Completed Guitar Strap!

I think Ryan will wear it proudly.  It came out to be 48 1/2 in long, (I needed 48) and 1 7/8 in. wide.  WOO HOO!  Longest double weave yet!  Done 5 days early.

Ryan's Guitar Strap

14 1/2 in. so far!

                                                                       The underside.

Backstrap

April 19, 2011  Wednesday

Once again I tried backstrap.  Once again I made minute advances.  It is still beyond me.  It is so far out of my range that it taxes me instead of giving me any kind of pleasure.  I keep thinking if indigenous weavers can do this I should be able to do this also.  I would list all of the issues I had, but it is redundant and I want to get to the good stuff.  Here are a few pics though.  If you look close you can see I did achieve a little piece.  Unfortunately I also wasted about 6 ft. of beautiful warp yarns....bummer.

Then I warped up for the guitar strap I am doing in double weave pick up for Dana's nephew.  It is coming along nicely, although I did have to get back into the rhythm of double weave.  The first couple of days I had to do quite a bit of un-weaving.  Yesterday went quite well.  

I started with his name as that is what we want to be on the front of him when he is playing.  We also want him to grow into it so it needs to be 48 in. long.  I did my own lettering of course and I am going to try to make flames on it.  Thus the color choices.  

I would like it to be complete by the last day of the month.  This means I need to weave minimum 3 in a day, hopefully 4 in.   So far so good.  It is 40 warps, which is 2 in. wide.  So far I have woven 12 in.  I should finish his name 'Ryan' today and then 3 in. of plain weave.  I have decided on 3 in. between each motif so I don't loose my mind trying to finish it on time.  

If I can't get the 'flames' to look like 'flames' I will chart a guitar and then flip it upside down and right side up the rest of the way down the flap...maybe even a musical note...hmmmmm.

Anyway, here s a peek.

My 1st weaving commission!

Friday, April 1, 2011 APRIL FOOLS DAY

I had a pleasant surprise today!  I got a phone call from my friend Dana to do a commission guitar strap for her nephew's birthday.  Now I have to admit he is only going to be 7 years old...but a commission is a commission. 

She told me his name and that he likes flames...so I will probably do double weave.  As a matter of fact my favorite yarn, #3 mercerized cotton crochet thread in the appropriate colors has already been ordered and will be sent via USPS.  I am going to use orange, yellow and red.

He already has a 'cheap' strap so we have the measurements at hand and Aunt Dana said she will design the hardware/fasteners herself.  I have to have it done by May 10th in time for a talent show.  Woohooooo!!!

Doing what I am passionate about and getting paid.  What more can a body ask?

What's on the Loom????

Thursday, March 31, 2011

Just a quick shot of the first motif on my 'mistake warp'.

Here is the second one!

And the third.  She has hair!

What's on the Loom????

Here we goooooooooooooo...

All warped up.  Started out on the Mini loom and discovered my warp was HUGE!  Much wider than I had thought, must be the # 3 mercerized cotton crochet thread combined with double stranding the entire piece.

Believe me it was a pain.  Thank goodness I made the decision to move over to the larger loom.  The Mini only has 100 heddles.  I would have been in deep poop!  It was tough enough even though I caught it early.

The watermelon and the pomegranate I think are smaller than #10, but as they were not marked I cannot be sure.  This is my widest warp yet.  I haven't started the actual weaving yet ( my back was killing me when I finished warping) but right now it measures 5 3/4 in. wide, 116 heddles.  The yarns snagged and snarled all through winding it onto the warp board, as a result I lost my count repeatedly.  So I could only give an educated guess as to my count.

The watermelon and pomegranate make a lovely combination.  I took pics of course so here they are.

Here I am starting out on the Mini Wave.

                          
                                                    Here it is wound onto the Large Wave.

                                                  Just about done with threading the heddles.

                                                         Starting to tie onto the front beam.

                                               Here you see it with the spacer slats in place.

Now all I have to do is decide what technique and patterns to use.  Such a bit space is just a leeeeeeetle bit
intimidating.

What's on the Loom????

So I decided to do a new piece.  I chose to do another piece similar to Crystal's Christmas scarf.  

I warped double stranded 2 shades of yellow, and double stranded watermelon, and persimmon.  I am going to try to go for 'speckled background'.  Think this is the same technique that Laverne calls 'warp floats galore'.  This means that there are floats on each row of stripes in the background and as a result the stripes are hidden and specks show in the background instead.  I just want to know that I have the option of eliminating the stripes when I choose to.  Even though I have actually produced some very nice pieces with the stripes and have learned not to mind them at all.  

I also believe the more I know the more likely I can teach it to others.  This also let me produce nice gifts for my friends and family.

So far I only have pictures of my warp, but it will give you a taste.

Here are the yarns!

                                                                Here is the warp!

Kind of reminds me of Valentine's Day!  No hearts though, did enough of those of Crystal pistal!

Stay tuned, more pics coming soon.

Completed one weft double weave practice piece.

Remember, this one is made entirely of left over yarn, I actually hate the colors and of course I am using my Gilmore Mini Wave loom.  I had no idea how much 'take-up' would occur, except that it would be alot with the two layers.  It is 27 warps wide, which came to 1 6/8 in. wide.  I started with a 5 ft. warp and ended up with a 27 in. long piece (without the fringe), maybe a foot or so of waste.  It isn't meant to be made into anything, at best I thought maybe a belt.  Unfortunately it is too short.  I found one little weird spot in the black side.  I am thinking it may end up being a small cell phone pouch for my tiny phone?  Maybe.