The Weaving Loom The Modern Lap Loom Weaver's Resource

Hi friends! Last week I shared how to finish a circle weave on an embroidery hoop, but what about hanging a circle weave that you cut off the hoop or loom? Well today’s post is about… (I know you’ve already guessed, haha)… just that!

To start you’ll need some type of circle structure to hang from, like a macrame hoop (see Shop this post below for which one I used). Make sure to choose a hoop that is larger then your finished weave. Alright let’s get started:

step 1| cut your weave from the loom or hoop. You’ll need an inch or two to tie your warp threads, so make sure you leave enough room when weaving.

step 2| double knot two warp threads together. Do this all around the weave until finished. If you have an odd number of warp threads, then you’ll double knot three threads together at just one point.

step 3| weave the warp ends through the back of your weave. Always flip your weave over to check that the warp ends aren’t showing in the front, make adjustments if necessary. Trim the excess ends

step 4| take a thread to attached your weave to the loop. I’m using some embroidery floss that matches, but you can use warp thread or yarn. Bring the thread under one of your warp knots, this is very important, because if you don’t go under the knot then the weave won’t be as well supported. Next double knot the thread to it’s self.

step 5| bring the thread from the weave over the loop, wrap it around, then back down to the weave.

step 6| bring the thread through the next warp knot, then back up over the loop, wrap around, and back down to the next warp knot. Keep doing this until you have gone through each warp knot and have reached your beginning knot. Also make sure to keep an even tension between the weave and the loop, making adjustments as you go.

step 7| once you have reached the beginning knot with your thread, (bringing it over the loop, wrap around, and then down under the warp knot as you did with all the other warp knots) double knot the thread to the beginning thread tail. Weave in the thread tails and your weave is hung!

As you noticed I left my loop metal exposed, because I felt it fit my weave, but you can always wrap it in yarn just like I did for the embroidery hoop. If you choose to do this, then I recommend wrapping the loop first, then attaching the weave to the loop after.

Are you also loving the circle weaves? Have you made one yet or do you have future plans? If you’ve made one and are on Instagram, I’d love to see it so tag me!

Happy Weaving!

Kate

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Metal Macrame Ring-Gold
Metal Rings-Silver

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Weaving Techniques

Intermediate Weaving Techniques Roundup

I’ve been focusing on beginner techniques a lot lately, but I have also seen quite a few of you weaving from some intermediate techniques I’ve shared and they are turning out really lovely! Incase you’ve missed the more intermediate techniques, I’ve put together this post as a roundup and plan on sharing more soon! Just click the links below to access the posts.

Chevron Weave – This weave is one of my favorites, it’s really fun to make and adds so much visual interest to your weave. I also liked how it looked when I wove the three different colors next to each other.

Double Diamond Weave – This pattern took me a few tries to get it the way I wanted, but I’m really happy with how it turned out. It makes a really nice texture and using the bulky wool yarn really made a dreamy weave.

Cartooning to Weave a Picture – I was really intimidated by weaving a picture, but once I just tried it I was really happy with the outcome. I shared a bit of the process, but plan to dive into more details on this in the future.

Twill Weave – This weave is a very basic draft pattern, but I still really love how it looks in weaves. This again adds a lot of visual interest to weaves with not too much more effort then the plain weave.

Herringbone Weave – This weave pattern is just so classy. I really love the break that the herringbone makes in the pattern.

Have you tried any of these in your weaves already? Which one is your favorite?

Happy Weaving!

Kate

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Circular Weaving Weaving Techniques

How to Finish a Circle Weave on a Hoop

I know many of you are excited to finish your circle weaves, so today I’m sharing one way to finish your circle weave that you made with an embroidery hoop. This is really simple and it’s one reason I like weaving on an embroidery hoop. (Find my first post on warping an embroidery hoop here and if you need to cut your circle weave off the loom, here’s how to finish that)

step 1| I wove my circle most of the way, leaving a small gap between my weave and the embroidery hoop (I used wool roving on the outside edge and it puffed up making it hard to notice a gap, but the roving is easily pushed down). Take a piece of yarn that you want to finish your hoop with. Hold about an inch of the yarn against the hoop and then start wrapping the yarn around the hoop, going between the weave and the hoop and then back around the outside.

step 2| Continue wrapping the hoop until you reach the beginning thread tail. If you run out of yarn before reaching the beginning thread, then tie a new piece of thread to the thread tail that ran out. Make sure your knot will sit inside your hoop to better hide it. (I pulled out my roving rows to get a better picture of this step). Hold the tied off thread tails along the inside of the hoop and continue wrapping the hoop, covering the tails as you go.

step 3| Once you have reached your beginning yarn tail, double knot the beginning thread and the ending thread together on the inside of the hoop.

step 4| Using a tapestry needle thread the tails through a few of the wrapped threads and then cut the excess tail.

