Twisted yarns

Another experiment from a couple of weeks ago - I partly follwed Annie McHales instructions and used patterns from the Inkle Weavers Directory, but designed the layout in my own colours! I wove a few short sections, leaving 3 - 4 inches between each sections and ended up with some bookmarks! i wasn't quite brave enough to trst me start and finish technique yet and so I put adhesive on the ends just to prevent unravelling! Sara  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

My first experiment was a success! I had asked the advice of experienced weavers, whether practising using acrylic yarn would cause me more trouble than was worth it... opinions were divided but a couple of people said they'd used it when learning and found it useful for practising technique etc.  So, having a good supply of DK (8 ply) acrylic yarn from various crochet projects, I decided to give it a go (see last post) It worked! I ended up with a 1.5m band It was really good having at least 3 colours on each of the pattern cards as it helped me see how the 4 threads on each card moved  dependent on the direction you turned the cards. For my own benefit I'm noting here what issues I came across, and if I managed to sort them out!... After weaving approx 1m of band I realised the border threads had become ridiculously tight (and looked pretty thin). I tried to undo the knots and untwist the threads - but it was too fiddly even though I'd done easy release knots.  Instead,...

This is my new loom all warped and ready to go! Thanks to Steve at Trenayne crafts - I ordered through ebay, but there is a website if you are interested. Half of the threads are wrapped around the top front peg and then a heddle is looped around them and the heddle peg (where the thick black ties are) - these are the heddled threads. The other half of the threads are wrapped around the top back peg- the unheddled / open threads. (Heddled / unheddled threads alternately). By lifting or pushing down the unheddled threads creates a space (shed) that you put your weft thread through. Again, alernately you lift the unheddled threads and pass the weft through, then push the unheddled threads down and pass the weft thread through again...  Not having "proper" supples of cotton available, I used a mixture of different stranded cotton threads in a variety of colours, so that I could have the chance to practice... and I ended up with a double rainbow, but using different colours each...

I am so pleased! The lovely Jenny has very kindly loaned me an inkle loom! I couldn't wait to get it set up - so I pulled out my cones of stranded cotton and starting warping the loom (wrapping the threads around it), but about halfway realised something didn't look right and I had soon realised I had been bringing the open / unheddled threads over the wrong peg.... so I started again! It went much quicker the 2nd time around. Last night I made a start and seemed to get into a good rhythm straight away.... but time had crept up on me and I had to put it away. This afternoon I took it off the loom, with 1m of band approx 3/4 inch wide. I really can't wait to order a loom now! Sara  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Quick update - I had another go on my makeshift backstrap set-up and managed a much tighter and neater weave Following the advice  from Laverne Waddington (a very experienced backstrap weaver), I tried again but kept the heddle further away from where I was weaving and I used a single strand of the same red used for the outside edges of the warp. It's only if you look really closely that you can glimpse tiny parts of the weft exposed  Sara  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Today I had a little play around - after a discussion with my ten year old about what cottons to use for the first experiment, we decided to try using a small rigid heddle I bought a few weeks ago and my supply of stranded cotton... We used a couple of chairs to wind the warp around - she chose a rainbow pattern, but we quickly realised the band would be tiny, so we decided that we would put a central white thread and then a mirror version of the rainbow... I had a little problem when removing the warp from the chairs, as the released suddenly and so I had some untangling to do (good job I had the cross over point safely secured and a tie around the end of the warp!). Pulling the threads through the heddle wasn't too tricky (2 same colour threads through each hole and slot and stranded cotton is so thin) - I found that using a 2mm crochet hook worked wonders. Anyway, I managed to cobble together a set up and had a trial run at weaving using the backstrap method....