woven baby blanket

Hi It's me! Sorry for the blogging break. Just over 2 weeks ago I got a new knee and now I am walking without a limp and in very little pain! Amazing. I'll spare you the pictures of my most attractive scar.... let's just say my surgeon could use a few lessons in hand sewing. Seriously though, he did a wonderful job and I am most happy. And ready to get back to my crafty life...

Just before my surgery I finished up my very first handwoven baby blanket for a baby due next week. Silly baby, I guess no one told him the schedule. He actually arrived four weeks early. I finally got his blanket mailed off to him this week and I hope he enjoys it!

Since my loom is only 25 inches wide, I wove twice the length I needed for the blanket, cut the woven fabric in half and joined the two halves with hand stitching to make the size I needed (about 40"x45"). The yarn is a variegated acrylic baby yarn. It wove up beautifully, just a plain weave. The only problem I had was that the yarn would pick up a lot of static after several passes through the shed. I finally came up with a solution! I kept an unused dryer sheet handy and would swipe it down the length of the weft yarn every now & then. Worked like a charm!

I bound the two unfinished edges using a strip of quilting cotton, just like I do with my towels. It added such a nice finish to the blanket.

I learned a lot making this blanket. It's not perfect, but I do think it came out quite nice! 

sewing with handwovens

I've shared before that I am enjoying incorporating my handwoven fabrics into my sewing projects. I really like combining them with purchased quilting cottons. Here's my latest, a Lola Pouch (pattern by Sotak Handmade)

Having found no real tips or examples that suit me online, I've been experimenting and have come up with a method that works for me. I thought I'd share my tips here. Maybe they will help someone else? At the very least, I will have them documented for my future projects.

First off, I learned early on from my awesome weaving friend Kathie to make use of every inch of my warp. I usually put enough warp on my loom to weave 2 or 3 dishtowels, plus extra. Once I have woven the towels, I plain weave the rest of my warp into fabric that can later be used for whatever I choose.

I am really loving weaving my 8/2 cotton yarn (very thin) onto my thicker cotton warp. It makes a sturdy fabric that still has a bit of drape. After I remove it from my loom, I zigzag the edges, wash & machine dry, just like my towels.

The trouble (not trouble really, the interesting thing) about handwoven fabric is that you can't just cut into it. The edges will unravel if you don't finish the edges first. Here's how I have done this for the bags I've been making.

First, I iron ShapeFlex 101 (SF101 my favorite interfacing) on the back of my fabric piece, and draw the pattern pieces right on the SF101 with a pencil or marker.

I set my machine to a small, tight zigzag (these are the settings that are working best for me, you'll have to experiment on your machine!) You want the zigzag to be less than a 1/4 inch wide so that it ends up in your seam allowance later on.

Now I do a zigzag stitch all the way around inside the drawn lines of my pieces.

It's a good idea to zigzag on the outside of your lines too, so that your leftover fabrics will still be useable. Even small strips can be made into bookmarks or perhaps sewn into a patchwork project. I don't want to waste even a tiny bit of fabric I have worked so hard to create!

Now I simply cut apart on the drawn lines. I like to use scissors for this part. I suppose you could use a rotary cutter if you have very good control. And your pieces are ready to be sewn into a project! 

bags from handwoven fabric

Ever since I started weaving, I have been saving scraps left over at the ends of my warps knowing eventually I would turn them into "something". Often these were the experiments, trying out different colors/weights of yarn to see what worked.  Always, they were too pretty to throw away!

The other day I bought a lime green jelly clip frame, not knowing what I would do with it. When I laid it next to my handwoven leftovers from my table runner, I knew they belonged together.

You might notice this is a tad wonky. sheesh! Turns out the handwoven is quite bulky and I had a difficult time jamming it into the frame! In fact I broke my purple-thang (insert cry here) let out quite a few not-nice words and basically got glue EVERYWHERE. Oh well, it's done.

