Hi, I am here with more pictures.
I wanted to show you my weaving experiment. I have a loom - in Budapest. I still haven´t figured out how I can bring it here, or if it is cheaper to buy one here than to bring it.
But I wanted to weave. So I used the simple method that I taught my students in 5th grade at school: cardboard-loom. (This year we will have nice "real" looms, the type they make for schools.)
I bought some lovely yarn in Crete last autumn, some left-over balls that were on sale, real cheap. They are absolutely not your traditional weaving yarn, but I wanted to see how they work. They are boucle and are about 75-85 % wool, really nice and soft. The grey is a bit thicker than the rest.
Before I only wove with strong cotton warp thread and and thick wool yarn for weft, now I wanted to try out what happens if I use the same yarn in both directions.
So this is how it started: I had a huge piece of cardboard. It is quite thick and difficult to cut so I glued on some cereal boxes at the end, double, to use for the nooks that I cut at about 0.7 cms.
Then I warped the "loom" with black and white (or rather natural colour) yarn.
And I just started to weave. First I went with the weaving needle just under-over, under-over. It was a bit slow.
Then I used a ruler that I put under every other warp thread. This way I only had to go under-over in one direction, and I just put the ruler in a standing position and passed the yarn through the hole in the other. That was much faster.
Then I decided I wanted to try out making my own heddles and I spent about an hour doing that. This way weaving goes much faster. I am not sure if it was worth the time, I mean I am only making one piece on this "loom" and then I have to warp again and make the heddles again, but I don´t really mind. I just wanted to see if it worked. And I am happy it did.:)
The fabric I am making is really nice and soft, I am not beating it down too hard, just pull the weft down with my fingers so it is quite loose, but the fibers of the boucle yarn stick together so there are no holes in the fabric.
I have an idea what I want to do with it, but I am not sure it will work out. When I started I didn´t know what it will become, or thought perhaps a scarf, but now I would like to make it into a garment. So perhaps I will weave two parts, and then connect them with knitting or crochet and make a vest or something. It all depends on how long the yarn will go or if I can find some more. It is the problem when you start a project with leftover yarn and you actually have no idea how much you need. :( So at the moment all I can say is: I will see.
Unfortunately I had to stop weaving because my back was causing me trouble all summer, and it didn´t like they way I was weaving, which was propping up the loom on a chair and sitting on another one in front of it - I had to bend forward too much. So now I need to rest my back and then find a better position before I continue.
I didn´t write a detailed description how to make the loom or the heddles but if anyone is interested, just tell me and I can put together a tutorial.
I will be back soon with some more Swedish cross stitch patterns.
