I know, I know. It’s like March and I’m just getting around to week 2 of Andean Weaving here. But life has been busy. My team at work is still under staffed, but we have head count approved so this will get better. It’s not a case of the company thinking we’ll be able to perpetually cover with fewer people what should require more. In the meantime though, my work days have been pretty intense and I’ll admit, pulling up my personal computer for blogging has been lower on the list that knitting, weaving, or playing around with other stuff. If you’ve checked my instagram recently, you’ll have seen lots of ink doodles. They’ve been great for a) finishing something when most things in my life seem to never end and b) clearing my head of whirl-whirl-brain thoughts before bed.
Anyways, back to the weaving…
When I left you back in Week 1 of February, I’d just learned how to set up my loom, switch sheds, and do plain weave back and forth. Because it’s warp-faced weaving and the warp was set up half in a light and half in a dark color this plain weaving actually produced STRIPES. Which are great both for seeing what I’m doing and for feeling like something a bit more fun than just the same color all the way is happening. It felt a bit like the equivalent of learning garter stitch or plain stockinette knitting with a self striping yarn. As a learner, no need to do anything beyond the most basic but fun stuff happens.
Week Two amped up the fun big time with PATTERNS.
Traditionally, the first pattern child learn is called Tanka Ch’oro, which is a sort of XOXO pattern. Or, as one adjunct called it “dudes” and “dreidels”. It teaches you the basic of creating color patterns with some pairs from one set and one pairs from the other set of the central pattern threads. At the same time, every few rows you get a plain row all in one color which happily lines up with the sheds alternating to keep the selvedge edge (or listas) in plain weave.
The way the patterns work is just so dang clever. You have both sheds open at the same time so you can pick and chose which thread pairs come from the top and which come from the bottom. The lista threads are never manipulated beyond the normal alternating of sheds, which secures the weft. So each selvedge thread is always “under-over-under-over” but pattern threads may be “over-over-under-over” for example.
I am, no doubt, doing a terrible job explaining this. But it’s why you learn from people in a class, and not from a book. The method though is just brilliant for allowing the weaver to switch up what they decide to do as a pattern on the fly. And while it means that on every single row the weaver has to pick out the pattern (unlike say a multi-heddle european loom), it’s really still quite efficient and you’re always able to see what you are about to weave. To me it very much resembles say, a fair isle pattern, where the knitter can determine the next row based on the previous rows.
I also experimented more with where I did weaving. Honestly, for me on the floor using my foot rather than a stationary object seems to be working best. I can move my desk to “extra low sit” position to still watch or re-watch the instructional sessions and recordings. I tried the bed, which would work except my cat has a strong strong belief that if I am in the bed, I am available for snuggles. It is hard to weave with a cat on your chest. Just saying.
Next up, hopefully before like April, is Week 3: Illawas.