Weaving Techniques || How to Hang Your Weave from Anything

That’s right, hang your weave from anything…well, anything that you can tie a string to and will support the weight of the weave, but you get my point. A weaver I follow on Instagram (are we friends yet?) recently posted a beautifully detailed vintage pipe stating that she was hoping to try to hang her weave from it, but wasn’t sure if it would work (and here is a picture of the pipe, thanks Jessica for sharing!). I commented yes it is very possible! This pipe had the strength and width needed for her weave, and it’s actually really easy to hang your weave from objects like this. So this post is for all of you wondering how you can hang your weaves from ‘odd’ objects.

Once you find an object you want to hang your weave from, just make sure it is sturdy enough to support the weight of the weave and it fits the width of the weave, more or less. I would say that even an object that fits most of the width, but leaves some extra weave on each side could work. You’d have to test it out and see if it causes your weave ends to curl in or not. This technique works perfectly on curved branches too.

I used a branch I found outside to hang my weave from. It has a very slight curve and this technique allowed me to adjust the hanging thread to fit the shape of the branch.

To do this technique we’ll be cutting your weave off the loom. This is instead of using warp thread loops to hang your weave. You’ll need enough warp thread length to be able to tie in knots, I like to have 3 inches so that I can tie the knots, but if you can work with shorter threads then great! Ok so here are the steps:

step 1| cut your weave off the loom, leaving 3 inches of warp thread (top & bottom).

step 2| double knot two warp thread strings together, then tuck into the back of your weave. (I forgot to take pictures of this step, so I included a picture from a different weave. The visual helps)

step 3| cut a long piece of thread that you’ll hang your weave with. Your thread will need to be long enough to go across the whole weave top. The length of your thread also depends on how spaced you want to hang your weave. For example do you want it to hang 3 inches below the object you’re hanging it from? Or do you want it right up against the object? Do you want the hanging thread to be spaced every 1 inch across the top of the weave, or do you want the hanging thread to be touching all the way across the top?

Here are two examples of weaves I’ve hung using this technique. As you can see there are a lot of options when you hang a weave in this way.

step 4| taking your hanging thread, pull the thread from the front of the weave to the back. I do this at least 2 rows down, so that the rows support the weight of the weave hanging. Double knot the hanging thread to itself in the back of your weave.

step 5| lay the object you’re hanging the thread from next to the top of the weave in the position you want the weave to hang. Bring the hanging thread over the front of the object and then around to the back of the object and back to the weave top.

step 6| pull the hanging thread through the back of the weave through to the front. Then loop over and under the object again.

step 7| repeat this looping until you’ve attached the object to the weave. Since your hanging thread is just being looped around the hanging object, you can easily loosen or tighten the thread so that the weave hangs straight. You can also adjust how close you want the weave to be to the hanging object.

step 8| once you’ve reached the end of the hanging object, tie your hanging thread to itself in a double knot a the back of the weave.

step 9| Tuck the beginning hanging thread tail and ending hanging thread tail into the back of your weave and then trim it.

My favorite part of hanging weaves in this way is that it opens up a lot of flexibility in how you hang your weaves and opens up a lot of design possibilities. Even if you weave on a loom that allows for warp loops, you can tie those off and hang your weave in this way.

And if you’re looking for more ideas, here are some other ways to hang a weave.

How do you normally hanging your weaves? Like this or using warp loops? Is this an ‘odd’ object that you’ve hung a weave from before? I’d love to hear about it.

Happy Weaving!

Kate

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