I hate wasting yarn… so I really don’t like loom waste – who wants to toss their yarn in the trash? Really 🙂
That’s why I love Claudia Chase’s ‘No Warp Ends’ technique for the Mirrix looms.
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The one thing that I wasn’t keen on was using paper clips to be the holders for the yarn ends, so I thought about it and mulled it over.
Hmmmm…. I use ‘S’ hooks all the time to hang things and connect them, but I have never used them on a loom.
This called for some experimenting.
I don’t know about you…. but, I have a tendency to start with a really complicated plan, and have to do a lot of trial and errors to get to the elegant and simple final version.
I was thinking about all kinds of ways of making harnesses to hold the bars for the ‘s’ hooks…. oh my!
I also figured that I wanted to use both sides of the loom while setting up for this technique.
I had woven two affinity bracelets at the same time- one on the front of the loom, and one on the back, so this seemed to stick in my mind as ‘the way to go’.
Well… I twiddled and fiddled, and threw away the whole overly elaborate harness idea, and ended up using 4 loops of double sided velcro to hold the bars to the upper and lower edges of the loom.
That was a big breakthrough- talk about a simple way to do this! Yay!~
And, I am really pleased with the final method that I came up with- it really works for me!
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Here is the video, showing how I warp the Mirrix Lani using the ‘No Warp Ends’ technique, with ‘S’ hooks:
Last week, a friend asked me what I was working on these days.
In response, IÂ rattled off a list of projects and tasks that is the length of my arm.
The next day, as I was leaving the dentist, he drove up to the stop sign, he said: ‘Oh yah, you say you’re working on all these things, but here you are, just walking down the street!’ 😀
Um… if I could master the transporter, I would! Zap! into the dentist chair! Zap! Home again! Sparkle sparkle zing. 🙂
I would like that…. 🙂
Anyhow, here are some of the things that are happening in my studio right now….
(Not ~ all ~ the things that are happening, as I can’t show projects that I am designing for magazines etc- the editors would be smacking me on the side of the head if I did….)
(and I am working on some stuff that I need to not talk about until it ripens. You know how it is.)
Okay… first things first…
We have adopted an adorable little rescue…. he’s 4 1/2 years old and is just wonderful.
(except for being a cat botherer… that is NOT good 😦 ) This is him (in his fetching blue harness) with his adopted big brother. (Our dear old chihuahua/daschund cross).
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Ah, well, other than being oh so barkie about the cats, he is completely adorable. As you can see, he has settled in beautifully.
Although, every adoption takes time and patience and attention….
Alright…. a brief zip around the studio:
Okay, in the southeast corner, there’s a big project happening on my tri loom (configured to the 3 foot size).
I’ll be posting more about this as the project moves closer to the finish line:
Hearts are one of my most favorite design motifs ever.
I decided that I should design a tiny little woven heart motif as a project for the ‘Stitch Red’ heart health campaign, and also work as an embellishment on a special ‘I love you’ scarf for my daughter.
Here’s the link to the previous post about using tambour crochet to embellish the scarf: Link
The yarn used in the heart motif is from Koigu, made specially for the Stitch Red campaign. Link
Here is the pattern to make the pin board loom to weave the heart:(Note: Print it out so the pattern is 2 inches by 2 inches)
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Materials and equipment: a square of foam (I upcycled some packing material) that’s about 4 inches square by an inch or so thick.
34 pins or 1 inch fine finishing nails. (You may need a nail file to file rough edges off the tops)
A 3 or 4 inch square of clear plastic from a clamshell package or other recycled thingie.
Knife to cut the foam, scissors.
2.5 mm crochet hook
small tapestry needle
Instructions
1: Copy the pattern, and trim to fit the size of piece of foam.
2: Place the piece of clear plastic over the pattern. Push the pins into the dots.
Warping: The right hand arch of the heart is held vertical and the left hand arch is horizontal.
3: Tie 2 strands of yarn together (Note, you need to be working with fine yarn, like a sock weight) and place over the pin at the point of the heart.
4: Skip 8 pins, go around the next pin and down to the lower edge, and around the pin to the left of the pin at the point.
5: Go up and down across the 5 pins at the top and their mathcing pins on the lower edge.
6: Take the yarn up to th emifpoint pin (there are 3 empty pins above it) and down.
7: Go up and down across the next 5 sets of pins. There will be 3 vertical pins/nails left empty. Make an ‘8’ around the last set of nails to bring the yarn back down to the lower set of nails.
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8: Weaving
Row 1: Weave hook from right to left: Over 4/Under 4 between the 1st and 2nd pins.
