Welcome to my blog. I document my adventures in travel, style, and food. Hope you have a nice stay!
All in Weaving
I'm intrigued by Scandinavian woven textiles. I like their bright colors, their motifs and patterns, the intricacies of their weaving with frequent color changes.
I also love the charming names of their weaving techniques - dukagång (an inlay technque), krokbragd (a bound weave pattern), halvdrall (a Swedish block weave), krabba (another inlay technique), and rya (a pile weave).
This is Part 2 of a two part series on Shibori dyeing.
Shibori is a Japanese dyeing technique that creates dye-resists in the cloth by folding, pleating, and/or bunching the fabric. These folds are then bound with thread, clamps or rubber bands, preventing the dye from penetrating.
In woven shibori, instead of rubber bands or clamps to create the resist, various stitching methods are applied.
This is the next installment in the 'Let's Weave . . . ' series. For a previous post see here. Today's weave structure is waffle weave. Waffle weave is made up of warp and weft floats of varying lengths arranged around a plain-weave center. When the fabric is taken off the loom and washed, these floats contract and form a texture that looks like a waffle. This weave structure is popular for towels, both because of its absorbency and appearance.
As with the series "Let's Spin . . ." that I started with this post "Let's Spin . . . Coopworth", I'm starting a similar series on weaving. The purpose of this series is to bring you weave structures and techniques that may be new to you. There are certainly a lot of resources out there that explain and demonstrate these, but I have found that sometimes the many choices seem overwhelming. If you're like me, sometimes just deciding what to try next becomes the stumbling block. So my hope is that by providing you some information and an example of something I've actually woven, you might just say, "Hey, I can do that!".
I'll start this series with Bead Leno.
My mission with Flora & Fiber is to inspire you to create your own handcrafted traditions. As such, I am exploring a variety of fiber arts techniques and bringing them to you. This project, woven stained glass, was fun and a little off the beaten path. It started with contemplating how to use leftover yarn from another project.
A few years ago, Pete and I had the wonderful opportunity to visit Scotland. As part of our excursion, we visited Greenlaw, Scotland, located about 35 miles ESE of Edinburgh in the county of Berwickshire.
About 3 miles to the south of the village are the remains of Hume Castle. The name of Hume or Home originates from an Old English word Hôm, describing a place on a hilly outcrop or height; which aptly explains the name of the castle as it sits on just such a rocky hill. Originally built in the 13th century, the castle was destroyed by Cromwell’s invading army in 1651. So what does Home/Hume have to do with Greenlaw?
