When a Project Goes Well

I'm thrilled with the way this turned out! Despite winging it without a pattern, improvising all the way, everything still went together perfectly. Many decisions were based solely on supplies at hand.

• I had all the cotton denim yarn, purchased at a clearance sale months ago.


• The bright orange acrylic was leftover yarn given to me by my daughter.


• Who doesn't have a pair of holey old jeans kicking around?


• I even had leftover thread in the right colours.


• I had the perfect buttons purchased long ago for a project that I changed my mind about.


• The inkle band, cut in two, turned out to be exactly the right length to make shoulder straps that place the bag at a comfortable carrying height.


• The inner pockets were made from a scrap leftover from the main lining.


• The plastic canvas was in my stash, previously rescued from a thrift store for next to nothing.


• The bag turned out a nice size and shape simply by cutting the woven yardage exactly in half.

The only things I had to buy specifically for the project were the fusible interfacing (to stablize the weave so it could be cut and sewn), and the bright orange broadcloth for the lining. Both of those I got at a local department store. I didn't even have to set foot into our big (annoying, high priced, slow service) fabric store.

All the details would have taken less time if I had had a commercial pattern to refer to. As it was I had to stop and carefully think about how best to accomplish the features I wanted. The bottom and the narrower sides were given some stability with plastic canvas basted invisibly between the layers. The inside was lined, complete with six customized pockets, four flat ones of various sizes, and two pleated ones for bulkier objects.

With the exception of the inkle bands, I have enough of everything left over to make another whole bag.
I haven't decided yet whether I will do that and sell the extra one, or if I will buy a pattern for some kind of lined purse. Either way it won't be anytime soon. Sewing isn't my favourite hobby. Although I did a fair bit of it years ago, now I only sew when it is a necessary step for finishing some other fibre related project.

Another Idea

Lately the ideas for creative projects have been coming fast and furious. I can't get one finished before four more are shouting and shoving in an effort to find their way to the forefront. Their antics often have me tossing and turning in the middle of the night.

This latest project, an inkle band, is at least a "go with" for the handwoven fabric (sitting in the background) that I just completed on the rigid heddle loom. Now to dig out the sewing machine and get to work designing something to bring the two together.

Similar But Not the Same

You may recall that I made my mother-in-law a set of place mats for Christmas. I loved those place mats, and they went so well with my decor that I just had to rewarp the rigid heddle loom and make something similar for myself.

I don't actually use place mats on our dinner table, so I decided to make mats for the shelves in this pretty hutch instead. These runner style mats are 11" x 21.5" so narrower and longer than the place mats but very similar in style, also using the same Sirdar Denim Tweed DK woven in tabby at 10 epi.



So far I haven't found a way to easily vary the length of my warp (using a peg method and the one and only place I can set up the loom and the peg), so I warped the loom twice for the set, getting three runners per warp. I'm very pleased with the result. They fit the shelves perfectly.



Hmmmm....now I have my eye on the shelves in my computer hutch.......they seem to be needing a little something.

Cut a Rug

I got a bit of the cutting done last night, and finished the remainder today. Boy is that hard on the hands. And probably on the scissors too!

All of the balls of handwoven chenille bagged up and ready for the next step --- weaving it into a pile rug. Don't hold your breath though, the guild loom won't be ready for the next stage for quite some time. First all interested weavers must do this step, then the loom needs to be rewarped for the next step, and that will not likely be until after Christmas.

Not too many guild members are interested in weaving one of these at this busy time of the year. I've offered to help use up the existing warp by weaving another run of chenille as I still have a fair bit of "stash" left. Tricky hey? I'll tackle that some time next week.

Placemats Done

Hemmed yesterday and ready for the guild's show and tell today.

They're looking a little rumpled in the picture because I had them wrapped around a rectangular piece of Styrofoam for storage. Maybe I'll press them again and try wrapping them around a cardboard tube instead.

With Great Pleasure

I set out yesterday to get my rigid heddle loom warped for a set of placemats. With many other things to accomplish first, I got a late start and thought I'd be lucky if I had time to do any of the weaving at all.

I had the loom warped by 3 pm and thought I'd weave for a wee bit before I had to start cooking supper.


A couple of hours later the project was going so well and looking so pretty that I had to tear myself away to cook, feed the family, and clean up after dinner. Then I was back at it, weaving, weaving, weaving until by bedtime I had totally finished the yardage --- and then some even. Wanting to utilize as much of the warp as I could I actually wove past the heddle blocks by holding the heddle up or down with one hand while pushing the shuttle through with the other.


I'm loving the finished result. I popped it in the washer this morning, into the dryer for a few minutes, and have it all pressed and waiting for cutting into placemats, machine stabilization of the ends, and hand hemming.

The weft is all Sirdar Denim Tweed DK in shade # 0636. The warp is mostly the same, but with a small amount of handspun wool (the darker, solid, vertical stripes), and a small amount of Sirdar Denim Tweed DK in natural (the white stripes on either side of the dark, handspun stripes).

Woo, Hooo! Gotta love it when a project goes so well.

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Warp Salvaging

I had trouble with that warp I put on the other day. The selvedges got really tight and the centre portion went soft. I think it was a problem with the way I wound onto the back beam, and I know how to correct that, so I cut off the old warp. I salvaged what I could by making this:



A small purse just the right size for carrying a small wallet and keys. The strap is a narrow inkle woven band. The button is handmade from a cross-section of an antler. The two centre holes were drilled too close together and made a larger, joined hole, making it impossible to sew on "correctly", but I like the extra interest it provides when sewn on like this.



I have now rewarped with the same pattern to make the scarf I had originally intended to make.

Off Track And Wandering

The exercise tracker has not budged since last Friday. I've been feeling weak and achy for several days. Not a full blown flu mind you, but not up to my usual routines. I've been sleeping a fair bit, and in between I pick up this or that and work on it as long as my attention holds.



Not much progress on any one item, but inching forward on all. I plied up the remaining superwash merino which was leftover after the Lace Edged Denim Sweater was completed. I've started a top down sock with a simple wave-like pattern. I've restarted (for about the 15th time!) the Olympic '02 Team USA ski sweater. Looks like this time might be the charm. (Either that or I am getting more frustrated and therefor less picky.) On the inkle loom in the back is a failed attempt to learn a pick-up technique. I've resorted to weaving it off in the default pattern created doing plain weave.

Inkle Loom

I've had this Inkle loom for months now, maybe even as much as a year or more, and despite great intentions it remained unused until just last night.



Because of my recent interest in the "nail loom" I joined a Yahoo group dedicated to small looms. That led me to another Yahoo group devoted specifically to just Inkle looms. That in turn led me to a blog with a tutorial on how to get the Inkle loom warped.

Suddenly the time seemed right to drag out the Inkle loom and a bag of old crochet cotton and finally get down to the business of warping the loom. I plunked the loom down in front of the computer and followed the pictures and explanations step by step. Within a very short time I was weaving. By evening's end I was nearly finished.

My colour and fibre choices were limited to what I had on hand and my "draft" was ultra simple, but my goal was simply to learn to warp the loom and to practise the weaving, so I'd deem the exercise a success.

I found the warping and weaving to be very easy, but keeping the selvedges even and neat was another matter. I have a feeling that it will take a lot of practise to get those looking good.

Next step? Finding something I like better for the warp. Different colours perhaps and maybe thicker --- I'll be looking for perle cotton locally.