I really like that using the embroidery hoop allows you to keep your weave on the “loom”, because there is no worry of your weave losing it’s structure off the loom. Also if you know for sure you won’t be cutting your weave off the embroidery hoop, you could always wrap it before you weave. I’ll be sharing a second way to finish your circle weave off the loom soon along with some other circle weaving tips I have to share.

Have you tried a circle weave yet? What did you think about it compared to weaving on a regular square loom?

Happy Weaving!

Kate

Just Some Thoughts

How I Use Pinterest for Inspiration

To continue our discussion on finding your own artistic style and being creative, I wanted to share how I use Pinterest to get inspired. When you’re working in a medium, it makes sense to look around at what others are making, but this can be tricky because you don’t want to just copy someone else’s art. My best suggestion is to look outside of your medium to find inspiration. I do keep a Pinterest board of Weavings, but when I’m looking for inspiration I have boards that are not related to weaving that I go to.

One board I always keep is a color inspiration board. I like to collect pictures of colors that compliment each other and also pictures of colors that I wouldn’t think look good together, but surprisingly do. This board helps me in two ways. The first way is, there might be a grouping of colors that inspires me as soon as I see it, so I plan a weave around those colors. The second way is, I might want to weave with a certain color, but I’m not really sure which other colors to use with it. I’ll then look to my Pinterest color board and find the images with my color in it and see which other colors are there. And I said this before, but if you look over your board you saved at all the thumbnail pictures you will right away see what your preference is. My board, for example, is very colorful, but someone else might have a board full of earth colors.

Another board I like to go to for inspiration is my texture board. Here I gather all the textures that catch my eye. When I’m inspired by this board, it’s much more of a challenge to myself to try to figure out a way that I could achieve a similar texture in my weaves. Or maybe not even a texture, but more of a flow and movement.

A third board that I’ll go to is my forms board. This is a loose collection of geometric shapes that I find inspiring. Weaving and geometric shapes are meant for each other, so it’s always fun to get some shape inspiration.

Do you also use Pinterest boards for inspiration? What is your go-to board you created on Pinterest? Feel free to link to it in the website section of the comments.

Happy Weaving!

Kate

Circular Weaving Weaving Techniques Weaving Tips

Exploring Circular Weaving

In a previous post, I showed how to warp a loom for circular weaving (post 1 and post 2). Since then I’ve been working at it and trying to figure out what works best for me. One thing I’ve found to be interesting is the large warp clump in the middle. As you know, with a normally warped lap loom, there is no over lapping of warp threads. So the thing I found myself doing was wondering how can I weave to take away from the clump and make it less noticeable. And actually I like the look of the middle, but I don’t want it to be so apparent.

The first thing I found is, I like a few rounds of plain weave in the center. I tried some other weave techniques, but didn’t like how they turned out. This is because the warp threads are a bit dis-organized in the center and a plain weave helps align them.

I also noticed that because the warp threads are dis-organized, it was much better if I wove higher up on the warp threads and then pushed my weft down to the center. This way I wouldn’t get confused as to which warp thread was next.

A second discovery I made was that if I started with a thin thread, it wove much better in the middle. When I wove with worsted weight thread, I didn’t like how much the warp threads were showing in the middle, the worsted weight didn’t get as deep into the center as I had wanted. I ended up trying two different threads and found I like the outcome. The first was a thick and thin, hand-spun thread. I started with the thin part of the yarn and wove that around, while the yarn became thicker as I went. It worked really well and added visual interest. The second thread I used was a sock yarn, so it’s super thin. When I normally weave with sock yarn, I will use multiple threads of it at once or combine it with another thread that compliments it, like a worsted weight. But for this circle weaving, I used just one piece of sock yarn thread. This worked really well in the center of my weave, it is so thin that it got very close to the center and I really liked how it turned out. You can see an example of both threads below.

I’ll keep sharing more of the circle weaving as I go. Have you tried circle weaving yet? I’d love to hear what you think about it compared to normal weaving. Or if you haven’t tried it and aren’t really interested, let me know what you’re working on in the comments below.

Happy Weaving!

