Essentially I use cut strips of coloured card to represent stripes which are the basic building blocks of  all warp faced textile design such as those woven on an Inkle loom. These can be any colour or multiple gradings of the same colour or any width. It’s best to combine a number of different widths for visual interest.

The next basic building block is the horizontal bar. These bars alternate with 2 colours only i.e, black and white, and are created by threading one black, one white etc. These can be different widths and by doubling up on a colour in the middle of the bar you can interupt the bar, changing its look.

I’ve always found pick up labourious. Even though the results are worth it. It seemed that the arrangement of Steve’s working patterns made the pick up easier and quicker. But why?  I looked at how I structure my working pattern notes in comparison to Steve’s method and found some fundamental clues to good instructional design. It’s the human mind at work. It’s also the availability of computer programs to more of us. Allowing us to present information in a more highly visual way.

This is the warping diagram for this Celtic Knot pattern. The P’s represent a thicker warp for the pattern followed each time by two thinner threads on the open and heddles. Steve also had a better visual and symbolic style of writing warping patterns but I haven’t included it here.

The first pattern diagram is the type I usually use and is a common convention. It provides a reasonable visual of how the pattern will look (axonometric graph paper is even better for this), which is valuable. The diagram only focuses on the pattern threads as the others take care of themselves with the shedding device on the inkle loom. Starting at the bottom, with the UP shed, you can see 12 pattern threads at our disposal for manipulation into a design. But that is where the working diagram ends. It’s up to the weaver to figure out on each row which pattern threads should be picked up or dropped down. So every row I have to refocus attention. I usually convert this pattern gird to written notation like 2,1,5,1,2,1, for each row so my fingers can work quickly through the threads but if we see things in a direct visual way it saves the struggle. This type of diagram is effective for showing a representation of how the weave will look and contains the information for weaving it but doesn’t really assist us greatly in actually weaving each row….the working diagram.

In contrast Steve’s diagrams actually inform you about the process. Only the affected pattern threads on each row are marked and the notation tells you whether the pattern thread is picked up or dropped down. Steve has also used colour to further alert us to the rhythm of the pattern. This type of notation is a true working pattern diagram but doesn’t display the ‘look’ of the completed weave very well. It’s a great format to work directly onto the loom.

Some of you (thank you Peg) may have noticed an inability to comment on my previous post. Well I’ve looked into it and I’m none the wiser. The post took over 1.5 hours to write and kept doing strange things. Then in the end it refused to save my last parting and eloquent lines, which you will never see. So I went with the flow and decided they weren’t important after all.  So the computer says “no comments on that previous post.” However, I’m not really keen to assign wisdom to computers like we have to the god ECONOMY. I’m just not worrying concerned about it’s inability to deliver. I hope you will all understand.

Alison has just included me in a Bella Award. Thank you Alison. Now I’m parting with eloquence and …… I just can’t think of anything more.

So it was such a welcome reprieve to warp up my little inkle loom and weave a pick up pattern to Steve Kennett’s instructions at the Online Guild May workshop on Inkle weaving.

The instructions were beautifully elegant and motivating with succinct pattern drafts very clearly illustrated. The weave progressed so f a s t!  Using a warp of 4 ply soft knitting cotton, with the 11 pattern warps doubled.

I’ve done alot of inkle weaving over the years so I find the loom dependable and easy to use. So much so that I’ve decided to do day workshops for the local Adult Education College latter in the year. This little loom offers a realistic entry to weave design and handweaving in general. So many patterns and ideas can be tried on it and it costs very little to set it up. I’ve got 10 little looms for workshops, which I’ve also used at schools.

However I did manage to doodle and draw some of my own celtic knots based
on all the beautiful decorative stonework in Scotland and Ireland. The
craft of stonemasonery in these countries have a wonderful past and continuing
tradition.My free, asymetrical design captured how I perceived Ireland.
Although I was only there for a few days it seems a place which is ‘re-knotting’
itself into something new and perhaps unknown. Ireland’s past history and meaning
trying to be seen through the maze of new development and building.

So when I came across Sara Lamb’s celtic knotwork pickup pattern suitable
for an inkle loom I was keen to get going on it. I’m using 20/2 silk doubled
for the ground weave set up and multiple strands of fine space dyed rayon
for each of the 12 pattern threads which need to be much thicker than
the ground threads. It’s coming along well. I’ve included a PDF file on
the threading configuration I used for Sara’s pattern. If you set up the
inkle loom like this you can see that the first pattern row will start
with an UP shed. This makes the pick up and push down of the pattern threads
on each row of the design minimal and works with the threading rather
than against it. [See Sara's description] Also see Tracy DeGarmo’s site
for a pattern.

I’d like to thank Sara for her wonderful weaving blog, it really encourages
me to get weaving. Next on the loom I’m finishing those bookmarks, and
staring a new painted warp for some woven shibori while knitting scarves.
This is the one I’m doing at the moment.

  Celtic decoration at Jerpoint Abbey Ireland