Dana and Marsha's collaboration! A messenger bag!

July 17, 2011

My handwoven bands, Doni Delis bag/Tibetan bag as a starting point...Dana's choice of batik fabric and wonderful sewing skills.  I am going to be so proud to carry this wherever I go. 

It goes over one shoulder and hangs in the front of me.  The blue and yellow you see on the inside is another one of my weavings.  It is partitioned into pockets, glasses, sunglasses, cellphone and ink pen slot.  It measures 14 in. wide and 10 in. deep.  I chose the brass zipper and the little woman that you see on the inside of the strap is also a pocket, my keys will probably end up in there.

Dana's newest piece...and a few random thoughts! (rough draft)

June 24, 2011

Dana conquered 'warp floats galore'!  I still haven't figured this one out.  So I guess at this point the student has indeed surpassed the teacher. She even did it on a backstrap loom.  I am so envious of her natural talent for this type of weaving!  Job well done Dana!

Here you see the hand carved spindle one of the ladies on Ravelry gifted me.  This is the same lady who gifted me the Turkish spindle months ago.  She also sent me this gorgeous wool/silk blend roving!    So many gifted and generous people on Ravelry.

It is fashioned after a 'Phang' spindle.  I believe the shaft is Cypress, but get this, the whorl (dark circular piece) is made of Spruce bark!   Man I wish I were not so dangerous with a knife.  I would try this myself.


For now I will just have to be satisfied with sand paper and making my own swords, shuttles and backstrap loom bars.  Eventually I intend to make myself a set out of Oak that I cut from the tree myself.

Here you see my solution to an expensive warp board.  I bought five so I can create my cross, even when separating out the stripe colors for warp floats.  The fifth one is for turning a corner if I want to make a longer warp.  These are called bar clamps and I can clip them to most anything, thus creating warp posts.  I bought 5 for $6.98 a piece at the local Home Depot store.  I kept the receipt just in case I don't like doing it this way.  See I am accustomed to the posts being horizontal, like on a warp board.  These being vertical will take a little getting used to for sure.  The bars are 12 in. long so that if I have to clip to something thick, I still have plenty of post to warp on.

The little table they are clipped to was a $5.00 find at the local thrift store.  Being home made and unfinished it has made a fabulous care free work table that also folds up when not in use. 

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.

Dana learns backstrap in ONE sitting!

I passed the backstrap addiction on to my friend DANA!  

I taught her to wind a warp on a warp board, mount it onto a backstrap cross...of course it was only a 3 ft warp and of course we screwed up the cross and had to re heddle it a second time...then it was letter perfect!  It is 50 warps wide and here in the pics you can see we used mini blind slats for spacers and she is weaving her very first warp face structure!

You might also notice that she found some great nylon that seems to be working beautifully for her heddles.  No un-tying, even when pulled on aggressively, no shredding, etc...

If you look very closely you can see a little bit of the braided ends of the backstrap I made her.  She is using the same Garnet, gold and black yarn.  She is going to make a cell ph. case for her sister's birthday!  Actually 2 of the, her sister's job requires she carry both.

When we got to a breaking point, took us about 3 hrs., and she had woven an inch or so, we went inside to eat big 'ole Ribeye steaks and baked potatoe.  MAN, I so needed to get out of the house.  Their place is way out in the woods, so we worked on the front port in beautiful Spring weather.  It was soooooo much fun to spend the day with such good people, doing what I love most and passing it on to someone who is JUST as interested.  

Versus them looking at me like I am nuts when I say I weave.  LOL