Weaving and whatnot

Phew! Well, here are a couple of photos of some weaving I've done today. I made one brown Tudor garter. I wanted to use up some brown wool I had and make sure that my little loom worked before using some of the fancy coloured wool I have.

To be honest, in my line of work, brown is probably a better colour because of the amount of time spent working with animals. Yellow or blue garters, though, that'd be cool, and clash really well with my kirtle and hose! I have to set up the loom again though, and that takes time.

So... I'm going to spend the evening making a sheath for my brilliant new knife from Big Beynon's Blacksmithing and, if I have time, maybe finish off some of my fingerless gloves for a stall I'm manning at Martineau Gardens Spring Event in May.

Basic Tablet-weaving Loom

I've been doing some simple 12-thread tablet weaving recently to make some garters (tie-ups) for my hose (woollen socks). So far I've been tablet weaving with some corrugated cardboard tablets (squares with 4 holes in that move the thread to change which colour threads appear in the pattern). I basically attach one end of the 24 threads to my belt and the other end to a stationary hook or handle with the tablets in-between (I'll put up some pictures and more if an explanation later - still working on the format of videos). I've got the hang of a basic stripey pattern and some chevrons so far which is fab!

The weaving was so much better than I thought I would be able to do with it just attached to me, but I did find that it twisted a lot, so I am now stepping it up a notch by making a simple wooden loom which I think I'll attach to a surface with a vice but I'm not sure I want to ruin the dining room table just yet so I'll see how it works without! But that's what I'll play about with this week. I want to make better tablets (maybe with playing cards) first as well but that shouldn't take too long. Here's a picture of the loom!

Inner embroidery hoop dilemma!

I didn't really believe that when it said "Embroidery inner hoops only" online that someone would actually sell just the inners but here I sit with 20 embroidery inner hoops and some wool, contemplating the fact that late night shopping can be a bad thing and that I now need to find something to do with all 20 of them or at least find something to do with one of them and a workshop idea to tote around town. 

The website did say "Use these for loads of crafts! They're really useful" etc etc. So people must be doing something with them and I'm not one to give up on a challenge! (... except the code in a day thing. Fail. But I coded a little bit and that's the main thing) 

Anyway back to my hoops. Apart from making hula hoops for sprites, I wanted to do something with them. 
Tried weaving - didn't really work. 
Thought about wrapping wool around the edge - couldn't really see the point
Flirted with the idea of dreamcatchers - bit cliché.

Googled a bit and found this on livingcrafts.com! -  Embroidery hoop weaving loom
- My problem with weaving initially was that the wool wouldn't hold but this lady has used an elastic band to keep the wool still so I'll give it a go.

I love to weave and this is a really simple way of maybe making some funky coasters. I have hessian so I might use a thick wool as a base and make a rustic-looking coaster, or using waterproof wool/strips of plasticky fabric. I do love the rainbow colours they've used here and I LOVE bright colours so we'll see. Much plotting and doodling to ensue on this front I think. And I could definitely do a workshop on this, whether that's through making the loom or weaving it is simple and would easily fill an hour.