Weaving

Last year I bought a rigid heddle loom.  I had avoided looms for years because Mom has a couple and they're as big as pianos, but not as pretty.  I'm sorry if you are a weaver, I just don't find floor looms attractive.  Anyway, I kept seeing some handwoven things on Ravelry and I really liked the look of them.  They were just simple, plain weave wraps, but honestly, I prefer plain weave to many of the fancier weave patterns.  I kept being drawn to the idea of weaving, but kept resisting because I didn't want a big floor loom.  I know they make smaller ones you can put on a table, but they're not any better looking.  Then I found rigid heddle looms.  They're much simpler than floor looms, both technically and visually.  Some of them fold up and can be packed away.  This sounded like a much better idea to me.  So I got one.  (I got a 24 inch Kromski Harp Forte if you're curious.)

Last week I finally finished my first project, which was a piece of woven fabric using Cascade 220 for both warp and weft (same color for both), that I'll use to sew a throw pillow for the sofa.  It's not fancy, it took me forever to weave (because it was super boring), but I learned a little about warping and weaving and it got me started.  I'll show you the finished pillow when I get it sewn.

Saturday I warped my second project (I've been using the direct warping technique) with the yarns above.  They are a set of mini skeins from SpaceCadet and I started with the darkest blue on the edge, went through the blue greens to the turquoise in the center and then back to the darkest blue, so that the warp was symmetrical.  Being handdyed, the colors have some variation and aren't just flat.

For the weft I'm using this.  It's Western Sky Knis Aspen Sock with Nylon in Ali.

You might remember a while back that I attempted to knit socks with it.  It was way too crazy, so I frogged it and set it aside.

Fortunately, it's working really well in the weaving.  This will be a scarf and I'm really concentrating on getting my selvedges neat and even.  Both of these yarns are fingering weight so I'm using my 12 dent heddle.  I cannot tell you how amused I am by watching the colors play together as I weave.  It's fascinating!