Tag: loom

Plarn Tote

No Comments

 

  • image from www.flickr.com
  • image from www.flickr.com
  • image from www.flickr.com
  • image from www.flickr.com
  • image from www.flickr.com
image from www.flickr.com

Plarn = plastic bags cut into strips and used as yarn. Plarn is fun, and it's green!

I used the 10 dent heddle on the Kessenich two-harness loom, warping every other slot–70 ends total –with white crochet cotton for the warp, bought for a quarter at a thrift store. I probably used about ten cents worth. Then, I cut ten plastic sacks into strips, using a tutorial I viewed on Youtube. The red handle is some acrylic I spool knitted on a little crank knitter. So, all in all, my weaving cost me about fifty cents. Ritzy!

I wove 20 inches but now wish I would have taken the time for another five to ten, because although this little tote is cute, it's not really useful. It's probably just big enough for a few DVDs or one or two books. I don't plan on lining it, but I am planning on another plarn tote, this time bigger.

Two Harness Patterns

2 Comments

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!

Finally Off the Loom

No Comments

image from www.flickr.com

 

It started as spa wash cloths, and ended up as a rag and a table runner. The warp was a nice cotton/hemp blend called Hempathy, but the weft, at first, was plain hemp 100% hemp yarn. Sorry, but after just one cloth, I was ready to call it quits. It has a rustic look, which is fine, but it was dusty, and it shed bits and pieces everywhere. It's best left for a rope, or a handle, or something other than a wash cloth. Plus, it smells when it's wet, too, so don't use it for something meant to be doused in water on a regular basis. I made one loop pile cloth, then moved onto a second, which I quickly turned into a little rag, and the final two feet of warp sat on my loom for two months.

I decided to use the hemp blend for the weft, and a little pick-up stick pattern to create a small table runner. The pattern was 2 up, 2 down, and the weaving was Up + Pickup Stick, Down, Up, Down. It worked out nicely, with the warp floats creating a stripe. Hemp is nice in a blend.