Weaving

Last year when my guild hosted Sara Lamb the writer of Woven Treasures for a program and a workshop she mentioned that weaving was not experiencing the same popularity that other fiber crafts had over the last few years and many fewer weaving books were being printed than knitting & spinning books. She told us we should buy weaving books and said the loom manufacturers were making a big push to get their rigid heddle looms out to knitters. This is a great idea! The looms are smaller, they have less waste and are much more affordable.

When I started spinning and reading Interweave magazines in the 1990's Handwoven was the much bigger magazine and Spin off was just a little sister magazine. It's interesting how these things go in waves I guess they take their turns in popularity.

Weaving is great so it's about time! Is all I have to say!

.Currently on my loom is an combination of handspun novelty yarns & chinelle. I was inspired by the Saori weaving I saw on Ravelry. Even though the pieces I saw were being made with black warp, I decided to use my handspun in the warp and for weft I'm using dark blue wool. This is a really great way to use up all that random handspun that may not be enough to make an individual project AND really! Sometimes you have to ask yourself "Do really need to make another pair of fingerless gloves?" This is a good way to get the fiber into a bigger project.

There are some yarns in here with vintage sequins spun into them that I really treasure but I have to be careful to manipulate them through the eyes in the heddles because naturally they get caught. Also I've combined some more delicate yarns that I wouldn't put on the loom alone. I love the way the warp looks before it's woven, and it's sad to cover it up with the weft...but I tried to give it a spider webish look by setting the yarns wide apart with an epi of 4 and beating it lightly, hopefully that will retain some of the look of the unwoven yarns. Mostly likely I will full it a little before sewing it into a finished object. So far I like it but we'll see how it turns out in the end!

I use a 4 harness Schacht 36" floor loom most of the time, so that's what you see in these pictures