In the summer of 2017, I was able to purchase all editions of the Dutch Crafts Magazine “Hand-werken Zonder Grenzen”. In one of the editions, the crossed warp technique for a backstrap loom was described by Marijke van Epen. I managed to make one band, but I found it rather complicated. Not long after, Geja showed how to do this technique on an inkle loom. Much easier and I even enjoyed it!
That was the start of three crossed warp bands, after which I stopped doing it, because I didn’t really understand what was happening. I could make the patterns that Marijke had written out, but that was it. The concluding sentence in the article “Children are also very able to create new patterns!” was particularly frustrating. Hmmm, kids maybe, but not me. Adele Cahlander’s original article didn’t help either; actually I found that even more complicated.
So for over two years I didn’t do anything with the crossed warp technique, until I came across one of the three bands. Time to see if I might understand it now. The first band went wrong; the threads were not tied, the crossings were not formed…. Until I saw what went wrong and also understood what was actually happening. After that I was able to make the translation from the backstrap loom to the inkle loom and I managed to draw patterns myself. That was the moment I fell in love with the crossed warp technique.
With this tutorial, in which I have also included many patterns, I hope to get many weavers excited for this relatively unknown technique.
References
- Bolivian Tubular Edging and Crossed-warp Techniques , Adele Cahlander, 1994
- Bandjes in kettingkruisen, Marijke van Epen, Handwerken zonder Grenzen, 1995 nr 2