Weaving Away

It’s been a while… It seems I can’t get the computer away from The Artist in the evenings. But as he says, “It keeps me out of the bars!” (Note to public: The only time he ever hung out in bars was in his early 20’s when he played in Rock and Roll bands in them, long before we knew each other. He was actually in a very popular local area band at the time … a man of many talents.)


So anyway, I started weaving. I’ve always wanted to weave. So, I finally took an all day class at an area knitting show. I used a 12” wide Ashford Knitter’s Loom in the class, which I subsequently purchased. The teacher was really fantastic.


It’s so much fun! Little scarves go so much faster than knitting and I can make up one for everyone that I owe something to in their favorite color.


But there’s one problem. You’re supposed to use up your stash and the ends of balls from other knitting projects. I do that, but I also keep buying new yarn! I guess ‘twas ever the life of any craft enthusiast.


Here’s the first one I made, 6” wide in blues, and the second one, also 6” in reds. The reds really are ends, for the most part. Some of the blues I picked up for projects, and (ahem) repurposed a bit ofthem, others are ends.

And here’s the third one, made for my good friend (who called it very ecclesiastical-looking):

This one is actually a bamboo and silk warp and a silk weft. It took a while to figure out how to do the weft just right, because the silk was so slippery, so it ended up being a little shorter than I planned.


The Ashford Knitter’s loom is a great little rigid heddle loom, meaning, in layman’s terms, that it doesn’t take up much space, doesn’t have a complicated set up and folds away in a bag. It’s made to use against a table edge, comes with a carrying bag and will fold up with your project on it.


I plan to start a new one this weekend. The Artist has been really helpful to me in setting up the warp. He says it’s because he likes mechanical things. What a guy!