A Little Distraction

Ashford Inklette loom.

I am supposed to be hard at work, weaving and indigo dyeing "woven shibori" scarves, yet somehow I let myself be distracted the past month, perhaps I needed to do something different while my subconscious worked at understanding the new weaving and dyeing I was doing.  This week, it was the little Ashford Inklette that suddenly needed to be warped, and so it was, with red, green, and silver 10/2 Valley perle cotton from WEBS.  I'd made the heddles from seine twine which just happened to be handy and was a mistake,... it's a bit too thick, and tends to wear on the perle cotton.  With the next warp, the heddles will be replaced with rug warp heddles.




First attempt at inkle weaving!

I'd started with just a short warp to get the hang of warping this little loom, and as I began weaving, was not happy with my selvedges.  A contributing factor was a tension issue with the outer threads on each side, and since I'd never seen anyone weaving on an inkle loom, my technique was a little iffy.  Asking for advice on a Facebook inkle weaving list, I was directed to a YouTube video which did help.  Of course, a lot of practice at the inklette, inkle, and band looms will help a lot, too.





Monograph by Daryl Ebeling Lancaster.

I was using the above monograph, available from a link at http://weaversew/wordblog/, written and published by Daryl Ebeling Lancaster.  She has monographs on beginning and advanced inkle weaving (among others), and I believe I'd ordered the combination version with both beginning and advanced monographs together in one spiral-bound book.  Her directions and photos are very clear and understandable.  A fellow guild member had recommended this monograph to me, and I'm very happy she did!

I'm already thinking it might be fun to skein up some white cotton (or silk?), dye it shades of indigo, to warp and weave with on an inkle or band loom.




"Moraband" by Barbro Wallin (in Swedish).

Several weeks back I'd called VavStuga (http://vavstuga.com), and ordered "Moraband," a lovely book and treasure of Swedish band weaving patterns.




Band weaving books by Susan J. Foulkes

Recently, I'd seen mention again of a book titled "Sami band weaving," and this time not only ordered it but also ordered another book "Woven bands from Sweden," both by the same author, Susan J. Foulkes (of the U.K.), and self-published via Blurb.  They are small books, colorful, and a treasure of motifs/patterns for band weaving.

I really enjoyed my first inkle loom weaving, it went quickly, and was a pleasant late evening activity before retiring for the day.  The band is ready to be cut off, and I'm deciding colors and pattern for the next one.

Meanwhile, I am back at work on woven shibori scarves, and will be back out on the lakeside porch with my indigo dyepots sometime this week.  New photos will be here in a week or so, and a new warp will be beamed for the next scarves. 

Other studio news,... I don't know why, but gmail drops emails from http://moo.com into the spam file.  It's a good thing I found it two nights ago, they have a 30% off sale that ends tonight, July 13th.  I spent my evening uploading images of woven shibori to moo.com for new business cards as well as for stickers (image and contact info) to put on the brown bags I use for customer's purchases.  After that was done, I suddenly decided to do another order, this time for business cards with sock images for the sock customers, and another sticker with a studio image/contact info.  They'll arrive later in July, and are needed for two small art shows in August and October.

The Art Gypsies "Garden Party" art show is Sat., Aug. 17th, in Land O'Lakes, WI at Fir Tree Cottage where I'll have woven shibori scarves.  On Sat., Oct. 5th, Mary Jackl and I will be at the U.C.C. Church during CranberryFest weekend.  I'll have woven shibori scarves and wool socks, and Mary will have her rag rugs, skeins of handspun beaded yarn, and handknit/felted hats and slippers.  If you are in the area for either of these, I hope you'll stop by and say Hi!

It's time to get some rest, tomorrow is a busy day cleaning and moving furniture.  My younger daughter is coming to take a bedroom set (yay!!!) on Sunday.  After that, I'll be dividing my time between studio, and cleaning out and doing work on my home.  I'm in the mood to get a lot done and get this house on the market.  I think I'm finally ready to leave this place and move forward.  It's going to be an adventure!