Weaving In Inches Part Two: The Finishing.

I cut my weaving off the loom around 3am Tuesday morning. It looked pretty good. The underside looked particularly woolly with the yarn bits hanging out. I hung it on my headboard and went to sleep. The following day I put Futurama on via netflix. It took me two movies, and 4 Episodes of season 4 to weave all my ends in. But it looked great. I Folded both sides under and hemmed them. It felt stiff...but I had never blocked anything before, and was afraid it would start fulling. So I did some reading online to find out the best approach. Finding little information (mostly due to the fact that I was most likely not putting the correct phrase into the search engine) so I decided to do it the 'safe' way first, and if that didn't work, the scary risky way.

The safe way involved using the steam from my iron directly on the scarf, then putting a towel over it and pressing it with the iron. Repeating for both sides. The risky way would have been without the towel. But the safe way worked fine. I pressed until my arms were sore. Hung it up as it was still damp. Once it dried it was soft, and flowed nicely. I wrapped it up and shipped it out. I was shocked to find that it would make it there on the 24th. In time for Xmas! Hurray! So here are some pictures I took before blocking, and after.

Before Blocking:

After:

And there it is, about to be wrapped up.Hopefully he likes it.
Happy Xmas everyone. : D

Weaving In Inches

My table loom has been warped and woven on for the last few days. It took some mental adjustments to get used to. I learned on a Schacht Baby Wolf. A really great floor loom. I'll have one someday. But To go from that to a vintage table loom (which is of course much smaller) wasn't as easy as I thought it would be. I'm there though. I have a fairly decent system worked out for using the hand levers.

The only downside is that with the end of the semester and the holidays, I haven't had as much time to weave as I needed. I'm working on an Xmas gift, that will not be able to arrive on time with shipping and all. But I'm still weaving an inch or two in between running around and studying. It'll get there. Just not on time. Even still, I'm hoping it will turn out and that the person it is intended for enjoys it. Of course, there will be a photo once it's finished. :)

End Of The Semester

Well, Monday is the official last day of weaving class for me. I will receive my projects (now graded) have my review/sit-down with the instructor and be on my way. I'm excited to take my pieces home and put them to use. Mainly as gifts. These two however, I am keeping for myself. They are Parts A and B of my final project. Initially they were meant to be one fabulous messenger bag, but I wove B too wide and now it is a scarf. My colors...are insanely bright. Which makes me appreciate the Black and White warp as they really help to break up the brightness. I would imagine someone who knows a great deal about color theory and color in general might have something to say about them. They do seem to scream at me. But enough babbling. Here they are:

Final Project A:

He has a face! I should name him Frank.

Project B:

This is my scarf, prior to the fringe...which took quite a few hours. So I will show an up close image of it.

Hours and hours of work...and probably Carpal Tunnel. It's much lovelier in person I assure you. :) I've already got my table loom partially set up with my next project.

It's Going To Be An Awesome Christmas (And Another Bag)

I am really lucky to have the supportive family that I do. They support my fiber habit, let me make them things, and in general are great. So for Christmas, I was able to pick something I wanted within a particular price range. I decided I wanted something that would enable me to do something crafty.

Being realistic, I knew the chances of me getting the four harness loom that I wanted in my price range were about none. So I started looking for a rigid frame loom, used on ebay. I stumbled upon a random table loom in the bunch very close to my price range. I was shocked. I actually *could* possibly get a loom in table form. However, I am picky. I had a certain vision in my mind of what I knew would be ideal. Being stubborn that I am I refused to budge from this ideal. So for three weeks I hunted. I watched, found many that 'might' work, but not quite right. Today, I won my loom. I was certain I'd lose out, but I did not. Victory. I am happy, I won't have to stop weaving after class is over, and I didn't have to settle for something that really wouldn't suit my needs.
This is a picture of someone elses loom, but mine is the same model

I'm excited to get it and start weaving with it!

On a complete side note I did make another bag from my weaving. My mom had a fabulous idea to sew buttons on for closures and decoration.

It's just a small clutch made from my twill sample piece. The weaves themselves did not photograph all to well ;) It's lovely in person.

Weaving 101, And A Really Nice Hat.

Weaving 101 has been my 'fun' class this semester. I try to take at least one class purely for enjoyment. It helps avoid stress related crying. I have truly enjoyed the experience. While my weaves are far from complicated, my colors are vivid and that makes me happy.

As the semester is coming to a close, my projects are nearing completion and I am overall happy with my endeavors. I wish I had more free time, and a loom. I'd spend all of it weaving. My smaller projects are being turned into purses, clutches and wallets. There might be a theme there. : ) This is some of what I've been working on in the last few weeks.
This is the warp for my final project, I couldn't decide if I wanted black or white. Then I realized I didn't need to choose.

 This is the bag I made last night out of my first woven project. As you can probably see, I had trouble sewing in the zipper. But it works, and is adorable.

 This is what it looked like, before it became a bag.

 I was able to squeeze in some knitting between my school work. I made if for one of my amazing friends. Since I live out in the desert, my opportunities for using knitted goods are rare. He, however, lives in a state that does have a cold winter with snow and the like. So it gave me a chance to make something that might actually get some use. The Pattern I Found Is Here And it does have a matching scarf. You can bet I am making it.