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OK I'll start the ball rolling here.....

Probably another 2 weeks to go on this. It's the third of a series of sashes I am making to represent the weaves from coastal Peru to the Amazon Basin. 

This isn't back-strap, but it could be!

this was last year on a opendoor workshop. weaving with handspun paper on a litlle loom with stringheddles.It was only for this occasion that i spun some paper.It was fun but takes a lot of time. you can also see some of my selfmade spindles

hi Jeannine, That is soooo cool!

How did you go about spinning the paper? Did you tear it into strips, spray it with water then spin it? How thick were the strips? I've experimented with metallic cellophane paper - unsuccessfully so far, and you are the first person I have met who has actually done it!

that pattern is so intricate and delicate, the way the colours play against each other in it is beautiful

I, too am fascinated with this idea of handspun paper-I have never heard of such a thing. How does it behave whe you weave with it and what did you use your inished piece for?

Laverne

the finished piece was rather stiff.I think most things should be for decoration only ;wallhangings ,background for pictures perhaps  ,decorative paper runners.If treated with acryl medium(as used by painters) it would become water resistent and could be used for placemats.I have seen some great objects in an exposition of italien artists in tournai(belgium)the artist was Ivano Vitali (he has a website) . I have seen it used to make a windowscreen to prevent looking inside a room too.

but there is also japanese mullberrypaper that is used for clothing but I don't know about that .It was just an experiment i did.

i once saw a small woven bag made out of spun paper yarn.

here is a nice page that tells you how to have a go at the spinning paper lark (havent had a go myself yet, but its on the agenda)

greenupgrader.com/2138/handspun-recycled-newspaper-yarn/

I cut the paper(local adverisingmagazinges,newspaper is to soft)in stripes from 1,5 cm and sprayed water on with a  re-usable perfumbotle(plantsprayer was to much) to moisten ,then started rolling by hand .when i had a piece of yarn I tied it to my lightes spindle and spun  futher; i overlay the ends . my saori-coach told me you can roll the paper on a rough surface such as concrete tile to work faster but i didn't try that . for commercial paper yarn the paperstripes are folded double perhaps that ads more strenght because the moist paper is weak and i had to spin very patiently.

yes,thats how i did it. only difference i moistened the paper a litlle bit with a perfumspray bottle.very good link!!!

The article doesn't say, but I think the spindle is only used for storage, not to actually spin the paper like you would spin wool fibres. The paper is too stiff for that. I've tried using a metallic cellophane because it looked pretty, but there was no give, so I put it aside. I should have another go and recycle some newspaper which might be easier.

actually, when i have played with spinning paper (just a bit... not a huge amount) i used the spindle for the spinning.  i haven't used anything heavier than newspaper though...

colored tissue paper makes for GREAT spun paper. i used a few colors of blue and green tissue paper to spin  and beaded yarn (yes, i added beads during plying) for a spinning challenge with the theme of rain.

beautiful! and really inspiring. someday i want to be able to do stuff like that.... someday....

hi guys! i finially finished my loom bag. made from my first weaving on my backstrap loom.

i posted all about over on my blog.

I shall collect some catalogues, and try again. I like the idea of tissue paper as well, there are some beautiful colours available, and it looks great with the beads.A lovely novelty yarn!

Otherwise the paper waste that goes into my recycle bin ends up as land-fill a lot of the time, as there are not enough businesses recycling paper and other re-usable materials.

You have inspired me to look for other fibres!

I like that!  I have a long bag similar to yours to take my Journey Loom when its not in use and need a similar bag to take my backstrap sticks. It makes storage much easier, and prettier!

Your choice of closure is good too, and very important! I have a  velcro strip on my bag, and it gets caught on any weaving I have on the loom if I pack it up to take it somewhere, grrr.

What a beautiful job you have done. Are those lucet cords you have for the draw string? I'm sure if I go to  your blog I will find all the answers there.

Yup! - on both counts. hehe

Jen, this is lovely. Have you blogged about this? If not, you should. I would like to see it up against something so I can get an idea of its size.

Laverne

Hi everyone, I've been a bit distracted by my new toy, a journey loom, which is a type of tapestry loom you can see here:

www.weavingalife.com/

and have finished my first project, an amulet bag:

I added a twig with a gum nut, a piece of lavender from my garden, and the most precious of all, a downy feather from a little Barbary Dove I rescued last year, who can never be let free because he is a feral. If the powers that be really thought about it, we all are ferals, because the lands and the environment are all older than we are, and humans are only transient on this planet. We should try to be the best we can be, feral or not, and live in harmony with our surroundings.

very cool.

i've been interested in the journey loom... they say you can carry your work in progress on it. how does that work> do you just rool it round the end sticks after you take the loom apart? 

