Inkle garland

Another use for a nice long inkle band.

Belt Shuttles

Friday I was happy to visit with Laura, who was in town for Thanksgiving with her family. Sadly our visit was way too short. Laura brought me a nice fibery present - Books on weaving and basketry, some Ashford bobbins, and a belt shuttle. One of the books, Peter Collingwood's Techniques in Tablet Weaving, renewed my unfullfilled fascination with learning to card weave. I have done a few elementary peices, but I long to actually UNDERSTAND what I am doing. Perhaps I will make a study of it. The Collingwood book is a bit dense and intimidating, so I will start with Candace Crockett's Card Weaving, then work my way up.

The lovely dark wood (mahogany?) belt shuttle was looking a bit dry. A while back I acquired a birch (maple?) belt shuttle from Janet's husband, unfinished and ready for woodburning. The original plan was to woodburn and paint, but belt shuttles spend so much time in the hand. Acrylic paint and poly finish is too plastic to the touch. I decided to woodburn both shuttles and just oil them. That way the wood will develop a nice patina the more it is handled. I selected a fiberish quote for each, plus added simple designs along the wide edges.

Tablet Weaving

Inkle weaving leads to tablet weaving. They have different origins and very different structures, yet inkle weavers sooner or later tend to give tablet weaving a try. Both techniques result in warp-faced fabric, and both are great for making belts (or other long, skinny bands), but I'm guessing the common attraction is for trying new skills that give big design payoff with low start-up investment. All you need to try your hand at tablet weaving is the fiber and some cardboard. That's it. Really. You cut the cardboard into a series of square cards and punch holes in the 4 corners to run the warp through. (I bought mine, rather than cut them myself, but they still represent the cheapest loom ever.) Turning the "deck" of cards opens and closes the sheds. You can read all about it lots of places on the web - just type "tablet weaving" into Google.

For my tablet weaving project I used 15 cards strung with 4 colors of crochet cotton. Due to the lack of an appropriately placed doorknob (traditional end tensioning device), I chose to anchor the warp on an inkle loom and to string it as a continuous warp. I wove about the simplest pattern possible: 16 turns forward and 16 turns back. This created a pattern of Xs and diamonds separated by chevrons.

The result is a new custom lanyard for my geek tag (aka key card/ID).

Another busy weekend

Saturday I taught the first of my much delayed inkle weaving workshops. I was a bit over ambitious with my timeline, so we didn't accomplish as much as I had hoped. However, I think everyone had a fine time and learned enough to go forth and inkle on their own. The picture is of some of the samples I brought to the workshop.

Also this weekend I completed my leaflet mitts. I really like them, though I would change a few bits if I made another pair.

Once I finished them I was free to start a new project. Sunday I made it about halfway through the "Harvey Kimono" from "Natural Knits for Babies and Moms". Good thing it is a pretty quick project since I need to make another (she had twins!).