Pick Up Weaving Tutorial

Tutorial is done!! Took a week and a half to write up a tutorial on "Beginning Pick Up Weaving." To be taught this coming weekend at Daggers and Hemlock SCA Event in Fort Walton Beach, Florida. You can find the tutorial here if you missed the class and also watch a video that goes with it. Videos are slowly being uploaded to Youtube.com because they freaking take a long time to upload!Hoping to get 2 more videos uploaded on how to actually warp correctly the Horizontal method and the other on starting and finishing.
Part 3:



Copy of Tutorial:

Pick Up Weaving: Horizontal Stripe Method

By Lady Johanna Fleming (AKA Jennifer H.)

For horizontal stripes, you need your pattern threads in the open position and your backgrounds in the heddle position. You’ll need the same number of threads counting left to right; we do not count from top to bottom. The number of columns is important but not the number of rows. You can add a border; they will be just as wide as the pattern itself. A border will look good with the Greek Key pattern better than the Ladders although some weaves will look even better to blend with your background color. The Greek Key will not be covered in details for this class but it is a Prime Example for the Horizontal Stripe Method.  Feel free to try the pattern for yourself and if you have any problems or questions, you can get a hold of me through email, Facebook or in person.

1st Example:  Ladders

O] bbbbbbbbbb           (blue) 10
H] yyyyyyyyyy           (yellow) 10

Pattern:



























































































































2nd Example: Greek Key

O] wwwwwBBBBBBwwwww (Black) 16
H] wwwwwwwwwwwwwww  (white) 16

Added red for border   
O] rwrwwBBBBBBwwrwr
H] rwrwwBBBBBBwwrwr

Pattern:



































































































































































































To start, You’ll need to make heddles! For a nice thick band that is 1 inch, you’ll need to make 20 heddles. (Double the size for the above pattern.) Depending on your width of the band will determine how long your heddles should be.

  
Different examples to make heddles.    *Jas. Townsend and Son, Inc.*
                 
                               


Two different ways to tie down your string. Leave a good little cat-tail hanging and tape it or tie it to the front of your loom.   (I tape mine and this guy ties his to the loom. )

 For this demo I present the Ladders Pattern which was found on Youtube by *Galvin’s Yarn Studio.*   You can change the width to any size you want really, 10 strings each is a good start but it’s a small thickness about the size of a penny. The orange and brown is 1 inch which is a total of 20 strings instead.


This is the warping pattern for Horizontal. Every time you do one pass around, you will tie off at the end with a slip knot to change to the other color. This will leave it looking like this:


When you have the width you want, with the last string; wrap around the peg once and through the last and 2nd string and knot tie to your beginning string that was taped down.
In the 2nd photo, we are starting to weave! Here is the fun part! Leaving about 4 inches of a cat-tail on the side, enter through open shed on the left side and straighten a little then push the shed down and insert your shuttle back through on the right side. (That’s what the photo is showing) Even it as best you can beat a little and pass through. Slowly close it up, make another pass through leaving a little loop then slip your cat-tail through slowly pulling it shut. Do a few regular passes to see your bars pop up like you would for regular inkle weaving. Beat down and twist a little on each pass. Go ahead and start with one more pass and have the yarn/string coming out on the right side.



In this case, we are not using thicker string for the floats, although most would say to use a thicker string in general for doing pick-up patterns.  I like the looks personally for single threads on this specific pattern. Use your fingers or a stick with a pointy end and count at least 3 to 4 on both sides of the band and separate the entire middle section from the sides. (See picture) These are your primaries for this pattern, just keep them in mind. Your two sides push down while the middle section floats on top. (One trick is to go behind your heddled strings and separate and do your raising and pushing from behind) Pass your shuttle through where the inserted fingers are and beat down and move it out of the way. Adjust the tension on the sides as you go along. Your next pass will be a regular inkle – All your non-heddles go up and the shuttle passes between the two colors, beat and adjust.  This is what it should look like:


    

For the 2nd pattern with the circle, both the sides will be counted to make it look even on both sides. You can do 3 or 4 pick up on both sides and this time the middle will be pushed down under everything. (Above picture to the right) Slip your shuttle in beat, wiggle and pass through. Close it off with a regular inkle pass. From here you can repeat the last few stages to do a full run or you can make a few bars and change it up to doing 2 or 3 pieces of the middle standing out instead of one.
 




 The same similarities are found in doing the Greek Key which is why you can easily change out from ladders and straight into doing a key.

 

Continue the pattern to your desired length. For a quick take off, snip at the top of the loom before you get to your slipknots which a good point would be 5 inches or to your liking. Take those heddles off and store them in a safe place for another project later on. There are many ways to end or finish your bands.
1.      Zig Zag stitch on your sewing machine
2.      Hand sew a straight line at the bottom
3.      Braid each strand
4.      Bead and braid
5.      Use another string and wrap around the tip end and make a tassel. So much more!

This ends our tutorial for now. And thank you for joining me in Beginning Pick Up Weaving! If you have any questions, thoughts, constructive criticism feel free to email me at
Gennrie (at) Gmail dot com
You can find me through facebook:  JLHeaton

Great Websites for learning Pick-Up Weaving

http://www.norsegirl.com/pickuplearn.html - Basic weaving instructions, awesome!

Videos:

How to on Inkling -
The actual video for inspiration -
Tutorial Videos I’ve made on Pick Up –








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