Weaving Wednesday

DISCLAIMER: I probably won't be making this a weekly post - I just really like alliteration. Anyway, as I mentioned on Friday, Scott got me this loom for my birthday last August, and I've slowly been adding to it in my free time. It took me six months, but I finally finished it! I didn't work on it very often because I have 8 million other hobbies, but since I'm not buying any new craft supplies this month, I've been working on it a lot more.

WHY I LIKE IT:

• Looms are relatively easy to DIY from a variety of materials including old picture frames, scrap wood, and cardboard.
• It's a great way to use up spare yarn scraps.
• You can use a variety of different yarns/fibers/materials of any texture/shape/size/color, etc. 
• It's easy to learn the basics and work with what you have on hand.
• The level of difficulty only depends on how intricate you want your piece to be.
• It makes a fantastic decorative wall hanging!

INSPIRATION:

I've been seeing a ton of really wonderful pieces online, and I follow several of the artists on instagram. There are so many great textile artists out there, and these are a few of my favorites:


Clockwise from left: Maryanne Moodie; Melissa Washin of SheLovesLife; Janelle Pietrzak of All Roads Design; Kayla Mattes; Lindsey Campbell of HelloHydrangea; Elodie Mra.

FREE TUTORIALS:

If you're looking to learn, here are a few great beginner tutorials that I've found to be really helpful:

• A Beautiful Mess has a series of super helpful Intro to Weaving tutorials including: The Basics, Creating Shapes and Getting Fancy, Create a Large Statement Piece, and Negative Space Woven Wall Hanging.
• Say Yes Blog has a neat little DIY Woven Necklace tutorial. The project may be mini, but it gives some great instructions for making your own small scale loom out of cardboard. Also, the fundamentals can be translated to a larger scale.
• The Etsy Blog also had a Learn to Weave tutorial. I like this one because it again explains how to make your own loom AND it goes over a couple of different weaving techniques.

ADDITIONAL TOOLS:

When I was learning to weave, I didn't want to splurge on a fancy beginners kit to get the other tools I needed, so I grabbed some household items from around the apartment and used those instead. For example:

• Instead of a shed stick, I used a ruler. You could also use a paint stirrer. This is woven through your warp (the vertical yarn) and left there to help save time when you're weaving through to create a new row.
• Instead of a fancy weaving comb, I used a fork. You could also use a wide tooth comb from the 99cent store.
• Instead of using a wooden dowel to hang your piece on, you could use a copper pipe, a branch, or a piece of driftwood. 
• Instead of using a shuttle, I just...didn't use one. It worked fine without it.

If you do want to splurge, however, you could support small businesses by purchasing one of these beautifully crafted kits on Etsy here (without a loom), here (including a loom), or here (also includes a loom).

Happy Weaving!