I made a little red stripe ribbon/bookmark that I uploaded to my projects.

http://www.weavolution.com/node/4334

I gave some description about it as well.

Have a good day!

Yes, you undo the bolts, then roll up the weaving around the top and bottom sticks, and it all goes into this very neat quiver, with a strap that goes over your shoulder.

The quiver is a longer version of the one you wove.

Its a lovely loom to weave on, very simple, and if you follow the book that comes with the kit, its very meditative, as you concentrate on what your hands are doing and how you do it. Its like spinning on a spindle where the yarn-making takes place between your fingers. and its just as portable.

Don't be deceived by the looks of the loom either, you can put quite a bit of pressure on the warp and beat the shed firmly.

I was spinning and weaving with children on a holiday camp:

A lovely man lend us four of his foxsheeps for the whole time:

I have forgotten to take pictures of our lovely sheep-wool gallery. I had 20 samples of wool and pictures of the sheeps as well. Most of the wool where rare german breeds like Rauhwollige Pommersche Landschaf, Skudde, Heidschnucke, Coburger Fuchsschaf, Zackelschaf, Moorschnucke, friesisches Milchschaf,... But we also had Australian Merino, flax and cotton.

We washed the wool of the foxsheeps and made a spindle out of sticks like this one and I taugth them how to spin on it:

www.flickr.com/photos/9200466@N08/2850751260/

To get an idea how the weaving works we started with weaving on a cardboard. Warp is some cheap cotton and weft is merino roving.

After that we made a wallhanging for the foresters lodge, where the workshop took place:

Preparing the warp:

5 kids working together at the wallhanging: 

Very nice piece!

Great colors! I like the picture of the kids holding the loom!

Great way to get many hands involved.

How well does cotton warp behave with the wool weft?

Can it be washed together?

Have a good day!

A great set of photos, and the kids would have had such fun, so plenty of good memories too! The spindles are very ingenious. Aboriginal spinners in central Australia  still use something similar, so this is probably how spindles started, as crossed twigs, and then got more sophisticated, shaped from stones, bones and wood.

What is a fox sheep? My german (?) isn't up to trying to translate those names.

It is beautiful and amazing. What excellent work you are doing.  colors, involvement, everything.

Hey Franco, you are putting the rest of us to shame! A little loom like the one on that project page would be great, but you will need some way to control and slacken off  the tension on a warp weave - ask me how I know?( I had to take my banana bag off its frame because of this problem, grrrr!) The web page with that project on shows the loom as having an extra bar across above the frame, with the tension controlled by a couple of bolts on a threaded steel bar. THAT would give you a great portable loom, because you cannot club wild bison to death on a bus when you get frustrated, it upsets the other passengers lol!

I'll be interested to see what you come up with. Its given me a few ideas too, hehe!

 Thanks, well it is a bit like a carpet or tapestry to use linen or cotton as warp and wool as weft. And most people get their big carpets or tapestry weavings cleaned at the dry cleaner. My carpets didn´t get washed, hoovering and some treatment with the beater while lying on snow is all I did. But I made table-runner with wool as weft and linen as warp, I washed them like I would wash pure wool. No problem at all. It will get difficult to balance the fabric if you use both  wool and linen as warp, but you surely knew that :).

 Thank you. That´s interesting that the aboriginal spinners used similar spindles. I learned to spin on such a spindle as a kid and  people told me that it is very unusual in germany.  It seems more common in turkey.  I love it that way because if you finish spinning you simply pull out the big stick, than the smaller ones and then you have your ball of wool and can start plying straigth away. 

Foxsheep is my own translation of german "Fuchsschaf". Fuchs meaning fox and Schaf meaning sheep. I don´t know if there is an english word for this special breed. They are called like this because of their color. The lambs are born red-brown, at the age of 6-12 month their colors will change to a golden fleece. Look here for a picture of lambs and mother: www.schulbauernhof-ummeln.de/ueber-uns/unsere-tiere/coburger-fuchsschafe.html

Don´t know how all the other breeds are called in english, if you like I can link to pictures at flickr for all the breeds. 

