Triaxial weaving

Yes, that did say weaving - if basket making hadn't been so inaccessible, in terms of information and materials, it's easily a route I could have gone down rather than the quilting route. Just take a look at these beauties for example -

• http://hexdome.com/weaving/triaxial/spheres/graphics/woven_sphere.jpg
• http://basketryplus.org/
• https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/photos-ak-snc1/v2594/168/3/57862797361/n57862797361_1631463_633383.jpg
• http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_a1H7iZJ3LNc/SrjgSscAGlI/AAAAAAAADWE/iC6R7XTBFrA/s1600/botswana+basketry+copy.jpg

Anyway, as part of my research for the next 12bythedozen challenge 'Steps' I thought that I would look at weaving, because anything other than a 'one under, one over' pattern:

Weaving texture on a golden chair
by Yorick... Attribution License

anything else produces a stepped effect. I was also convinced that it ought to be possible to create a tumbling blocks pattern using weaving, and that was where an afternoon suddenly disappeared - I discovered triaxial weaving! I couldn't find a 'how to' though this page was 'interesting' http://hexdome.com/weaving/triaxial/ . In the end I spent a lot of time in trial and error to produce:

I can't say that I conquered the technique as there were a lot of adjustments made along the way, but there is a perverse sense of satisfaction in achieving  the end result. This is the reverse;

I don't think I'll be using this for my Steps challenge, but I had a lot of fun and it was much better than the shopping trip that has had to be postponed until a (much) later date!!!!