Weaving Play
In late March, the Scrap Happy Thrift Shop at the Black Rock Center for the Arts offered these mystery scrap bags with a challenge:
Before opening the bag, I thought I would make a quilt. But the items in the bag took me in a different direction…
We've had this simple wooden lap loom for a few years, but I've been so quilting-focused I never took off with weaving the way I'd hoped to. The materials in my mystery scrap bag felt so perfect for that.
I used yarn and cording for the warp:
And everything else for the weft:
Leather-like cording
Upholstery fabric cut into strips
Felt
A wooden charm I drilled a hole into
Green sparkly stuff
Ribbon (I used both sides so there's some matte, some shiny, and some kind of velvety)
Fabric squares cut into strips and tied to the bottom to mimic fringe
and a stick from our yard to finish it off!
I used some of every material type, and have very few scraps leftover from the bag.
I found this YouTube video about weaving with Unconventional Materials from Landi Haynes really helpful in convincing me I could figure it out and a few technical tips on finishing https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSs7albfboM
Almost the moment I finished that weaving, I wanted to start another one! I loaded the loom with some fuzzy yarn that I also picked up from the same thrift store sale, and added my lanyard from QuiltCon and some super soft thick decorative thread that is too hard for me to hand quilt with. Then I happened to be visiting a friend and was able to finish the weaving with materials from her sizeable ribbon collection!
After making that one, my next idea was to make a weaving in all neutral colors. I ended up finding some neutral yarn to use, but it was part of the weaving I had started years ago, and when I loaded it back on the loom and started adding more yarn to it, I was reminded of why I didn’t continue - I think I like working with BIG materials while weaving, and working quickly. The magic that got me interested in playing with weaving was working with odd and unusual materials, not “just” yarn.
I took that off and loaded another possibility onto the loom, some really nubbly cool yarn I picked up at my guild’s destash event over the weekend. But I don’t have a lot of strange stuff for the weft hanging around - I tried weaving with fabric strips, but it doesn’t have the same feel or effect. I think I’ll probably take that one off too, and just wait for inspiration and materials to strike me again when the time is right!