Looping experiments

Now that my Morley College teaching year is finished, the July issue of the Basketmakers’ Association Journal has gone to press, and the weather has cooled down a bit, I have more time to play.

One thing that I really enjoyed during the pandemic lockdown was having the time to try things out and experiment, rather than making with a purpose in mind. Since life returned to “normal” I have tried to give myself more time and space to play.

This session I focused on looping. First I played around a bit with colour. Here are a couple of samples of simple looping and cross knit looping done in two alternating colours.

Simple looping in two colours like this creates two interlocking layers, while the aptly named cross knit looping does indeed look and feel like Fair Isle knitting, with the unused colour carried along behind.

Then I had a go at camel looping with two elements of each working in the round, with one colour chasing the other.

Looping inspired by Collingwood

I originally taught myself camel looping from Peter Collingwood’s book Textile and Weaving Structures and have since gone on to learn more about looping with Tim Johnson. Returning to Collingwood, I found an interesting section on shigras, looped bags made from cabuya plant fibre in Ecuador. The makers create triangular patterns by looping adjacent colours in opposite directions, linking them at the colour boundary before reversing direction. The position of the boundary can be moved along the row at will.

I didn’t feel up to working in the round straight away, so I just made a flat sample working from side to side with two colours of recycled electrical wire. It took a couple of goes to work out which end of each colour should be the working end, but I finally managed it. You need an even number of colour bands for it to work.

On the following pages of Textile and Weaving Structures there was an intriguing bag from Burundi. Most of Collingwood’s text focused on how the problem of joining in new threads was solved. But he mentions in passing (and the diagram makes clear) that this is simple looping going over two rows rather than one.

Of course, I had to give it a go. The fascinating sample has the feeling of twill plaiting, not like looping at all.

And here’s a sample vessel made in the round.

The border, rather than going round two rows, only goes round the row before last, creating a thicker double rim – nice.

Now I’m wondering how/whether the Burundi weave would work in two colours…. Onward and upward!