Spinning, weaving, knitting, travel, and whatever…
Throws and blankets have been among the more useful items I’ve woven. But a reasonable size throw is a meter or more in width. Double weave allows you to weave fabric that is wider than your loom, by weaving two layers at once.
For this throw, I bought a kit from Jane Stafford Textiles for a double weave shawl made from Harrisville Shetland yarn in shades of green and blue with the draft from Season 3 Episode 7.
Continue reading “Seeing Double”
I’ve seen many weavers start with a rigid heddle loom because it seems simple. But even a simple loom has lots of design potential. In this project I was inspired by a page in Jane Patrick’s The Weaver’s Idea Book: Creative Cloth on a Rigid Heddle Loom. The idea was to combine log cabin with weft-float pickup. I warped the loom with 8/4 cotton in a 12.5 epi heddle.
Continue reading “Rigid Heddle Table Runner”
At a Weavers Interest meeting late last year I received a 1998 issue of Weavers magazine with an article by Kay Faulkner about woven shibori. I regret that I was not able to take Kay’s class on woven shibori as I learned so much in the two classes I was able to take with her.
So, what is woven shibori? Shibori is a Japanese resist dyeing technique where cloth is stitched or tied in intricate patterns, the stitching drawn tight, and the fabric dyed resulting in resist patterns where the tight gathering threads kept the dye away. Tie-dyed T-shirts are an example of shibori. With woven shibori, the gathering threads are woven into the fabric, gathered once the fabric is off the loom, then the fabric is dyed.
Continue reading “Adding the Dye Dimension”
I’m sure many have had the experience of washing a delicate item and finding that it had shrunken substantially. This is no fun when it’s an accident. But, what if you could do it on purpose? That’s exactly the theory behind this project. By using two fibres that shrink differently, the finished fabric has depth and texture.
Continue reading “Simple Collapse Weave”
The previous project was weft-faced — the warp disappeared under the weft. This project is the exact opposite. The warp threads are threaded so close together that the weft disappears (except where it peeks out at the selvages).
Continue reading “Warp-faced placemats”
I can’t weave all the time. For those times when I’m out and about, or watching TV, knitting (or spinning) is my craft of choice. At the end of August we headed out to Longreach and Winton for a short holiday, and I needed a new knitting project to knit on the plane (and bus).
Continue reading “Snowmelt Shawl”
Plain weave isn’t necessarily balanced. For this floor loom project and the next, I’m taking balance to the extremes. What do I mean by balance? The Log Cabin project created a balanced weave structure – both the warp and weft were equally visible in the finished fabric. In contrast, this project shows only the weft threads – it is a weft-faced fabric.
Continue reading “Playing with Balance”
More plain weave – this time with colour effects. Log cabin is a great plain weave pattern where you alternate dark and light threads. In Season 3 Episode 3, Jane Stafford shows how to design a log cabin with extra border threads that make it pop out and look almost 3-D.
Continue reading “Log Cabin Plus!”
Now that I have the new loom, I’m off and running. The first project was from Season 3, Episode 1 – Denting of Jane Stafford’s Online Weaving School in brown and rust 16/2 cotton. I showed a bit of the warping process in my previous post about the loom. The idea is to add some interest to plain weave by considering the spaces as well as the fabric. The warp was arranged in 1/2″ segments – 1/2″ of warp at 24 ends per inch (12 warp threads), then a 1/2″ gap. The colours started at rust on the edge, moving through browns to a light ivory then reversing. There are 14 of the 1/2″ segments of warp and 13 empty gaps between.
Continue reading “The Power of Negative Space”
The last project on my old floor loom was a set of three scarves in parallel or echo weave. In my stash there was some Tencel yarn in four colours for the warp. I picked these up more than a decade ago with the idea that I would weave scarves. I’m so glad I finally got around to them.
Continue reading “Parallel Scarves”