More Finish Work

Hemmed the multi-colored monk's belt lap robe.

Then I finished the hem for the pink lap robe.

While outside trying to find a place to take pictures of the two lap robes, I kept hearing a nearby sound. It took me a while to discover I needed to return to the safety of my home and admire the flowering trees from afar.



Lap Robe with Pillows

This is the Monk's Belt lap robe with matching pillows that I plan go giving to someone special on her birthday. I am very pleased with the pillows and lap robe. The small pillow I didn't stuff very full as I think she may want that one behind her head when she 'might' take that nap.

As several of my weaving friends know, I have always made fun of Monk's Belt as a boring weave. To me it was that red and black checkerboard coverlet that I saw in one of the coverlet books. Working on this project made me realize that it was not just that. Sometimes you get in your mind what something looks like, and then you 'sample' and find that the weave you saw in a book can be so much more if you go outside the box. When I wove the small pillow on that threading, who knew it would so interesting. And changing the way I did weave the two blocks together in the lap robe and big pillow was a fun exercise too.

The moral to this story..... sample, you might find something exciting happening you didn't expect.

Monk's Belt Be Gone

Having a few inches of warp left, I treadled ten picks of plain weave and five picks of alternating blocks. Might make a cute pillow top. Will have to see what it looks like when it's washed.


Here I am cutting off! Now to the washing machine and a hard press. I can tell you that so far, this fabric is very-very soft. 

Monk's Belt 101 - nearing the end....

Nearing the end, no, really. I think this will be the last one.

I really like the green Bambu. Here I have treadled the blocks 2 x 2, two blocks of A then two blocks of B.

Then I saw in the yard this.....

Maybe I should have found some yellow to put with the Bambu green.

Monk's Belt - sample

I couldn't decide on which colors to use, so I am going to use them all. And, I am using only one blocks, so the treadling is going pretty fast. I thought that using one block would give vertical lines instead of the checkerboard effect that the two blocks was giving, and it might help tone down the strong horizontal lines the colors are making. 

Monk's Belt 101 ...continues

Well, now. What to do? Do I make this next one light blue/dark blue or do I pick blue/pink? I have these seven colors that I could use. Maybe one block of each color? Hummm.... This is the part I really like the best, sampling.

Monk's Belt 101 progress

Still working on weaving off the Bambu Monk's Belt. I am using a temple because this stuff is so soft that my draw-in is pretty bad. But the weaving goes fairly fast, even though I move the temple about every inch or so.

I never did find out who this 'Monk' was.... Does anyone know why this is called "Monk's Belt"???

Monk's Belt 101b

Getting down to the nitty-gritty. The first large block is done (dark pink) and have started on the second  large block (light pink). Looks like there will be 7 small blocks by 7 small blocks in each large block, before you change colors.

You can find this exact pattern with all the details on Weaving Today , Interweave Press's websight. Look under 'free resources' then under 'projects'. This project is "Bamboo Baby Blankets by Robin Lynde".

Monk's Belt 101a

1000 ends at 33 inches in the reed, this Bambu yarn was a dream to wind on. Very few tangles.

Monk's belt is woven with pattern and tabby alternating with each other. I had said it was a two shuttle weave, but you could use one shuttle if you can keep track of which tabby is next.  

Monk's Belt 101

Two-Block Patterns: any or all blocks may vary in height or width or both.

Monk's Belt is usually in the ratio of one to three, and groups are in the ratio of three to five. And a lot can be done with color. For this new project I am working on I will use a white warp with two colors of weft. I have two colors of blue and two shades of pink to use. I can either use the pink/blue or pink/pink, or blue/blue.... So color will be an important factor in this project. I will sample to find the color combination I like best.

And what is this mysterious project I am attempting, you ask? A couple of lap robes for a couple of special ladies.

Monk's Belt

I wonder who Monk is and why his belt is a subject for weavers.

I did a little research and found that Monk's Belt is like colonial overshot, except it only has two blocks and is threaded on opposites and as such will only have pattern blocks and tabby background. It will not have the half tones we are familiar with when we think about overshot. It is a two shuttle weave on four shafts.

Block A is threaded on shafts 1-2 and Block B is threaded on shafts 3-4. The tabby is 1-3 vs 2-4.

The project I am putting on the loom called for 250 heddles on each shaft. Not one to want to shift heddles, I decided that if I pretended I had two four shaft looms together that I wouldn't have to shift heddles. (Having an 8 shaft loom comes in pretty handy here.) So I rewrote the draft and put some of the blocks on shafts 1-4 and others on shafts 5-8. When I fix the tie-up, shaft 5 will be tied with shaft 1, shaft 6 will be tied with shaft 2, ect....  



This shows I am almost done sleying the reed. The cross holder was made by DH for this loom.



Threading the heddles from the back of the loom.