Saturday 17 March 2012

Celtic Braid Inkle


I finally finished this! I often find pick-up and overshot patterns too tedious and still love the act of plain-jane tabby the best...but IT'S SO PRETTY.

I hand dyed the dishcloth cotton that was used for the pattern threads with short colour changes, using those sponge brushes. Then I lined up the colours as best I could on my inkle loom. There is always a little ikat-like push and pull because of the way the string heddles influence the yarn. On a separate note, I've found that if I do horizontal bar pattern using variegated for one stripe and solid for the other I get a comparatively smooth-looking transition. So if you have a pick-up pattern that calls for the horizontal bar structure as a base, variegated can be ultra sharp.

If anyone is curious about my technique for hand painting my cotton for inkles, just buzz me a note and I will set up a little picture tutorial!

I've been busy prepping for a weekend workshop on basic inkle weaving. It's going to be so much fun! I love teaching, and sharing in creativity with other people! I hope one day soon to have a large studio space on an acreage outside the city, where I can host retreats for all kinds of wonderful fiber related adventures. It's been my dream since I graduated from ACAD, and it might be within my reach sooner than I ever imagined!

I hope everyone is having a lovely weekend! Are you celebrating St patty's tonight? If so, please have a green beer or an Irish Car Bomb for me! I'm going to have to settle for some green candies or perhaps do some rolled dough clover cookies! At least the morning sickness is passing! :)

Happy creating!


JQ

6 comments:

  1. The finished product is just beautiful.
    Ok, just to make sure I didn't miss something before, I read back posts to see if you made some kind of announcement prior to now and didn't see anything. So, congratulations are in order I take it?

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  2. Haha! Thank you! No I don't think I mentioned it before this here, but have mentioned it on my nail blog and must have forgotten. :)

    I've been having trouble getting much work done between the morning sickness and the feeling of exhaustion I had for the first 3 months, but I think my energy levels back to normal.

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  3. I've just started inkle weaving.. would you be willing to share the pattern for this? It's beautiful.

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  4. I can see by some of your photos that we share a love of bold color. This is a beautiful pick-up band. I love the use of the variegated yarn. I agree with you that it is too time consuming. It could probably be set up as a card weaving pattern and be faster.

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  5. Oh wow! This is amazing!
    I would LOVE to see if you could or have put together a tutorial on either or both of the techniques: both the pattern and the dye hand-painting technique.
    I want to get started in weaving and, while I'm having some medical setbacks (severe numbness in all of my fingertips), I still have plans to try moving forward. I want to learn most different kinds of weaving, especially the more involved kinds: frame weaving, inkle weaving, things that involve hands and simple tools rather than machines. Of course, with my current difficulties this becomes much more difficult, but I'm [usually] not a quitter (just an expert procrastinator).
    Please let me know what you have available or for sale regarding this piece. I absolutely adore it.
    I'll peruse your site some to look for contact information in the meantime.

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