I really need an icon for weaving...

[watervole]

 Kotturinn took me up on my recent offer to weave a belt, and we're both really pleased with how it came out.

As you can see, with this kind of weaving, there's a different pattern on the two sides of the band.

The star and diamond pattern was the one I chose it for, but I quite like the back side as well.

Here's a close up

 

For these interested in the technical stuff, it's a 'Baltic' style pattern woven on an inkle look.

It's a warp-faced weave  -ie. The weft is all one colour and the patterns are made by manipulating the weft threads.  (Unlike any weaving you did as kids, which was probably weft-faced.

I used two yarns of different thickness. Every thick weft thread will have a thin one on each side of it.  (Sometimes, you can use two thin threads side by side to achieve the effect of a single thicker one.)

The thinner of the two yarns effectively push the thicker yarn up between them and make the thicker yarn stand a little proud.

 

I used a strong, thin, wool, machine knitting yarn that I got from the local scrap store for the background.  I'm very fond of this particular purple yarn, it goes well with a lot of things and I have a whole cone of it.  Unlike acrylic yarns, it doesn't stretch under tension, so I have more control over the weaving.

The pattern threads were from self-patterning sock yarn passed on by a friend - the colours were used in a way that makes the pattern almost symmetrical, but with a slight random element. that I rather liked.  I really love the way the softer colours work together.

 

So, anyone else fancy a belt, hairband, bookmark, edge for a skirt, trim for a blouse, etc?  I'll make them all out of second-hand yarn and all I ask is a donation (amount of your choice) to one of my favourite charities.

 

You get to choose the approximate colours, length, and width.

You can choose a pattern if you like -but you can also say 'surprise me', which is what  Kotturinn did.