I do love the yellow lining. Really, the materials are perfect together but I am a disaster when it comes to gluey projects. Lesson learned. Again.

Next I set out to make Sotak Handmade's Foldover pouch from another of my handwoven. This time....

Perfection! Of course Svetlana's pattern is perfect, as always. The fabric was bulky and the final turning was a challenge but it adds just the right bulk to this little bag. Yay!

I'll be making more of these for sure! Tips for working with handwoven fabric:

I traced my pattern pieces onto SF101 (my favorite interfacing), Ironed in onto the back of the fabric. Next I zigzagged just inside the cutting line to prevent my fabric from unravelling and cut the pieces out on the drawn line. 

Any time I needed to cut a piece of handwoven, I zigzagged on either side of the cutting line.

It worked out great! Now, what to try next....

weaving all the towels

When I got my rigid heddle loom for my birthday, my main objective was to weave kitchen towels. I'm excited to share that my quest to weave the perfect kitchen towel continues to evolve! Each set I weave becomes better and better, and I learn so much in the process.

with my loom warped with Peaches & Cream cotton yarn from Walmart and the weft in Love this Cotton from Hobby Lobby I wove this set....

Funny, I find that I like the inexpensive cotton yarns the best for towels. They weave into nice thick, absorbent towels.

When I get to the end of my warp, I like to experiment with different ideas. I only had a little bit of warp left from this set, and I proceeded to weave fabric selvages to see how I liked it. Pretty cool! I can see doing a whole warp of this for placemats or tote bag fabric in the future.

Ally has requested black & white towels for the apartment she'll be moving into in a couple of months. I decided to warp some stripes of black into the white warp for added interest...

I wasn't sure how I'd like weaving black & white. I'm a color girl after all. But, much to my amazement, they came out very cool!

done in waffle weave which I'm rather fond of!

Again, these are inexpensive peaches & cream yarn. I finished them with a bound hem which gives them a nice finish.

I had quite a bit of warp left from these. Enough to weave a whole extra towel. I pulled out my 8/2 cotton Valley yarn from Webs, a much finer yarn and created this very warp faced towel. It has a wonderful drape but is still thick enough to be absorbent! I'm keeping this one for myself & see many more like it in my future.

I did this in a plain weave and like it a lot

I think that makes 12 towels woven so far, with many many more to come!

waffle weave towels

It's kind of funny (to me anyways) but the main thing I wanted to weave when I got my rigid heddle loom is dish towels. After experimenting with thinner 8/2 cotton yarn I decided to try a thicker 3/2 Valley yarn. I also wanted to try doing a waffle weave.  Several tutorials and you tube videos later (and another WEBS order for yarn and a pick up stick) I started weaving and loved the results!

After I took it off the loom and washed & dried it I was even happier. The waffle weave makes for nice, thick, useful dishtowels!

After I got these done, I still had enough warp to make 2 more towels but no more green for the weft. I decided to do the other two with inexpensive cotton yarn from Walmart that I had on hand. I also chose to finish the ends of these with bias binding instead of just hemming them on my sewing machine.

Although they are not as soft as the better quality yarn, they are still great towels! And I love the way the colors blended.

These have all been gifted (green ones for Mom's green kitchen for Mother's day, the others birthday gifts for friends)

And I've ordered more yarn from WEBS so there will be more towels to come!

using handwoven fabric

When I finished weaving my scarf last month, I had some of the beautiful yarn leftover. I decided to weave it into a piece of fabric and make it into a bag. I wanted to combine it with some quilting cotton to make a fun sling bag. That yarn was so hard to match! Purples seemed too purple next to it and reds looked too red! Finally I found this cotton & steel fabric that was just right! (suddenly I feel like Goldilocks! Ha)

The bottom woven part is a pocket, which I wish I had made bigger. oh well! Next time. No pocket on the other side...

of course, I had a hard time finding a matching zipper too. My solution to that...

bright yellow contrast. A little pop of color that makes me smile. And that snail zipper pull? Come on! Can he be any cuter?

weaving on a floor loom

wow. I'm still trying to digest all that I learned while visiting my friend Kathie last week. She had asked if I wanted to weave something on her small floor loom (a Schacht Baby Wolf) while I was there.... um YES! of course I did. The first thing I did was design my project. I wanted to make a table runner and first I started grabbing my usual colors, turquoise, reds..... then I totally changed my mind! Look what colors I came up with....

