When you look around it appears that weaving is everywhere. Personally, I believe this is a natural ebb and flow of the yarn and fiber cycle. I’m excited to see where this resurgence leads (hopefully not to macrame!).
Woven fabric uses yarn in different ways then when it is knit or crocheted. This can give new life to a stash that’s grown unwieldy or without projects. Learning a new craft, such as weaving, sparks beginner brain; this can often lead to increased creativity in all aspects of one’s life.
While the basics of weaving — warp and weft — stay constant there are new tools, accessories, and ideas out in the world. I haven’t prioritized my weaving practice in recent months, my loom sits in the corner of my desk neglected. I warped this simple stripe to help me work on an even selvage edge. Even though this project gathers dust, the industry is still moving forward. Here are some weaving items of note that caught my eye.
purl+loop
In addition to the great bracelet looms, Angela now offers round weavers including a cute mini version for earrings.
I’m not able to wear much jewelry anymore (everything is a potential chew toy for foster kittens!) however, I could see myself creating keychains from these! I think they’re a great stashbusting project for creating gifts.
You’ll hear more about my thoughts on the versatility of the bracelet loom soon.
Yarnworker
Liz is at it again, with the successful launch of her online weaving school, she’s now offering useful tools such as this quick sett checker. I’ve not yet worked with it, Jillian wrote about it at KnittyBlog!
Schacht
Small weaving is everywhere! In addition to the zoom loom, a small loom I love for swatches, Schacht now has a new Easel Weaver. I like the shape and think it would be a great tool to introduce weaving.
other finds
Needle Weaving Techniques for Hand Embroidery
by Hazel Blomkamp
These weaving embroidery techniques are appealing for a range of uses including general embellishment, upgrading a darned patch, and sparking creativity. The book includes clear photos of how the embroidery will look (both front and back), diagrams to illustrate the weave structure, a summary chart that includes warp, weft, and the size of the repeat, and simple steps to work up each woven pattern. There are a range of patterns from simple weaves to more complex structures. Blomkamp includes tips for working over unique shapes. The abbreviation structure is easy to follow and intuitive. I think this would be lots of fun not only for embellishing patches, but as an easy to follow pattern guide for the bracelet loom!
Even Buddy is in on the action, and practices weaving during his naps. 😉
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