Continuous Strand Weaving

Finally got around to blocking this. I must confess I wore it a bit before blocking. It NEVER fails to amaze me how much better things look once they are blocked. This was about a 4.5 foot setting on my Triloom. The weaving took very little time and was tons of fun. The knitting took a bit longer than I expected...but was quick for me. This is a great way to use up some bulky yarn you love but don't have enough for a full size shawl. I used worsted weight for the border but DK would work... Possibly even sock. This is a picture prior to blocking    

Several weeks ago I finished this. I did the border in a different color yarn. If I had to do it over again I'd use a worsted weight yarn for the border. The border is a simple one. I finished a six foot one with fringe and a four foot one with a long lace border. I love the lace borders... Easier to wear I think. But I wanted to have at least one with fringe.      

Finally got around to adding a border to my first triloom shawl. Here it is I think it makes all the difference.  

Leno lace method is one way to add interest to your weaving. First you need to leave spaces on your weaving. Here is how First starting from the left at the bottom loop your yarn around three instead of one nails See the little opening below in the weaving.     Take the yarn across and skip two nails on the right. See the two skipped nails below.   Now take the yarn to the top and skip one nail. When you go back to the left you need to also skip one nail. Your left side will look like the picture below.   You continue weaving and fill your spaces in later. You will need a locker hook.. A crochet hook with a needle eye at the end.  

I am taking a class on breed specific wool on craftsy. It is really fun and FREE. What has been eye opening for me is the differences from one breed to another. For my swatches of the breed yarns I am knitting.. But I might also try some rectangular woven swatches, at least with the Jacob. This breed of sheep are so beautiful. Here is a picture of the natural yarn   Beautiful isn't it Below is a knitted swatch of Cormo. I got this from elsawool and have s skein of woolen spun and worsted spun yarn. This spinning has nothing to do with the worsted weight..that is a separate quality. What a difference in the two types of yarn. The woolen spun is fluffy and springy whereas the worsted spun is silky and smooth. I think for continuous strand weaving I prefer woolen spun yarn... I will swatch the worsted spun just to be sure. Swatch of Cormo Woolen spun yarn from Elsa Wool in worsted weight.    

Wool top.. Midstates Wool Growers has great prices on wool top..11$ a pound.. They also sell merino top in a bunch of beautiful colors but my skill levels are not there yet and the merino is more expensive. This a picture of what I got.. It is sooooo soft and really beautiful..you will fallin love with it. I think you could make some nice yarn for a shawl out of this. I ordered two pounds worth and here is an idea of the size...      

Well I have been busy spinning yarn on a spindle. I think this would be. Great way to get yarn for continuous strand weaving. It is relatively easy to create bulky yarn this way you can create as much or as little as you want. Sort of like a painter with his/her palate. Even if you do not want to psi urn you can easily make your own yarn by plying commercial yarn together. It is helpful to have a spindle to ply with.. You can make one for less than five dollars with materials from hobby lobby and home depot. Here is a picture of some spindles. The one on the far right is a store bought spindle from louet. Here is a picture of my first yarn    

I am still working on my latest shawl with the Viking yarn.   I guess I am a little frustrated that I can't seem to get my rows perfectly straight.    I just need to bite the bullet and finish.   I think I might do fringe on this one.    The yarn is beautiful. All this work with yarn has made decide to try spinning.  Actually I am learning spindling.  It just seems like the best way to learn to make yarn first.  It seems like if I can learn to easily make yarn with a spindle then I can do it with a wheel.   Plus spindles are much cheaper than spinning wheels. I ordered a spindle online.. but asked my husband to help me find some old tinker toys.    It seems like you could make a cool spindle out of those.  Also online there are instructions for a yarn swift out of tinker toys... how cool. I am using the craftsy course to learn to spindle.   They had a great deal going on when I signed up.      So far I love the online course.  I also have an instructor helping me a little too.

I have started another Project. This time I am using Viking Balder Yarn. It is very soft and fun to work with. I have tried to upload pictures of it .. The yarn on and off the loom. I had no idea the variable color yarns would look plaid on the loom. Still at the early stages.....

It took me over a week but I have woven my first shawl on a seven foot loom. Wow you get decent exercise doing this. I used a bulky cotton yarn, probably should have used a wool. But I love this yarn. I found one tool to be a life saver in the end. It is a crochet hook with a needle hole at the end. For the last fourth of the project this really helped. You can buy one on Carol Leigh's web site. I have a picture of my shawl before fulling.    

