Are you sick of my bad word play titles
yet? Too bad :) Today I am going to talk a little about weaving.
I have always found myself
particularly drawn to weaving. I love weaving, and I find it to be
very relaxing. It probably started because I had weeping willows in
my yard growing up in Wisconsin. It was great! Free materials
whenever I wanted. As a kid I would make all kinds of things, hula
skirts, crowns, baskets, a “bow” for shooting “arrows”
(random sticks I found in the yard.), whatever I wanted to play with
that day. It's one thing I miss about living in a temperate forest,
all the free craft supplies! As much as I may try to resist it, (NO!
I am NOT my mother!) I'm a fiber arts person. My first loom was this
tiny little thing used to make Native American style bracelets, and
of course, I have been crocheting since childhood.
I still love weaving baskets but
sadly they are just not cost effective. Reed is pretty pricey to get
out in so-cal, and with every department store on earth selling very
cheaply made baskets at super low cost, there's just no turn around
for me. Due to this basket weaving is a bit of a dying art
form. So, when I weave a basket it is a kind of a treat for myself.
Since joining the SCA I have learned a
few new types of weaving. All the trim you see on my Etsy or
facebook page is inkle weaving. Inkle weaving uses a small loom to make trim in
simple geometric patterns. It dates back to as early the 1600's as it
is referenced in several Shakespeare pieces. Inkle is very
frequently used in the SCA to make “period” trims for garb etc.
When I picked this up I discovered I
really liked making trim. It's fun, and relatively easy, and I can
weave and be social at the same time, watch TV etc. The problem was
I started to have way more trim than I would ever use, and my husband
doesn't appreciate living in a giant ball of trim. So up it went on
the Etsy. To be honest, I was surprised when the first one sold. I
figured it was such a specialty item there wouldn't be much
interest. Several trims later I am still selling, and very happy to
have customers supporting my habit!
I have just sold enough to “pay off”
my first loom, woohoo! Although I have now moved on to a bigger loom
that my friend James made me for Christmas. He's been dabbling in
woodworking and decided to give it a try! (it came out beautiful,
and he even wood burned in a wolf for me, which is part of my SCA
heraldry)
I still have a lot to learn! There is
also card weaving which uses the same loom, but instead of warping
the threads directly through the frame, they are threaded through
“cards” (this allows for a wider variety in patterns.). There
are also a few techniques such as brocading and pick of weaving
which also allow for some fancier trims. Hopefully soon I shall have
some of these fancier trims for all to see!
This is the latest trim off my loom.
After making the purple D20 I was feeling a little purple-y, (to be
fair, I'm almost always feeling purple-y.) Today I warped up the loom
to make some fun orange and black Halloween trim. Yeah, I know it's
only August, but it's my subconscious's way of wishing for cooler
weather. (Fall months will inevitably be filled with tons of
Halloween crafting posts :) )
Update: Since this last post I have also decided to learn card weaving. I wrote a post about making the switch from inkle to card
here.
Thanks again or reading!
See you soon!
~By GoblinGal
#SCA #InkleTrim #Weaving