 Thank you, the colors were picked by the children themselves. 

Please do! I'm sure I'm not the only one who is interested in ancient breeds like this. Its funny, until I moved to Australia, I thought most sheep had dark  faces, but out here, nearly all sheep are the one colour, like the Merino. Colour is frowned upon by sheep farmers, except for handspinners, who love coloured fleece.

The more I learn about textiles in other countries, the more it seems that communities around the world  developed the same ideas, techniques and tools with little communication and even less opportunity for travel.

I wasn't aware that the Aborigines used a spindle until I saw a book on the Beanie Fest at Alice Springs.  But its logical that the first spindles started out like this - the need to produce a strong twine or string would have inspired many attempts to make production easier, and its not surpising that the same idea appears in many different countries at about the same time.
This would also explain why so many communities around the world have a strong tradition of backstrap weaving, and its still widely used today, although there has been little or no opportunity to exchange ideas and technologies.

 I finaly finished this project. It has some errors but I learned a lot. I invented the patterns as i was weaving.it has  4-selvedges.I filled the last bit ,stripes only,with a weavingneedle.the warp is lightbrown and blue coton . the inlay is wool i had around.I doubled it .I followed  no pattern but invented as i was weaving.I used the book from barbara Taber and Marilyn Anderson to see how I had to setup .

Nice work Jeannine,

Good job with the 4 selvedges-I can't tell where you needle wove at all! What kind of yarn did you use?

simple stripes tryout: i made a warp with some leftover knitting coton.not ideal but thats what i had laying around.first i warped 2 light ,2 dark treads,  in the middle i found a way to warp 1red,1yellow by fixing the tread on each end (don't cut, put a weight on it or so)then i made the stringheddles as laverne explained on flickr.first i had to do it over but second time it worked(forgot the second clockwiseturned loop).then i sew the warp to the sticks as explained in backstrapweaving(four selvedges,B.Taber and M.Anderson). i don't know if i am going to do four selvedges but  this way the sticks don't fall out easily.I started weaving one thick ,one thin weft because i remembered that from bandweavinglessons long ago.the thick weft makes one colour come-out more .by weaving two of the same after another  you can change the colour .I don't know if this makes any sense but thats howfar I got .now I am of on vacation until 28-8.enjoy weaving!jeannine

Thank you Jeannine for sharing that sample.

That middle stripe looks well organized.

I could see myself doing something like that.

Have a good vacation!

Hi Jeannine,

The idea of weaving alternating thick and thin wefts is very interesting-i have never thought of that before. I would like to see how it changes when you change the weft order to thin and thick.

Laverne

I think that i must take a thicker weft because now you can not see much difference.for example the thin goes under the yellow warp threads ,the thick goes under the red warp threads.when beating fermly you see only a thin yellow line between the thicker red lines  so the general impression is red.by weaving two thin after another the general impression changes to yellow.below is the sample from weaving class ;the teacher made the warp .It  was woven on a loom but the principal is the same

.

Wow...very cool. I love the colors!

DJ

Hot color towel on backstrap loom

Here is another finished towel on left measures about 12 inch x 16 inch. The washcloth on right is about 9 x 9 inch. Details about the towel are below. The colors are Sugar n Creme Hot Green, Hot Orange, with Peaches N Creme White. All cotton worsted yarn.

Here is the start of another backstrap towel. First the warp is wrapped around the upright sticks of a craft frame in a figure 8 pattern. I am using the craft frame as a warping board.

The loom bars and leash sticks are inserted, then the warp is slid off the craft frame/warping board.

I have setup my backstrap and I'm halfway done with the weaving in this picture. I turned the loom around and started again from the other side and finished up in the middle.

This project was started on a Tuesday and was finished by Saturday.

Have a good day!

 I bought an Easy Weaver loom to experiment with using it for weaving pebbleweave bands on roadtrips.  It came prewarped (from like 1987 by the smell:>).  My 4.5 yr took it very quickly and is currently going back every so often to weave another row or two at a time.  I'm so happy.

Thats great! I remember having a little loom at about the same age - I have no idea how long I used it for, no-one in my family weaves or spins, but it must have had an influence on what I do now, as I feel very grounded when I'm creating with fibres and yarn.

This is just precious!!! The expression of conentration on his little face!! Cute little loom too.

