Weaving For The Girls' Room

An ongoing goal for me over the last 6 months has been working on finding projects I can work on in teeny tiny increments (think 5-30 minutes). Back in October, I felt the urge to get back into weaving, so I got to work. Cora was hanging around when I started this piece, so she picked this pink color and asked if this could be for her room. I worked on this in 30 minute increments over a week or so, then finished it up in January. Because I was working on this mostly at nights and during the middle of winter, the picture quality is all over the place... but that is not my biggest priority.  I always love seeing people's progress pictures, so here you go...

This is when I should have been finished according to my 'plan', but it just didn't feel right to me. I let this sit for a couple days before adding the black stripe on the top...then let it sit for a month or two before I decided it was for sure finished. 

Since I finished this up during the middle of winter, I wasn't super excited to head out and look for a stick to hang this on. During a walk in January, I decided to keep an eye out and found the perfect stick in front of our friends' house. I cleaned off the stick, trimmed it down, and attached the weaving.

Cora loved the final piece and kept mentioning how much it looks like a dress. I found the perfect spot in my favorite little corner of the girls' room.

Mountain Weaving

You may have seen a small mountain inspired weaving in my roundup of my baby weavings.  I didn't love the small one, but decided to forge ahead and try to make a larger version with a couple changes. Shortly after I made the small one, Willow Brook Design shared a mountain weaving on IG.

I love the added stripes in the piece, so I decided I needed to add some texture (something I hadn't practiced before making the baby mountain weaving).

I started with long fringe then alternated between a plain over under weave and loops to add lots of texture.  At this point, I took a 2-4 week break because I hadn't picked out yarn for the rest of the piece.  Once I got some motivation, I picked out the below grayscale and jumped right back into it.

I used the soumak weaving technique for the darker textured gray.  This was my first time trying out this technique, and I love the resulting texture.  It kind of reminds me a lot of the same motions as sewing, so it felt really comfortable right away.

I did a regular over under weave for the top range and alternated between that and soumak for the 'sky'.

I finished it off with a stick I found while on one of my #walkswithcora.  It's hard to convey it's size in photos, but the final piece is about 8"x26" and is our favorite one so far.

Baby Weavings

After finishing my 'large' weavings (see here and here), I decided to make a small loom that I could make little baby weavings and practice some different techniques.  The smaller weavings are nice to try out some different color schemes and ideas before I commit to a larger more time consuming weaving.

I was inspired by all of the mountains on our trip to Bethesda, Maryland and made this small weaving.  I think this would look better if I had more of a gradient for the mountains, but I was working with what I had.  This was my first piece that I was working with more of a free form pattern than my other straight/geometric weavings.  I would love to make a larger weaving with this idea.
Sidenote: I LOVE this mountain weaving that WillowBrookeDesign just shared on Instagram.

For this weaving, I wanted to try out the loop technique.  I ended up liking the back of this weaving better than the front, but I really enjoy the added texture that this loop technique brings in.  Also, the turquoise/yellow color combo is something I've always loved

This weaving was inspired by a date night sunset.  The sunset was reflecting off of the windows of a building and created this step like pattern contrasting with the dark building.  I love this one because it reminds me of that date night and Ben says this is his favorite.  We have this hanging in our living room gallery wall, so we see it practically 24/7.

I just went with the flow for this weaving.  I started with the fringe using some scrap yarn and then finished off the body pretty quickly with the fluffy white yarn.  I've seen some pieces like this around Instagram, so this is nothing unique.  I loved that this took such a short amount of time (something I don't have a lot of these days) and the finished product is pretty cute.

Which one is your favorite baby weaving?  Where is the most random place you've found inspiration?

Weaving Number Two

For the holiday, I always exchange presents with my friend Jazz... and my present for her is always 2-3 weeks behind.  She got me and awesome giraffe cardboard taxidermy head thing and the most perfect infinity scarf ever (great pattern, draping, volume.  basically everything you need in a scarf)... and I just made her this woven wall hanging.  I knew Jazz would be the perfect recipient of a woven wall hanging and I was just itching to make another one after finishing my large triangle weaving.  I not so slyly asked her about colors she likes and what would fit in her decor (I'm sure she fully knew what I was making her because she's always up on her Facebook and IG stalking).  She basically likes all colors so I just went for it.

I started with some scraps from some fabric I got in Africa.  I love the way it brings in pattern, texture, and metallics, but doesn't dominate the piece.  I planned a small weaving with a simple hourglass shape because my large weaving took so long to make.  Once I started, I was flying through the green part so I decided to go ahead and make it a larger/longer piece.

I knew I wanted to add the white fluffy yarn because I love the texture it brings in... Then it sat like this for a couple days while I decided between a couple different colors for the other areas.

I originally wanted to bring in a mustard yellow because I know she likes that and it would work well with the African scrap fabric, but I wasn't 100% sure.  I eventually decided that the yellow and green were the same shade and it really needed black for more contrast.

Finished up the black and added the fringe... trimmed the fringe... wasn't so sure about the fringe length/shape so let it sit for a couple days... then finally declared the piece finished.

photo by Jazz

Jazz loved the present and has it hanging up near her fan from Asia just like our weaving is hanging near the fan she gifted me.  I love that we both hung our weavings and fans in a similar fashion.

I love making projects for gifts, so this was really fun for me!  I also took some 'nice' pictures with my DSLR of the finished project, so I'll share those whenever I get around to uploading... so stay tuned!

Large Triangle Weaving

I mentioned a couple months ago that I started weaving using a cardboard loom.  I've been seeing a lot of weavings popping up around pinterest and blogland.  Despite being extremely intimidated, I finally decided to have a go at making a larger weaving.  I love seeing pictures and hearing the thought process on DIY projects, so I thought I'd share some behind-the-scene details (bear with me on the picture quality).

I made my own loom using an old canvas frame and nails and then I got to weaving.  This piece took me quite a while because its not really a craft that can be done with a toddler running around and I took breaks between each color to make sure I liked where I was going.  I started out with a general plan, but I also kept myself open to going with the flow if I was feeling something else in the moment.

I took a two month break here because I wasn't sure exactly what color I wanted to use, then I couldn't find the right shade of green.  Green is my favorite color, but I'm very particular about the shade.

I didn't like the original plan for the fringe once I saw it in person.  I let it sit for a couple of days before I made the plunge, then I trimmed it up and made little tassels from the scraps.

I picked a fluffy white yarn for the background of the piece to bring in texture.  It was amazing how long it took me to weave the triangles, but the white filled in so quickly because of the size and fluff.

It took about 2 hours tops to fill in the white, but I was so happy with the look and I was almost finished.

We hung it up in Cora's nursery area so we can all enjoy it.  I'm hoping to take some better pictures of the weaving and nursery changes once I'm home when there is daylight in our apartment... so in the spring.  This project kind of felt like the baby quilt where I was extremely intimidated to start and paused between each step, but in hindsight it wasn't very difficult and I love the results.  Have you ever tried weaving?  Have you ever had a project you were intimidated to try, but it ended up not being all that hard when you finished?