Sunday, March 27, 2011

A Simple Weaving Tutorial

Here's a simple weaving tutorial, though I'm still not quite sure what I'm going to do with the finished piece. :)

I don't know why, but I'm on this braiding kick lately. It's something very relaxing for me to do while watching TV. Plus, it's a great way to use up a stash of yarn someone gave me, since I don't know how to knit or crochet. :(

I've had this desire to do some weaving, too. My son built me a loom of sorts for Christmas, but the braided yarn is just too thick for it, making it unwieldy. Hmmmm...what to do...what to do with this long strand of braided yarn and how can I weave it?

Hmmm...there's this nice sized cardboard that I could wrap it around. Maybe I can weave that way!
I wrapped the cardboard piece until it was almost full. I didn't wrap it tightly because I needed some room to get my yarn and weaving "tool" through. Then I looped the end.
Since I'm not a knitter, I didn't have any sort of hook to pull through to weave. Luckily I had this nifty little kitchen gadget. I think it's a citrus peeler.

I tied one end of yarn to it and then started weaving over, under, over, under through the braided yarn.
At first, I did the whole row before pulling the yarn through, but that made for a looser weave, and I didn't like that. So then I did a little at a time, pulling the yarn through and pushing it up towards the other row. You have to kind of push and pull at the same time, which was hard to take a picture of.
I initially started out with some silky lavender yarn, but it was really subtle.

So the next side I used a red yarn.
I folded the cardboard a bit with the yarn wrapped around it and slowly and carefully slid the yarn off. Whew...wasn't sure if that would work, but it did. :)

With a loom, you can weave the yarn all the way to the end, because you have more room to get your weaving tool through, but with the cardboard...no such luck, despite wrapping the braided yarn loosely to begin with. So I could only go so far with the single colored yarn before it got too tight to put my weaving tool through. This made for an unwoven part.


I was going to put a dowel or stick through this unwoven part and make this into a wall hanging. I planned on adding some embellishments to it, or maybe some painted letters spelling out "Spring," since these yarns are so spring colored!

But then I thought...I really like how thick it is, and I really need something to put my hot casserole dishes on. I have some ceramic trivets, but they're smaller squares, and I'm never confident that my oblong casserole dishes will stay on them. One little bump from a curious puppy trying to stretch her neck so she can reach the dish, and there would slide the casserole dish off. This woven piece is nice and flat and will clearly accommodate my oblong casserole dishes. So it's gonna be a woven braided trivet...at least I think so! Pretty and functional as a trivet!

Linking up to my link parties:


And these following fab link parties:
LINKPARTYBUTTON
http://www.thethriftyhome.com
SAS Interiors
Chic on a Shoestring DecoratingSpunky JunkyUndertheTableandDreaming
handmade projects

17 comments:

  1. You are a very creative, patient person, and innovative at that. Only a dedicated creative person would have found a kitchen utensil to help finish a project :) I love it! Vicki

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  2. Awww, thanks, Vicki. I chalk it up to poverty being the mother of invention. LOL!

    Cheers,
    Tracy

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  3. Looks good! I am working on a braided rag rug for my little girls' room. It is very tedious sewing it all together, though!

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  4. So cool! I was actually trying to figure out how to do some weaving without a loom for the series...
    I love it is a trivet - even with that unwoven part - which totally gives it some fun character.

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  5. That is SO neat! It'd be fun to do with kids who are a little older and have patience/dexterity.

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  6. Very cool! I am your newest follower via Making the World Cuter follow along! Would love to have you follow me back and link up your projects to my link party!

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  7. Well aren't you just ingenious! Great idea Tracy, it looks wonderful! Who says you have to have all kinds of fancy gadgets and doodads, all you need is a piece of cardboard and a citrus peeler!! Thanks for sharing, Deb

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  8. This is brilliant! Though I would never have the patience to do something like this! Thanks for linking to our YARN IT ALL party! :]

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  9. Nice! I love how innovative you are. I'm not a knitter, but I do crochet. A crochet hook definitely would've worked, but the citrus peeler idea is fantastic!

    -Steph
    http://www.MomKaboodle.com

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  10. Very creative. Love it!

    I tried to weave with a small weaver once, but got bored fast. It would have made a pot holder-ish, had I ever finished it. I was an adult.) In fourth or fifth grade our art teacher had us trace a round lid, (like cool whip container) onto cardboard, then we cut slits around edge evenly spaced, (i forget if it's odd or even), then we criss-crossed thread only on the top of the cardboard, making loops on the back, then we tied our string to the center and weaved it back and fourth, ( i think we used plastic sewing needles), then after finished we tied to edge, popped the loops off the cardboard. It was supposed to be a potholder, but we used acrylic yarn and it popped up making it into more of a bowl which we turned into small Easter baskets. Apparently the teacher had not ever finished one or she would have known this at the beginning. I found this out early by copying the project at home, so I loosened my threads at school, but it was too late and it still tturned into a bowl/basket. I've made this a few times over the years. Fun for kids!

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  11. Ms. Craftsalot -

    Funny about the art teacher not knowing what would happen - lol!

    I've seen cardboard "looms," but I've never tried one. I might do that next time so I can get a round shape.

    Thanks so much, ladies, for all your comments. :)

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  12. I forgot to add that the strings criss-crossed in the center like a star or asterisks.

    I went out and bought some yarn to try this again. It's almost Easter so a cute little basket will be fun to make.

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  13. That's really nice, I love how you have a variety of craft projects!

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  14. Great tutorial, love the variety of colors!! Thank you for linking to my K.I.S.S. blog bash this past week. I so appreciate you taking the time to share your charming craft. Tomorrow is another blog bash, please drop by & share more of your inspiring ideas!

    Drop By The Tattered Tag

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  15. you are like the Maguyver of crafting! very pretty weaving!

    megan
    craftycpa.blogspot.com

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  16. This is genius! I am featuring this tomorrow! Yay!

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  17. You are so funny! I love how you pretty much invented this whole process and I love your trivet idea for it. Thanks for linking up with my Show and Share party.

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