My daughter and I had a wonderful Christmas.

We spent a lot of time in the family room chatting while being absorbed in our own creative world. One of the gifts I gave to my daughter was a beading loom, after showing her how to use it she immediately started working on a bracelet. I purchased her glass beads to accompany the loom and even gave her one box filled with some of my favorite glass beads. The loom I purchased, is the same type I’d bought for myself in my early twenties. I told her this loom was the gateway to much fancier looms if the beading bug bit her. It seems as it has since she spent hours yesterday familiarizing herself with the loom and weaving a lovely bracelet.

 

While she was working on her beaded bracelet, I finished my loom woven dishcloth and was able to make two washcloths from the same warp!

 

Today marked another first, I sewed my own woven cloth!

 

Securing my woven fabric with a sewn hem

Once the fabric is woven it needs to be secured. How did I do that? Well… I secured the edges of the dishcloth and two washcloths with a zigzag stitch; I used my Brother PC-420 sewing machine. From my online search, I’ve see a lot of fringes used on items made with the rigid heddle loom. Cute… but I’m not a big fan of fringes. That’s why I secured my woven fabric with a sewn hem. I have three more washcloths on the loom. I’ll be pulling out my Serger machine; Brother 1034D and will secure the edges with a rolled hem.

Last week, I didn’t keep my commitment of two washcloths/dishcloths per week, but I’m making up for it this week. By the end of the week, I should have woven five washcloths.

Although I’m new to this craft, I really love weaving!

 

 

Of course, I’m still making mistakes but that’s part of the process. See above picture. For example, a few days ago I used the wrong heddle (10-dent) to weave worsted cotton yarn. That did not go well at all since the fiber kept sticking into the heddle slots. I ended up tossing the entire project. I spent over an hour warping that project, and while I could have kept the fiber to stuff amigurumi I simply tossed it all in the trash.

 

The very next day, I corrected my error and used the same fiber, but this time with a 7.5-dent heddle. I successfully warped my loom without any issue!

 

Warping the loom, can at times, feel like the longest part of the journey.

 

I don’t look at it negatively since it’s all part of the process, and it’s a necessary step if I want to turn fiber into lovely woven cloth.

Didn’t I tell you that I’d fix my loom weaving issues?

 

And now this is playing in my head…

I thought I told you that I won’t stop
I thought I told you that I won’t stop
I thought I told you that I won’t stop
I thought I told you that I won’t stop
Eh eh, eh eh
I thought I told you that I won’t stop
I thought I told you that I won’t stop
eh eh, eh eh
I thought I told you that I won’t stop
I thought I told you that I won’t stop
Check it out

 

Yesterday, while my daughter had her play date, I pulled out my 32″ harp rigid heddle loom and started weaving… correctly.  The reason why I had the big pile of unwoven yarn (a few days ago) was because I was moving the heddle from the up to the neutral position. I should have pulled the heddle to the down position.Since I kept the heddle in netural position, that meant the yarn wasn’t being crossed and so no weaving was going on. I knew this on the day of the weaving fail, but I just did not have time to fix the issue. It was late and I really needed to get to bed.

 

I will say the first day was a teachable moment, for my daughter. She saw the warp fail and she also could see how I was handling the situation. I did not give up. I told her tomorrow was another day and I’d fix the issue then. She thinks I did a really great job for my first piece. I think so to. I’ll definitely keep my first woven project so I can come back to it later after I’ve been weaving for some time. I know I’ll see improvements.

Today, while my daughter and I are having a creative time together. I think I’ll weave some washcloths. That is, after I finish knitting my father’s lined thrummed hat.

Biggie Smalls: We Won’t Stop

Last evening I was finally able to play with my 32″ Kromski Harp Rigid Heddle loom. I selected yarn that I didn’t mind using for practice.

I grabbed the laptop and set it on the table beside me. I rewatched the video below and started warping the loom. If you look in the above picture you’ll see my daughters legs in the background. In fact, she’s still wearing her school uniform. My first try warping the loom had to be redone since I did not start the warp in the center, Ooopss! The next time I warped I did it correctly.

My mind was filled with ideas of the “awesome thing” I’d make with the cloth that I’d warped onto the loom. The only step left was to start weaving.

I made this…
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