I’ve talked about this before, but I thought I’d touch on it again for those who will find it helpful. After finishing the non-loom weave, I saw that mine wasn’t hanging nicely on the wall. Some of the sides were curling inward and there were a lot of waves in the weave itself.
Luckily there is a really simple way to fix this and make your weave look much nicer laying against a wall.
If you’ve knitted or crocheted before, you have probably heard of blocking. Blocking is used after you have finished with your fiber creation to help relax the fibers so that it will lay nicer. And since we are weaving with the same fibers, we can use blocking on our creations too!
If you look at my weave, you can see the sides curl inward a bit and that the middle has a wave to it. This is due to the fact that the fibers have different tensions that are pulling on the weave and causing it to not sit flatly. By using the blocking technique, I’ll relax my fibers and somewhat tame the tensions into the shape that I want the weave to sit in.
The first step is to fully wet your weave. I suggest using cold water and being careful to not swish your weave around and agitate the fibers. This is because fibers like wool will felt together when they are agitated in hot water. So just to be sure treat your weave carefully.
Next, I took a folded up towel and laid my weave on it flatly. There are such things as blocking boards, but I like using a folded towel because it will absorb the water from my weave and also I don’t have to purchase anything new.
If your weave is too wet, before laying your weave on the blocking towel, take a second towel to remove the dampness. Place your weave on that second towel and carefully roll the weave in the towel. Then gently press down on the rolled up weave and towel to remove some of the excess water. This is a great way to remove water in a way that will be gentle on your weave. After you’ve done this put your rung out weave on the first towel that you’ll be blocking on.
Once I laid my weave out on the blocking towel, I took some straight pins and pinned my weave to the towel, smoothing it out into the shape I wanted it to stay in. You can use safety pins or whatever else you have on hand that will hold the weave in place to the towel.
Let the weave dry completely. Once it is dried, you can remove the pins and your weave will be ready to hang again. You’ll see that now your weave is much straighter and hangs against the wall much nicer.
I love doing this simple finishing technique that has a great impact on the overall appearance of my weaves. Have you ever done this with your weaves?
Happy Weaving!
Kate
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