Adventures in Pin Loom Weaving—Your Beading Heart

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Someone asked me to make  a video on using beads in a heart shape for the pin loom. As much “fun” as it is to make a video, I’d rather hold off to see if it’s totally necessary. For instance, the heart pattern I made up is so similar to the Single Outline Diamond that, in a video, a lot of the information would be repetitious. Furthermore, printed instructions, a pattern, and photos would be just as, if not more, helpful–in my opinion (which bears a lot of sway with me)–than a video. And another thing–I need some outside opinions on the finished product before I make a final decision.

Let’s start with the design.

For lack of a better title, I'll it "Single Outline Heart"

For lack of a better title, I’ll call it “Single Outline Heart”

I’m getting faster at figuring these graphs out, but it’s still considerable effort. Though I have access to a computer weaving-draft whatcamajiggy, I still prefer to draw the design out by hand, erase, redesign and redraw on another section of the piece of graph paper. The photo above is the third version of the heart I designed.

Why didn’t I make the sides (Rows 8-12) a straight line? Because you can’t. The warp strands won’t be woven in if you go U-3 in the same spot in four rows. Trying to figure out in my head (and on paper) if I could manipulate the Layer 2 strands (I think they’re called picks) yielded dissatisfying results–though I may still try it just to see how the heart looks.

18 MAY 2017 UPDATE: You can make it appear as though there is a straight line on R8-12 by plain weaving on rows 8 and 10. This will yield a thinner-looking line and the absence of any pattern stitches will not be noticeable. Leaving the bead off those rows will be more noticeable, but I still think it will look better.

MATERIALS

yarn

30 beads with holes large enough to accommodate yarn (I used 6/0 Rocaille, or seed, beads) Read More →

Adventures in Pin Loom Weaving—When the Weaving Gets Too Tight at the Top

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In the “Single Outline Diamond with beads” video, near the end, I demonstrate . . .

WHAT TO DO WHEN THE WEAVING GETS TIGHT AT THE TOP

The first thing to do is use your thumb to press down on the threads when there’s not enough room for the Tug technique (see My First Video). Next you can use your fork; if your fork doesn’t have a straight edge at the end of the handle, you can use the side of the tines.

When you’ve hit the frame and nothing else will do, you can use a crochet hook. I use an Amour by Clover, size B (2.25 mm) because it fits through the pins (sometimes I have to use the hook to rewarp parts of the loom that inadvertently “gang aft agley”) and it’s not useful for most of my crocheting.

Crochet hooks--the omni-tool of needlework-and-all-other-worlds

Crochet hooks–the omni-tool of the-needlework-and-all-other-worlds

Tightness Tip 2

With the needle in place, use the crochet hook to gently pull the warp thread loops away from the pins. This will help pack the weaving a little tighter below, and will give you a little more room to weave that last row.

These techniques are demonstrated in this video. Go to 5:40 on the clock.

Pin Loom Weave-Along, Week 2—Beads in the “Single Outline Diamond”

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I made the slight mistake of photoing two processes at one time, but people are anxious to begin beading their Single Outline Diamonds, so I’m using these photos for now. Live and learn–next time I’ll try not combine too much information in one project. Please don’t be confused by the different colors in the different layers. Just use all one color unless you feel ready to try combining colors and beads.

Single Outline Diamond in two colors, with beads

Single Outline Diamond in two colors, with beads

Materials

24 Rocaille, or E, or Seed (6/0) beads to complement your yarn

Yarn thin enough to thread the beads onto

A flexible beading needle or thin wire (such as the wire pulled out of the selvage of decorative ribbon)

Instructions Read More →