Kate

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Creative Links Just Some Thoughts

3 Books to Boost Creativity

Last week I talked about finding your own artistic style, but I’ve had a lot of people tell me that they feel they have trouble being creative. The thing that most people don’t realize about being creative is it isn’t a magical talent that only a few people have, it’s actually a skill that you can work on. Just like when you were younger you had to learn how to read, creativity is the same. The more you practice being creative, the better you get. I’ve rounded up a few books that I have found have helped me with my own creativity and I wanted to share them with you too.

This post does contain affiliate links, which means if you click on the link and make a purchase, a small commission will go to The Weaving Loom to keep it running and at no additional cost to you!

The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron

As we all know, life gets really busy. The thing I loved most about this book was, it helps you establish a morning ritual that lets you connect with yourself and your thoughts before you get wrapped up in the day-to-day. Infact, I thought this ritual was so valuable that I’d recommend it for everyone, even those who don’t want to create art. Besides the ritual, it has a lot of encouraging and thought provoking ideas that I felt were really helpful in finding out who I am as an artist. I really recommend this book, and if you want to take it a step further, there is also a starter kit pack, that includes the book and a morning pages journal to write in. I actually got this starter kit pack for Christmas and was very excited to start using it!

The Artist’s Way for Parents: Raising Creative Children by Julia Cameron

I couldn’t mention The Artist’s Way and not also mention The Artist’s Way for Parents, however, I’m technically not including this book in my list since they are so similar. This is how I actually found the book in the first place. I was interesting in learning about ways to help my boys be more creative in life and I came across this book. As you may have already guessed I really liked it, so I’ve added it for any other parents out there who might also like to read this. This book covers a lot of the same ideas in the first book so you could just read this one and find inspiration for making your life and your children’s lives more creative.

The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything by Ken Robinson

This book gives really great real life examples of people who have found their passion in life, and how it has changed them for the better. I thought it was very inspirational and really exciting. I really love to hear how people come across something that they instantly click with and it’s also a good reminder that everyone starts somewhere and there are great things waiting for all of us if we are looking.

Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear by Elizabeth Gilbert

I have mentioned this book before, but that is because I loved it! This book tackles fear and how it effects our creativity along with taking you through the creative process. My favorite part, was the disscussion on how ignoring your creative side leads to a life that is not quite full. I really related to this, because not until more recent years did I make time for being creative and I have honestly felt the benefit of it. And if you’re into audiobooks, like I am since they allow me to multi-task, then you’ll really enjoy listening to the author read her own book. She has a great reading voice that is very engaging. But if you’re going this route, get it from the library or through a free Audible trial (you know so you have more to spend on yarn )

Now it’s your turn, what books have you read that really opened your eyes creatively? You know I’m always looking for good books!

Happy Weaving!

Kate

Beginner Weaving Lessons

Free Beginner’s Weaving Pattern

Earlier this week I talked about finding your own artistic style. But if you’re thinking right now,

Alright, you’ve shown me how to get a loom started, you’ve shown me many different weaving techniques, and I’d love to find my own style…but I just don’t know what to do next.

Well then you’re in luck because I’ve taken a few weeks to put together a Beginner’s Weaving Pattern just for you!

This pattern will take you step by step, with pictures, from the beginning of the weave all the way to the end. It will cover the following weaving techniques:

Plain Weave
Hem Stitch Weave
Soumak Weave
Forming a triangle
Rya knots

And the best part is it’s FREE!!

All you have to do to get it is join my mailing list. Once you’re on my mailing list you’ll receive this pattern along with my new post notifications, shop discounts, and more.

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Happy Weaving!

Kate

Just Some Thoughts

8 Questions to Find Your Own Artistic Style

When I first started out weaving, just learning the basics was my top priority. I didn’t have any idea what my own style was and I really wasn’t sure where to even start to find it. Since there are others out there wondering the same thing, I started to think about what helped me find my own artistic style. This is where I came up with the 8 questions I’ll be sharing with you today. And to be honest there are more then 8 questions, but I’ve grouped the similar questions together. I’ve added the extra questions within a prompt to help you get more detailed with your thoughts. As you may assume, I’ll be talking about this in terms of weaving, but really you can apply similar questioning to any medium of art.

Finding your own artistic style is a journey, it may or may not happen over night and it will always be evolving. So let’s begin your journey, starting with the below questions.

1|| What artists do you like? It can be artists that weave or artists outside of weaving. Make a list of 5 or less. You could also list out specific pieces of art that you really like.

2|| Now for each artist/piece of art, list out what you like about the art. What draws you to their art? Be very specific, do you like the subject? Do you like the colors they use? Do you like the feelings it brings up for you? You can even list if there is anything you don’t like about their work, and try to think about why you don’t like it.

