Because I love weaving little square motifs, I combined sock yarns, embroidery floss and various yarns and threads while weaving clasped weft technique.
Last night, we were at a wonderful birthday party – it was such a pleasure to feel so much love focused on our friend!
He deserves it.
Jim and I were sitting with friends, basking in the lovely time.
One of our friends is a young woman who is a gifted musician.
She opened her bottle of Jones soda and read out the ‘fortune cookie’ written inside the bottle lid.
It said: “You will be confronted with limitless opportunities”.
She contemplated it for a minute and said: ‘Confronted with limitless opportunities….. hmmmm’…..
and that began a heartfelt conversation between us…..
‘Confronted’ with limitless opportunities really does speak to the necessity of developing discernment and wisdom, doesn’t it?
She is a woman of deep heart and great intelligence – and she is a wisdom seeker.
I felt that this small ‘fortune cookie moment’ was filled with significance, so I asked her if I could take the bottle cap and make a brooch for her with it.
I spent the morning working on it, and have just finished it.
I hope that she will feel the love and tenderness in it……
(Update: Yes, she does like it 🙂 )
Ending on a personal note, and speaking directly to my friend:
Jordan, my dear, may you be blessed on your journey!
You are a gift and a blessing and you make the world a better place. 🙂
As an older woman-even though I was born with the name: Crone, I am living it now 🙂 –
So many people are afraid to cut their handwoven fabric….
BUT…. conquering the fear of snipping means that you can chop away with great gusto and whip up fabulous, one of a kind garments and accessories! So, YAY!
I was cutting out a spiffy hat today, and it struck me that I should make a quick little video to show what I do to cut off a length of fabric from my main piece of hand woven. So here’s what I do when I am cutting out the pieces for a project:
I am participating in all kinds of craft fairs and maker’s markets this summer in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
I’ve been weaving up all kinds of bracelets for the upcoming shows:
The bracelets are a combination of paper yarn, t shirt yarn, vintage buttons and charms and other embellishments, as well as copper and brass findings and embellishments that I have made.
Several years ago, we bought a metal Ikea computer desk at the thrift store.
I didn’t like having half of the top attached at an angle.
So my beloved DH, Jim and I drilled some holes, took the angled section off and re-attached it so it was nice and flat.
I had passed the desk along to my daughter and her husband, and when they gave it back to me last week, I was inspired.
First, to make the desk a comfortable height for weaving, I cut 3 inches off the legs with a pipe cutter- whew!
That was HARD work!
I mulled over how to attach the loom to the top of the desk, as it was just a hare’s breath away from fitting properly.
I took the top apart and played with the sections to see if I could come up with a workable solution- and then- woohoo!
I discovered that the chanels for a sliding mouse pad section that were supposed to be on the under side of the desk top, fitted the crosspiece of the loom perfectly! Jubilation!
I zip tied the sides of the loom to the desk and was happy as a clam…..
except…. for the pesky owees of the tendons grizzling about the side levels, and my back spazzing out on me.
Hmmmmm…..
Inspiration! add lamms and treadles!
I started by cutting a support piece at the side, and bolting it to the side of the stand.
I used 2 angle brackets as the support for the lamms (with a little block to fill in excess space).
Then, I drilled holes in the lamms for cords to the levers and to the treadles.
I tied the lamms to the levers and was verrrrrrrry pleased! Things were moving along quite nicely!
There had to be a way of supporting and securing the treadles, so I used a board from an old pallet, and drilled 2 holes for the legs. Poifeck.
I had a 6 inch length of threaded 1/4 inch steel rod, which I ran through the treadles (which I had cut out of scrap lumber).
The treadles were too wide at first, so I cut dippsy doodles into them to make them fit better.
The most frustrating part of the whole process was finding nuts that would go onto the threaded rod. Grrrrrrrrr!
I finally ended up filing the ends of the rod, as I just couldn’t get anything to thread onto the rod. Once I did that, zip! on went 2 nuts, happy as can be.
I screwed the whole treadle mechanism to the crossboard on the floor, and tied the treadles to the lamms…..
and held my breath…… what if it didn’t work? eep….. that would have been 3 hours down the tubes….
BUT! Joy! and whee and halleujah! It works like a dream!
So, if you would like to have a floor loom, but don’t have the ca$h, watch for a table loom on the various online places, and convert a desk into a stand for it.
You’ll need to have some basic carpentry skills, and I couldn’t have managed drilling the holes through the sides of the treadles without a drill press, but I bet you could do it if you had to.
Here’s the video that I made about how to convert a computer desk into a loom stand with treadles:
Here are some notes to keep in mind if you would like to adapt my project for your table loom:
Things to look for in a desk or table that you want to use for a loom stand:
1: Being able to bolt or screw the lamm support piece along the left hand side of the table/desk legs is essential.
2: Being able to shorten the legs to drop the height of the table to a comfortable ergonomic height is also essential.
3: Being able to attach the loom to the table is one more essential. (Clamps? Zip ties? A channel like the one on mine was a piece of beautiful serendipity)
‘Woven Women- Our Lady of the Waters’ is a mixed media tapestry, including wool yarn, stones, wire and pounded metal.
I wove her with several different looms: A tapestry loom, a 2 harness table loom, a 2 harness Saori floor loom, a peg loom and also used a spool knitter.
She’s 28 inches tall by 11 1/2 inches wide.
I think that she is probably my favorite piece that I have ever woven.
Here’s a closeup of a section that I wove on the table loom at 15 epi.
I used tabby, inlay, soumak, clasped weft and embroidery.
Tottie Talks Crafts Blog 