Sunshine after the rain (Krokbragd #6)

It is a spectacularly warm and sunny day out there. The kind of day that wreaks havoc with my crafter's "pale and interesting" complexion. So what's a woman to do? Many of my friends are posting images of their newly weeded flower beds, neatly trimmed lawns and other fruits of their gardening labour. I have no interest in gardening though I do very much enjoy the gardens others create, but I forced myself outside for fifteen minutes with a coffee on the patio to top up the vitamin D and then it was back inside to do what I do best: avoid the sun.

So was I relaxing with the inkle loom and that pretty band I warped up earlier in the week? Nope. I was back with the krokbragd.

I know, I know, I keep saying I will just work on a limited number of projects at a time but this is only project number three if you don't count the pile of mending that needs doing and the trousers pattern that I need to recut and...

If you remember from the 21st May 2021 - I was so enjoying working on the krokbragd sampler than I decided to warp up my 24" loom to make a rug for the bedroom.

So far I have completed two pattern blocks - as you can see. I was toying with the idea of interlocking them, but I quite liked the separation between the patterns in the sampler so I've kept that aesthetic here.

I originally thought I might go for softer colours with a lower contrast than you normally seem to see in krokbragd. These blues and green certainly produced what I wanted, but I am really liking the striking contrast between the soft grey and the navy and black marl yarn used in the top image, so I suspect the finished rug is going to have a mix of those high and low contrast blocks. It will be interesting to see how the colour scheme progresses. Well I'll be interested to see it.

What are your thoughts? Do you like the low contrast colours or are you all about the sharp definition? Why not share your views in the comments?

Sampler samples (Krokbragd #5)

The krokbragd sampler is coming along nicely. I'm very much enjoying the design process and working with a limited palette of colours. A trawl of the internet reveals there are lots of examples of krokbragd with a rainbow of colours but I felt drawn to some of the more muted colour schemes. Don't get me wrong some of those brightly coloured designs are gorgeous - okay, they're all gorgeous it's in the nature of the weave - but I like my decor to be more gentle on the eye, the colours of the coastal landscape are my go to paint samples.

I toyed with the idea of going all natural and maybe sourcing some undyed alpaca but decided to work with what I already had rather than splash the cash. After all I bought that yarn because I thought it was lovely and letting it sit in a box isn't the best way to use it.

After trying colours against each other I chose some British wool I'd bought from a weaver in Scotland who was having a de-stash. I decided to use just three colours throughout the sampler - cream, blue and green - to let the patterns speak for themselves rather than let the colours be the star of the show.

The first image is overlapping bars. I think of it as being a more modernist take on krokbragd. With bars of various lengths it could make for a very interesting pattern and kind of reminds me of some of Anni Albers' weaving. Perhaps not up there with the Bauhaus trained weavers but it has a pleasing rhythm when you see it across the width of the fabric.

The second pattern I think of as interlocking tuning forks. There is something fascinating about the way the patterns interlock and change colour at the same time. Perhaps if MC Escher had been a weaver this is the kind of pattern he might have come up with. I think it deserves a variation with more colours to really show off the colour changes. One to think about when I'm back to the design sheet.

So that's a little taster of what I've been working on and I've enjoyed the process so much that I took some of the money I saved by not buying a load of alpaca and finally bought a set of double heddle blocks for my 24" loom. I had considered selling it a while back but now I am going to warp it up and make myself a lusciously thick krokbragd mat for the bedroom. Just the thing to step onto when the mornings get cold again.

So what's inspiring your work at the moment? Why not share it in a comment

Return to Krokbragd (Krokbragd #4)

It felt like the time was right for more Krokbragd. I am toying with the idea of putting together a book, maybe more like a booklet, of patterns for rigid heddle weavers with double heddle blocks. Even if I'm the only person who reads it I think it will be a useful project and a great way of designing a Krokbragd sampler.

I find the idea using two heddles suits me much better than making string heddles or using pick up sticks for Krokbragd. Using two heddles make the process faster and really easy, and I keep my string heddles for inkle weaving.

Obviously any design is only as good as it looks in the weft, not on paper (or screen) so task number one was warping up the loom ready for weaving. Task number two start designing. This post is about the warping process. Back in Krokbragd #3 I posted the above warping diagram for double heddles - back heddle at the top of the diagram, front heddle at the bottom.

I thought it might be useful to see what the warping diagram looks like in reality. To tie in with the diagram I used three different colours for the warp. Remember - the warp will be completely covered by the weft so the colours don't matter. I had a lack of suitable green yarn, so I've used white instead.

Notice how there are twice as many white (green) threads. They form the two instances of shed 2 colour in the 1 2 3 2, 1 2 3 2 weft pattern in a single weft pass. What that means is although it looks like there should be four actions per pattern row (1 2 3 2) each pattern is actually made up of three passes of weft colour not four.

With the different coloured warps it is easy to see the three separate sheds. With both heddles in the up position the "pixel" of weft colour will appear over the shed 1 warp. Red in the diagram.

When the front heddle is in the down position and the back heddle is in neutral then the "pixel" of warp colour will be in the repeated shed 2 positions. Notice how the white warp threads appear closer together - because there are twice as many of them.

Finally when the back heddle is down and the front heddle is in neutral the weft "pixels" will appear over the shed 3 warp. In all three pictures the back beam is on the right hand side of the image so the back heddle is what can be seen in the second and third images in the series of heddle position photos.

To complete the series of images the same colours of yarn were used to spread the warp - to show how the weft would build up into a pattern. You can see the 1 2 3 2, 1 2 3 2 repeats of the red white blue white red... The weft hasn't been beaten down as it would for actual Krokbragd but hopefully the images will help you to make more sense of the previous Krokbragd posts.

If you've found the images useful why not let me know with a comment.

I'm still here

It has been a while since I updated the blog. Crikey - nearly two years. So why post now? Well, a very dear friend pointed out that during these uncertain and scary times people don't always want to ring and check why you've "gone quiet" in case the news is bad. They pointed out that regular updates let people know I am still here (because despite its best efforts, not everyone is on Facebook). So here I am signing in to let you know lovely readers that I am still doing my thing.

I've been focussed more on back garden photography and writing than on painting or sewing over the last year and a bit, so to whet your appetite before a proper update here is an image I shot of the moon.

What we think of as the surface of the moon is actually regolith. Isn't that a wonderful word. It is the loose dust and broken rocks that cover the actual surface of the moon. It is mostly made up of the materials found in that area of the moon but also contains traces of material from distant impact crators.

When we look at the moon, even with our naked eyes, we see the dark areas - the maria - which are large areas of cooled basalt lava. Those areas tend to be higher in iron and magnesium. Some of those basalts are high in ilemite - an iron-titanium oxide. The areas of the moon that appear lighter are the lunar highlands. They are predominantly calcium rich rather than iron.

The colours of the photograph have been boosted to show the different colours of the moon's surface (or regolith) mineral content. The bluer areas are rich in ilmenite. So the blue areas reveal titanium rich deposits. The purple and orange areas contain less titanium. The white areas contain more calcium.

So there you go - a little art, a little geology. I hope you found it interesting. Please leave a comment if you enjoyed the read. And while you're at it why not pick up the phone, send an email, send a text, comment on a Facebook post, let people know you're still there, doing your thing.