By AmeliaIndulge me ... this is the last (for now...) of the series of posts looking in weaving books for rigid heddle-able patterns. I needed to clear my plate/fill my memory with these three books to better enable my childrens' weaving. Next up on my weaving posts will be the aid I've been asked for, on reading multi-harness weaving drafts and figuring out if or how to do them on the rigid heddle loom (I've been thinking about it, and realize it will take a few posts!)
On to Color-and-Weave
. This lovely book actually prints all its "color and weave" in black and white. I thought that was a little incongruous, but as Syne Mitchell pointed out at a great weaving workshop I took recently, black and white makes sure you aren't biased by the colors. You can decide based on the pattern, rather than having your eye drawn to the patterns in your favorite color -- blue or yellow? purple or red? Now this book is out on CD, with color offered too - so you can decide which you like.
But, on to the list of 2-harness patterns in this book:
p. 18-29, plain weave color sequences -- it's amazing what sorts of patterns you can get just by changing which warp threads and which weft threads are which colors. Horizontal stripes, vertical stripes, herringbone, and on from there -- 6 variations on a page, that's 72 different designs right there!
p. 134 shows how varying the repeat in the weft makes 4 interesting patterns
p. 138 shows how varying the repeat in the warp makes 6 interesting patterns
p. 148 Log cabin, that cool weave-in-weave look we've seen in the other books as well.
p. 177 shows how weft-faced weave can be used for vertical or horizontal stripes. Wow. My son likes the vertical stripes -- perhaps we'll use them in his next project.
This is a fun book that gives you a new way to look at using not only weave structure but color to define your fabric. With 86 designs using plain weave, and so many more for a variety of twills, rosepath, and more it is a great book to start exploring color with no matter where you are along the weaving path.
Margaret Windeknecht also has written Color-and-weave II
... I hope to add it to my library someday too.~~
posted 26 January 2009 at http://askthebellwether.blogspot.com/