Make a loop of yarn and place it on the hook, then draw it through the warp strands. Place the loop on the 2nd nail on the right hand side.
Adjust yarn.
Rows 2 & 4: Weave Under 4/Over 4 across, pick up the loop of yarn, ease through, place loop on nail/pin.
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Row 3: WEave Over 4/Under 4 across, pick up loop, ease through, place on nail on right hand side of loom.
Rows 5 & 7: Weave )ver 4/Under 4/Over 4/Under 4/Over 4… make loop, ease through, place on pin on right hand side.
Note: on Row 7, the yarn passes by 5 pins before it’s woven in.
Rows 6 & 8: U4/O4/U4/O4/U4 make loop, ease through, place on pin on right hand side.
Row 9: Working with top 3 pins only: U4/O4/U 4 make loop, ease through, place on pin on right hand side. (It already has loops on it, but not to worry).
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Finishing:
Wrap the yarn around the circumference of the heart 2 1/2 ties and snip.
Working in a counter clockwise direction: Thread the yarn ends into a darning needle and lift the stitches off, one by one, stitching through them.
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Some nails have 2 sets of threads on them, so lift the sets of yarn off one at a time.
Stitch over the long floating threads to capture them.
Stitch twice at the tip of the heart.
Untie the beginning knot and weave in the ends.
Adjust the circumference stitching to shape the heart, and stitch through the outside edge again if desired.
Weave in ends and trim.
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The hearts can be used to embellish or trim scarves, hats, mittens, gloves, cowls, hair ornaments, bags, stuffies, dolls, toys, blankets, shawls, stoles, vests, coats, wall hangings, cellphone and tablet covers. The sky’s the limit!
Here’s the video tutorial on how to weave the heart motif:
I think that people might like to have a heart loom in wood, so I asked Donna and Gary McFarland of Dewberry Ridge looms Link if they would make them, and they said yes, so if you want one, drop them a note.
PLEASE NOTE: All content of this blog, including video, audio, written and photographed is the sole work and property of Noreen Crone-Findlay, and MAY NOT be used without my permission. Thanks so much!
My husband is a jazz musician and composer and completely awesome bundle of wonderfulness, and I love weaving beeeeeuuuuutiful shirts for him to wear when he’s performing. (last year’s Jazz festival shirt: Link).
I have been weaving away on fabric to make him a new shirt for this year’s Jazz Festival, LINK
But…. oops… it’s cream and ecru with lotsa colors…. and, the color that the guys mostly wear to perform in is black.
Our daughter made Jim a gorgeous black shirt from the Folkwear Victorian Gentleman’s shirt pattern, so it’s kinda dumb to weave him another one….. sooooooooooooooo the big AHA was…………… weave him a VEST!!!!!!
Ding! Lights go on, whee’s and skippetty hops and happy dances ensue….
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When our son got married, I used the Folkwear pattern to make him and my hubby kilts, (oh my word.. the grooms men, hubby and our son, all wore kilts and they looked FABULOUS…).
The kilt pattern has a really spiffy vest pattern, which Jim likes (that’s essential- why make it if he doesn’t like it?)
Oh oh, whenever I go on the Folkwear pattern site, it makes me want to buy more patterns. I love their patterns and have been wearing them for more than 3 decades. We actually got married in clothing I sewed from Folkwear patterns, and our children grew up in Folkwear.
(No profit, affiliations etc, just love their patterns)
Okay, just had a brief noodle through their website, and am seriously in love with the Siberian Parka….. hmmmm… that would be fun to weave the fabric for…. hmmmmmm.
Anyhow…. in the midst of meeting design deadlines, and new projects that are so delicious and tantalizing and time consuming,
I am in the throes of weaving up narrow bands for this vest, and loving it!
The vintage Structo looms are kind of like the ‘Featherweight’ sewing machine – tiny, perfectly formed workhorses that are beautifully engineered and much sought after.
Although, after I spent hours the other evening, warping the black cotton, I would have cheerfully sold the blessed loom to the first taker. (Warping black thread at night is not so much fun).
Luckily, I got over my snit, and am now utterly enchanted and weaving merrily away.
Which is good, as the Jazz festival is getting closer and closer…. eep… I need to go meet some deadlines and then get weaving!
😀 Happy weaving!
PS: I carved the shuttle in the photo a few years ago. 🙂
My dear friend, Terri Bibby, is a Saori teacher and weaver extraordinaire, who told me about some shuttles that don’t have a metal rod through them.
This intrigued me, so I made myself one to see how I liked it.
I absolutely love it. I made it small and low profile to fit the small shed of Structo and Peacock looms. Thumbs up, indeed!
