Introducing Krokbragd (Krokbragd #1)

Weaving appeals to me on many levels. Firstly, it's a relaxing thing to do when it's going well. Unweaving when I've made a mistake - not so much fun. Secondly it appeals to me on an engineering level - taking yarn and locking it together into fabric. How cool is that? Then there are all the wonderful patterns and the interplay of colour and texture which combine in countless variations. There is much to keep the mind occupied when planning a new weave.

When weaving there are threads that run top to bottom (the warp) and threads that run from side to side (the weft - like "left" in left to right). Often the weave is designed so that the warp and weft share equal billing (take up the same amount of space). That type of structure is called a "balanced weave." Krokbragd, on the other hand, is a "three shaft twill, weft faced" structure. The "weft faced" part of that means the left to right threads completely cover the vertical threads. The three shaft bit means that normally you'd weave this on a shafted loom, not a rigid heddle loom. The twill bit, I'm not too sure what that really means, but it's got something to do with getting those diagonal lines you see in posh coat fabric. Put that lot together and you create a fabric that is thick and luscious to the touch and it is my new weaving passion.

The name is Norwegian and apparently means "crooked path." I don't speak Norwegian, so I'm going to have to trust that's true. Not knowing anything much about weaving on a shaft loom, I also had to trust the scant resources I found when trying to translate Krokbragd patterns for rigid heddle use.

My first port of call was Jane Patrick's book "The Weaver's Idea Book." It is an excellent general resource and there are several patterns in there for the aspiring Krokbragd weaver to attempt. Unfortunately, Jane's approach is to use pick up sticks and/or string heddles. That sounded like way too much faffing around, but without setting up the sticks the diagrams made little sense, so I hit up the internet in search of an alternative.

Fortified by a cuppa and a digestive biscuit, I discovered that Krokbragd is threaded on a four-thread repeat, over three shafts. The pattern repeats 1-2-3-2-1-2-3-2-1...

Bibble!

Thankfully a little more searching led me to a blog which began to clear up some of my confusion. Yarn in my Pocket blogs 93 and 100.

Alison provided a really neat explanation of how Krokbragd works. Even better, she provided a threading diagram to warp a rigid heddle for Krokbragd. Result! Here is my version showing how to thread the warp through the front and back heddles. In the diagram, the back heddle is the one at the top.

Note - in Krokbragd the warp is completely covered by the weft so it can be of any colour and would, I expect, normally be one colour. For clarity, so you can see which thread goes where, three colours are used.

Alison gives the "treadling" pattern as 1&2..2&3..3&1.. Without shafts, I was still unsure what that meant. Then I found Amelia at Ask the Bellwether. Amelia provides an excellent mapping of heddle position to shaft tie up. The table shows the relevant section.

At last I could start to weave. Following Alison's threading and treadling or lifting patterns and with Amelia's translation of shaft to heddle I had enough information to begin weaving. First I had to set up the warp. Oh man! It felt like I was warping for a week. Of course being something new, it did take a while to get everything in the right place and I'm now getting faster, but that first time was a three cup of tea warp.

At first I had no real idea of what I was doing, just randomly adding colours, because I still didn't understand enough about the process to translate the pick up stick patterns to what I'd warped up, but I managed a bit of "flame point" some zig zags and what I think could be described as "interpretative" versions of arrows, rockets and beach huts.

It was slow going. Each "row" of weaving requires three passes of the shuttle and heavy beating to squash the fibres down into a single line, but eventually I had fabric. Thick luscious fabric. I didn't really understand how the patterns worked and my pull in at the sides would have made a Victorian corset maker proud, but I was thrilled.

I hope you've found the links useful. If you know of any other good resources, why not share your discovery in a comment.

The Greatest Showman Bag

Where I live you can't have any event with out a raffle. I discovered this a few years ago when I held a fund-raising coffee morning in memory of my mother in law. I thought it would be me and a few friends sitting around eating cake, drinking tea (or coffee) and raising money for a good cause.

Imagine my surprise when guest after guest turned up with "something for the raffle." I didn't even know I was going to be holding a raffle and had to quickly improvise some raffle tickets. They weren't pretty, but they got the job done and I learned a valuable lesson. Always have raffle tickets handy.

I have now learned to embrace the raffle and sometimes contribute something from the Craft Cave. My latest donation took inspiration from the film "The Greatest Showman." It is apparently an "awesome" film that is hugely popular, but I stopped watching after the interminable opening number. It just didn't grab me in those first ten to fifteen hours, sorry, minutes. But hey, lots of other people like it, so in a shameless jump onto the bandwagon, in aid of another good cause, I made a showman inspired bag.

A look at the publicity material suggested Barnum's coat should be my source of inspiration. The first step was to inkle a band. I created a pattern to mimic the coat's gold braid.

Unfortunately the knot I used to connect the start and end of the warp slipped and the edge warp became loose. Ever the engineer, I created a warp weight using a carabiner, a poo bag and some coins. It wasn't pretty, but it got the job done.

With the braid made it was time to turn my attention to the bag itself. I decided on a simple pouch style. Not too fancy and the right shape for an evening bag, a pencil case, a make up bag... Well, you get the idea - multifunctional. I chose a bright red wool/cotton mix for the outside, a black zip and a black quilting cotton for the lining, to keep with the colours of Barnum's costume. I cut out rectangles of fabric, interfacing,and cotton wadding, plus some smaller shapes for the zipper ends and the handle attachment tag.

The science bit

Like many of my projects I made the pattern up as I went along. The rectangles of interfacing were cut to 11 inches by 7 inches, the finished size of the bag. In choosing those proportions I was approximating to a golden ratio (which would be nearer to 11.3 by 7). The mathematical explanation of the ratio can be seen in this image. The rectangle is about 1.61 times the size of the square, so the ratio is 1:1.61.

If you continue to add more squares along the long side of the rectangle you end up with a spiral, similar to the one seen in a nautilus shell. The ratio comes up in all sorts of places and is generally considered to be a pleasing proportion. If you want to read more about the golden ratio, this is a good page. I didn't actually plan the bag using the ratio, I just cut out shapes that pleased me, so it just goes to show how ingrained the ratio is, at least in my head.

Back to the bag

Each piece had interfacings added to stabilize the fabric. A medium weight for the lining and a heavier weight for the outer layer. Then to make the bag feel nicer the lining was quilted. The quilt batting was cut to the same size as the finished bag.

End tags were added to the zip, so that the edges of the bag wouldn't have big bulges of zipper teeth and seam fabric. Then it was sandwiched between an outside piece and a lining piece, with right sides facing. Same thing for the second side. Once the zip was in place the outer and inner pieces were pressed into place and the fabric around the edge of the zip topstitched to make it nice and tidy.

With the zip in place, all that remained was to sew the bag together and add a strap made from folded pleather binding tape. I usually use an inkle band for straps, but in this case I wanted the band on the bag to be the star of the show.

If you want a step by step tutorial to make a similar bag, this one has nice clear instructions.

Hello there and welcome.

Welcome to KiniBcrafts. I am a weaver and part time photographer whose aim is to create beautiful items, inspired by my love of science and my love of handbags. This blog is a place to keep you updated on what I'm creating, or what's inspiring me. To see other examples of some of my creations, please check out my website.