Some have joked that I'm setting up my own fiber production sweatshop:>.  Seriously though I do hope that being exposed to it at this age will spark an abiding interest for him later on.  He asks to "help" with every piece I work on so I've had to work on being able to let go of perfectionism and just unweave after the "helping" :>.

hi to all backstrapweavers,I am back .I planned doing some weaving but  i got no futher then some spinning in the evening ..Nature and the beaches were wonderfull.the museums were more a disapointment;the one i  have visited had not much on weaving ,just a warpweighted loom ;but beautiful items from stone-age and iron-times:beltbucles,pins, combes etc.all the entrances were expencive and we were on a rather thight budget.But nature is free and we enjoyed it very much.

on demand of Laverne a photo of my denmark holiday.see more  here:www.flickr.com/photos/35709079@N08/sets/72157622205909564/

I know, I really know, we are a weaving site.  BUT, how did you spin the paper and how did you add the beads.  Feel free to PM the answer to me.  I would be using the yarn for weaving so it's ok, right?

I have a brand new drop spindle, a little heavier than my past ones, and I love spinning on it.  I also have lots of tissue paper.

TIA for the info.

Claudia, Weavolution co-founder

tell ya what... i'm going to work up a little photo tutorial for you in the next few days, ok? 

word of warning, even though it is tissue paper, it still isn't all that flexible. i had been thinking of using it more for things like basket weaving or woven table mats.

Me too, me too, please!

lol, i was planning to post it on my blog and then post the link here... that way i'm not being "too bad" about posting off topic and taking away from our precious weaving time...

(*snort* right! not gonna take up much of our time at all! riiiiight! lol) 

Spoken like a true spinner, hehe! But a paper project could make a different future WAL, so is it really off topic? I suspect nearly all of us in this group spin regularly.

I created this thread for weaving projects AND off topic stuff so we can all get to know each other and the stuff that we are into. Besides it's paper yarn for weaving right?

Lovely dunes and wild sea! and not another person in sight! Thanks for sharing these pictures. Having that van must give you an enormous amount of freedom plus you get to take your dog-idyllic.

Laverne

Thank you for posting that link! Its a long time since I have walked over a beach that windswept! It was almost enough to make me feel homesick!

thank you ; I just wished we had more then two weeks to travel around.during the year the van is our second car and mostly used to take the dogs to the woods for a walk.

it was amazing to see a coastline without bildings.In belgium the coast has a skyline of high appartmentblocs and very litlle open space. in denmark it really felt like standing at the edge off the world.and that late in the season there are not many people around;

Hooray! Finished my third sash.....finally! Usually I start a project and am quite well disciplined in that I stick with only that until I get it done. This sash was started at the end of May but then this thing called Weavolution came along and all went to hell after that!!! So many ideas and inspirations and I wanted to try everything I saw so the poor old sash sat for some time unattended. Anyway now it is time to start number four-planning on doing a set of seven.

I like the sash on the right, with the birds. Which region is that from?

Those designs are from the department (province) of Potosi and are typically used on the women's belts. The belts are made in double weave (so you can make that one now Caroline!!) without the plain edges-so it is a tube just woven with one weft that goes circling from front to back to front.

The typical colours are neon pinks and greens, oranges etc. No one has been able to tell me why the bird figures are so often woven with their heads bent down looking backwards (you can only see one example of this on the sash above), nor what the circular things that hang down from the wings are supposed to be.

Pieces of a weaver's life...

I finally set my scanner up again and thought I would share some of my finished samples.  Each weave in the photo was 14 feet long, I save 6 inches of every weave I do and keep them on a long (10 feet) rope to hang as a display of what Inkle can do.  I have over 400, so this is a taste.  By saving the samples I can refer back and duplicate any weave I have done.  I honestly don't work well from patterns... grin

I tired to get an honest variety here:

Lovely Anne! I have been dying to see your bands. Lots of nice ideas for stripes and bars-you even have the warp floats on the hoizontal bars that I mention in the weave along. It's always great to see things like this to get ideas about color combinations too. I really love that green and yellow together. I always seem to end up with white or beige  on a colored background, although I have used red and black together and love the way that looks.

Brilliant idea! And what a variety! 

B & W photos never do bands justice, but a colour sampler like this shows the subtle and not so subtle variations you can get. I don't know if I've missed you saying, but what kind and size of cotton do you use, and do you use string heddles or a little rigid heddle (which I should imagine is actually very awkward)? I only use my inkle loom as a short warping board, basically because I cannot even get a 6 foot band from it, so I've started working on how I can extend it  to make it more useful, and to tempt me to use it for its original purpose.

