Tag: weaving

Triloom Weaving Videos

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Okay, these are in Spanish, but visually, they are a perfect introduction to triangle, or triloom, weaving:

I know how to do a plain weave triangle, having woven several on the first loom I ever bought, a 24" triloom, but I'm now waiting for my 7 foot modular triloom to arrive, although I still haven't figured out where in the world it's going to go. 7 foot!

Categories: Weaving

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Warping Cheat

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image from www.flickr.com

I haven't had the best of luck when it comes to warping using the warping board. I know I can do it–and I did with the table runner project–but I still look for shortcuts. This time, I decided to combine direct warping with the board, and it worked… kind of. I got all the 142 cotton warp threads onto the Ashford table loom just fine. Each time, I looped over the warping bar, and I kept every five strands separated with the raddle. I didn't use the lease sticks. Maybe I should have, but I couldn't quite wrap my brain around how to do that, too.
image from www.flickr.com

So, it all wound on very nicely, I threaded all the heddles with a simple 1-2-3-4 repeat, sleyed the reeed, and then I got ready to weave. It's here I stopped because I didn't care for the way my selvedges looked when I used two separate colors. I gain some knowledge in one area (like warping) and then I realize I still need to learn something else (selvedges when using multiple colors… grrrrr…). I like learning, and I also like weaving, which is why this is lifelong journey.

Finished: Noro Scarf

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noroscarf3

noroscarf2

noroscarf1

 

You’d think I’d have about a dozen scarves after weaving for about 2.5 years, but I either give them away or decide they’re not quite right. There are two I wear regularly (in the cooler weather). Now, there are three, because I’m crazy about this Noro Taiyo sock yarn scarf. Yes, using the yarn as a warp was a big challenge, but I love the end results. I wove this on the Glimakra Emilia after it started snapping under the pressure of the Ashford table loom. I doubled each end in the 8 dent heddle, often threading the “wrong” end, and so the color scheme didn’t stay true to the color changes of the yarn. I didn’t care one bit, because I was more worried about being able to weave the entire thing without snapping threads than whether or not the goofy colors matched up properly. The weft was black crochet cotton (size 10). I also used a pickup stick pattern from Jane Patrick’s The Weaver’s Idea Book. It’s on page 85,  5/1 warp float.

The warp was sticky, tangled in numerous spots, and often plain old difficult to weave. I made mistakes, too. Surprisingly, in the end, I was so pleased with the lightweight, airy scarf, I didn’t wait for it to air dry after washing it. I placed it in front of a space heater, and 20 minutes later, the scarf was ready to go.

Books and Journals from the Online Digital Archive

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Every so often, I think of a weaving technique I'd like to try. One is the Moorman Inlay technique, which creates an embroidery-type patterns woven into a solid background. For a little discussion about it, read these posts on Weavolution. I also found this excellent pamphelt on the Online Digital Archive of Documents on Weaving. Maybe because weaving is still a bit of a fringe craft (get it? fringe craft?), and maybe because I enjoy wandering the aisles of thrift and antique stores searching for weaving treasures from days gone by,  I love reading the older documents about weaving:

Although it doesn't have the best images, it's a nice resource on how to get started. 

There are numerous out-of-print items on this site, and I love to browse the book section to see what gems are waiting to be found. Some of my favorites include:

Finally, the periodicals section lists numerous journals and pamphlets, and sometimes years and years of issues are included. I like seeing how much time is dedicated to the rigid heddle loom in some of these journals. Here's a sampling:

Categories: Tutorials

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