Tablet Weaving Links and a Fun Afternoon... Tablet Weaving

There's nothing quite like trying to teach something you haven't done in a long time to find out how much you have forgotten..lol  And that's what happened Saturday afternoon when Carol arrived for a tablet weaving lesson.

But stumble through it we did.  I did so much enjoy Carol's company and I hope she has as much fun with table weaving as I have had.  We may get together again soon for some real weaving fun.. :)

If you are not familiar with tablet weaving, here are a few links for you:

This link is the exact one that I used to learn to card weave (tablet weave) .  The Ancient Craft of Tablet Weaving by Shelagh Lewins was my "go to" page during my quest to learn this wonderful art.

Phiala's String Page    was another great resource that I used in my quest for knowledge.

If you would like to buy cards instead of making them, Halcyon Yarn has them at a reasonable price here.

I must say here that I am in no way affiliated with any of these sites in a business way or a personal way.  I am however very grateful that they have taken the time to share with us their knowledge.  As for Halcyon Yarn, I have ordered many things from them and have always been satisfied with both the product and the customer service.

It's cooling down into the 90's this week.. hopefully into the 80s next week.  Would love to have some rain, but guess that will have to wait.

Have a lovely day and give lots of hugs all the way round.. ;)

Hello, Patty... ;o)

Hi everyone. I know it's been a long time. I could use the excuse of Facebooking again, but the fact is that I am having a hard time coming to grips with the loss of both my brother and my sister. This makes it a little hard for me to come up with something more than a Facebook line or two to write. But since my friend Patty from Virginia keeps giving me little nudges... here I am.. ;o)

Our sons from Phoenix came home last month to get their house ready to sell. I'm sorry they are selling the house and moving permanently to Arizona, but it was really good to see them. During the visit, Jim taught me another craft...lol Needle tatting... I love it. I seem to do the same thing trying to learn this that I did trying to learn knitting. I get lost in the pattern and then have to pull out large amounts of it...and believe...frogging tatting is not nearly as easy as frogging knitting..lol He blogs about it..and other things.. on his blog Creating a Home. I completed a medium sized, red bookmark as the first thing I did...but .. believe me... you don't want to see it..lol This is the second thing I completed. I have no idea what to do with it, but the pattern was so easy I made 3. ;o) I think I will join them together, make a 4th and have myself a medium sized doily. Ta da! Hmmmm...maybe that should be "make a 4th, join them together and have a doily.."... that might work better..lol






I also committed myself to teach another class at the Red River Historical Museum the 3rd Saturday in June. This class will be tablet weaving... We (as in my sweet DH and myself) are in the process of building 15 looms for this class. The photo is of 120 cards that are in the process of being made...8 per loom... to weave this pattern...












This is also the type loom we are building. I am hoping this will be a fun and informative class... and they the student will love this as much as I do.



















The ribbon on the left was done using 10 cards and polyester sewing thread. It came out lovely. There will be several more ribbons made of various materials before class time comes around so I will have some samples to show what can be done with craft.

Today in My Life... 10/24/2009

Today: Saturday, October 24, 2009

I got up this morning: thinking about dragons... I know that sounds strange..lol.. but I have been trying to get the pattern for this dragon to work on my inkle loom for hours..sigh I can get the tail to look beautiful, but then into the body it just disintegrates..sigh


















I am hearing: the trucks whiz by on the highway outside. It's too early for the regular automobile traffic going to work.

My one thing learned this week: is that I need to start physically writing letters instead using email. Sounds strange after using only email for most of the last 10 years, but it suddenly impressed itself on me when I got a short email from one of my sons and I realized that it's been years since I have seen his handwriting... ;o(

The current book is: Air Apparent by Piers Anthony. It's too soon to say whether it will grab my interest as I just started it last night. So far it's only skimmed the top layers of my interest. Not looking too good at this point.

My diet: is the the Cabbage Soup diet. Still in the low 180s and truly looking forward to breaking through that 180 line. Maybe this week....

Creating: Since I finished the checkers board and pieces, I decided to make a Wahoo board out in the shop. I had a piece of the pine used for the checker board left over so I spent most of one afternoon figuring out the dots for the marble holes. Yesterday I put the holes in and did some sanding. We'll see what happens today... lol

Family news: Received a call from my Aunt Elva this week. It was wonderful to hear her voice on the phone. I saw her for the first time in about 35 years at the family reunion this year.

Looking forward to: using the hot tub since the little house is now fixed and it won't run down the hill with us...lol

Just a thought: "A fanatic is one who can't change his mind and won't change the subject." ... Winston Churchill

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

EZ Pi Shawl,Card Weaving, Rigid Heddle and Shuttle...

It's been a little difficult to blog for the last several days. Thank you to all who sent their good wishes... Time is moving quite slowly right now...

Do you remember all the knitting markers I made a while back... in several sizes? Well... I have finished the knitting on the EZ Pi Shawl and decided to take a picture of the reason one does not want to use markers like this in sizes way to big for the needles...lol This is the 4th one that I had to cut off. It seems that my fingers would fit inside the circle and I would end up knitting the marker right into the shawl. It would be great if that is what one intended to do... Make great bead embellishments...

I am now adding a crochet edging around it. I can't believe that I finished off with stockinette stitch... just like a rookie who doesn't know that the edge will roll unless something else is done on the edges... Oh well...

I've done a little card weaving and find that as I go along the pattern gets looser and looser... I think that must be because I was not using a wooden shuttle... so guess what I did...

I went out into the shop and made me a wooden shuttle... and a rigid heddle. My mind is having a bit of a problem concentrating so I was very surprised to see that the rigid heddle made a weft faced weave...duh.. I guess I was still in card weaving mode that produces a warp faced weave... But the heddle and shuttle worked just fine...lol I have been bitten by the woodworking bug...lol