3|| Think about your style in your life. How do you like to dress? Do you like to dress fancy or more causal? Do you like bold prints or more subtle clothes? Do you wear statement pieces? Also think about how you like to decorate your home. Do you like clean lines in your furniture or a more eclectic look? What do you have up on your walls? Even if you don’t have your clothes and home styled exactly how you want, you still know what you like. These are design items in your everyday life that you have put some thought into, it is a part of your personal style. At the same time, it doesn’t have to dictate your artistic style. Perhaps you live in a more subtle style, but want to explore the bolder side with your art. That’s perfectly fine, make note of it.

4|| What are your interests outside of weaving? List them out, it doesn’t matter what it is. It can be reading, it can be baseball, movies, whatever! When I get a creative block, I like to turn to my other interests that aren’t related to what I’m working on. They really help take your brain in a new direction. For example, I love to read. Now I’m not going to take my love of reading literally and weave a picture of a book, I’m looking to push myself to incorporate my other interest more creatively. Maybe there is a book I read that created a feeling that I could abstractly express in a weave? Incorporating your other interests is a great way to find your personal style.

5|| What woven textures are you drawn to? Do you like weaves that are well designed but flat over all? Do you like weaves with a lot of texture, such as shag, soumak, loops, etc? Do you like a heavy fringe on weaves or no fringe at all? If you don’t really know what you like, then I recommend creating a lot of small weaves with the different textures to get a better idea of what you like.

6|| What yarn textures are you drawn to? Do you like hand-spun yarns? Roving? Smooth or fuzzy yarn? Do you like art yarn? Yarns can play a big role in how your weave turns out overall and it’s amazing how many different textured yarns there are available. This is another area where you might want to play around and try new things.

7|| What colors are you drawn to? Do you like neons or pastels? Do like you neutral colors? Do bold or mermaid colors catch your eye more often? Or maybe earthy tones are what you prefer? This is an area where looking around at items you’ve already collected in your life might help.

8|| Do you like the look of designs with geometric shapes, or do you prefer more organic forms? Even if you like to plan out your designs or make them up as you go will have an affect on your style.

These questions will definitely help you get started on the road to finding your own personal style. Take the answers you come up with and start experimenting, even if you just make a bunch of mini weaves you’ll learn a lot about your style and preferences. And of course you can start saving visuals you like on Pinterest Boards, you will start to see a pattern to your tastes. I also like to save to my boards so that I can later look them over for inspiration.

Are you just starting on the journey to finding your personal style when weaving? Or have gotten to a point where you have found it? I’ve love to hear from you.

Happy Weaving!

Kate

Beginner Circular Weaving Weaving Lessons

Weaving Lessons || How to Use an Embroidery Hoop as a Loom

Hey guys! This post is for those of you who want to try weaving on a circle loom, but you are not in the market for yet another loom. I get it, if I could I’d have 100 different looms, but that’s not happening anytime soon. So a more affordable option is to use an embroidery hoop! I’m so excited to share this with you. Here are the steps:

step 1| remove the outer ring and set to the side

step 2| tie your warp thread to the embroidery hoop with a slip knot

step 3| pull the warp thread straight across the hoop

step 4| bring the warp thread over the hoop and then down and around

step 5| now pull the warp thread back towards the center, but an inch to the right side of where your warp thread started with a slip knot

To pause for a moment and recount your steps, you have brought the warp thread from your slip knot, straight across your hoop. You then went from over your hoop and wrapped the warp thread around to the bottom. Next you pulled the warp thread from the bottom across the hoop, but to the right of the slip knot about an inch. So now your thread is passing over the top of the hoop again. You are making a figure 8, similar to when you warp a frame loom. The reason you make a figure 8 is so that the warp threads meet in the middle. Now for the next step:

step 6| with your thread an inch from the slip knot thread, pass the warp over and around the hoop so that it comes out the bottom

step 7| continue to bring the warp thread across the loom to the position an inch to the right of the previous thread. You will always be passing the thread over an edge and then around to the bottom, then over the next spot.

step 8| continue with your figure 8’s about an inch apart until you reach the last open spot on the loom. Loop the warp thread over and around this last spot.

step 9| at this point you’ll see your middle is making a messy criss-cross of warp threads. Taking your warp string that you just looped around the last spot on the hoop, pull it to the middle and then down around between some of the warp threads, you’ll instantly see that your warp threads are evening out to nice triangles.

step 10| wrap your warp thread around the middle again at perpendicular angle to secure the middle more.

step 11| now you’ll notice that the only spot without two warp threads is where you started your slip knot. Bring your warp thread down over the opposite side of your beginning thread and tie it off. As you can see, there will now be two warp threads going around the hoop for each spot.

step 12| you can now put your outer hoop around your warped hoop and tighten it so that your warp threads don’t slide around. You are ready to weave!