To be honest, only one of these weaves is cotton, the green diagonal stripes... a fairly heavy cotton.  All the rest are acrylic, and I ironed them with a pretty hot iron before scanning them.

I use the standard fixed heddle setup, a loop doubled over the heddle bar.  The material that I use for heddles is a heavy Teflon or Dacron coated fishing line, the braided style.  They are a pain to tie, but well worth the effort, they have lasted showing no wear for four years now.  No pilling either!  The knot I use is a square knot with the loose ends tucked in a half hitch snugged up to the square knot.

If you look on my profile my first loom is there.  I didn't have cash to buy a loom, so I made one with scraps and a few 3/4 inch dowels.  The main board of the loom is actually two boards with a 3/4 inch gap between them, effectively doubling the back board strength.  I tend to weave under pretty extreme pressure, strong hands here.  The tension adjustment on the loom is merely several movable pegs allowing me to vary the path and change tension easily.

I never thought I would come to working with yarn and all the attending knots, but it crept into my blood and I start twitching if I don't have at least two of my looms loaded and ready to go... one is a lap loom that also yields about 14 feet, the other is the main one.  The third is a quick loom made from scrap 2x4s, I use that one to test because I don't like it's action as well.

I hope I haven't overwhelmed anyone, just trying to share...

Anne

That is some loom! Makes my puny little thing look even more inadequate! But I suspect who-ever made it was working from a picture, as looms have not been that easy to get hold of here in Australia, until the internet opened things up. It does its job, and has a tension bar,  but its made from softwood, so at some point I will have to replace the frame and make a new loom that will take tension. In the meantime its handy for short warps for backstrap weaving.

I love your weavings!  But my favorite thing you showed us is the little stick, Turkish style spindle!  I bookmarked that photo, so I can make one for myself.  Thanks for showing your work!

The Inkle Loom is on fire!

I have been weaving my fingers off for my SCA groups upcoming coronation.  The new King and Queen are in my family group so I seem to have been elected official weaver.  In the photo below I am showing just the weaves I have done in the last two weeks.  Three of the narrow ones I have done three copies of each.  The two wider ones are 2 copies each.  And I am shocked to realize that the wide one on the left I started and finished in 4 1/2 hours flat!  Ok, yes, I went to bed after that one and slept off the stiff back, grin.

I have two more commissions to finish in a few days.  All this came about because I always bring my display with me to SCA events.  I was threatened (lovingly) that if I didn't bring my weaves I would be in trouble... so I bring them.  I actually sell at least one every time I go, people are always sewing new garb.  I have also given quite a few away at events to get my skills known.  So, when the new royalty looked for materials, I was chosen.  To my utter surprise, because I tend to stay quietly in the background... and they chose my work!  So 84 yards of weaves done and only a few more weaves to go, I will have made just over 100 yards of weave for this important day.  Whew!

I am looking forward to focusing on the backstrap loom snd new techniques there... really looking forward!

Happy weaving!

Now that I'm beginning to get the hang of posting photos, I thought I'd put a couple here.  I still can only make these huge photos. 

Here are two of my bands made on my backstrap.  Whoo Hooo!  This is fun.  You can see I've been playing with the warp float pick-up.  Now I am beginning to understand my inkle book instructions.  Thanks Laverne!

Aunt Janet

lovely bands. Consistent width and great straight edges. Champion!

Laverne.

These picture sizes are perfect. Now I get to see the lovely backstrap you made. My goodness you really got this under control fast! Congratulations.

Laverne

 that's such a good idea, to keep a bit of all you do! Must listen and learn!

These are really great Aunt Janet!  Your tension looks really even and the samples came out so very nicely.  Thank you for posting these for us:>:>:> Virag

Thank you Virag, and Laverne for your kind comments.  i am sure enjoying this process.  I've been on the road this weekend, but brought along my backstrap, warped with my current project. I'm weaving a wider, about 3 1/2", using the warp float method to put some very simple designs along the center.  I would like to go even wider with the next one, about 6" would do.

Just thought you all would like to see these action shots my daughter took for me this morning.

Aunt Janet

Great set-up you have there! Aren't kitchen chairs useful for all sorts of things - I mean who actually sits on one, hehe!

I, too, have found that supporting the back bar like you have it makes for a much easier and better balanced loom. I was anchoring to my inkle loom, but things were far too unsteady and would tip over, so weaving stops being a pleasure. Now I do the tie up similar to you and its enjoyable again. My biggest draw-back now is the cat thinks its fun to sit on my lap and play!

