More card weaving

When I got bored card weaving waves, I switched over to diamonds. There isn't a lot of it, but enough to get a small what-not bag out of it....eventually.

Card weaving

Simple waves. Card weaving on an inkle loom. Cotton yarn. I plan on turning it into a small coin purse or maybe cell phone bag eventually.




Apparently I can't make days last longer. Rather than trying to blog multiple times a week and failing, I am going to shoot for every Tuesday. I can/will still add some other posts in between but I think that having a schedule until I can settle into having a blogging routine will work best. My biggest hold-up is photos. I just don't seem to get them done then I don't want to post without them and time just slips by.

Card Weaving

Inch by never-ending inch. Second band on the inkle loom almost done. Card woven with 5/2 cotton. There are actually two designs on this band. It is several feet long so I moved on to a different design about half-way through the warp.

If you look up at the top of the photo, you can see a bit of the Kumihimo braid I am using to tie up my cards when I finish for the day.

I was bad...I shopped

Ok it was planned shopping but still...
I bought copper pipe to build a better tablet loom. Cost was about $25 more than I had planned on. I knew that was possible due to the metals market increase but was hoping not quite that much. While I was there I picked up dowels to make a backstrap loom.

Tried to find some #3 cotton crochet yarn, though not much luck. Not a whole lot of craft/art options here. 3 Wal-Mart's but only one has a tiny craft section. They had 3 colors, total of 5 balls, so I closed my eyes and bought 2 colors, 3 balls. Not enough to do much more than sample but I can see how I like this weight. The yarn I ordered in when I bought my inkle loom is thinner. Proper weaving yarn in #3 I have to order by the pound and that was way more than I want.

I went to the quilt shop(it's a pharmacy of all things, with thousands of bolts of wonderful quilting fabric and smallish selection other crafty odds and ends. It's a wonderful place.) hoping they would have some as I remembered they have about 10' shelving of yarn. All they had was crochet thread though. They do have a full line of embroidery supplies though so I picked up some DMC floss. I can weave or braid with it. I also poked through there huge selection of threads and picked up a spool of rayon thread to play with.

That's it for my semi-local shopping options so I'll be satisfied with my selection. It's not like I have tons of free time anyway.

I'm off to tend to my milk. I'm making a gallon of yogurt. We just love homemade yogurt.

I shopped...

I am the proud owner of a sack full of copper pipe pieces, soon to be a tablet loom. I lucked up on a super nice fellow at the hardware store, who was delighted to cut my pipe for me.

I'm at the end (I hope) of an insane work week. I am plum exhausted. Fingers crossed for a little quiet time in the morning so I can play.

I have a load of photos on the camera so hope to get some of those cropped this weekend.

Sunday ramblings...

Typical crazy week for me. I've been weaving each morning for a little bit. I'm about halfway through my current warp, that I am card weaving, on the inkle loom. Braiding as I had time.



This braid came out nice. 1mm satin cord again. 4 each of red and black. It started out life as a rectangle braid. I quickly discovered that the design I chose had too many resets of the cords, for my minimal patience, when using a disk. To use up the cord on the bobbins I just switched to a simple round braid. Instead of the normal smooth spiral, it step-spirals. I like it.

My marudai(braiding loom) arrived this past week. I set up my cords Friday but didn't sit down with it until this morning. I may be in love. I thoroughly enjoyed the process. The smooth motion, the rhythm....the speed! I only warped enough cord for an 18" braid so it went too quickly. I was actually disappointed to run out of warp! I just finished winding my next warp, much longer this time. I need/want a cord to bind my tablet weaving cards. The one I am using is a bit too short/thick.

I am headed to the hardware store late this week. I hope to pick up everything I need for a backstrap loom (the wood parts only) and copper to make a tablet loom. I hope to have enough time to swing by the fabric shop, to see if they have any crochet threads or embroidery floss I can use as I am craving color options.

Now I'm off to attempt to mark some things off my 10' long to-do list.

I learned to count to 4!

The joke, after I taught myself to knit years ago, was I couldn't count to 3. I am very strong in math, always have been, so this came as a rather big shock. I can track pages of numbers with perfect accuracy but, in knitting, I couldn't make it to 3. I just could not find the numerical rhythm in following a knitting pattern. Charts helped a lot but still...anything larger than a repeat of 2, it could be bet on, I was going to mess it up.

Moving on to card weaving.....discovered I couldn't count to 4! Thankfully I was able to solve that (I hope!) this morning. I'll be giving it one more go tomorrow morning, if I don't oversleep. If still successful, I will move onto a more interesting design. I've been making a card woven band on the inkle loom. The weaving itself has been no problem, I am very consistent so just a matter of being able to track the design properly.

My black, red, and white yarn arrived so I am all set for weaving yarns.

My book 250 braids... arrived yesterday. It looks great. I've added a few more to my list of 'must try' braids. Included with that shipment was some Imposter silk. I'm interested in how it works out for braiding. I can't say, I like the feel of it, at all. The color is lovely though.

I finished an 18 strand flat Kumihimo braid yesterday. It is going to require blocking to look it's best but it is rather appealing.

Bet you can't guess...

what I am going to write about! Braiding? Really? Why would you ever think that?

Ok yes it is another braid. I really like this one. The photos don't do much for it but it is really pretty in the hand.

Details:
Red Black and white 1mm satin
cut 5'.
Set up BWRRBRRR
Basic round braid
26" knot to knot. Diameter 6-7mm.



I broke and ordered more books. Inkle Weaving by Helene Bress. I would greatly appreciate it if someone would tell me where I put it though! I shuffled the books around on the bookcase, filing books I'm not currently reading or working with, to make space for the books that have come in over the past few weeks. Now I can't find it. I will, it's just playing hiding and seek right now.

I ordered more braiding books too. 200 Braids to Loop, Knot, Weave & Twist by Jacqui Carey and Braids: 250 Patterns from Japan, Peru, and Beyond by Rodrick Owen.

I warped the inkle loom for card weaving yesterday morning and started weaving this morning. I discovered that even after double checking the cards I still threaded 2 incorrectly. I then spent too much time correcting it. Started again, only to discover that one of the cards I fixed now has a twist in the warp in front of the cards. Typical false starts. Oh well, I have that card un-knotted and will fix it in the morning.

Slipped ...

My hands somehow slipped on the keyboard! Inkle loom ordered! Of course it would be lonely in a box by itself so some cotton yarn, a book Double-Faced Tablet Weaving, a belt shuttle. and some weaving cards are hitching a ride.

He's baccckkk....

That durn bug keeps biting me. For whatever reason, spinning brought it out of hiding and it won't leave me alone. I want a loom. That pesky bug picked on me for months back in 2009 but I managed to distract him. Now here he is again.

Back in 2009, I made a loom list. I did manage to talk myself down from a floor loom due to space constraints and reality of my super busy life. A rigid heddle loom sounded just fine. Size was still being debated. Life interfered like usual and loom thoughts had to be pushed aside. Here I go again though. Going over the list and doing some quick research, my tastes seem to have remained the same. Reality is I don't have time for weaving. As it is, to spin, I give up sleep. To knit, I skip meals or make do with fast meals (cooked from scratch but plain and super fast), along with sleep. To sew or doing needlework/embroidery, I have to fit a stitch in where I can. Still I want a loom......