More Weaving: Celtic Knot Warp-Faced Band

  For my first patterned band on the box loom, I chose a Celtic knot design. 

There's a 7-Pattern thread version in the Weaving Patterned Bands book by Susan J Foulkes.  This one is a much simpler than the 13 pattern threads below.   I plan to concentrate on the middle section, and won't make it so wide as a guitar strap with the extra borders.  

Although not strictly necessary, I purchased a double-holed rigid heddle from Harvest Looms in Latvia, as I thought it would facilitate making any of the 5-7-9 pattern threads from Susan Foulkes' book above.   It has extra slots for the pattern threads to help make them stand out easier for the pick-up technique.

I also purchased this exquisite shuttle made from plum wood.   Gorgeous, isn't it?

Here's some additional info and tutorials I consulted to make this Celtic Braid on the inkle loom.
Perhaps after I've mastered the 7=pattern thread version above, I'll try one of these more complicated versions?  The rest is just here for my own reference, filed away so I can find them when I want to revisit this in future.  ;-)  

I found this pattern online via The Curious Weaver, and decided this would be the first fancy pattern I wanted to try.   No cards with this one.  It's a pick-up pattern, but there were a couple of blog posts and videos to help me through it.

It looks like she uses a thicker yarn/thread for the pattern to help it stand out from the background.  It really helps to make it look 3-dimensional and textured.   One blogger suggested using multiple thinner threads (say 3 strands of size 10 crochet cotton), rather than just 1 strand.  


Celtic Knot Warp-Faced Band Weaving - Rigid Heddle Weaving

Pickup Weaving Techniques -  by Eve-the-Just

How-to: Basket Weave and Celtic Knot for the Inkle Loom - Crafty Girl's Spot
She uses a slightly different pattern.  There's more intertwining with this one.

Just for inspiration.  I love watching this woman turn the cards.  She knows what she's doing, and she makes it a nice meditation.  The board supports her cards -- They are not hanging in the air.  I love that well worn live-edge board!

Books for Inspiration, Patterns and Learning More ... Band / Tape Weaving

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?).

Color Coded Tablet Weaving

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.

The oddyssey continues!

Inkle Loom Weaving : First Attempts

 

 Almost ready to go!

Setting up the Inkle Loom for Weaving.

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.