Last year a friend invited me to go with her to a talk about the book by Benjamin Myers - Cuddy. We had both read the book. It is an imaginative story about St Cuthbert and his journey to a resting place at Durham Cathedral told through poems and short stories set in different eras. The book review said that 'Cuddy is a bold and experimental retelling of the story of the hermit St. Cuthbert, unofficial patron saint of the North of England. Incorporating poetry, prose, play, diary and real historical accounts to create a novel like no other, Cuddy straddles historical eras - from the first Christian-slaying Viking invaders of the holy island of Lindisfarne in the 8th century to a contemporary England defined by class and austerity.'
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| St Cuthbert's Shrine in Durham Cathedral |
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| St Cuthbert stained glass window |
She was interested in trying weaving so I designed a bookmark for her which she could weave when she visited.
The cover of the book had a lovely impressionistic picture of waves under the feet of St Cuthbert.
This is a close up of the waves.
I liked the impression of colour stripes so I designed a simple band in 16/2 cotton. I used the threads doubled.
The Warp Chart.
The Weave Chart
Here is the weave chart. There are 61 warp ends
Weaving the band on a Swedish band loom.
She had never woven before but she picked up the technique very quickly.
The ends are bound using West Country Whipping.
One end is plaited.
The plait uses five groups of threads to form a relatively flat band for the bookmark.
Plaiting with five groups of threads is easy. https://youtu.be/SZt3p87oI68
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| The completed bookmark. |
Unfortunately she mislaid her bookmark so I wove another set. This time I used 16/2 cotton singly so the bookmark was slightly narrower than the original. I used a doubled thread for the weft in both cases.
Using a doubled warp the bookmark is 2.5 cm in width
Using a single 16/2 cotton as the warp the bookmark is 1.8 cm in width.
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| 16/2 cotton used singly in warp |
I have written other blogs about bookmarks. In May 2020, the post Bookmarks explored simple designs using my book The Art of Simple Band Weaving published by Blurb.com. https://www.blurb.co.uk/b/11486284-the-art-of-simple-band-weaving
The most recent was in May 2024 Bookmarks inspired by the Book of Kells.
This particular project was for an article in Little Looms. It appeared in the Summer 2024 edition of the magazine. Well worth subscribing to, if you enjoy weaving on simple equipment.
You can subscribe to Little Looms and receive your copy digitally. https://littlelooms.com/subscription/ Instant satisfaction!
Susan J Foulkes January 2025
Happy New Year and happy weaving to all my readers.
