Learning new techniques...

I have been doing a lot of different styles of band weaving lately, and it seems like there is always more to learn.  I have to love that!  Last weekend, with the help of a fellow Raveler, I learned to weave a Moraband.

When I first started weaving bands, a wonderful woman on a forum called All Fiber Arts taught me to weave Baltic pick-up.  This was probably the first year I was weaving and All Fiber Arts was the first on-line forum I was ever on.  Baltic bands are generally setup with 2 background ends between each pattern end, and the pattern ends alternate being heddled and unheddled.  Usually the pattern threads are twice the grist of the background threads.  These are some bookmarks that I wove when I first learned Baltic pick-up.

Morabands have three background ends and all of the pattern ends are unheddled.  You tie up leashes to the pattern ends in the order of the pattern picks, so you have leashes on the top and bottom of the warp.  The book Moraband by Barbo Wallin is written in Swedish, which I still have issues translating.  Fortunately there are great photos in the book, and a fellow Raveler had translated the basics and passed that information to me.

I set the GBL (Glimakra band loom) up as an inkle loom by disconnecting the treadles and removing the shafts.  I also did not have the right sized wool to use, so I plied 3 strands together on one of my spinning wheels to get the grist that I needed.  The background and border ends are perle cotton, so is the weft.  I used the texsolv heddles from the GBL and started weaving.  It was mostly successful,  but I felt that the heddles were too short.

Here you can see the band in progress and all of the colored strings hanging on the right side are the pattern leashes.  I found out today that the heddles should be longer, so I cut what I had woven off the loom ...

and tied new heddles using the inkle pegs as a template ...

I wound a new warp and dressed the loom using the new heddles and it seems to be working well ...

It is just the start, and this band I am using worsted wool instead of woolen and it is not quite as sticky when opening sheds.  I am going to weave a sampler of 15 end patterns.  It is nice to be able to see the backside and see how many floats are on the back.  I do not like using a pattern that has long floats for bag handles and my game plan is to weave handles for handwoven bags.

Setting up the GBL is keeping it in my possession for a bit longer.  I do not care to weave standard inkle bands on this loom.  I am just not comfortable sitting sideways at it for that kind of weaving.  I still like my regular inkle looms for that kind of weaving.

So it is just bandorama around here and it is fun!