I am really excited about this study group. Boundweave is such an easy structure. You can get started with just four shafts and have fun using up your odds and end of yarn in the color rotations. This is a wonderful structure to use when you want to experiment with color combinations. As mentor for this group, i hope you will feel free to ply me with questions. I will do my best to find the answers for you. Wendy Ross
I'm interested in Boundweave and Krokbragd (?sp), however, written resources, as in books, are the problem. I'm in Australia, and while I have an extensive library of weaving books, I only have the Collingwood book on your list, and the others are either not available here, or else sold at ridiculous prices that put purchases beyond my means. Postage costs from the US do not help either. This probably applies to other countries as well.
Do you have any suggestions for internet resources? There are soooo many blogs out there it impossible to monitor them all, and I haven't so far come across any particularly devoted to these weaves, even after using Google. I am familiar with the Arizona Archives and Handweaving.net and all the goodies preserved there, and regularly go through the archives looking for gems I may have overlooked on previous visits.
I have been trying to organise a boundweave project for years, but with real life getting in the way of my hobbies, its been continually put on the backburner, I finally hope I can manage to organise it properly this time, and get started, and finish it! Its the humanesque figures that intrigue me!
Caroline in Australia
Caroline - I wish I could help you with on-line resources, but I haven't found any either. As far as books go, you might check into guilds in your area. Most guilds will loan books out to members and allow non members to look but not borrow. If there is a university nearby with a textile program, you may find the books you need in the library. You can certainly use Collingwood to learn krokbrag, but if you want to play with figures you will need a different book, probably Nancy Hoskins, Weft Faced Pattern Weaves. This book will guide you through boundweave in all its variations and is worth the price.
Why don't you try setting up a simple warp using a six shaft rosepath - 1,2,3,4,5,6,5,4,3,2,1,6 . You will want several repeats and you need to balance the blocks so that you begin and end on shaft one. Sett should be about 10epi. Use a skeleton tie up. As you weave, lift one shaft at a time - 1,2,3,4,5,6 -and use the ensuing color rotations to create patterns. In boundweave you build up your picks into a pass. In this pattern, it takes 6 picks to make a pass.
To design a pattern, use graph paper 11 squares wide. Square number 6 is the middle and the pattern is mirrored on each side of it. Draw out your patterns in colored pencil so you can see where to put the individual colors. I hope this helps. Happy Weaving. Wendy
Hi Caroline
I have an Ashford 4 shaft loom and in their book "Weaving for the Four shaft Loom"' by Anne Field there is a small section on Bound Weave which includes some small figures. Yesterday I found Hawthorneworks.com on the internet which also has a mention of Krokbragd.
Do you know that Jason Collingwood is giving a workshop in Orange in April next year. I would love to attend as it is not far to go for me as I live in the Blue Mountains (you have replied to me on another forum before) but I think it will be far beyond my standard.
Elwyn
hi Elwyn, Our Guild is trying to get him to Adelaide after he has visited Orange. Apart from being expensive, I had to commit immediately, with little or no chance of changing my mind further down the track so I have reluctantly had to forgo the workshops - but I would have loved to go! Yes, it would be advanced, but there is nearly a year to get into training for it, hehe!
I've been scouring magazines etc, and have found quite a bit on boundweave, so I want to get going on this. I have the new Ashford Katie loom, and this is what I shall be using, and I have eve fond some patterns for 6 and 8 shafts as well as the usual 4.
If you search the Arizona archives, they have a copy of every single copy of the Weavers Journal free for download, and there is a lot of Boundweave in there - the WJ was edited by Clothilde Barratt, so it comes from the horses mouth, as it were. I'm trying to track down a copy of her book at a reasonable price - I live in hope!
If you need the link to the Arizona archives, message me, as it doesn't look as if I can insert the link in this post.
Caroline
Thanks for reminding me to download from Arizona. I have now downloaded the Weavers Journal issues and can print any relevent patterns.
I have looked at Petlins site for the Katie loom you mentioned. It looks great for a small 8 shaft loom. One question though - Can you easily add heddles to this loom as some patterns use more on one shaft than the others?
Hi Elwyn, The Ashford instructions for the Katie are a bit on the thin side at the moment, but you are supposed to be able to add heddles to it. They just don't say how, grrrrrr! It comes with a bunch of Texsolve heddles, my first time at using them, and going cross-eyed, ;-)! You can lift everything up so threading is easy, but there is not too much room to maneuver, even with tiny hands.
I have just had a good look, and the top of the castle should simply unscrew and lift off so you can access the harnesses. They would just lift straight out once you have disconnected the Texsolve cords.
I'm threading up to do the sheep in the Fall85 issue of the Weaver's Journal, the article by Phyllis Waggoner, and I can use the same draft for a cat too, and then play around with my own patterns. I was thinking Christmas presents for the animal lovers I know, little bags or pillows.
One thing I have got myself is the mini temple - from experience with other looms, my right selvages leave a lot to be desired, even on such a narrow width!
Cheers, Caroline, in Adelaide, where it has actually rained today!
With my 4-shaft Ashford I can add the texsolve heddles by undoing the cords on the heddle frame and dropping it out underneath. It is very easy to do BUT the first time I did it I dropped all the heddles!!! My 4 shafts are coloured with waterproof ink which helps me a lot. I have'nt started boundweave yet as I am still working Pebble Weave on the loom, also on an Inkle loom AND a braid on my Takadai and trying tablet weaving on the Knitters loom. i MUST CLEAR THE DECKS.
The mini temple sounds great too as I always have horrible right-hand selvedges. I wish it would stop raining here, It has rained for weeeks .
You sound like me, hehe! Weft faced bags on the Knitters Loom, Andean Pebble weave on the mini inkle, triple-warp on my other RH loom, and boundweave on the Katie - its finally warped! I also have a fleece rug planned for the 4 shaft, a few odd tapestries floating around, and am besotted with my new lucet. Its such a relief to know I'm not alone in this. Then there are all the projects I want to do, and spinning the yarns I want to use ................ It soon mounts up, particularly when you find these absolutely wonderful fleece that just beg to go home with you!
I have the Katie warped up with a diamond overshot, and that gives me 7 pattern units to play with. I have a copy of Mary Black's Key to Weaving, and she covers humanesque figures with good detail. Have you seen the archives the government of Nova Scotia organised?
http://www.gov.ns.ca/nsarm/virtual/black/results.asp?Search=cs
This is a colour archive of photos of all the samples in her book, and you can get as close up as you want, so you can actually count the threads. Its a wonderful resource!
Lucky you, raining! Its forecast, but doesn't happen.
Cheers, Caroline
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