Readers' Gallery of Works in Pink

There are a lot of talented people out there who read my blog!
Last week when I asked for photos featuring pink items, I was happy to receive the following photographs. What fun!'

Marieke Kranenburg wove this belt in a combination of plain weave and crossed warp.

She gave me the following link to explain the crossed warp technique as I had not heard of it.
https://www2.cs.arizona.edu/patterns/weaving/periodicals/wj_08.pdf

Pam Groff  of Wide Sky Ranch sent me this photo of a PINK skein. This is what she told me:
"As an alpaca breeder for the past few years and as a result of having my own white yarn, after much consternation, I faced the challenge of learning how to dye yarn and have not looked back! I simply love the process of researching popular color ways, finding or developing the colors with Gaywool acid dyes, and then the fun application of dyes. It’s simply magical." 

This band was woven by Kathryn Nielsen to hold the detachable pocket. Click the photo to enlarge it and see the lovely detail in the band as well as the hand-embroidered pocket!

Judy Chapman needle felted these little piggies with wool around wire armatures.

Cynthia Loveall sent this photo of the second band she has woven on her inkle loom. She says" I like hot pink, fuschia or magenta but not pastel pinks." This is a sentiment that she and I share. 

This is my dose of pink for the week. I'm working on a custom order and these colors were the customer's choice. 

What's Your Favorite Shade of Pink? Reader Participation Requested! Send Me Your Photos, Please!

Pink is not a color I've ever been especially attracted to. I rarely wear it, and it rarely 

shows up in my weaving. But, lately, I've been thinking more about it.

On a Christmas Day road trip last year, we went to Gallup, New Mexico. It is known as "Heart of Indian Country" because it is on the edge of the Navajo reservation and is home to members of many other tribes as well. It's a great place to shop for Native American art because there is such a high concentration of galleries and trading posts there. I loved looking at all of the sparkling silver jewelry which happens to be one of my favorite things ever. What surprised me though, was how much I loved the paintings. Especially what we saw at Richardson's Trading Post, and especially those by J.C. Black. I loved them all, but settled for one of the smaller ones to bring home. It is very pink! The colors are all rich and beautiful and the patterns in the landscape where patterns shouldn't be just thrilled me! I love patterns! You know this, right?

***Do you use pink in your craft? I'd love to see photos! Send me a photo with a short description. 

 I'm planning a "Readers Gallery" next week here on my blog in honor of Valentine's Day.  

Email me: iweavestraps@gmail.com***

I do have a couple of favorite pieces that I've done in pink. The one below was inspired by the flower on a camping trip. It's woven from linen.

This one was a custom guitar strap. The challenge was to use the colors of the rainbow, replacing red for pink. As weird as this seemed, I always liked the design.

I sell my favorite yarn here in my Etsy shop. Recently, someone asked which pinks I carried.

Since I don't use them myself, I had neglected to buy any pink. 

So, I added a few to my newest order. They are all lovely! 

They arrived today. I'll be adding them to my Etsy shop as well as using them in my own work.

This is one of my favorite color websites to play with. It's a Color Dictionary and Thesaurus! 

There are so many variations on any color and its fun to contemplate them! 

Procedurally Generated Inkle Patterns for Your Inspiration and Amusement

This fun new tool is sort of like the kaleidoscope of inkle weaving patterns.
The patterns are generated at random, or "procedurally" by clicking the refresh button on your browser. Visit the site and every time you click, you get a new pattern. Hours of fun!
Like turning the wheel on a kaleidoscope!

This could be really helpful if you are stuck and just looking for new ideas.
It's the brainchild of Rebecca Green, software engineer and fiber artist and you can find it here:    ~~~ Procedurally Generated Inkle Patterns ~~~

After receiving a message from Rebecca, I went to the site straight away and played around a little.
I saved a couple of patterns that I made and wove them.
It's easy to save a pattern by using the Snipping Tool or any other screenshot tool.

For this one, I added a few red threads to the borders to make it wider. 

And this one, I wove exactly as presented. 

Happy Inkling!  ~ Annie

The One Weaving Tool I've Always Wanted!

A wad of string heddles is not an easy thing to deal with while warping. I have somehow 

been able to  wrestle with them one-handed and make it work for all of these years. 

But as long as I can remember, I have wished for a heddle dispenser that would just 

give them to me, conveniently, one at a time. My wish has been granted!!! Yippee!! 

I couldn't be more delighted with my new discovery! It's like having a new toy!

 It seems that a smallish plastic container with a hole in the top will do just the trick! 

As long as the container is fairly full, the tension of the heddles will keep most of them

 in place inside but allow me to pull out one at a time. 

Occasionally, I find that they get tangled around one another, but this has been very rare.

 When I cut a piece off the loom, I have a heddle bundle that looks like this. 

At this point, they are not tangled, but sort of lying next to each other. 

The mint container has a big flap opening on top which allows me 

to easily stuff the bundle of heddles inside........ 

and a small one which allows me to pull them out one at a time. 

This hummus container has a tight-fitting lid. My husband cut a 5/8" round hole in its center.
I pull off the lid, fill it up with heddles and snap it back on.
The heddles are easily pulled through the hole one at a time. 

Currently, I am experimenting with different methods of securing the heddle dispenser 

to the table as I work. A small piece of duct tape made into a roll works great, 

but isn't reusable for long. So, I am in search of some sort of putty to do the job. 

None was available in our small town, so I'm waiting for the next trip

 to the big city to buy some museum putty. 

Please let me know if you have suggestions.
EDIT: I've found that Command Strips work well, don't leave residue or damage the table. However, they can't be reused more than a couple of times. Museum putty was very hard to remove from the table!