Your latest warp float band looks great. Love the colors and you look so comfortable. Thanks so much for posting these action shots!

Laverne

Yep the kitchen chair works great.  I find myself looking around for a place to tie up where ever I happen to be.  At home I usually set up in my studio/wool mill.  I have a little couch that I pushed up against a set of shelves.  the back beam is tied to a large dowel set between uprights.  Anyway, it is very comfy.  I prop my feet on a stool, and slide the couch around a little when I get too close.  Comfort is important.

I believe I'm ready to try the double weave on my next project.  Yipee!

Aunt Janet

You did a wonderful job!    It's very nicely done and in one of my favorite colors too!

Sharon Carey

hi , I started part two here:www.weavolution.com/node/6255

I hope  i did nothing wrong .I just wanted to make it easier to acess.

jeannine

Thank you Jeannine!!!

 What wonderful bands!

I love this bag. The colors just sing to me.

Bibi has been following the third beginner tutorial-one weft double weave. Look what she has turned out. I think she has woven every pattern i provided as well as those in the intermediate tutorial and more..........

Michelle is in Sao Tome and Principe and does not have a big range of materials to work with. She is making do with what she has and is using embroidery cotton in this colorful band and it looks spectacular!!-although she says that it is about to break.

Bibi, these are just great!!

Laverne

Wow! Great bands!

You'll never have to apologize for using crochet thread when it looks that good.

Using a range of color against a black background looks awesome on BOTH sides!

I must finish my holiday stuff so I can move onto weaving some bands.

Have a good day!

Franco Rios

Here are some images of my latest project on backstrap.  This is handspun Romney wool.  The weaving is 7" wide, my widest so far.  I am making small bags, so will cut and sew.  I had a problem with warping.  The threads were not even.  They were longer on the light side.  I wove an inch, took my near dowel out and put it in front of the weaving which was now straight, and wove the rest.  I'm happy with this cloth.

and a close up.  You can see where I repaired a warp thread that was spun too loosely and was coming untwisted.

hi ,Aunt Janet; i have a question  for you; did you use singles or 2-plied  here? was there a problem with  sticky warp threads , the weaving looks good  and i like the colour variation. I am spinning for the moment and plan to use it in a next project but i worry about how my yarn will behave . it just ordenary wool from meatsheep my uncle keeps .but of course i will not know until i try.So i think to sample before starting a bigger project.

 How lovely to be weaving with your own handspun, Aunt Janet. You are going wide, too-that's great. You will be able to sew this up into something nice and maybe add to it with a patterned band.

Laverne

Jeannine,  I used two ply yarn for this project.  I don't think I want to bother with singles.  It was a little stickier than I would have liked.  My SAMPLE band was three ply, but I think tighter spun.  Tighter is definitely better.  Meat breed sheep can have very nice wool.  Fiber preparation is important for smooth yarn.  i've been using Viking combs, brand unknown.  I got all those colors from a little sampler bag of scoured locks.  They come from my friend Ace's flock.  I combed each color separately, pulled a top, and set them aside in color order.  I did two comb loads per color, and spun one of each on two bobbins.  I still have a hard time putting enough twist into my singles.  I just hate to wait.  I have found that even if I don't have enough in the singles, I can overspin the plied yarn to compensate.  I think it would be better to have more twist in the singles. 

Laverne,  I would love to make a larger project like this one.  But it is getting close to Christmas, and I have a couple of little projects in mind.  It was fun to work up all those colors.  I get to assist Ace in skirting his fleeces soon, so there will be a fabulous selection of natural color.  Wouldn't a cochineal yarn look great along side those natural colors.  I have a good selection of natural dyes at hand, and looking forward to making some of these combinations.

Another thing about this wider piece.  I used a heavier thread for my weft than the warp, a three ply from the SAMPLE project.  I think I would have liked it better with the two ply.  I do like how the pale thread shows on the black selvedge.

Hey, look I'm new at this and I would learn to make clothes as beautiful as yours in the loom, but even if he does not know a bit how to make patterns or designs of animals or geometric shapes. So please recommend me a good book I can learn, because I can not go to Guatemala or southern Mexico where I can teach. Thank you. my email is bereerra_erga@hotmail.com. greetings

I 'll answer you right here. Why don't you join this group? You have more than enough to get yourself started right here in this forum. Join the group, take a  look around and let us know if you have any questions. :-)

Laverne

At last, I've been able to download my pictures ! sorry they are not so neat and nice, I'm a real awful photographer...

so this is my version of wavy waves... with the only thread I could use... thin thread, so I was a bit disappointed to see that it wasn't so large as yours Laverne... but, I quite like it though...

