Just as I mentioned mending knits with weaving, today I’m mending a pair of jeans! This technique of patching holes in clothing is known as darning and has been used for clothing mending for a very long time. You set up a grid using the running stitch and the area over the hole gets woven, creating a patch and giving your fabric some more strength.
Not only is weaving fun to make and gorgeous to look at. It can also be used for practical situations, such as when mending knits that might have torn. This technique is known as darning.
I know I’ve written about the weaver’s knot a few times now. This is something that I read about a while ago, but hadn’t tried until more recently. I always thought, sure that looks helpful I’ll try it one day. But once I did try it, WOW! It really is a game changer.
Seriously the pure benefit of not having billions of ends to weave in is so exciting. Not only is weaving ends in time consuming, but sometimes it can effect the front of your weave. A weaver’s knot, when done correctly will secure your weave and leave you with little “clean up” in the end.
I was recently reading a book about tapestry weaving. As you know, weaving has been around for centuries and is found in many cultures. People wove to make wearable fabrics, but they also wove to make pictures that tell a story. The amount of work and detail that went into these woven pieces, especially the pictures is really amazing. In our modern time we have machines that will make items faster and cheaper, which is great. Those machines can make a lot, but they don’t quite capture the character of what handmade items have.
Circular Weaving Weaving Techniques
Best of Weaving Techniques || Using an Embroidery Hoop as a Loom
This is my absolute favorite post. As you probably know by know, I love to circular weave and as I was sharing what I had been making on a circular loom I had bought, I realized what about people who would like to try circular weaving, but don’t necessarily want to buy another loom. I’m a firm believer in making creative outlets open to everyone. I had seen some weaves on what I assumed were embroidery hoops and I thought I could warp these up just like the frame loom I’m used to using. It worked out just as I had hoped and I was able to share a really affordable way to circular weave! So onto that original post…
Weaving with denim is another one of my favorites. I especially love the idea of re-using the denim fabric from jeans that we can no longer wear. Denim also adds a really unique texture to weaves. It has a sturdiness to it that allows you to use it in ways that wouldn’t work with yarn. For example you can make your denim strips stand out from your warp strings where yarn will hang down. Both create a beautiful texture, but it’s fun to have options when weaving. So let’s take a look at that post….
Continuing with my best of weaving techniques, I wanted to add another one of my favorite patterns, the Herringbone. This looks similar to a twill weave, but the difference is the pattern is the diagonal is reversed and the ends do not touch, but are instead off-set. It’s a really beautiful pattern that dates all the way back to ancient Egypt.
This pattern seems tricky, but can be woven fairly easily by counting your warp threads and knowing when to change the pattern. And like most things, the more you do it the easier it becomes as you pick up the rhythm of the pattern. I’ve seen a lot of people use this pattern in beautiful ways in their wall hangings. Here is the post & video I created for this technique…
As we approach the end of the year, I can’t help but look back. Not only has this blog grown a lot, thanks to all of you. But we’ve also covered a lot of fun weaving techniques, some that you might have even missed. So for these last two weeks I’m going to cover the favorite techniques from the blog.
To start, I had to talk about the double diamond pattern. This one I hear about all the time. It is such a pretty weave pattern, but it’s also one of the harder patterns. But don’t let the fact that I say the pattern is hard discourage you, because once you get in the flow of it, it’s actually really easy to weave. The hard part is trying to get your brain to stop thinking and just let your hands follow the instructions. Believe me, I even had some trouble wrapping my head around drawing up the pattern just to start. If you follow each row’s steps, you’ll come out with a really beautiful woven double diamond pattern.
Last week in my post on how to have two different warp thread colors, I had woven with wool roving. I have previously talked about weaving wool roving, but I haven’t yet talked about adding texture to it when you weave.
The tricky part of weaving with wool roving is the fibers can be easily disturbed. This means you don’t want to pull it between warp threads and let fibers pull up. The best way to weave with wool roving is to pull up your warp threads and place the wool roving between them. A heddle, if you have one, would also work well for weaving wool roving.
Here are my steps for plain weaving wool roving. You can find pictures to go along with the instructions here.
I love books and am always on the look out for great books, which includes books with great stories and pictures for my children. There are a lot of beautiful children’s books out there, but I’ve recently come across children’s books who’s subject is fiber related. And they are really great books too, both in illustration, story, and imagination. Even if you don’t have little ones, you’ll still find these book enjoyable.
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