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Knotted Pile Weaving


Is very time consuming, but i do enjoy it. you get a very satisfying, tactile, squeezy thing.

this all happening in my new decluttered front bedroom which is now a combination loom, art, computer and tea-drinking room.on the left there you may notice a fuzzy thing on a red box. it's not a 2 dimensional caterpillar, but just a wee initial mucking about with the pile thing.

this box isn't perfect for the task given, as you may notice that, apart from the picture being 90 degrees of rotation from true, the sides of the box aren't straight at the bottom. and there's no elegant way around that. i could also use the recycling box from the council, but then i wouldn't have anything to leave my recycling to gather dust and spiders for months on end in. and wouldn't that be awful.

the other thought that this gave me was that if you treated the rectangular plastic box as the basic unit of tat storage when travelling, then you've always got a loom handy, cos you carry all your tat about in it. there's no reason why you couldn't lash a frame around that and call it the top of a backpack.

if one was to use one of the recycling bins that can be found in many counties these days, all over the place, then you could weave a good-sized doormat or portrait-sized hanging, or pillow cover, or anything. you can even sew strips together, like the african way, and make a bigger rug out of many different pieces. there's also no reason that you can't package a warp in such a way that it can be taken off the box while being woven, and anchor it against a tree or a streetlight or some such thing if you're going to be sitting for a few days. then you can use the box to carry water in, for washing up or whatever.

i wonder if i can find a small box i can stuff my tent into

hmm

Comments

Dorothy said…
Although you say it's a time consuming technique, you're making good progress there. I'm highly entertained by the surreal green caterpillar on the red box! But what a success it is as a simple loom.

BTW Did you ever make one of those box guitars with rubber bands? Used to love them when I was a kid;)
16 May 2009 at 21:44
Andrew Kieran said…
nah, never made any of those. can't remember doing anything in scouts actually, i don't think we even ever went camping, which is supposed to be the entire raison d'etre of the scouting movement
17 May 2009 at 00:02
Trapunto said…
Great idea with the box. I think this is cutting edge. You know they had all those off-loom weaving or weaving twigs and birds nests type books in the seventies, and then the whole thing just kind of disappeared? It's an idea whose time for re-emergence has come (only without the scratchy wall-hangings). Outdoor adventure warp-winding would work in nicely, too.
26 May 2009 at 18:45
Andrew Kieran said…
100 % trapunto

you are correct, except i['m thinking of how to scratch the box out of the picture.

backstrap is the way forward, gypsy style like. use the sticks for warping, then turn then into the loom like. on another scale, make rugs on a wooden frame attached to the wall. would work in a small flat, like where i'll be in a couple of months.

i'll be sure to keep youze up to date with the progress of Chaos Function Weaving Association, or whatever
3 June 2009 at 00:06
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