It’s really pretty easy to set up. For ideas on what to weave in your circle, check out my Weaving Techniques List along with my other posts on circular weaving.

Have you been wanting to try circle weaving or are you happy with a regular lap loom? I’d love to hear what you’re working on, or better yet, tag me on Instagram so I can see it!!

Happy Weaving!

Kate

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Embroidery Hoop

Warp Thread

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Beginner Just Some Thoughts Weaving Lessons

What Direction Should I Weave?

I recently have been asked, quite a few times, what is the best approach to weaving, bottom to top or top to bottom. I’ve had so many people ask me this that I thought a post would help all those who also have this question on their mind. My short answer is… do whatever feels right to you. I’ve tried weaving in both of these directions so I’ll go into more detail of the benefits I’ve found.

Weaving top to bottom is my preferred method, but only because I like to have an open design. I usually have an idea of what I want my weave to look like, but I often make changes as I go, so I really like to have my bottom be open to whatever I decide to do. It might be that I wanted to make a bunch of heavy rya knot rows, but after I finish the body of the weave, that original idea doesn’t fit it as well. So by having the bottom completed last I get a better feel for my weave over all and make design changes easily.

A second reason I like to weave upside down is that if I’m weaving on a notched loom, I can then easily use the warp loops at the top of my weave to hang it from. If you’re weaving bottom to top and you fill the whole length of your loom, this is a non-issue because your top will end close to the warp loops, allowing you to use them to hang your weave.

As I have said my personal preference is to weave upside down, or top to bottom, but I’ve had a time or two where I did the opposite. I’ve even had a time where my plan was to weave top to bottom, but then when I finished the weave, I like how it looked facing me. Suddenly the bottom was the top of my weave. I talked about having to make a sneaky finish on that weave here.

If you’re weaving bottom to top on a notched or peg loom, a huge benefit is that you will have warp loops at the bottom when you take your weaving off the loom. A time saving trick is to place your rya knots all the way to the bottom of your loom. And I mean as far down as you can go. By doing this, once you remove your weave from the loom, you can just let your rya knots fall into the warp loops, which means no finishing on the bottom of your weave, how cool is that?

These are the different benefits I’ve found, but I still recommend weaving in the direction that is most comfortable to you when you’re just starting out. Once you get comfortable, experiment! Try weaving in the opposite direction or even weaving sideways (this is weaving with the intent to hang your weave sideways once it’s taken off the loom). I recommend this because it will expand your creativity, by taking you outside of your comfort zone. It will help take away your brain’s expected approach, which often opens up your mind’s creativity since you’re no longer following the standard approach.

I really recommend pushing yourself. If you’re a weaving planner that draws up the exact image of your finished weave and pulls out all the yarns you will use, then try making a weave with no plan or a random basket of yarns (I’ve found awesome colors pairings that I would have never thought of by doing it this way). But if you’re a chaotic weaver that just makes whatever, try a weave that is strictly planned out. It may not work for you and you may start to resort to your preferred style mid-weave, but that is ok. If you at least try it you will be forcing yourself to do things in a different way and this is when you discover new tactics or preferences.

How do you tend to weave? Do you weave bottom to top or top to bottom? Do you always have a strict plan, or do you make it up as you go?

Happy Weaving!

Kate

Older Posts

Newer Posts

Weave This || Off-Center Circle Weave Part 2

Weave This || Off-Center Circle Weave

How to off-center warp a circular loom

Free Circular Weave Pattern – Permafrost Weave

Starting (warping) a circular loom

Prepping your weave to hang nicely

Weave This || Weaving without a loom part 3

Can you make changes to areas already woven?

Weave This || Weaving Without a Loom Part 2

Weave This || Weaving without a Loom

How to Hang a Circle Weave Cut off the Loom

Intermediate Weaving Techniques Roundup

How to Finish a Circle Weave on a Hoop

How I Use Pinterest for Inspiration

Exploring Circular Weaving

3 Books to Boost Creativity

Free Beginner’s Weaving Pattern

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8 Questions to Find Your Own Artistic Style

Weaving Lessons || How to Use an Embroidery Hoop as a Loom

What Direction Should I Weave?

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