Holiday Krokbragd Pattern

I have been interested in weft-faced weaving, especially Krokbragd, for a while now, fascinated at the tiny details that can emerge from simply changing weft colors and sequencing. One of the areas that has had me baffled, though is how weavers design these pieces. I would love to eventually be able to "read" a woven piece and figure out how the design was planned. I'm still in the experimental stage for now.

Through a lot of trials, I've managed to do a simple piece that has held up through repeated tries. I find a lot of examples of beautifully woven Krokbragd projects on Pinterest, but rarely any instructions as to how they were woven. I'm not sure why this is. Maybe it's more of an obscure weaving style than I realized or maybe it's like family recipes that weavers hold close to home.

I have enjoyed some help through Debby Greenlaw's book, Krokbragd How to Design & Weave and through Kelly Casanova's online videos and classes. There is also a fun weaving project you can access for free on the Schact website.

Since instructions are not always free or accessible, I decided to share my pattern with my readers. We all need fun new projects to while away some time at home. I'd be happy if you try this and give me some feedback. The piece shown above was warped with 8/4 cotton rug warp and was woven with Universal Yarn's Deluxe Chunky yarns. They're wonderful for packing tightly for Krokbragd and come in a myriad of colors.

Please send me any questions. The pattern is made for a floor loom, but it can be done on a rigid heddle as well. I haven't woven this on one of my Cricut's yet as I have the one I need already warped with another project. I will again refer you to Kelly Casanova's online weaving school. She does have a class on adapting patterns to the rigid heddle.

One last thing I will recommend that I didn't follow closely enough myself. Stop every few rows or inches and snap a photo of your work. I thought I was doing that enough, but got to the end and discovered a few mistakes. Photos don't lie. Have fun with this. It makes a cute holiday mug rug. The snowmen could use some eyes, but their heads are so tiny, it didn't work and the reindeer's antlers are rather chandelier styled, almost begging for some colorful ornaments to hang on them. It's all fun and good. Enjoy!

I converted the PDF to a JPEG this morning to make it easier to access. 

Tablet Weaving

I have been learning to weave with cards, or tablets, combined with my inkle looms during these stay-at-home times. I love the active role of the square cards which greatly increase the complexity of a narrow weave. I have several small sets of various sized cards. I started learning with the Palmer Looms cards, two-inch squares with the ABCD, and color-coded sides. These are great to learn with, especially if, like me, color helps you organize.

I have a larger set by Brush Creek Wool Works, but I think with the size of my hands, they may prove to be a little large. I decided to try to make a set on my Cricut Explore Air with scrap 140-pound watercolor paper.  I have quite a bit from making the watercolor paper explosion boxes on my Tangled Moons Etsy Shop. The nice thing about cutting them on the Cricut is that you can also draw the letters to mark the holes and color code if you wish. I made a set three inches square and they are doing very well for weaving. I think I would be a little more comfortable with slightly smaller cards next time, maybe 2.5" would be a good fit for me. I'm also hoping to make some sets for The Irresistible Ewe Etsy Shop.

I tried to explain card weaving to my mother over the phone, but she said she needs to see this in person. I'll try to upload a video here to share with her and everyone else. I couldn't get it to go through on Facebook, but maybe it will work here. The pattern I'm weaving is from the book, A Tablet Weaver's Pattern Book by J Mullarkey, M. Emerson Holtzer, L Hoffman, J Treumann, and B White. I would highly recommend it if you're looking for less history and more patterns.