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…
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?
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.
Isn’t it amazing how many ways diamonds and arrows can be woven with the same 46 warp ends? The motif from day 21 was quick to weave, picking up three threads at a time. It produces a strong vibrant pattern.
Day 22 was about mixing single and double pick up. It is interesting that Evelyn Neher put this after the more complex patterns that require pick up of two colors in every row. But, I admit at being pleased to find day 21 and 22 after the struggle of day 20. If I weave this one again, I might modify it an mix in some three thread pick ups too.
Both motifs are from Inkle by Evelyn Neher, page 42.
This motif was woven by picking up threads in alternating pairs, every other row, in both the background and pattern colors. I’ve only every done this with single colors. Doing a study of horizontal stripe pick-up has already taught me a lot.
I admit that I unwove quite a bit on this one. My warp was getting fuzzy because I unwove so much, and Lunatic Fringe Yarns is not a fuzzy yarn. The little white dots are supposed to be crisp, but they kept looking muddled, like in the area circled in the picture below. They blend together compared to the ones in the lower half of the diamond.
I’m curious to explore this more and try to figure out what was happening structurally. Have you ever woven this technique before? Did you experience the same problem?
Today’s design was from Inkle by Evelyn Neher, page 41. Interestingly, it was the only one of it’s type.
More two color pick-up, but these designs have less interplay of the colors. They all would make fun designs to weave the length of a band. Day 18 made me think of snow on mountains. Does day 19 make you think of tic-tac-toe?
As simple as it is, the design from day 17 is my favorite. The point where it crosses has that energy I like of the two colors being picked-up. If it were repeated diamonds would appear. Then, wouldn’t it look amazing to place the motif from day 13 in the middle of the diamond. I’ll have to remember that idea…
Sometimes we choose to take a break and sometimes life makes us take a break. Life made me take a break and focus on selfcare to recoup from a surgery. (All better!) I hadn’t made it a practice to look ahead at the motifs, preferring to discover what I would be weaving each day. But, in knowing I was not going to be able to weave for a few days, I not only looked ahead, but, I also wove days 13, 14, and 15 on day 12. In hindsight, I should have woven day 16 too. Lessons learned.
Designs woven by picking up both colors, like in days 13-16, are what excite me the most about weaving pick-up on horizontal stripes. I love the energy created by picking-up both colors within the same design. Doing so changes the visual texture so much. I will be exploring this technique more later in the year for sure.
Day 13
Day 14
Day 15
Day 16
Day 14 was my favorite of all when I wove it, but it was a little mind bending in the weaving and following of the chart. I did a lot of unweaving that day. I’ll chalk it up to still recuperating.
All of the motifs here are from Inkle by Evelyn Neher, pages 35-38.
More rhombuses. These bring to mind trellises leaning against a wall. Using two threads at each pick or row made these nice and bold.
I did modify this just a titch by making the overall motif shorter. The pattern in the book has the white one starting at the last pick of the black one. My warp may not make it to the end of the month, so I’m trying to conserve. Every row helps.
In my next post I will share three days in one. They are my favorite yet, and really make sense to be shared together. Yes, I looked ahead… I’ll be away from my loom and don’t want to fall behind. So I had to peak, but I stopped at three days.
Weaving pick-up on a horizontal stripe background with two threads at a time really punches up the visual impact of the design. This design is so bold, partly owing to it being in black. The motif I wove on day 7 is similar to this one, but definitely has a much more delicate feel. The combination of it being white and woven with single pick-up threads it has more of a lacey appearance.
I would love to weave a band that has variations of this motif woven with one, two, then three threads picked-up in the motifs. Seeing the progression of the difference of the motifs on one band might be very interesting. Or, how about weaving each motif in black then white, but using the same number of pick-up threads. Thinking of all the design possibilities is such fun!
The design in today’s motif makes me think of falling snowflakes, the big light fluffy kind. I don’t know, maybe I see snowflakes because we did not get to go north for our annual family holiday trip where we are almost guaranteed to see snow each year.
The thought of weaving delicate snowflakes makes me happy.
Today’s motif can be found on page 32 of Inkle by Evelyn Neher.
inkled pink 