Irish Crios

I was surfing the web this morning and found Annie MacHale's blog: A SpinnerWeaver

There is an article about Irish sashes called Crios.
http://aspinnerweaver.blogspot.com/2011/03/irish-sash-weaving-traditions.html

The colors are awesome and the simple pattern shows how you make dazzling bands with simple warp faced weaving technique!

Bravo Annie!

Have a joyful day!

Threads In Action

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One Saturday as I was driving down Folsom Blvd I saw some youths holding up some hand made signs in front of a church. At first i thought they were hawking for a car wash but as I got closer I could read the words "Book Sale" so I pulled into the parking lot.

There was about ten tables with books roughly sorted by fiction, non-fiction, cooking, biographies, and crafts. In the crafts section I found a hard cover copy of "Learning to Weave, Revised Edition" 1995, Deborah Chandler in good condition for $2. I have seen a library copy but now I have my own copy.
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I also found a folder with some kind of macrame instructions and some yarn and thread samples taped to the pages so I bought that for 75 cents.

These sat on a shelf for a couple of weeks before I tucked them into my commuter bag. On the bus I dug into the folder. The title page said "Threads In Action" Volume 2 Number 1, Fall 1970. Editor, Virginia Harvey. As I flipped through the pages I could see it is a quarterly newsletter. This journal was carefully typed, pictures arranged and photocopied onto thick paper.
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Here is some of the "Hobnail" pattern done in macrame, that is done with knots instead of weaving. This craft is often used to dress up the edges of woven pieces so I hope to use some of these patterns in future projects.
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Here are some of the samples taped to the page that drew my attention if the first place.
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Then I saw this little article describing SPRANG! Yeah, SPRANG!
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Then there is this 9 page article by Peter Collingwood, the man who wrote the big book about Sprang!
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There is this article about combining tapestry and macrame techniques on the same piece.
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A feature about artist who uses sprang in her work.
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And some more articles about macrame.
This will definitely become part of the fiber adventure.

Have a good day!

8 potholders

Here are some of the potholders done on the square loom.
(click picture for larger image)

All done with cotton yarn. The corner loop is just a four strand braid.

Have a good day!

Other Yarn

Here is how the other yarn looks as a potholder.





Today's highlight was getting pea-sized hail this afternoon.

Have a good day!

Square loom finishes

Weaving is finished. I left long tails on the yarn so I could weave them to the same corner.



Then I used a four strand braid to make a hanger loop on the piece. I tied it to the corner.


I hooked the loops together one after the other all around the edge as shown by Noreen Crone-Findlay on her video.


Here is the piece with finished edges and a braided loop!

More to come!

Have a good day!

Square loom

Once I finished the first piece with loopers, I decided to follow Noreen Crone-Findlay's advice and I ditched the loopers. Then I watched Noreen's youtube video on weaving the square loom with yarn.

See "How to weave with yarn on the potholder loom "
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-FC9_LpTLZs

Okay, second piece was started last night at home and continued on the commute to work. Above you see the work mostly finished. I'm using the wire hook because it comes with the kit. I did squeeze the hook with pliers to make it narrower. I am using 4 ply cotton yarn, a variegated color pattern and I lost the label so I don't know who the maker is.

Above I've laid out the yarn on top of the warp so I can be sure the next loop has the correct length.



Then I will move the end of the loop from the right side to the hook on the left side before pulling the yarn across.




The loop is pulled across. Following Noreen's advice I have kept some slack in the piece to prevent the weave from getting too tight to work.

And here it is all woven. Now to work on finishing the edges.

One thing worth mentioning. Usually people will ignore me when I weave on the train or the bus. This time when people saw the the potholder loom they wanted to talk about it. People had them as children or they just bought one for their children.

These little looms have touched people lives and they react emotionally when they see it.

Fascinating.

Have a good day!

Pop goes the potholder

As I tried to finish the edges of the piece, it popped off the loom and some of the loops are unweaving themselves.


Having seen Noreen Crone-Findlay's video on weaving on potholder loom I noticed Noreen used a chopstick to help stabilize the piece. So I thought I would use a chopstick to recover the piece. Here I have restored the weave using the chopstick to catch/hold the loops.



Here is the completed piece. As we see, the elastic of the loops reduces the piece about 50 percent. Time to start the next one.

Have a good day!

Avalon loom pics

Playing with the Avalon loom. Following the instructions I have been using the hook to weave through the loops and stretch the loops over the pegs.

I took a picture at the computer desk under a fluorescent light bulb and I did not like the colors. So I took the loom outside and took a picture outside on the grass in the shade (indirect natural light).

I like using natural light whenever possible.

Have a good day!