Back to my roots...Tapestry weaving.

March 10, 2012

As most of you know I have been in something of a creative funk.  My mojo has been broken for just about everything except the Pine basket weaving.  I do love making baskets, but to be honest it gets redundant at times just going around and around and around.  Especially since I am now in the process of making the second commission basket...which is in the same colors as 4 others.  Five baskets in the same colors and stitch are getting the better of me.  I was craving some fiber arts.

So in that vein I tried to work on my backstrap.  I have a white and charcoal double weft double weave piece going...just couldn't get into it.  I tried lashing to the frame, hooking up to the table, etc...nothing was satisfying me at all.  Not to mention it crowds up my room and further more makes my injured shoulder ache.

Sooooooo I went to Home Depot, bought some wood and threaded rods and made myself a smaller version of my (waaaaayyyyyyy to large for my room) larger tapestry loom.  Now I have warped it up and put it right onto the little table Carol bought me for $5 at a thrift store in Georgia.  (Best little weaving table ever, home made out of scrap so you can't "hurt" it, and it folds up when not in use.)

I haven't been particularly inspired to do something specific so I just went with what yarns I had here available...lots of cotton of course.  lol  Wash cloth bright white cotton for warp and then I needed to decide on a technique...i.e. a pictorial (not my best thing), cartoon, graph, stripes, well you get the picture.

Then I had an AHA moment.  I remembered that I had read about 'Wedge weaving' on ravelry in the Saori group forum.  Having done alot of weaving similar I thought I would give the formal instructions a try.  The technique is associated with the Navajo Indians and it is supposed to give a scalloped edge to the finished product once it is off of the loom.  So not alot of worries about the edges being perfectly straight.  Remembering of course that straight edges are most difficult in tapestry weaving.  

So far so good, I have pictures of the first part of the weave.  I am using directions from the Rachel Brown book "Weaving, Spinning and Dyeing Book".  I even like the colors, the pin and the green are Acrylic and wool, I have no idea what made me think they were cotton....But anyway, the colors go well together and I am excited to get to the next section where the diagonals will go in the other direction.

I have no particular plans for this piece when it is complete.  It is 7 1/2 in. wide and the warp is 38 in. long.  I can't wait to see if the sides scallop like they are supposed to!  

Stay tuned, and I will keep you posted.

Update:

So far when I loosen the tension there is no scalloping.