to weave this S motif. In Baltic pick-up it is one of my favorites, so it was fun to weave an S in horizontal strip pick-up.
Day 52: Pick-up on horizontal strips that mixes single and double warp threads creates such interesting motifs. Day 53: This motif creates the illusion of subtle curves by mixing single and double pick-up threads combined with mixing three and five pick floats. Day 54: This one almost didn’t make it into existence, I didn’t make time with intention, but just before bed I did it. It was the perfect way to end the day.
Day 55: We have some beautiful flowers blooming right now, maybe that’s why this motif reminds me of flora and fauna. Day 56: This time, the mixing of single and double pick-up threads created a motif that resembled pulled thread embroidery. Day 57: Wow, did this motif weave differently than what I expected from the pattern in the book. Actually, I almost didn’t weave it because it look to be so similar to Day 49. There are slight bends, not sharp angles each time the ladder turns. Again, this was achieved by mixing single and double pick-up threads.
Day 58: More mixing of single and double pick-ups and mixing of three and five pick floats at play. Day 59: What a perfect way to close out the month, with an S motif. I am not sure why I like these so much, but I really do.
My loom is warped up and ready for March. All of these motifs are from The Weaver’s Inkle Pattern Directory: 400 Warp-Faced Weaves by Anne Dixon, pages 36-37. I will be weaving a few motifs from Mary Meigs Atwater’s Byways in Handweaving next month.
Until next time,
warp, weave, be happy! ~ Jennifer
14 Sunday Feb 2021
Posted in Daily Band Practice
Happy Valentine’s Day!
In honor of the day, I tried my hand at designing a heart motif. I drew two drafts before attempting to weave it, but the paper and pencil technique was not giving me a true idea of what the heart would look like. So, ultimately, I created the heart as I wove it.
The yellow portion is pick-up only, while the grey center area is a combination of pick-up and drop down. As I was weaving, I realized the only way to create the illusion of the “V” in the middle of the heart was to create background. For every grey thread I picked-up, I dropped its partner yellow thread. It seems to have worked pretty well, but I think the “V” could be a pick or two shallower. I may weave another and see.
Yesterday, I revisited my Valentine’s Day post from February 2013, after Liz Gipson of the Yarnworker blog shared the post on Facebook. It was fun to look back, but also inspiring. In the original post, I wove a heart out of woven inkle bands. Rereading the post reminded me that I pondered then about making the heart smaller and turning it into a pin. Guess who made a pin yesterday? I updated the original post with the details of how I made the pin.
I hope you had a day of kindness and love.
Until next time,
warp, weave, and be happy! ~ Jennifer
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
inkled pink 