I told my Husband the other day that I wanted to make him a guitar strap, since he needed one. I showed him some straps on Pinterest that I thought might be nice, and once he had picked one he liked, I made a draft of the pattern and I had him choose 3 colors from the cones of 8/4 that I have on hand. I needed a dark, a medium and a light color, and he choose what I considered a very interesting grouping. I wasn't at all sure it was going to work, but of course what do I know!
I measured a 2 yard warp, ( it probably should have been 3 yards) on the warping board and I beamed the warp on my little Harrisville "Easy Weaver" that had just been emptied the day before. The warp went on easily and I set to threading the rigid heddle that would hold the 90 ends of 8/4 cotton that I needed for this project. The warp went on without a hitch, but when I started to weave, I found the loom wasn't deep enough to allow the band to draw in smaller than the reed it was in! Bother!
I knew then that I needed to make string heddles and put it on the backstrap loom that I had borrowed from the Center some months ago. I managed to transfer the warp to the backstrap loom, make string heddles, (a first for me) and I was merrily weaving away when the stick that was holding the warp snapped! Turns out was dried out and rotten. Rats!
I pondered my choices, my floor looms are full and I don't own an Inkle loom anymore, so I ended up running to the Center this morning with grandkids in tow, I ran in and grabbed the nearest Inkle loom and signed it out in the equipment loan book, and ran back out. I then continued with my grandmotherly duties until just before lunch, when Mom came back from her meeting and I could go home to see if I could salvage this project by transferring this warp one more time.
It took quite a bit of fussing, but I did manage to get it on the loom in some sort of order and I have woven about 1/2 of a yard. I consider this to be a trial run of the pattern and color combination since it will probably be too short, but I really like how this combination is looking.
I will see how much length I lose in the weaving, and then I will be able to calculate how long the real project warp should be. I have bought a hardware kit for a guitar strap, and I really like it, but I would love to find a less expensive hardware kit, in case I want to make some of these to put in our fall shows. If you know of a good source for these kits do let me know.
Until next time, Happy Weaving, Tina
I measured a 2 yard warp, ( it probably should have been 3 yards) on the warping board and I beamed the warp on my little Harrisville "Easy Weaver" that had just been emptied the day before. The warp went on easily and I set to threading the rigid heddle that would hold the 90 ends of 8/4 cotton that I needed for this project. The warp went on without a hitch, but when I started to weave, I found the loom wasn't deep enough to allow the band to draw in smaller than the reed it was in! Bother!
I knew then that I needed to make string heddles and put it on the backstrap loom that I had borrowed from the Center some months ago. I managed to transfer the warp to the backstrap loom, make string heddles, (a first for me) and I was merrily weaving away when the stick that was holding the warp snapped! Turns out was dried out and rotten. Rats!
I pondered my choices, my floor looms are full and I don't own an Inkle loom anymore, so I ended up running to the Center this morning with grandkids in tow, I ran in and grabbed the nearest Inkle loom and signed it out in the equipment loan book, and ran back out. I then continued with my grandmotherly duties until just before lunch, when Mom came back from her meeting and I could go home to see if I could salvage this project by transferring this warp one more time.
I will see how much length I lose in the weaving, and then I will be able to calculate how long the real project warp should be. I have bought a hardware kit for a guitar strap, and I really like it, but I would love to find a less expensive hardware kit, in case I want to make some of these to put in our fall shows. If you know of a good source for these kits do let me know.
Until next time, Happy Weaving, Tina
1 comment:
That project had a life of its own!!!! I like the color placement...great design. I'll keep my eyes open for the hardware kit.
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