I have just started working on a large tri-loom for the first time.   At first I was not sure if I liked it compared to the smaller ones.  After the first couple of rows I started to have fun again and I love it.   For me it is a much different experience. Some of the differences are, for the first couple of rows I found that I had to have some significant tension to keep my yarn from low sagging.   I am a little nervous about this since on the small looms I tried not to overdo the tension.  I am using a cotton yarn and it gets stuck more easily than it did on the small 18 inch loom.   It is still doable but just something to be aware of.    One thing I do like is it is a lot easier to use your fingers to weave the yarn.   On an 18 inch loom I found using my fingers hard and clumsy.. but this is not the case on a large loom.  It is actually fun to weave the yarn with your fingers.  I sometimes use a crochet hook but sometimes use my fingers.  The loom I am using is 7 feet across.  An

I have been weaving squares out of the purple cascade yarns 128. It is so easy to work with and gives a nice weave on my square loom. I decided to take a break and tray swatch of a different yarn. This swatch is from Filatura Di Crossa Fancy Felz. It is 46 percent Acrylic, 20 percent wool, 24 percent mohair and 1 percent Polyamide. This is a really fuzzy yarn. I had a some misgivings about it... But I love how the swatch turned out. I think on loom with half inch spacing this yarn would be fine. My spacing is 3/8 and it was a little tight but doable. Having a light background under the loom helped a lot it made it easier to see the yarn.           Posted with Blogsy

I have started weaving on my square loom. I love it. The weaving area is about 12" by 12" of course the loom area is bigger. Here are the first two squares..,already joined. I used cascade yarns 128 from yarn.com.

My throw is finally complete.  I used 15 squares or 30 triangles.  To get a bigger throw you might want to use 20 squares.   My throw is 3 squares by 5.     I figure I can always add an extra row. A 4 square by 5 square(20) is a really nice size.     It is actually relatively fast to do.   My goal was to weave at least 1 square a day.    Even with my crazy schedule I was able to do that.    The nice thing about this craft is you can pick it up for 5 minutes then come back to it an hour later and know exactly where you are.. so it is easy to progress even with a crazy life.

I am thinking of trying to weave on a square loom, less ends to weave in and probably a little faster than 2 triangles.   Here is a video of the technique.   I am hoping to use a bigger loom, something the size of my triangle loom but square. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWNdSYAbXLs&feature=player_embedded   

I have a bunch of woven squares and was trying to figure out what to do with them. I have decided to combine them into a scrappy throw. I was not sure what would be the best way to join the squares. I tried two different ways..one was sort of a grafting..using a yarn needle and yarn. If the areas are the same yarn and you are using matching yarn this works fine. The other way is to use a crochet hook to sort of do a cast off between the loops. With two loops on the hook move the lower loop over the higher loop then add another loop and repeat. I liked this method the best... Especially since I have a variety of yarns and colors.        

This is my loom. It is an 18 inch triangular loom. It was made by Fred Anderson. The nails on the hypotenuse have 3/8 inch spacing between them... This does not include the width(diameter) of the nail. I hope to get a bigger loom in the future.    

This is a swatch I did earlier this week. It is my attempt at using two strands of cotton yarn and twisting it as I went. I had a hard time with it. It is the Baby Bee cotton yarn from hobby lobby..which I have a ton of in my stash.       This is a swatch that I made today. I was so excited about this yarn that I had to play with it. The yarn is a 51/49 silk wool Blend from Noro .. Kogarashi   This my swatch draped over a soda can.     The Noro yarn is beautiful and has the best drape. It is on what I consider the border of density. I like the cotton yarn Sprout better. Just a little more density. Still I might try to do a shawl with this.

Since I am a beginner I have been trying different yarns with my small loom. So far I have used wool and cotton yarns. I find that I really like the look of bulky yarns on the loom. The end result of the fabric is a lot lighter than if you knitted it. When selecting these yarns I find that it works better if the bulky is closer to very bulky. Here are some of my attempts This is a cotton yarn from hobby lobby...Baby Bee Hushabye Solid. It says size 10 knitting needles... But I do not think this works well on its own for continuous loop weaving. If you double it will work ok.     This is a yarn by Brown sheep... Lambs Pride Bulky. It is a wool and mohair blend. I love working with this yarn. I also think it creates nice texture and fabric. If only my weaving skills were better.     This yarn is by Classic Elite Yarns and is cotton. The name of the yarn is Sprout and it is part of the Verde Collection. It is a very soft yarn. So far this is the best cotton yarn I