Fingerweaving!!!

I've had a major distraction since last Friday.

My new BFF, Kurt aka loominaria, had a Cricket rigid heddle loom in need of a new home. He contacted me because we're in the same town. When I get to his place he gives me a box with the Cricket with all the heddles, a bag of cotton yarns in assorted colors, and a few books.

Now you're thinking I am going be distracted by the Cricket? Noooooo!

There is a book on tapestry weaving (cool!) and two books on finger weaving/handweaving (awsome!).

So I've been spending all my free time reading about fingerweaving and trying it out.

Basic Book of Fingerweaving by Esther Warner Dendel and A Manual of Fingerweaving by Robert Austin show a craft that is best described as weaving without a loom.

Here I am using a technique called Peruvian flat weaving to create a flat belt. You can hang your work on any handy peg or nail, or Dendel suggests using a clipboard for small practice pieces.

Here is some more of the first piece. I have another piece in progress that has more colors in it. There are more techniques in the books.

Here is another strap in progress. If these colors look familiar to you, I am using cotton yarn from my scrap bag which has bits and pieces from recently woven pieces.

I like fingerweaving!

If anyone has more info on this fingerweaving craft, please let me know!

Have a good day!

I'm becoming a fiber geek

I'm becoming a fiber geek.

I just spent an hour looking at fashion blogs.

I saw this blog http://ivoreece.blogspot.com/2009_10_01_archive.html

and I was looking at the Chanel Spring 2010 knit pieces.

Who would have thought red, white, and blue would be a fashion statement?

and I got wrapped up in clicking links to other blogs.

The models are very pretty but why do they have to be so skinny? I want to buy them a sandwich.

Have a good day!

Finished "Playtime" towels

Two towels/placemats, finished size is 15 x 22 inch

Closeup of the towels, there is a rough edge on the towel on the left, where the weaving was not at tight as it should be. It will probably tighten up with another wash, but I need more practice.

Have a good day!

Continue Weaving Along Towels

*continuing to weave along*

Here I have woven up to the marking knot of my measuring string. Just in time because you see I am at the end of the warp which is tied to the beam at the other side of the heddle. So now I am hand hemming the end of the towel.

My fringe has three ends per group. I have 128 ends divide by three is 42 groups plus 2 extra ends. So I have one extra group of 2 ends in the middle of the hem to make it come out even.

Then I cut the warp with about 1 and a half inch of fringe. Remove the heddle. Loosen the loom, wrap the towel on the beam and roll until I'm back to the middle where the separators are.

Then I remove a separator so I have room to hem the end. When done on this end, I will rotate the loom 180 degrees, remove the other separator, and hem the end. When done I'll roll the work on the loom to the beginning and hem that last end. Then I will have 4 hems on two towels. Cut the warp on the other end with 1 and half inch fringe. Remove towels from the loom.

I will wet finish these with wash/dry cycle with other light colored towels so I don't get dye or dark lint on them. I will cut the towels apart and put into a mesh bag to help keep the fringe looking better after the first wash.

Have a good day!

Rigid Heddle Weave Along

There is a rigid heddle weave along starting next week, Sept 28 2009, at Weavolution
http://www.weavolution.com/

You have to join the Rigid Heddle group to see the weavealong instructions, but there is no charge to join. There will be a beginner level project and intermediate level project.

At Weavezine there are several free projects for rigid heddle
http://www.weavezine.com/rigid-heddle

And here is a collection of rigid heddle relatd links
http://therigidheddle.tumblr.com/

Have a good day.

Stop the backstrap, pick up the sticks

This scarf started on a backstrap loom. But I did not like the look of the weave as I got going. So I took it off the backstrap and put it on my weaving sticks.



Here is the scarf on my makeshift barstool warping pegs. I like to try different ways of warping with what I have on hand. I can't make tight warping with this, but for the scarf it was not that critical.

Here is the scarf on the backstrap. As you can see on the left, the yarn has a one gold strand and 3 black strands. When woven on the backstrap, the one gold strand disappears into just dots. I wanted to have a more of the gold showing through. So I unraveled the weaving and moved to weaving sticks.




As you can see, the weaving sticks are just sticks. There is a hole at the bottom of the sticks to thread the warp through. I put a six foot warp on the sticks. Then I started weaving around the sticks. Every couple of inches of weaving, I push the weaving down the sticks onto the warp. As I keep weaving I keep pushing the work down the sticks and eventually I will have a strip of cloth.

Here is a closeup of the woven strip. You can see the gold stripe much better in this weft faced style of weaving. Strips like this can be sewn together to make vests, blankets, and I think I want to make a hat with this technique.

The weaving work (weft) can bunch up on you and use up a lot of yarn. I can hold the scarf down on my left with a flat hand, and then by tugging on the warp I can slide the weft down the warp about an inch at a time, in 2 or 3 inch sections at each time. Working my way up the scarf I can spread the weft so it's not bunched up. I'll tie off the strings to make a fringe and hold the ends.

For more info on weaving sticks, check out the links on my previous blog entry
http://francosfiberadventure.blogspot.com/2009/05/finger-weaving-peg-looms-weaving-sticks.html

Have a good day!

Backstrap Loom Basics article posted on Weavezine

There was a Backstrap loom basics article
by Laverne Waddington of Bolivia
posted on Weavezine today.
http://www.weavezine.com/content/backstrap-basics

Laverne has been using backstrap looms for years and sharing
the knowledge on internet forums like Weavolution.com
a gathering place for handweavers
http://www.weavlution.com

It is an excellent introduction with links to resources to
help you get started with backstrap loom weaving.
Includes some great videos too.

I got started on backstrap weaving with help from Laverne
and I'm thrilled to see her article on Weavezine

Weavezine is an online magazine for weavers with articles and
podcasts on different weaving related topics.
Weavezine is published by Syne Mitchell, who is also a weaver.

Have a good day!