scarves, scarves... scarves.

 My first try at leno lace... two rows on each end.  I also made another scarf similar to this, but with a purple stripe woven into the variegated yarn. 

"English Garden"... stash acrylic green, 4 warps/picks at a time, with a boucle green the other 4.

 

Fiesta colors... I didn't like either of these yarns on their own, but together, they look great!  Again, destashing... a variegated acrylic with a feathered mostly-black yarn.
and, a close up

Red yarn with a little gold... for Christmas.  One row of double leno at one end.


Yes, it's windy here.

 A very soft bamboo in camouflage colors.













Again, destashing... sunny rainbow.  One side is yellow warp, the other variegated, with the black feathered yarn as weft.  This one developed a slight wave because the yarns weren't evenly tensioned.

A "scarfette."  Had to cut this little guy off the loom because the yarn kept fraying.

Clasped weft, here we go... this one inspired by the Appalachian Mountains.

My High Tatras scarf.  I followed the profile of the tatras to make this.











 

I haven't posted lately because... I've been weaving

I've made eleven scarves in the past two-and-a-half weeks.  When we get some sun, I'll take pictures and post them.  I've been playing a bit with stash yarn, making some interesting combinations.

I have two craft shows coming up in the next month, so I've been preparing.  My first craft show was the Shelby County Arts Festival in Shelbyville, IN.  It went pretty well... I sold six scarves and a few smaller items.

This weekend, I'll be at the Wabash County Extension Homemakers Autumn Craft Bazaar & Bake Sale in Wabash, IN.  So, back to weaving!  I also need to print more business cards, make price tags, and get together all the little things that are needed.

Not sure I'm ready to teach weaving...

So, I have now taught someone to weave.  I’ve taught people to knit before (some successfully, some not), but weaving is to me, more difficult.  There’s so much you have to think about when teaching that I don’t normally think of when weaving, probably because it comes fairly naturally to me.  Especially now that I’ve warped my loom thirty-something times… I can do it without thinking how or why.

First, it was a loom I wasn’t used to… more on that later.   The warping process went pretty smoothly, I thought, although I wasn’t quite sure what to do with the teeth on the Beka.  We used the direct warping method and were warping a scarf.   Or, I should say “she,” since Elisabeth did all the work.

The second day, we moved on to threading the heddle, tying on, and weaving!  It’s so exciting to get someone up and weaving.  However, apparently I didn’t know which way the loom went, because we warped it upside-down.  We were brainstorming ways to fix it when Dawn, another friend, said “all we have to do is take off the sides and switch them!”  Whew, problem solved, the easy way.

Then, a sticky warp… I hadn’t thought about what type of yarn would be best.  Higher tension helped that, and I have some hair detangler that might help a bit.  I was just relieved when, finally, everything seemed to be working.  It's no fun to have your first project flop.

One thing I like about weaving is that there are always problems, issues, to solve.  It keeps my brain sharp.  :) So does trying to teach it to someone else!

Before you warp your loom…

First, you’ll need to know what yarn to get.  A wool or wool blend is easiest to work with, I think, because the stretchy fibers allow for more flexibility with tension.  If you have some acrylic on hand, you could use that. 

What dent is your heddle?  This means, how many slots and holes are there per inch? 

Some heddles will have this printed (in tiny letters) on the plastic part of the heddle itself, or on the wood. The above heddle is 7.5 epi.

Then, what yarns will work with the heddle you have?  Sock yarns usually work at 10 epi, while worsted yarns are 7.5/8 epi.  If you’re unsure, take a ruler and wrap the yarn around it, squishing the yarns together a bit.  The number of wraps you get per inch is called “wraps per inch,” or wpi.  Divide that in half to get your “ends per inch,” epi.  This equals your heddle size.  So, if you get 16 wraps per inch, this means you have 8 ends per inch and can use an 8 dent heddle.

Other tools you’ll need:

-A warping peg (your loom might have come with one.  If you have a warping board, you can use that instead.  If not, a wooden peg, 4-6 inches long, that you can clamp to a firm surface will work).

- A clamp or two (you'll need a way to keep your loom on a table)

- A table... the taller, the better

- Crochet hook or threading hook

- Scissors

- Measuring tape

Next time... how to direct warp your loom!

My Weaving History

In case you want to know a little bit about me.  :)

I began weaving on a potholder loom as a child… a metal one with jersey loops.  Yes, that counts!

In the summer of 2008 I visited Conner Prairie, an interactive history park.   There was a woman working on a tape loom.  I thought that’s really cool, I want to go home and build one of those.  I researched it online and realized that it would be easier to build an inkle loom.  So, I did, out of a two-by-four and two dowels… for about six dollars.   That held me off for a few months.

Then, September 2008, I took a weaving class from Tabby Tree Weavers in Arcadia, Indiana.  Linda taught me the basics of weaving on a floor loom.  I love my floor loom, the rhythmical pounding of the beater, and  I almost always have a project on it.

However, I couldn’t travel with my floor loom, so that led me to purchase a rigid heddle loom in August 2009 (a Kromski Harp), and I completed thirty-three projects between August 2009 and October 2010.  I like it because it’s easy to warp, easy to weave on, and very portable… even folds in half.

Oh, and in October 2009, I also found a great deal on an old eight-inch Structo… really, a Dick Blick Artcraft.  All these looms reside in my living room, but three of them are quite unobtrusive.  The floor loom is the one that, when visitors walk in, say “what is that?”

More on my looms later, along with pictures.

Also, I have a paternal great-grandfather and maternal great-grandmother who had looms.  They were both rug looms, as far as I can tell.  My dad has asked me “what’s Slovak for ‘great big honking weaving loom?” as that’s what their looms were.  So, weaving is in my blood.