Designer Spotlight Blog Post – Annie MacHale
Welcome back to our next Designer Spotlight Blog! Come join us as we hear from another designer and fiber art enthusiast as she shares her personal stories! This week we are featuring Annie MacHale. Annie is an amazing, inkle weaving artist and has been weaving up a storm! Let's hear what she has been up to!
Meet the designer Annie MacHale!
Tell Us About Yourself
I began weaving on an inkle loom in 1976, and decided that was a good choice. I have been weaving exclusively on inkle looms ever since. Although I weave many narrow wares, my specialties are guitar straps and costume pieces for historic reenactors.
I live in rural New Mexico and have a house full of light. I weave in all of the rooms! I also weave in public at events whenever I can, bringing along a guest loom and inviting people to sit and weave with me.
How did you get started in weaving?
As a teenager, I saw someone weaving on an inkle loom at a craft fair. I knew immediately that I wanted to do that, so I went to the library and got a book. It had plans for building an inkle loom and I enlisted my dad's help to build one. The weaver from the craft fair helped me with my first warping, and then I was on my own learning from books and many experiments.
What Looms Do You Use?
I have approximately 20 inkle looms. Eight of them are made by Schacht and those are the daily workhorse looms. I also have a couple of small ones for travel, a floor-standing one for long pieces, and a very wide home-made one for weaving up to 6" wide pieces.
Special Tools for Weaving?
My fingers are my favorite tools.
Favorite Weave Structure?
Plain weave, speckled pickup, horizontal bar pickup, three-color pickup.
Favorite Lunatic Fringe Yarns Product?
Tubular Spectrum™ Mercerized Cotton Yarn, because of the vivid, mouth-watering colors! Who could resist?
I also like using Bold Lyte Hemp™ Yarn, because hemp yarns are often stiff and hard to weave with, but this one is very smooth and easy
to weave with.
Who or What Inspires You and Your Work?
Color and pattern inspirations are everywhere! It's very satisfying to use hints from my environment and daily life to create patterns. New Mexico is rich with public art, art galleries, weaving shops, and cultural events that provide a lot of inspiration.
I belong to 3 local fiber guilds and enjoy the camaraderie.
Why Do You Weave?
Because I love playing with colors and patterns!
What Are You Up To?
For the remainder of 2024 and through 2025 I have a busy schedule of workshops for guilds, conferences, and local yarn shops around the US.
I keep a listing here on my blog: https://aspinnerweaver.blogspot.com/p/classes.html
Any Thing Else?
I am the author of two self-published books for inkle weavers that are available at TapRoot Video:
- In Celebration of Plain Weave: Color and Design Inspiration for Inkle Weavers
- Three-Color Pickup for Inkle Weavers: A Modern Look at an Ancient Baltic-Style Technique
Currently, I am creating and publishing pattern collections through my Patreon page.
Annie also has a wonderful video called Inkle Weaving Basics for tips and tricks to warping your inkle loom available for free at TapRoot Video.
My blog has inspired Jeff Bigot from France, to take up inkle weaving and create the most awesome free online design tool. It started as a tool to create inkle patterns, but has expanded to include several other weaving techniques as well. It is available for anyone to use. Here is the link: https://www.raktres.net/seizenn/#/
Recently, Mr. Bigot created a color palette using the Tubular Spectrum™ Mercerized Cotton Yarn colors.
Last Question...Cake or Pie?
Cake!
Thanks Annie!
If you would like to know more about Annie, you can click on the links below and visit her on social media to see what she is up to!
- Blog: https://aspinnerweaver.blogspot.com/
- Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/AnnieMacHale
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ASpinnerWeaver/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aspinnerweaver/
- Website gallery for Annie's guitar straps: https://weaverguitarstraps.com/
I have taken several of Annie’s workshops and love her work! If you ever get a chance to take one of her workshops, I highly recommend it! She is a great teacher and wonderful person!