Michelle (for the last week in hot, and threadless country !)

I really wonder how you can get small AND neat pictures ???

Michelle

What's wrong with these pictures bibi? They are perfectly fine. Congratulations! It has come out beautifully and I love that you adapted it. So you only have one week left on your island paradise?Are you ready for the snow and lots of thread shopping-you won't know what to choose now with all the lovely thread you will have at your disposal!!

Laverne

I am going to put yur lovely band in the gallery on the group's front page.

I'm ready for all, except getting stucked somewhere with the plane because of bad weather !!

Love this pattern - it's a beautiful band!

thanks Franee... can you feel the obsession growing in you ?!!

yes! LOL

Good job Bibi!

The detail in the band is excellent!

Have a good day!

Thanks Franco ! Nice week end to you and all !

Michelle

OH, i love that pattern!  Bibi, you did a great job!

Aunt Janet 

thanks Aunt Janet, I did fall in love with Laverne's wavy waves too !

Michelle

I didn't see a pattern for the waves.  Did I miss it?

Aunt Janet 

I think you have to pay Laverne with pictures for that !! (but don't tell her I'm the one who said that !!  ;-))

You have to ''pay'' me by showing me what you have been weaving! :-) Photos please.

Laverne

I like the pretty rolling waves pattern! It looks really good all by itself.

I have seen this pattern as part of the intricate larger textiles from the Cusco, and others as the two 'borders" on some larger pattern.

It is great to see that it is finished!

Sharon

I eventually got this project of Laverne's done! I kept stuffing up - but with Laverne's help got it!

Thats great! I like it very much. Great job!

You got it alright! Fine yarn, nice edges-you are doing so well!

Laverne

Finished my second project... two bookmarks with the warp floats tutorial.

The top bookmarks is my first, and I worked from left to right (in the image), so at least I got better!  I had a hard time with this-- it was one of my first weaving challenges.  The first time, I got through one triangle... tried it later that evening, did two more triangles, finished the first bookmark the next day-- and did the second bookmark almost in one sitting.  So, at least I'm getting the hang of it!  But I don't know if warp floats are something I enjoy... on to supplementary weft next, I think.  However, I have papers to grade, so it might be a while.

Nice job. Good to see both the bookmarks to see how you improved. Yes, I think that supplementary weft is a nice next step after this. There is lots you can do with the warp floats but if you don't enjoy it, you may as well move on. The supplementary weft is fun because you have more freedom with adding in what ever colors you like.

I will put these bookmarks in the front page gallery.

Laverne

Thanks, Laverne!

A question: I'm having a hard time making each bar/pick very thin.  (You'll notice each triangle is rather long).  I can do it on my inkle loom, but not the backstrap.  Does that mean my tension is too tight, too loose, or what??  What can I do to make that better?

Thanks,

SK

This tends to happen when there is too much tension. The warps are not able to physically bend over and under the wefts as they are being pulled too tight and taut. So I would try to ease off on the tension a bit and maybe beat a bit more firmly too. I have this problem too if I am working on a really short warp.

Laverne,

Here's a pic of my Chancay doll.   Do you think the top piece of weaving is old?   It looks possible but i just don't know. 

As you can see....i do have a pile of sticks ready to be turned into a loom ---  soon i hope!

BTW, do you pronounce the second 'c' as a hard or soft 'c'?     Thanks!   Peigi

Hi Peigi,

I can't see you photos-is it just me? Please try again as I would LOVE to see them.

Here are photo uploading instructions.

Place your cursor where you would like your photos to appear.

Click on the squre icon second from the right above this "reply" box.

Click on "browse" and then select your image from your computer.

Click on "upload"

You will receive a message when the upload has been completed. click OK

You will get another window with a "preview" box on the right hand side where you will see your picture. It sometimes takes a few second for this to appear. On the left hand side there are slots with numbers for the width and height of the picture. Usually the picture in the preview box is way too big.  To make it smaller, adjust the numbers in the upper of the two boxes. I punch in between 200 and 400. The numbers in the lower box will be automatically adjusted. Look at your picture in the preview box and see if it is the size you want. You can keep on adjusting the numbers as you please. 

