If you follow me, you know I like to push the limits of rigid heddle weaving, but at the same time, I want weaving to be easy and fun. And I love pick-up sticks!!! Often when I use multiple pick-up sticks they slide over each other so need to be inserted only once. However, I also have patterns where one pick-up stick needs to be reinserted each time it is needed. When I first started weaving with multiple sticks, I didn’t mind reinserting the stick each time.
Fringe twisting is just one more step in finishing your weaving. And just like every other thing in the weaving process, you need to think about your fringe before the project ever gets on the loom. Let’s look at fringe generally first.
Why twist? The most important reason is because it looks nice and stays looking nice. An untwisted fringe looks great when it is freshly trimmed and pressed. After that the yarns begin to unravel, shred, tangle and, let’s face it, start looking a bit ratty. If you are making something for baby, a blanket for example, long thin threads can wrap around little fingers and cut off circulation.
I’ve been working with linen lately. I’m finding it slippery, unforgiving, and tricky as warp! The first time I warped and tied on just as usual. Everything went well until the first time I wound forward. Everything went loose! Next time I paid extra special attention to winding on and checking tension. Again, everything was fine until I wound forward the first time and again, everything went loose. Third time I tried using 2 heddles. I think I need to practice more with 1 heddle before I try that again!
A good hem starts on the loom. I think about my hem before I ever start weaving. I want both hems to took the same so the first thing I think about is colour. If my weft is all one colour, it’s easy, my hems will be the same colour. If I’m using multiple colours, I need to choose a colour. If I’ve used a border colour that will become my hem colour. Otherwise, I use the darkest colour, or white no particular, reason, just because.
As many of you know, my 2020 weaving challenge was colour. I needed to use more of it, particularly the bright colours. I didn’t just want more colours though, I wanted confidence to put colours together. I made a ridiculous number of tea towels. 2020 became the year of tea towels. Tea towels act as a perfect palette for mixing colours and if I wove an ugly tea towel, well, that would be one more tea towel for my kitchen! As it turned out, each one was my favourite, until I wove the next one!
Welcome to a New Year! From what I’ve seen on social media many are embarking on weaving! I know you won’t regret it!! As a weaving instructor I see many new weavers and weavers who want to improve their weaving. There is lots of advice I could give, but today I’m going to keep it short and sweet: don’t beat so hard! That’s it.
I’m on a few weaving groups on Facebook as well as following a number of rigid heddle weavers on Instagram. As I read the posts I learn a lot, some I agree with, some not so much. One idea that seems to be coming up a lot lately is mohair. Specifically, that one should not use mohair for warp. I must disagree!
In weaving, as in life, is can be tempting to make things much more complex than they need to be. At least for me. I find keeping things simple can get a little boring. Why do the simple thing when you can do the much more complicated thing? This philosophy has been the primary contributor to numerous unfinished projects in my life. The thing about complicated though, is that as you progress, the complexity can grow exponentially. Especially if you are just working from ideas in your head! It’s taken a long time, but I’m beginning to learn that sometimes, the simplest thing is really the best.
Sometimes the only way to learn is try and see what happens. A favourite phrase from me to my children as they were growing up was, “what is the worst that can happen?” They found it a particularly unhelpful bit of advice. It certainly isn’t advice suitable to every situation, but for the little things it can help keep things in perspective. I know most of us worry a lot. And worry can stop us from trying something that we might really regret later. So, thinking about what the worst thing that can happen can spur us on. If we can cope with the worst-case scenario, we should go for it! (Besides, the worst-case scenario hardly ever happens!)
This is my last post on this topic. So far we have looked at choosing the right loom, care and feeding of our looms and our own attitudes. This week is about developing ourselves. Our rigid heddles have so much potential but if we don’t develop ourselves, we will never begin to unlock that potential.
We’re continuing my series on How to Nurture a Relationship that Lasts (with your Rigid Heddle). This week we are going to look at attitude and the first thing I want to say is that weaving on a rigid heddle is real weaving! I hear many people say that they have “just” a rigid heddle, like they are somehow “lesser” weavers. This is absolutely not true! A rigid heddle is a real loom that real weavers use to produce real weaving. Never put yourself or your loom down! Now, let’s look at some truths about rigid heddle looms.
Last week we discussed choosing the right loom. This week is about providing your loom with what it needs to thrive. It might be your loom’s responsibility to please you, but it is your responsibility to provide it, and you, with the proper tools and equipment. A new loom package will give you everything you need, except the yarn, to get started with basic weaving.
You know you weave too much when you see weaving inspiration everywhere! I was on vacation recently. It was lovely: hot, sunny and chock full of inspiration. Mayan ruins, waves, the silky smoothness of sting rays, the exquisite patterning on the shell of a turtle. I’ve come home with so many new ideas that I hardly know where to begin.
One of my biggest challenges when it comes to weaving is choosing colours. I know the basics of colour theory. Ok, I know about the colour wheel and how to mix the primaries to create the secondary colours. I even know a tiny bit about putting colours together. Weaving however, adds a whole new element. If my warp is red and my weft is blue, those colours will blend when my eyes see them and it will look purple. My two colours give birth to a new colour. And I’m not always sure how it will look , so I play it safe: I use the same colour way for both warp and weft or pick a variegated and pair it with a solid colour that is in the variegated or I stick to neutrals.
I spent many years rushing through life, anticipating the next stage when the current stage had barely begun. Many things got done and accomplished but I don’t ever remember standing back and admiring what I had just completed. Before I had time to catch my breath I was onto the next task. I felt like I was living in fast-forward…some days I even felt like I was eating in fast-forward! And I get it, it was a busy time with 2 young children, a husband and a hobby farm. Life was full and tasks had to be completed.
Have you ever been so caught up in the actual doing of a project that you aren’t really paying attention to the details? Everything is flowing smoothly. Than you step back to look at what you’ve done, and BAM! There it is. A glaring mistake and you’re thinking “how in the world did I miss that???” Now you must decide what to do with it.
Some People might think that a rigid heddle loom is just a beginner loom. The loom to get if you can’t get a “real” loom. But a rigid heddle loom, even one that is small, has endless potential. Mine is a 32”. It’s about as big as I think I can comfortably weave on with stick shuttles. But I just recently wove a 48” blanket, in one piece. And the pattern is actually designed for a 24” loom.
