Wednesday 31 August 2016

And my butterfly mind has now landed at.....

peg-loom weaving!

I've been wanting to try it for quite some time and finally bought myself a loom from Dales Looms, who are based in North Yorkshire.   
In the end I decided to go for the 90cm loom, with 6mm and 9mm pegs and three different peg spacings.  I had a little play with it for the first time yesterday, setting it up on my ironing-board.  Perhaps in future I will be able to get the warp threads in place, turn it around and use it sitting down ~ hopefully the loom will be wide enough to rest on the arms of my chair. 



It was rather tedious setting up the warp threads in the pegs ~ perhaps I shouldn't have use 33 pegs for my first attempt LOL  I used the 6mm pegs and really could have done with using longer threads but hey ho, it was my first attempt after all!


I've been doing lots of searches for peg-looming instructions, hints, tips, etc, and somewhere in my travels I came across the idea of adding tassels at the start of the work.  Perhaps I should have done some practice pieces before leaping in with tassels ~ they look lovely here but got somewhat tangled up further in the process.


The actual weaving itself is simply a case of going in and out of the pegs.  I found that I quickly got into a rhythm, and it was actually rather lovely ~ gentle and soothing.


It didn't take long to fill the pegs and then came (for me, at any rate) the tricky part of taking the work from the pegs, and pulling the warp threads through.


The instructions I was following said to take each peg from its hole, pull the warp thread all the way through until the knot is reached, and replace the peg in its hole.  Now, this seemed perfectly clear and easy when reading the instructions, but in practice I found it a tad more difficult.  This is also where the tassels got rather tangled up in the loose ends of the warp threads!

Anyhoo, I persevered all the way along and then found myself in something of a quandry.  The work was at the end of the warp threads, as per the instructions, and so there was an expanse of empty warps ~ and I couldn't work out how to keep the last length of weaving yarn at the right tension.  In the end, I just sort of fudged it together and hoped for the best! 


 I've since found some more instructions which say to pull the warp threads just through the weaving, then replace the pegs in their holes, which is actually what I did for the second round of weaving on the pegs.  I guess it will come good with enough practice :-)


And there it is, my first attempt at peg loom weaving!  I'm really rather pleased with it, and using a chunky yard with the smaller pegs has produced a nice firm piece of weaving.  I'm already thinking of things I want to make ~ cushion covers.....rugs.....dining chair seat pads.....bags......wall hangings

I think I will definitely be able to keep myself busy LOL

signature photo Untitled_zpsw5j1utor.png

6 comments:

  1. Hmm, something new to me! Very interesting. I will have to check out youtube and see what it is you're doing. I kinda think that this could be habit forming and relaxing, like knitting and crocheting. That is some pretty variegated yarn you have.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Back again - I watched a lady weaving on her stick loom and it is really simple, even I could do it. There seems to be no end to the number of things you can make!

    ReplyDelete
  3. oh Sharon, it's VERY addictive, it really is! I've now made a wallhanging ~ will do a post about it soon!

    ReplyDelete
  4. I definitely want to give this a try!!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Shirley, do give it a try ~ but please don't blame me if you can't stop weaving LOL I've started making a rug, would you believe!

    ReplyDelete