When you are happy with the size click OK or SEND TO SERVER (i am not sure what exacty that button says).

The second "c" in Chancay is pronounced hard.

Hope to see your doll soon (unles it is just me who can't see the images!!)

Laverne

.

Hi Laverne,

Well, on one of my computers, you're right, i can't see the images either, but on the other one they popped up just fine?!?  So, i'll try it again and see if this works better.

Ok....hope this does the job.    I'm anxious to see what you think.    The brown piece is roughly woven but the white threads look stitched on.....    If you'd like to see a closer-up pic, let me know.

Peigi

Now I can see them Peigi. It is fun to see one with hair.

The design does look sewn on but that doesn't mean that it isn't old. There were so many different techniques used, Some fabrics had their designs painted on. I shall go through my books and see if I can find something similar. So I can't say for sure........I have one where the designs are embroidered on.

All the dark brown bits have completely rotted away and you can just see the ghost of the motif where the needle spread the warps to pass the embroidery thread through.

Did you read the article that I linked to on my blog? I'll let you know if I find something. Thank you so much for posting these pictures here.

Laverne

Laverne

Laverne,

Yes, I did read the article linked to your blog...and whatever else i could find about the Chancay.  You're right, there isn't much out there!   I'd be very interested in seeing if you can find out any more about the design on my doll.   I noticed that not only did mine have hair, but also arms, which none of yours have.   Interesting.

Just as an aside; the babies who were adopted from Peru came from the Cuzco and Machu Picchu areas.  The doll was probably purchased in Cuzco, if that helps any.  The little boy was 15 mos old.  He came from a mountain village where the youngest children were kept in an enclosed area to prevent them from falling off the cliffs.  He was quite malnourished because food was tossed into the enclosure and he was too young to fight for his share.  The 2 mo. old little girl came from the city, where my sister was frequently approached by mothers begging her to take their babies and give them a better life.  It was quite an experience.  Those babies are now 19 and 20 yr. old college students, and of course, very American!     My sister brought home many interesting items of Peruvian culture in an attempt to keep them in touch with their heritage.  My favorite of all was this Chancay doll.

Thanks again for your interest, Laverne.      Peigi in Michigan

I don't know why but when you mentioned to me before your sister having adopted babies, I imagined that they were still babies! Have your adopted niece and nephew been back to Peru? So I guess your doll is going on 20 years old?

Only my largest doll has arms which are clutching a baby. Another blog reader says that she may be able to get me good pictures of original dolls. I hope so.

Laverne

hi Peigi and laverne, i found this while going true a book

.

jeannine

Oh, this is so cool! thanks Jeannine. I love the faces on these real dolls. I wonder if it is real hair?  And there are our favorite birds too on the textiles. Thanks so much for posting these pictures. It is lovely to see you there with your backstrap loom.

Laverne

here a link to the online collection of that museum; enter chancay  as search term and it leads to more ancient weaving samples and the doll with the birds is there too(  advance some pages) and you can zoom in on it.search peru for even more samples.

collectie.tropenmuseum.nl/nindex.asp

Thank you Jeannine. I shall save this for my Sunday morning relax time. How nice that you got to go to this museum. Are these pieces all on permanent display? That was my big disappointment with the Textile Museum in Washington DC-nothing from their South American collection is on permanent display. Even the textiles in the Museo de Arte Pre Colombino in Santiago only come out for special exhibits although their extensive ceramics collection is always on show.. Thank goodness for the internet.

no they are not always on display .It is there online collection ; I think that only professional researchers  can view those items because those pieces are kept in special  climat conditions to preserve from falling apart.

Hello all!

Thought it was about time I contributed something to this thread! Today's work was the band on the right, following Laverne's second tutorial! From left to right is a timeline progression of how my weaving is going! I think I'm improving!

I wanted to ask one thing about the float patterning though, is it correct that the pattern should stand out a little in relief from the background? Does my float patterning look ok to you? 

I've found that it makes such a difference using different yarns, on the left is 100% syntehetic wool (sticky, sticky, STICKY! Eugh!), the two in the middle are both in 100% mercerized crochet cotton, and today's piece is in (my new personal favourite) 4-ply cotton. All the satisfaction of a soft-ish finished texture that weaves together quickly with all the ease of use of the crochet cotton! Perfect! :)

Onto Tutorial 3!