I am calling this series, ‘Woven Women’. I made a little video mini tour of one corner of my studio, showing ‘The Green Empress’.
The Green Empress brings together many of my favorite fiber techniques: Tapestry weaving, inkle weaving, small loom weaving, crochet, wire work, tatting and punch needle embroidery.
My plan is to eventually have enough ‘Woven Women’ for a one woman show. I don’t have enough of them finished yet, but I am working on it!
Here are some more photos and the video tour that shows The Green Empress:
Close up of one eye and part of the crown. You can see that I love Byzantine art, as there is a definite influence here.
And, here is the link to a mini studio tour, with my wonderful husband playing one of his compositions (with our small dog in his lap, as small dog insists on sitting in Jim’s lap when he plays and practices!)
All the looms in my studio have been full of happy warps.
As well as working oh so hard on a couple of new books (one on potholder loom weaving and one on Lily Speed-O-Weave looms) as well as designing for magazines, I have been weaving up a storm.
Here’s a little of what’s going on:
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I am working on a new freeform weaving jacket that is all in creams, whites and naturals. This is the first sleeve.
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There are several yards of the jacket fabric on ‘Patient Zillah’, my ‘paper doll’ manequin- the jacket fabric is the widest, plain cream, highly textured layer under amost a hundred yards of narrow strips of fabric. I wove the jacket fabric on a rigid heddle loom.
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I am also working on a tunic or shirt for me and am going to be piecing strips of narrow fabric together for it.
The narrower lengths of fabric were woven on my Structo loom.
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I am madly in love with small loom weaving, and dearly love my old vintage looms.
I have had to do some fixing up to make it work, but it’s been pure delight to get it fully functional again.
I put really really long warps on them and have had a delightful time playing with clasped wefts as well as different patterns.
I love the freeform philosophy of weaving- it’s all about feeling free to play and express your creativity in any way that ignites your imagination.
So, when I was learning the ins and outs and ups and downs of the Structo looms, I felt quite free to change my flight plan whenever I got bored with a pattern or became interested in a new one. It’s all about the learning process and I love that.
My shirt/tunic will be a record of some very playful weaving.
I am hoping that he will let me break loose and weave him a much ‘jazzier’ vest to go over the serene shirt!!!
I wanted to do a beautiful, artsy photo of the miles of fabric, draped over the branches of the apple tree that is right outside the studio window. It’s heavenly – stuffed full of glorious blossoms, and oh so beautiful!
BUT!
The mosquitoes are so vicious and the clouds of them are SO intense, that I am barely able to go outside, let alone be draping miles of fabric in the tree! so, you’ll have to use your imagination, and just envision all kinds of lovely fabric strips hanging in this tree:
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Would you like to see a little of what I have been up to with my potholder looms in the last year, as I work on the new book?
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This is the ‘Gossamer Wings Woven Butterfly Shawl’ to weave on the Potholder loom.
I love this shawl so much that I decided to release it as a stand alone pattern.
You can read all about it, and order the pattern, if you’d like, 🙂 at:
I decided to take a little break and finish the book on weaving on the Lily Speed-O-Weave loom.
I’ve been working on this book, on and off for several years, and finally, after a whole bunch of people have sent me notes, asking for it, I decided: Okay… Just do it!
Of course, I totally under-estimated how long it would take to do it, as I have been re-writing, re-photographing, photo-shopping, then re-doing it all over and over… you know how it goes in the editing and polishing… and besides, I got all inspired and excited and came up with a whole bunch of new projects.
One of the things that struck me this week, is that I really needed to put in at least one project that shows a traditional pattern on the Lily Speed-O-Weave. I have been so busy with coming up with innovative ways of working with the looms, that I forgot that there will be people who want some of the ‘classic’ stuff, too.
So, here’s for the fans of the ‘classics’…. the standard flower pattern…. although, I present it in a way that is a heck of a lot easier to understand than some of the old old booklets.
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So, there you have it! A little of what’s been going on in my studio!
In this picture, Tottie Tomato is wrapped in the words of Dame Julian of Norwich’s prayer:
And all shall be well
and all shall be well
and all manner of things shall be well…
I love this prayer and say it allllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll the time……….
To pay homage to Dame Julian and her wonderful prayer, I wove the bands that I used to shape her body (and her banner) on my inkle loom. I crocheted her hands and head, and wove the remainder of the elements of the sculpture on various other small looms.
I use a simple pickup technique for weaving words.
A picture is worth a thousand words, so I think I should put ‘do a video of weaving words’ on my to do list!
The images in this blog entry are copyright and not to be used by anyone else for anything else….
Tottie Talks Crafts Blog 