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Saturday, April 7, 2012

Pebbles and Eyes

Last weekend, I spent 3 days learning new weaving techniques with one of my weaving superheros, Laverne Waddington. This was the 3rd time that she has come to Santa Cruz, California, USA from Santa Cruz, Bolivia to teach a workshop for the Santa Cruz Handweavers Guild.
We had done some Pebble Weave in a previous workshop, but it was much easier to understand the second time around. Below are my samples, with which I was pleased.

Experiments in Pebble Weave

On the third day of the workshop, we experimented with weaving tubular bands.
I liked this pattern of little eyes; somehow it made sense to me and I could see the patterns forming as I went along. I wouldn't say it is easy. There are many steps that you must follow carefully, but Laverne's written instructions were extremely clear and easy to follow.

A Tubular Band with "Nawis" (eyes)

I had the pleasure of hosting Laverne in my home which was a real treat for me, because I got to spend 4 days looking at, making and talking about weaving pretty much non-stop.
She arrived a day early and I took her downtown to a particularly trendy clothing store to illustrate my point of "tribal" patterns being totally in fashion now. We had a blast! We spent about an hour all over the store uncovering treasures, taking photos and discussing which socks, t-shirts, mini skirts, leggings, belts, bags, etc. were mimicking what patterns from which region of the world. Since she so wonderfully documented our shopping trip as well as our workshop on her blog, I will refer you there with this link: http://backstrapweaving.wordpress.com/2012/04/05/backstrap-weaving-the-bizarre-and-the-beautiful/
The blog is a gold mine of weaving information and tutorials. I highly recommend it!

3 comments:

  1. I'm just catching up with your recent posts, and I'm so envious of you being shown how to do tubular bands by Laverne! I love her blog and the tutorials she has there, but I'm finding tubular bands so difficult to do. They look like the perfect way to finish off pouches and cases, if only I could master it!

    Yours is lovely, well done! Mine always end up squint, bumpy and awful :(

    Carrie xx

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  2. Carrie- Thanks for the complement. I found the tubular band to be easier than I expected. There were many steps, but the way Laverne wrote them out was clear. She is a good teacher and it is indeed a treat to have her there in person. I think it helped that the yarn was a bit fluffy to even out the mistakes. And I think tightening after each row is crucial. ~Annie

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  3. Oh, wow! What a wonderful opportunity, and to have it 3 times! Too much. Weaving looks great.

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