Where did I start with weaving?

I had a 40% Spotlight voucher and was cruising the aisles trying to make minimum spend for the discount (which is not a financially sound plan). I came across the weaving looms. There were a few to choose from. The Martha Stewart looms look very nice and are well packaged but seem overpriced for an beginner weaver. Another brand had a clever 'Weave it and Leave it' system but it really was a one time only use of a loom. The was a giant purple loom of sorts. It was a bit do-it-yourself so that you could build a loom of whatever size you needed but it was a BIG package and I'm trying to minimise... I settled on the small Semco loom. A simple wooden loom with notches at the top and bottom. I then wandered over to the yarn aisles to pick my colours, textures, gauges, creative inspirations.

With my equipment in tow I embarked on my first weaving journey. But how do I start? I started the modern way - by searching the Google. These are the two pages/videos I found that helped me get started and ones that I have referred back to through the process.

The Weaving Loom - The Modern Lap Weavers Resource

Creative Bug - Weaving for Beginners - Annabel Wrigley

The amazing Kate over at The Weaving Loom will take you through everything including the different types of looms and explain the new terms you have to come to terms with: Warp, Weft, Shed Stick are probably the three you want to get to know quickly. This woman has seriously done the hard yards to help you pick up a loom and go for it.

Annabel Wrigley appears to be a textile Goddess by a quick look at her website Little Pincushion Studio. Looking at her studio photos makes me die a little inside. She seems to focus mainly on sewing but she certainly knows how to smash out a beautiful wall hanging.

After figuring out how to warp the loom, I launched in. Tension seems to be one of the BIG deals with weaving. My warp was too loose and my weft was too tight. Pulling tight means the sides come in and the whole thing will buckle a little when it is removed from the loom. This is where Annabel's tip to pull the yarn through on an ark and push it down to the other threads has been very handy for preserving shape. I had also completely missed the step about NOT pushing the weave to the bottom of the loom because you need space to tie off. So after completing a few inches I was busting to rip that piece of useless work off the loom and get started on an actual tapestry.

Inspired by Annabel I wanted to try my hands at triangles and stripes. Designing patterns does not come naturally to me. I am much more comfortable working my creativity with colours and interpreting someone else's design for now. But I persevered. Once I got to the end I realised that I hadn't added in the fringing and now I have ugly strings hanging out the bottom. I am getting closer to the vision but my rush to start weaving has lead to some rookie errors. I am digging the colour combo of blue, pink and brown. Squeeee.

Nevertheless I persist. I decided to launch into a full blown picture tapestry as an engagement present for one of my dear friends. Her engagement was announced on FB with a beautiful picture of the two of them on a trek. I was going to illustrate their announcement photo... Ambitious much?!

My loom can produce a tapestry of approximately 16 x 16 cm. My first step, after stealing their photo from FB was to size the image to fit that scale. I then did some Photoshop hacking by crudely painting over the picture to remove details and simply forms. In the process I colour coded block areas in an attempt to limit the colours needed. In the end I still required 11 colours to make this work.

Because the photo was a landscape scene I decided to make the fringing the same as the ground colour, which happened to be a light colour and worked for the scheme I wanted. I used a method that I think is known as 'cartooning'. This is essentially placing an image behind the warp and using it as a guide. I then proceeded to block in the colours as I had them in my simplified image. This was somewhat challenging as there were a number of small details and they didn't necessarily line up with the warp. I also struggled with the number of horizontal colour changes. These are fraught as the simple method I was using creates a gap between the warp. (Ultimately this meant my tapestry doesn't sit flat but when it's hanging you can't tell).

Before you look at the photos of this work it is important to remember that I am, essentially, a very lazy person who does not quite know what they are doing. Therefore, this is not a competition grade tapestry. The back does NOT look like the front. I did a lot of jumping around so I didn't have to weave in a thousand end pieces when it was finished. I have no regrets.

Have to say I am pretty chuffed with myself given it's my forth tapestry attempt. I completed this one in around 6 hours. I have so many other ideas for what I want to weave and I now am purchasing yarn with wild abandon.

Learning to weave

CONGRATULATIONS HAILEY AND WALTICO XOXOX

What have you woven?