Starting a New Ulos Cloth

I have started a new ulos (Batak ceremonial cloth) cloth. It will be in the Sadum Ulos style with a little embellishment from me. I was very fortunate to learn a little over the school break about the Ulos Sadum weaving patterns. My teachers are actually relatives of mine. I was so lucky that they had time to teach me some skills. I learned this on a family trip back to our village in North Sumatra at Lake Toba. We have a house at the Tambunan village near Balige. I had my weaving lessons in Tarutung.

Here is my ulos so far.

My colours will be black with purple and a tiny hint of gold and red. I plan to make the three divisions that are present with most ulos cloth. A wide middle panel and two smaller edge panels. 

Here I am measuring out the warps. I am winding 5M so that there is room to keep the warp on the loom and then just add to it for future projects as I will keep the 6 heddle pattern.

Ahhhh - threading the heddles. I have 1200 warps here. I will use double yarn for each heddle as this yarn is very fine. It is about 50 epi. I would prefer a thicker cloth so I am doubling the thread. 

My first Ulos Sadum was 50 epi but with double thread weft. I am curious to see how this will turn out. 

Welcome to The Batak Weaver

Hi All,

I'm Jane and I'm an Australian married to a Batak. My clan name is Panjaitan and my husband's clan is Tambunan. We have been married for 18 years. I have a huge interest in all things arts and crafts. Recently I travelled to Balige to spend a couple of weeks near our village at Tambunan Lumban Gaol. I have been a weaver for a number of years. I first started weaving back in university in the 80s. My goal is to deepen my skills in the traditional ulos weaving that comes from the Toba region in North Sumatra. This blog is dedicated to documenting my weaving progress.

Please leave a comment and I'll reply as soon as I can.