Saturday, June 26, 2010

Tablet Weaving

Those that know me well, know that when I try something I usually try all of something, and usually all at once (sorry Brian, I know this can be hard to live with sometimes). For example the newest fun craft in my house is weaving. It started with the little rigid heddle loom that made a couple of scarves on, then I picked up a cheapo kids toy square 'loop' loom or a potholder loom that comes with those little nylon rings for making utterly useless potholders. I used it to make 4 squares that I then turned into a teddy bear (sorry, no pics, gave it a way as soon as it was off of the loom). Then I got my floor loom and I currently have a project going on that as well as another scarf on the rigid heddle. Then I came across this website called the Society of Primitive Technology and they have a cool page on how to do Tablet or Card weaving. It's pretty simple and utterly complex at the same time. So for a while I also had 6 feet of string and whatnot strung across the dining room.
Basically you make square cards (though the don't have to be - there are many patterns that call for triangles or octagons or...well, you get the idea) and punch holes in the corners and then label them. Then you measure your warp, string it through the holes, tie knots in each end, tie one end to something (I used a dining room chair) tie the other end to your belt (or another chair, whatever gets you tension)
 and start weaving your weft back and forth through the shed that is made by the space between holes on the cards:
The pattern is born when you rotate the cards towards or away from you in accompaniment with the warping pattern. I basically used 4 turns away and then 4 turns towards myself and got this pattern:
The back of the strap creates another pattern:
After it was deemed long enough I hemmed the ends (trial and error will be a big part of my learning curve on this one...this strap is pretty thick and so that means the hems are too....I will eventually figure out how to remedy this) and sewed in a couple of D rings and made a belt for Abby.

Jacob is begging for one and I have already picked up the 'more manly' shades of blues and will be making new cards shortly (the ones I made from card stock barely made it through this project  - need thicker ones that don't have bendy corners). I have already got the wooden squares and sanded them, now I need to drill the holes and label them then I can start. Oh, and finish those projects that are ongoing on the looms too...

1 comment:

Alexis AKA MOM said...

My dear your the most craft person I've ever met!!! I so love it, what a very cool idea!

Sorry we'll miss you next weekend, but I so agree coffee is in order :)