Dog bowtie or a hair piece?!

BOOM!

Dapper dog bowtie

I wanted something to make with left over handwoven fabric that I had, so after browsing the internet I saw a cat wearing a hat. This made me think that my dogs could do with a bowtie! So I quickly wizzed this up with some left overs from the bag I posted previously. I hope you like it. Don't worry the bow tie was only on the dog for the photo.

I hope you like it, it was quick easy and fun!

Happy weaving xx

New yarn

This is botany lace by Araucania yarns. I love the purple/pink and blue one the best I think. It will be used for my next project in which I attempt to weave my own draft!

The lighting is poor and doesn't show the colours well but they are both bright and so so soft! They were my cheeky purchase on Saturday!

Recent makes

I thought I would do a quick blog post to update you on a few items I have made recently from my weaving. This is the kind of thing I want to do with my weaving, I want to make 3D objects. Not just scarfs, placemats and blankets (though I do want to make these!). I like the idea that I am making fabric which I will sew with. One day I would like to be able to create clothing such as jackets, so watch this space!

First up is a tea cosy, there are a lot of things that need to be changed with this design but as a prototype it will do! This is woven in Jamiesons of Shetland Sprindrift. I love Spindrift because it comes in so many colour and has a real rustic feel to it. Plus its pure wool and I just love wool!

The next thing I made was a bag. It was woven out of sock which didn't knit up as nice as I had hoped. This ball of wool had been sitting around the house for two years with no hope of being used. I thought it would be a good idea to just start weaving up yarn that I don't like and find a use for it later. It turns out even though this yarn didn't knit up nicely it sure did weave well. It created a really nice plaid pattern all by itself! I am so happy with it. The colours are really cheery.



Finally I will leave you with a picture of how my herringbone weaving is coming along on my mighty wolf 8 shaft loom.

P.S  I LOVE THIS LOOM SO SO SO MUCH!!!!



Happy weaving xx



Interweave webinar with Robyn Spady - Deciphering the Drawdown: Understanding Weaving Drafts

Last night I had my first webinar experience. It was held by interweave and was all about understanding drafts. Robyn Spady was our teacher for the night and she was extremely good at explaining everything.

As a novice weaver, it wasn't until a couple of weeks ago that I had managed to make any sense of a draft but even then it took me a while to be sure that I really did know what I was about to do. But now thanks to Robyn I can read drafts from foreign books! Language is no longer a barrier for me to understand drafts! We were even taught how to understand drafts that were hand written back in the 19th century!!! Amazing, I have to say I would love to weave from a draft so old, seeing the hand writing and wondering about who wrote it and what their life was like! (History can be so exciting!).

One of my favourite bits was Name Drafting: a simple way of designing a unique weave by assigning letters to your shafts. She explains very well how to do it and how to manipulate the draft into a working one!

I had a go myself straight after the webinar (they need some work but its a start!):

This is Heather Swift

and this one is Merry Christmas



So my review of the webinar is that it was fantastic! If you want to understand drafts and feel that no draft will ever stump you in the future I really recommend downloading it! It isn't up on the website yet but I recommend watching this space for it!

Also check out Robyn's blog too!

First weavings on my eight shaft

For my first weave I went for a draft in the epic book 'A Weaver's Book of 8-Shaft Patterns: From the Friends of Handwoven' by Carol Strickler

I chose the pattern rosepath #102 by Betty Creamer, its a beautiful flower type pattern. I however used the darker of my yarn choices as the warp not realising that it is the warp that would be the star of the pattern. It would have looked much better if I had used the lighter yarn as the warp. Here is a picture so you can see what I mean.

You can barely see the pattern at all with this. So I sadly wasn't very happy weaving it. Luckily it occurred to me that the threading was the same as for a herringbone twill and all I had to do was change the tie up! So that exactly what I did and now I am enjoying the weaving :)

I need more practice on beating evenly but I am so happy with it! :)

Happy weaving!! xx

I built a loom

Ok hopefully I am back in the blogosphere for a long stay. This blog instead of focusing on knitting, crochet and spinning like previously it's main focus will be weaving and sewing, as this is where my interests have taken me.

I am now a very proud owner of a mighty wolf 8 shaft loom and I cannot even begin to express my excitement. Since schacht is an American company my loom came all the way from the states, flat packed!! (Or knocked down as they call it). This meant I had the task of building it when it arrived. I started building in the afternoon last Monday and finished it by noon on the Wednesday. It felt like a mammoth task and the stakes were high as breaking it would be expensive.

This is how it came, with all the pieces (and a helpful dog).

I would like to say that the instructions where easy to follow and the picture clear and easy to understand but sadly this was not the case. Its fair to say that I read each instruction about five times before I did it. There where several times when I realised I had done something wrong several steps down the line and had to go back and correct it. But even if progress was slow it did gradually grow...

Here it is just after I put the jacks in

But by wednesday it was finished and I was so proud that I had built it. I also feel like it has given me a greater understanding of how it works and what each piece is for. Hopefully this will make me a better weaver!

Without further ado, here is the finished loom!

Now when I showed this picture to fellow weavers on Ravelry someone told my loom wasn't finished! As a loom wasn't finished until it was dressed! Fair enough! So with excitement I rushed and built my warping board. I wound three metres of Jaggerspun zephyr in the colourway Curry. I ran out of warp just shy of enough to make a piece 20 cm wide.



So now the warping began... I have to say I watched numerous videos on how to warp a loom and I opted for the back to front method. I also discovered that for warping I kinda needed a raddle! I don't have a raddle :( I spent ages wondering what I was going to do! In the end I picked up my phone ordered and ordered one. So it will take two and a half weeks for my raddle to come.

AS IF I AM GOING TO WAIT THAT LONG!!! I JUST BUILT A LOOM!!!! I MUST WEAVE ON IT NOW!!!!!

So I decided to go ahead and try and warp it without a raddle. It worked too :)

It took me quite a while to do this but its my first time and I assume I will eventually get faster anyway now my loom was built warped and ready to go!

And whilst I was doing all of this my dogs where doing this...

Happy weaving!! xx