I started this group to invite weavers who are not members of the Swedish nat'nal guild to participate in our challenge.

So, welcome all weavers! Feel free to introduce yourselves, in Swedish or in English.  It would be nice to know where in the world you and your loom(s) are located.

Myself, I am from the south of Sweden - to find out where, look at the map(s) here.

 

Comments

rlmarchand (not verified)

Kerstin,

Do we have a certain time limit for this?

Shelley

kerstinfroberg

Time is limited: end of this year... but it *would* be nice to have at least a few ideas before then :-)

sally orgren

Hej!

Sign me up for the challenge.

I call three very different places in America home — New Jersey (where I currently live), Iowa (where I grew up and am currently employed), and Arizona, where my family migrated nearly 25 years ago.

I DO love nearly all things Swedish, which I discovered after meeting my husband, of course. 

I am looking forward to playing with some ideas for this profile draft!

Sally Orgren

kerstinfroberg

you are welcome (of course!) - but... it would be nice if you did try to suppress that "love of all things Swedish" ;-)  I mean: us Swedes, we can do that all by ourselves - what we *really* need is some fresh perspective :-)

(what I mean? no idea... trying hard to look outside the map, and not always succeeding...)

caloosa (not verified)

I weave in FL in the winter and CT in the summer.  Love learning new things about weaving and blocks in particular.

What is the specific challenge?

Charlene

Anja (not verified)

I've never used such a profile pattern before and I am not sure, if I'll manage to do that. But I'd like to try. Learning by doing, isn't it? I cannot start in the next weeks, because there are other projects to be finished first, but one year is long... so count me in.

I come from Germany (the south-western part) and will weave on my Glimakra Standard (I DO love swedish looms ;-D )

 

sally orgren

Dear Kerstin & all,

I promise, no Rep weave or Jamtlandsväv for me — I'll try and bring an American perspective to this international challenge!

I pulled out my Bateman books a few nights ago, as I would like to explore adopting one of his patterns to your profile draft.

Dr. William Bateman was an American physician who became interested in weaving upon his retirement. After working his way through many traditional structures, he eventually came up with a new "weave system". 

The first collection of his work was published more than 10 years after his death in 1981, by Virginia Harvey via the Shuttle Craft Guild. I have woven a few of his structures before, and what I liked was that he used unusual combinations for his tabby pics, and also worked up drafts using an odd number of shafts (like 5 or 7).

I have no idea where this will eventually lead me, but it sounded like a fun exploration with a generous timeline. I hope to come up with something intriguing enough to thread up my loom and weave this summer! And I am looking forward to hearing how others are going to approach this challenge.

Sally

kerstinfroberg

To caloosa - the challenge is very open: take the profile and "run with it". First, it needs "completing" - and then... just run ;-)

Sally - I tried googling Bateman weaves, but didn't find much. Could we have a very short introduction?

- I just started a new thread, called "doodles", adding a very trad Swe first doodle...

Lauries (not verified)

I would like to join in. I weave in Minnesota US. I will be doing a twill with this. It will take me a while to get started, have a few project to do first.

sally orgren

Nope. Not a lot of information about Bateman is available, but Virginia Harvey produced 6 monographs (booklets) based on his writings and swatch samples. I believe Unicorn Books still publishes them. I think the actual samples might be housed with a guild on the west coast of Amercia someplace. (Anyone know who or where?)

Here's a sample of one of his drafts I wove in 2008. (Cascade, #263-1 from the monograph Bateman Blend Weaves). 

Although I didn't identify the blocks as such along the top of the threading, the first block is defined as 1,3,2,4,1,4,1,4 (starting from right.)

One of the "Bateman rules" in this particular monograph is that each block starts on shaft 1. (And unlike Väv drafts, I treadle from the top down. ;-)

 

I know the treadling looks intimidating, but it actually wasn't. I certainly like to sample his structures on a table loom first, to figure out the potential complications (or cool effects!) by varying the treadling before I commit to a floor loom. (And to make sure I CAN weave it on my floor loom!)

Here's the resulting fabric in natural bamboo and 5/2 cotton. (Sorry, not the best photo to show the ripples of wavy lines as if I had just photographed it straight on.)

weaver-dyer (not verified)

The original Bateman samples are housed in the Seattle Weavers' Guild library. 

Janet

laurafry

I actually have a couple of the Bateman monographs - if I knew you'd find them interesting you could have looked at them while you were here.  :}

cheers,

Laura

Cally (not verified)

Well, actually, I can think of a thousand things I should be doing, but I like the sound of this challenge! I don't use profile drafts very often so it will be good for me too.

My looms and I are on the east coast of Scotland, where we have an excellent view across the Firth of Tay. Light silvery clouds are currently flying past the window at quite a pace...

Cally

sally orgren

Cally!

I am thinking of you all this week as I listen to a M.C. Beaton audio book about the adventures of constable Macbeth. (Death of a Valentine) It seemed a good choice for February and this *very* tedious 8 yards I have undertaken to weave.

Cally (not verified)

Oh dear, you would certainly need something to keep you going for 8 yards. I've been hitting the non-fiction in my recent listening - just finished William Dalrymple's Nine Lives. I'm just setting up to weave Theo Moorman technique, though, so I'll need something new and very, very long...

Cally

Claudia Segal (not verified)

Count me in! This looks like a good draft to use for the coverlet I am working on sampling.  I have the yarn for the ground warp, just arrived today, and have lots of choices on the shelves for the pattern weft. Now for the draft.  With this as the profile, I'm going to work on some "doodles" as you call them and I'll put them in the next thread.

Thanks for getting this started Kerstin.

Claudia

Leslie M (not verified)

Sally, hope your warp is coming along! It is beautiful.

sally orgren

Okay, I took the Bateman draft from before and entered the threading into the profile draft. (This is a 7 shaft weave, 4 blocks. Each block = 8 threads). So above is my "first" doodle. Each block treadled at least once.

Next, I will match the treadling to the profile. I started to do this, but the pattern looked off, so I may need to play with it a bit to get it to work.

This view was created by using the "wool simulation" mode in WeaveMaker software, with a epi/ppi of 36 ends per inch balanced.

FYI, just the profile draft as given was 471 threads with my threading above. I have not "balanced" it yet. So right now, threaded up in 20/2 cotton at 36 epi, my sample fabric would be roughly 13" wide. If I balanced (by repeating the profile in reverse), I would have a good size for a table runner at about 26".

I am traveling for work this week, so this is a GREAT exercise to make being squished into a small plane seat for a few hours literally disappear.

sally orgren

Anyone else had any time for a "doodle" yet?

Lauries (not verified)

I have been doing some. this is one. I haven't decided anything else.

DebbiRYarn (not verified)

I'd love to participate in this challenge!  I've been weaving for quite a while, but am finally getting into designing from profile drafts.  So this challenge came along at just the right time for me.  I've done an overshot draft from the profile, but I thought I'd do several doodles before settling on a project to put on the loom.

I'm weaving in the U.S. in San Antonio, Texas.

 

weave2 (not verified)

This will look great balanced.  It's a very interesting pattern.

sally orgren

is how my coworkers and clients are keeping me these last few weeks! I hope to get caught up with deadlines and return to doodling on this draft soon. I have empty looms, just no time at home to frolick with them. (Sigh.)