 Way outside my box! And so citrussy and yummy. Kathie taught me how to wind my own warp, and then how to dress the loom. It seemed so complicated but we took it step by step & it wasn't hard at all!

 It took me two days to get it all ready, then Wednesday and Thursday to weave. (ok, we did sneak out of the house every day for a while too!). And look! I just love the way it turned out....

 the finished runner measures about 13X40 inches.

And check out the back, neatly hemmed & finished off with pretty bias plaid binding....

 When we got home hubby put it on the front table where I was hoping it would fit. PERFECT! It was almost like I'd measured it. NOPE! I had not.

Thank you Kathie for teaching me so much and for being an awesome friend!

a week in Charlotte

I'm just home from a wonderful week visiting my friend Kathie in Charlotte, NC. You might remember that I visited her when she lived in Asheville. Back in 2014 I was fascinated with Kathie's weaving, just as I have been for the 20+ years that I've known her. But, I didn't know enough to really appreciate what she does. THIS time.... now that I've been weaving for a couple of months on my rigid heddle loom, THIS time I had a solid appreciation for everything Kathie does. And a million questions! 

We went to visit her off site studio where she was working on weaving baby blankets....

 And we spent TONS of time in her studio at home. Check out this yarn! Kathie has every single color of 8/2 cotton that WEBS sells...

 Look at the light streaming into her space...

 even her shuttles look pretty in a basket on the shelf...

 and bobbins in another basket...

and guess what? Kathie taught me to weave on her small floor loom! I learned so so much. Check back tomorrow if you want to see what I made in just a week!

weaving finishes

I'm learning so much about my loom and what I can do with it! My friend Annie sent me some beautiful hand dyed yarn for my birthday. At first I thought I would crochet something with it, because I was afraid my weaving wasn't up to par with this amazing yarn. But, it really did cry out to be woven and finally I gave in...

The yarn is a wonderful, soft, washable wool. I used a solid gray warp in a similar weight wool yarn and it wove up so beautifully! Of course, today it was 85 degrees outside, so who knows when I will get to wear it!

After posting my first set of dishtowels, my friend Kathie suggested I try weaving with a denser warp. This is best done on a rigid heddle loom by using 2 heddles. So I ordered a second 10 dent heddle and (thank you internet and awesome books) figured out how to warp my loom with double heddles.

It was quite a process but I did it! And the towels I wove this second time? WAY better than the first! The fabric is denser and more evenly woven. Here is one of the original towels on the left and a new towel on the right...

The second set is still not perfect (with the double heddles it's very hard to get a clean shed and I have quite a few threads that are floating but I'm happy!)

woven dishtowels

This morning I finished up my first two woven dishtowels on my new loom. They are a tad wonky and have some issues, but I love them and I will use them until they fall apart (which hopefully will be a long time.)

I ordered 8/2 mercerized cotton yarn from WEBS  at my friend Kathie's advice. I got a cone of natural because it goes with everything, and a cone of turquoise because, well because it was turquoise! Duh. I used both colors in the warp and the weft of my towels creating sort of a plaid design.

I learned a lot working on these....

In the end they were two different sizes, not evenly woven and, more wisdom from Kathie, it is "weft faced" meaning the EPI (warp/ends per inch) does not equal the PPI (weft/picks per inch). ah the things I am learning!

I decided to try hemming the towels on my machine and it actually worked great! I used my walking foot and the hems don't ripple at all. So that's something, right?