In the book, I’m wearing the handwoven wool weaving belt shown above. I’d like to share the details of my design with you, for this black and white belt (fixed-length), a rust-colored version (adjustable-length), and a quick-and-easy alternative made from cotton webbing. Design The weaving belt I got in Norway consisted of a length of webbing with short loops of cotton tape sewn to each end. Soon the loops began to fray from the abrasion […]
In an online article in the Norwegian Textile Letter, I talk about what’s in the book and also about how pick-up bands were used in the old days in the Hallingdal valley. I include warp drafts and pattern charts for the two bands I wove to illustrate the article. These bands were modeled after traditional bands—one a hairband and the other trim for a skirt—in Norwegian museum collections, and are shown in progress on the […]
I‘m looking forward to teaching a class in Norwegian Pick-up Bandweaving, September 17-19, 2015, at Vesterheim Folk Art School in Decorah, Iowa. The Vesterheim collection of pick-up bands is featured in my book, so this is an opportunity, not only to learn pick-up bandweaving, but see some of the museum’s bands up close and in person. The class description: Historically, pick-up-woven bands were used in Norway to tie up baskets of food, to swaddle babies, […]
I‘m delighted that my new book, Norwegian Pick-up Bandweaving (Schiffer Publishing, 2014), will soon be available online and in bookstores. It’s a unique book—including both cultural history and instructions for weaving—and it’s chock-full of photos, drawings, and more than 100 charts of patterns from bands in museum collections. Quote from the book jacket Laurann Gilbertson, Chief Curator of Vesterheim Norwegian-American Museum, wrote: Bands are small in size, but they are large in function, history, and […]
Norwegian Pick-up Bandweaving 