Textile arts in planes is a real dilemma. I’ve been trying to come up with something, I’ve brought plastic crochet hooks and circular knitting needles such as the resin Denise needles but there is still a chance that these will be confiscated on the day and I don’t want to leave it up to chance.
So I think that Finger weaving might be the way to go. It only requires a small piece of dowel yarn, and possibly a safety pin which I will have to forego. The other advantage of this weaving is that a separate weft thread for the weaving process isn’t needed. The pre-organised warp is also the weft! A 15cm(6″) piece of dowel is recommended, but I shortened this so that it sat more comfortably between my knees. I even thought of sewing a sort of ‘pouch’ for the dowel that wraps around my legs.

The technique is very simple but also difficult! As most weavers know, the least amount of equipment used for weaving, the more difficult the task and more skilled the weaver must be. This is true with finger weaving. Picking up the alternate sheds by hand and maintaining a firm tension requires skillful dexterity. I learnt this technique from a lovely little book called Finger Weaving: Indian Braiding But a much more detailed anaysis is in A Manual of Fingerweaving This book is very interesting but I found the instructions difficult to comprehend at times.

There is information on the net on how to fingerweave such as this Chevron pattern which includes some historical information on the ceinture fléchée or arrowhead sash. This author uses a woollen yarn to begin, and I think this is easier to use than the 5/2 mercericed cotton that I am using.

Tablet weaving makes a great functional textile which is very strong and decorative. This band will make handles for my new bodhran bag. I’m ever hopeful that the process of weaving and making a bag for this beautiful drum will somehow improve [and instruct] my drumming!
This is one of those projects where I didn’t bother taking any notes. I let some of these through because I think it is nice to puzzle how on earth I did it – and anyway I should remember – good practice for old age. I do know that the turning sequence for the cards involved turning some forward and others back on each row. The sort of weaving that requires concentration and phones turned off.

I’m designing a new collection of ikat woven bookmarks and deciding how to set up the ikat is challenging. I’m using colored pencils to get an idea of the colours and arrangements of the warp threads. I’ll probably use 20/2 cotton although silk is also a good option. The work will have a sett of 105 ends per inch and each segment will be dyed individually but united on the loom.




Lots of other projects are on the boil but not so interesting for the blog at this point, however, I’ve also been spending my time lounging around as you can see with this view at Forster, NSW. The weather is perfect at the moment – the greatest time of year here. Forever blue skies tauting you to go outside and stay there for the whole day! Textile projects need to be portable and adaptable at the moment.