It’s not difficult to finish the Weave-Along book. Really you could slap it together yourselves, but there are a few things I noticed from the first and second times I made the book that may help you get more satisfying results. (By the way, if you’ve had any difficulties with the instructions or construction, I’d love to hear feedback so I can improve my presentation. Thanks!)

The book that inspired the WAL

Read More →

We got rid of a bunch of stuff today (Saturday). Company’s coming next week and we must have room to unfold the hide-a-bed couch. Stacks of stuff were loaded into the car (Polly had to stay home because there wasn’t room for her) and we drove to D.I. (Deseret Industries–local thrift store). About six guys (it took six) swarmed our car and unloaded everything quick as a wink. All those books and DVDs and old clothes and other rummage that had been piling up like a castle in the middle of the downstairs floor for–what? like, five months–were gone, poof, like Brigadoon. Read More →

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 →