A strap for Dana!

July 13, 2011

I started this warp with only one thing in mind.  A SUCCESSFUL warp.  I was having a dry spell with my creativity AND my warping.  It was supposed to be plain double weave, but I turned it into another double weft double weave piece.  FIVE feet of it.  I am very tired of blue and brown. LOL

In talking to my friend, Dana, I discovered that she needed a strap so she could tie up to various places to do her backstrap weaving.  Mostly to the door knob of her closet.  So I decided to make her one.    Tying up to a door knob is kind of tricky, you need the piece to tie on where it won't slip off when you pull back on the warp with your body.  You also need a way to tie it up to the loom bars themselves.  For those of you who don't know, you really need to do a wider piece to keep it from flipping and flopping around.  Or if you are doing a narrow piece you can use a shorter loom bar at the far end where you use the strap to tie up to the door knob.  

I have not learned how to weave a piece end to end with no waste and no fringe.  You see it is very tough to do this, you eventually end up needle weaving because your shed space is so small at the end.  This also has to do with the fact that I am no longer scared to death of using my sewing machine to hem them.  Not knowing what I was going to do with the strap I really didn't leave enough fringe at the start to use for ties, like I do with my own strap,  The strap is also shorter than mine, so I had to be innovative to make it work.

Here is what I came up with.  After I tied the knot it was even shorter :-(, bummer.  So I braided a 12 ft. long tie and added length to it that way.  I haven't given it to her yet, but hopefully at class we will try it out.  Modifications may have to be made.  

Myself I use c clamps on my dresser to tie up, so I am not sure how it will work.  There are no doorknobs conducive to backstrap weaving in my room.

Here are a few pictures.  I will let you know how it works when she tries it out.

One weft double weave!

FINALLY!  I figured out how to do one weft double weave! 

It requires a special warping and multiple passes per row of weave.  If you get it right it will let you have a solid background for your designs.  It also is one color on one side and the other color on the flip side.  It is also a very heavy weave.  On the thick side, unless you use fine thread/yarn.  I went for something heavier for this one.  The first one I did a few months ago is very small and somewhat thinner.  This is an extremely laborious technique, very time consuming.  It took me HOURS to do these pieces, I figure around 6 hrs.  I also found that the tensioning needs to be flexible and I had to do alot of fiddling with it on the loom.  Very easily achieved if the loom is attached to your body.  This definitely works better on a backstrap.  Guess I am in for another shot at backstrap weaving.  LOL

As usual I got my information from Laverne Waddington's Backstrap blog.  She is also found on Weavezine and Weavolution.  Both excellent sites for weaving information.  We are both also on Ravelry and I find great information there also.  Ravelry has great info for knit and crochet kind of fiber art also. 

So here are my pictures.  Keep watching for one I do on the actual backstrap with a design....eventually.