Pictures of latest projects

More weaving projects!  This purple scarf I made during my weaving class I just finished.  While I only meant for it to be 5-6 feet long, it's 8 feet.  It's pretty, though.

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This shows the ends.  I twisted them into the cords again, but this time I also added some beads to the ends.  I only had a few that matched this color yarn, so each end has three beads.  I love the extra touch it adds to the look.

My tri-loom!  This is a new loom for me to use.  It's has been lots of fun.  It's six feet long along the top.

  I took this picture several days ago and since then, I've finished weaving on the loom and now I'm adding some fringe.  It will be finished this afternoon and I'll take a new picture of it completed.  This kind of weaving doesn't take too long, but you have to stand up the entire time and I get tired of that.  Also, because of it's shape, it either needs a special easel or a place to hang.  The only place I could find to hang mine that wouldn't put massive holes in the wall was the garage.  That's all the junk behind the loom.  It is also super hot in the garage.  It is August, after all, so I don't spend much time out there at any one time.

A closer look at the loom and thread.  I picked a very soft yarn that is used mostly for baby blankets.  Because this will be a shawl, I wanted something soft, fuzzy and warm. 

I'm excited to see this one off the loom.

Tri-loom

I've been thinking about this for months (since February) and decided I wanted to get a tri-loom.  As a weaver, I must be well versed in the craft.

My kids think I'm crazy because now I have a ridged heddle loom, a table loom, an inkle loom, a floor loom and now a tri-loom.  That's 5, count them, five looms.  I love them all!  (My warping board could double as an inkle, so I could say I've got six.)

Because the tri-loom is triangle shaped, it needs a special stand or a place to hang on a wall.  I didn't want to put holes in the wall to hang this, but I didn't want to buy a stand either.  The stand it more expensive than the loom!  So, I found a place in the garage.  I've been working slowly on it for a couple of days.  The first three rows were the hardest to do and after that, I've got it figured out.  I'm enjoying it, but I have to stand to weave and I get tired of that after a while.

I'll have pictures of the tri-loom up soon.  Wait for them.....

Summer time weaving

This summer I took a weaving class.  I really enjoyed it.  As well as learning lots of great things, I got to get out of the house for a couple hours, every week for two months!

I learned a much more effective way of getting the threads from the warping board to the loom.  When I did it in the past, I made a huge tangled mess and often spent days untangling all the thread.  Now, I know a better way and know how to use lease sticks.  So far, I've threaded my home loom two or three times since starting the class and it has gone so much better.

During class, I made two projects.  The first was a table runner that is about 7 feet long and 14 inches wide.  It's impractical for me to use it on my table at home (kids and cat), but it's pretty.  I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it. 

The second project was going to be a long scarf.  Well, it's long, about 10 feet long!  It's made with a pretty cotton/rayon thread in shades of purple.  My computer isn't liking my camera card right now, so I don't have pictures on my computer, but I'll work on that so I can get some pictures of my latest projects up.

scarf

My latest project fresh off the loom.

For whatever reason, the picture isn't great, but it's a scarf about 57 inches long and 8 1/2 inches wide.

I made it for my father in law for his birthday, but there is one problem...

This:

Everytime I advanced the warp on the loom, the weft would separate.  I can't figure out how to get it looking normal again.  I may not give this too him.  I also ended up with two different whites.  It doesn't look as good as I had hoped. 

Well I've got some new thread, that's 100% cotton, so I'll be trying that out. 

class

I've signed up for a weaving class this summer. I'm very excited.

I realized a few weeks ago that I hit my one year mark of weaving in April. One year! I've come a long way and I still have a very, very long way to go.

I started with a simple Inkle loom that I built. I still use it. The wood is still raw and really could use a sanding and a staining, but it works. I just have to be careful of splinters when I use it.

Then I moved up to a ridged heddle loom, then my wonderful Dorothy table loom and now I have a beautiful floor loom. I still use them all, except the ridged heddle. I haven't used that since getting the Dorothy.

Anyway, I still feel like a beginner. So, I'm taking a class this summer that will teach me the correct way to use the warping board, remove the warp from the warping board and tie it onto the loom properly. It will be very good for me to learn these things from a professional teacher.

There will be no stopping me after that!

moving along

I really enjoyed working the tartan. It turned out beautifully. This is the finished product.

I haven't had much time to work on my next project. I'm using a yellow warp and a blue weft. The pattern is the most complicated I've done and I've made many mistakes. My biggest problem is that I get distracted by the kids a lot and I loose my place in the pattern. I'll have to put up a picture after I've worked it a bit more.

Maybe I'll go do that now.

Robertson Tartan weave

I've been working on a new project this week and I'm very excited about the way it's turning out. I started putting thread on the warping board on Monday. I did that for two or three days. Then I started to put it onto the loom. It's about 440 threads, and is 27 inches wide. I'm using the Orlec thread. I really like using it.

As you can see, it's a bit of a mess. I've been doing things wrong on the warping board. I'll know better for next time. There wasn't anything I could do about this, but I planned much better for it and managed to keep the tangled mess to a minimum. This is what it looked like after I got it warped on the loom. It is the Robertson clan tartan. That's my family clan. My great-grandmother was from Scotland and her family were Reid's, a part of the Robertson family.

Isn't it pretty? I'm loving the way it is working out. I found one big error, though, right in the middle of the warp and I didn't realize it for a long time after I started weaving. There isn't much I can do about it now. Well, I can take about 1/3 of the threads off and re-thread them. That would be the professional thing to do, but I don't think I will. Still, I really like the way this looks.Another view of the pattern. The entire thing is a repeat pattern of red, green and blue. In these pictures, you can see what each color looks like. On the bottom is the red weft, then the green is in the middle and I was just starting some blue on the top.
I'll keep working on this. It has the potential to be around 14 feet long. What am I going to do with it? Hubby suggested a runner for the back of the sofa. If my two youngest kids didn't climb all over the sofa all the time, I would be all for displaying it on the back of the couch. What do you think?