A little bit of Inlay

Check out these little pictures! Starting from the left:

1. The original warp design with green stripes at the sides.

I tried to weave with this and discovered that the bumps in the green yarn made weaving impossible. My husband asked, "Didn't you notice that when you were warping?" To which I answered (with a sheepish grin), "Well, I noticed it was challenging to get through the heddle, but I didn't know that it would be impossible to weave! :)"

2. The mess. After having problems with green stripe #1, I tried replacing the bumpy green with a smooth green yarn. It made an awful mess. I wasn't careful as I unwound the warp and ended up having to cut of the green stripes and the extra yellow.

3. The yellow warp. Whew! The green weft was just a thick yarn that I used to get things started.

4. The finished flower. Look, Ma! A Flower! It wasn't terribly hard to do... it required a bit of focus, but otherwise it was ok! The background is all plainweave. To make the inlay patterning, throw a pick of plain weave, pickup the threads where you want the inlay color and pass the inlay yarn into this shed. Change sheds, throw a pick of plain weave, and do the next bit of inlay.

PS. Check out what is sitting by my sewing machine! It's my grey dots fabric--it's off the loom!

Plans for Inlay Weaving

Our community garden is in need of some flags. The entrance to the garden is off a busy road and the drive is just an access drive to a field. We would like to have some bright flags there to remind gardeners of the entrance, and to let other drivers know that there is a reason why people put their turn signals on at that point!


I have some BRIGHT yellow and pink-ish orange yarns that I thought would make a nice flag...the trick was figuring out how to make it look nice (as well as extremely visible!).

Swedish Weaving by Thelma M. Nye has instructions for a window blind (called "Sunsmoke" by Peter Condu) that caught my eye. The weaving is a tabby ground weave with the pattern/design thread laid in with the ground by hand.

Other references use cartoons or drawings to determine where to put the inlay and I've warped my rigid heddle loom to try it. I have the bright yellow as the background (warp & weft) with some green stripes and will try to inlay some tulips in the center. I'll use the bright pink-ish orange for the flower and two greens for the leaves. Wish me luck! This is new for me!

Here are some pictures of inlay work by others. Seeing their work gives me hope for my project!


This is a simple inlay done on a Weavette loom. It looks easy, right?
It was part of eLoomanator's Square Deal Weave-Along in 2008.










Here is one done with a "cartoon" to help create the inlay pattern. It's the Diaphanous Leaves scarf from Sally Orgren's WeaveZine article.









And this is the piece that sold me on trying this for my garden flags--Isn't this beautiful! It's by Lynette Glass. Here's the link to her website. Check out her gallery! She makes beautiful work!









And, last, but not least, LOOK! The knots at the end of my warp are visible! This is terribly terrific! How can I weave only 8" a day when the end is so near!!!!!!

Actually, my shoulder has been doing better and I have been getting 8-12" a day, but I am still being careful, and slow...and I just want to weave and weave and get this done, but I don't want to be in pain, so I'll take it slow.

4 Harness Loom for Sale

I can't believe I'm doing this! I just posted my "baby" for sale!

This is a 45" Nilus Leclerc 4 Harness loom with 6 treddles. It's a great loom! I'm including the loom, the bench, a warping board, and some books. The loom has a 12 dent reed (hmm. That's the short reed in the photo...I'm selling this with a full length 12 dent reed) and inserted eye heddles--roughly 300 per harness. $800 for the entire package--local pick-up only.

Why am I selling this loom? Perhaps, like Bilbo Baggins, I'm feeling like "butter spread over too much bread" and I need to thin down the amount of physical space my weaving takes (physically and psychologically). Perhaps, I just want the room and means to get a new toy.

If you are looking for a loom, this is a great loom! If you are local (or willing to spend some time here) I'd be willing to throw in some lessons for free.

Double Weave Bands

I've been inspired by Laverne Waddington's blog about backstrap weaving. She has some nice tutorials on the blog and a great article on WeaveZine. I wanted to try the double weave technique, but didn't want to figure out a backstrap set-up, so I wound the warp on my inkle loom. It took a few tries, but by the end I had an idea of what I was doing and was enjoying the process!














My inkle/backstrap double weave band lead to the desire for more band work. Out came my pattern book for double weave tablet woven bands by Linda Hendrickson. I started with a 48 card pattern, got lost, and decided to back up a step or two. The squiggles (they look a bit like blades of grass) are the hair from KokoPele's head. The upsidedown triangle thing in the dark green rectangle was the "something more simple" that I created on the fly. I think I'll be making a few more "simple somethings" before I try the charted patterns again. I'm still excited about this. It's taken me months and months to even try these patterns and I'm finally getting there!









And, last but not least, I am making progress on my grey dots fabric. I'm over the halfway point in the warp. I get 4-12" woven each day. I've added a weighted binder clip temple like this paper clip one due to the loss of four warp threads on the left side (I've only lost one on the right). I decided not to repair the broken warp threads since they are in the selvage...and I expect they would just break again if I repaired them. Inch by inch I'm moving along!

Plant stand, card weaving prep, and progress!

My husband came home the other night and needed a project--something that he could make in one night and complete. I had already drawn up a sketch for my plant grow-light stand, but together we got real numbers, and he went to town! Isn't it great! Eventually I will move it up onto a table on the porch. :)












I've been winding warps. There are 11 card weaving/tablet weaving warps in this shoe box. The girls are church are going to make friendship bracelets.

The warping method I used was one Linda Hendrickson uses--continuous warping. The pack of cards are threaded as one, and single cards are dropped as the warp is wound. Sound confusing? It's not as bad as it sounds. She has a video on youTube to help.









And, last but not least, I am making progress on my grey "dots" warp. Between my sore shoulder and a jammed little finger I am making slow progress...but it's still progress! I'm glad to be able to weave, and I love to pet the finished cloth as it's woven!