A Sample and a Book Review

I've been testing a new-to-me loom. I got it years ago! These things take time. First we had to build a room to house it. Then I had to assemble it. Then, and here is where the time got away from me, I had to weave the first sample:



Fire. Handspun pile, a bag front or, actually, a pocket for a leather bag (not yet made, watch this space! wanna lay bets on how long that will take??)

Here is the loom's debut, when I started the sample: two years ago!



Well, things intervene. I needed to try a sample to A) see how the loom works, and B) check the sett, warp and weft yarns together.

Well, the loom works just fine, so well, in fact that I will be re-homing another upright loom that I have, and using this instead. The sett? Too wide. This is sett at 16 EPI, 8 knots per inch. If you look at the sample, the design is truncated slightly, not square. That big borderline around the center section? Should be square. It's not.

I used two strands of pile yarn for the knots, and it might have been better to use three. But I worried three would have been too much, so I continued and finished this using two strands. It's a sample!

Next up? re-sley and try a sample at 24 EPI, 12 knots per inch. I will do an Actual Sample, little squares with a border, just to see how a single pile yarn works, and then two strands again. I hope this does not take me another two years.... but good things take time.

In the meantime:



I got a new book this week! That's an exclamation point because it's a good book, and I was so excited to see it in print. I met the author Heather a few years ago, at which time she showed us (Abby Franquemont and I)the manuscript for this book. We encouraged her to find a publisher, and luckily, Schiffer Publishing accepted her manuscript and produced this fine book in record time.

This is the kind of book I will keep on my shelf forever: hardbound, it includes a bit of history, culture and traditions in the introductory text, a wonderful gallery of bands and textiles from the Vesterheim Museum, in Decorah, Iowa, and a section on how to weave traditional Norwegian pick-up bands, including pages and pages of graphed patterns.

The section on Norwegian history includes text and photos, describing how the bands were used in Norway, who made them, with illustrations from Vesterheim and the Norsk Folkemuseum in Oslo. There are many types of band looms pictured: upright, floor standing, inkle style, and back-strap, using a wooden rigid heddle, many of which are also depicted.

The gallery section has a treasure trove of textiles in close up well-lit shots. A weaver could extrapolate the patterns from many of these, but would not need to, given the number of graphs the author has provided in the how-to section.

The instructions are clear, the illustrations and photographs are very clear and close up. A new weaver could start here, and with a bit of dedication be weaving bands from this book alone.

I'm thrilled to recommend this book: some of the paintings and photos are haunting and evocative, and the whole publication is neat, clean and crisp, like the bands Heather writes about. A truly fine book!

And now? The publisher sent me this copy to review, and I will give it away to one lucky weaver. If you wish to receive the book, leave a comment on this post by Monday February 9th. I'll use a random number generator to pick a winner, announce the winner in the next blog post, and you can send your contact information. Good luck!