My Version of a Zina Pueblo Belt

One of the belts that I sketched yesterday was a simple band, made of what appeared to be heavy worsted wool. It was woven by Lorenzo Medina from Zia Pueblo, NM in 1936, and was the only band I saw in the museum's collection without any pick-up pattern. I really liked the floating center bars in this design, so I thought I would chart it out using a wonderful inkle band pattern generator found here. Without this generator it would take so much longer to create a draft. Here is my version of the Zia Pueblo belt.

The original band was about three inches wide. As you can see, there are 63 threads in my interpretation of Mr. Medina's beautiful band. I'm not sure what yarn I have in my fiber closet that will be in the right colors, so my version will probably be a different size.

This Pattern Generator is so much fun to play with. Here's a tip when using this: I don't worry about the number of threads when I design, and usually say it will be more than I think I'll need. I fill in the colors from left to right, then count the number of little blocks in two rows--that's my number of threads. I can change the thread number after I have finished my design, before I print out my pattern.

Today is the last full day in Santa Fe, NM. Tomorrow we head for a campground near White Sands National Monument, which we will visit on Sunday before heading on to Texas.