Nifty Weave-It Idea
Have you seen this simple Weave-It loom idea made out of a book?
More information and templates here: http://craftsanity.com/2010/08/craftsanity-on-tv-making-weaving-looms-out-of-old-books/
Category: Resources
Two Harness Patterns
Last week, I was thinking that maybe, just maybe I'd get bored with a two-harness loom. I mean, using a rigid heddle + another heddle makes a three or four harness loom, which means patterns like twill are possible.
But with the Kessenich two-harness table loom, I'm kinda stuck with two harness. I had thought that meant plain weave, aka tabby.
So, I challenged myself to find some patterns and so I wandered over to Handweaving.net, clicked on the Draft Archives, clicked on search, and then asked for all the drafts with a minimum of two harnesses and a maximum of two harnesses. Guess how many results I had? 772.
Even if many of these are simply repeats of log cabin or stripes, I bet you anything I can find enough to keep myself busy with only two harnesses!
Wrist Warmers and Baby Doll
These two weekend splurges, I mean totally necessary purchases, were crafted by area weavers. Susan Johnson of Avalanche Looms (blog | shop) wove the gorgeous wrist warmers (no two alike!). The sock-baby-doll-in-a-nest (braided of vintage fabric) is made by Joanne Adragna Shird. Super adorable, must-haves for the season.
Fun with Two Heddles
I've been having a great time using two 10 dent heddles with my new double heddle kit I bought for my Emilia. I've never had to think so hard about threading. It was a brain teaser, but once done (by studying my Jane Patrick book, numerous websites and blogs, and also discussions on Ravelry), it all makes sense. Really! Basically, it's pulling four ends through each of the back heddle (also known as heddle II). Wind on your warp. Pull one strand from each grouping into each eye. So, when heddle II is warped, it has three ends in the slots, one end in an eye.
Then, you add in the front heddle (also known as heddle I) and it gets a little muddy, but in a nutshell, you pull two slot ends into a slot, the third slot end into an eye, and the final fourth end, which had been in the eye of heddle II, into the slot on the far side of the eye you just sleyed. Okay… make sense? Good! Continue on down, warping all of heddle I.
Now, you're ready! See? It's easy!
Well, not really. Would you believe it took me three hours? To warp 8" across? And just 36" long? Yes? Then you'd be wrong, because it actually took three and a half hours. Now, the next time, it'll be a cinch.
Once all that warp was carefully tied on, I was ready to weave… something… didn't know what… So, I pulled out Jane Patrick's book, picked a pattern from the Double Heddle chapter, and started weaving. I chose the Diamond pattern, mostly because it uses two heddles and no pickup sticks. (Yes, you can add in pickup sticks!) And there was much head scratching and pulling out of weft and so on as I followed the eight steps to complete one pattern section, until I finally realized it made sense and I was weaving the diamond pattern.
I'm using a variety of browns, reds, and off-whites from my embroidery thread collection. It's pretty, and even though my brain was taxed, it was worth it.