Card Weaving Loom and Naalbinding

I find that when I am in an emotional upheaval I want to eat. This is not good when you are trying to lose weight... hmmm

I have been fairly busy even though I have spent an inordinate amount of time on Facebook lately. I am currently working on the first cardweaving loom I made. I have taken it apart and drawn on some relatively easy patterns, a few instructions on it's use, woodburned all of that and then painted it. I am using a rub on polyurethane finish for it and an hoping that will be enough protection for the paint. It should be finished in a day or so...depending on drying time for the finish.






Naalbinding has not been neglected... ;o) This bag was done using the Oslo stitch and some hand spun. I love the softness of this bag. The scarf is done using several small end pieces of handspun that I wanted to use up. It was done with all the stitches facing one way...each row ended and the next row began at the top each time. I was amazed at the how the underside looks EXACTLY like knitting when done that way.

Warped, Painted and Raining

The checkers and checker board are finished. All the time I was working on this I had pictures of my grandfather floating around in my head. He loved to play checkers and dominoes. And he was very good at it...lol Of course there was no television and the radio was only turned on in the evening... if there was no company. If there was company all the men gathered around the kitchen table and the dominoes or the checker board was pulled out from the cabinet above the refrigerator and the men would proceed to have a laughing good time... ;o) I can only hope that this board will be privy to good times like that.....

Only a day late... here is the promised pic of the inkle loom warped. It was not difficult as I used only 2 colors and did a continuous warp. Of course I did exactly what Linda Hendrickson talked about in her video... When I was turning the cards I found that I had dropped 2 at one time. Well, let me tell you... they turn just as easily as if I had pulled it off and re warped... Since this is another "learn something" warping I did not re-do it. I have to say... I highly recommend this floor model loom to anyone looking into tablet, card or inkle weaving. The height is very good, the warping is easy and it is so much easier to control the cards... I just can't say enough good things about this type of loom. One of the best things is that it doesn't try to run to the other side of the room every time you slide the cards... a very big plus.

Well, it has taken up raining as a hobby in North Texas. Every time it seems that the ground will dry up enough to work on the little house... humph... The contractor did come yesterday just long enough to look around and put a sign up in the yard. Now all the neighbors think our home is having foundation problems... Let's just hope we don't decide to sell the house any time soon..lol

I Made a Tablet Weaving Loom...

Yesterday I made a tablet (card) weaving loom. It didn't take long. Last night I tried it out and made a sampler of several easy patterns... This goes very quickly and I can see how a person could make yards of ribbon in very little time.

However... as I began to finish off and had cut the yarn, my left hand was holding the cards so they wouldn't fall all over and my right hand and arm... went crazy. You know that charlie horse you get in your feet and legs... well that's what I got in my right arm and index finger. My right index finger was pulled into a 90° turn and I couldn't straighten it up. This does not look good as far as all my hobbies go... sigh

Pocket Looms Finished

It took a while yesterday, but I put many coats of polyurethane on to really try to protect the painting. It took a while to cure, but now that they are finished I am in love.

This is the fourth and smallest of the 4 looms. I decided to try it out using cotton #10 crochet thread for the warp and my hand spun wool for the weft. The loom is working beautifully. I did find that when the holes are drilled, there needs to be an uneven number. This one has an even number of holes and when I get back to my starting side I find that I have 2 warp threads that must be woven the same.

During the pocket weaving that I did using the cardboard weavers, I found that I had the same problem with both sides. So in the process of trying to figure out how to remedy that, I warped the weaver across and then did a final warp all around the edges, knotting it off at the original starting point. This adds the one warp thread on each side that is needed to keep from having the large gaps on each side. However.... this does not help if the holes are an even number... there is still one side that will have double warps wefted the same. Anyway....

This is how far I have gotten with the weaving. I love the way that after weaving a bit, you can push the weaving down and it covers the bottom.

I wish there was someone around who knows more about these things than me...lol But I will continue on and see what comes up...

Pocket Looms

I found the perfect waste board in the shop the other day. It's not the best, but not the worst either. I drew off the sizes I could get from that one piece of board, cut it into the pieces, put dots every 1/4 inch and then drilled the holes with the drill press... voila! Pocket Looms!

These are supposed to be the real thing... I have done a pocket loom thing before, but using only cardboard..see this post...
With pocket weaving there are no seams. The weaving is done in the round (all around the loom front to back) so there is a finished pouch as soon as you are finished weaving.
Now I don't know if these will work or not...may have to use really small warp since I drilled the holes so small...

I haven't tried them out yet as I am still in the process of applying polyuretane over them to protect the paintings, but as soon as I get everything really dried and cured... you can bet that these babies will be warped up and working! ;0)

Waiting, Weaving and Trial & Error

I played with my loom some more yesterday. Didn't make it too wide because I wanted to try some different things with it (in other words...play) ...still have it on the loom so will try some other things today. I want to see if I can put little random sprigs of red in it without the long ends of the red sticking out. I read somewhere that the weave is tight enough to hold small lengths of different colored yarn... will have to look that up again...hmmm

When I look at the fabric on the loom, I can barely see any difference in the fabric..except for where the weft is more heavily beaten. It shows up much better in the photo..

Getting a bit frustrated here... finally called the doctor's office to see what was going on with my MRI testing... It seems it has not been read yet..or at least has not been put into my file on their computers... and our doctor has not received a report... Ahhh.. the wonders of the best medical system in the world.... sigh

Made My First Fabric Yesterday

Saturday was a busy day in the shop. DH put together a lap sized tapestry loom for me. We made it of oak and he used dowels to hold the corners...

It ended with me sanding it down and using the dremel to shape the shuttle and shed stick...will think of the real name for this as soon as I publish..lol Then spent some time using a finer sandpaper to finish it... dampened it with a wet cloth to raise the wood again and re-sanded. Then used boiled linseed oil to seal and finish it.

This tabby weave is my first masterpiece... I am so amazed at making my own fabric from my own handspun Icelandic yarn. Gives me a whole new respect for all those generations that "came before"....

I finished this weave last night and took it off the loom. It feels like "grandpa's old suit"...grin I think I will use this small piece to make a coin purse... we'll see...