More on circular weaving

I wanted to post pictures showing more detail about the construction of the circular hats from previous posts. Here they are!

The color theme for this hat was blue. My challenging color. I used some of y own hand spun and some commercial novelties. In this picture I want to show with more detail how the warp wraps around the grooves.

Sorry for the shaky hand!

This is how it should look at the back of the cardboard. Then, proceed with the weaving process as normal.

When you are ready to release your piece from the cardboard, just pull each section from the grooves.

It should come out easy. These ends hold your circle together.

This picture show it with more detail from back to front.

You will use this ends to cast on the stitches needed to make the head band for the hat.

Now, I haven’t try this, but I will definitely do it next time. I will trow the woven circle in the washing machine for a few minutes to full the piece and see what happens. I’m thinking that it will give the cloth more strength.

The last step is to pick up the stitches to crochet (or cast on stitches to knit) the head band for the hat. I hope this make sense. If you try this, please send pictures. I would love to post them here! Happy weaving!

It’s true that we don’t know what we’ve got until we lose it, but it’s also true that we don’t know what we’ve been missing until it arrives.

Circular Weaving

Can anybody guess what is this?

Circular weaving has caught my attention! I found this link of a book called Weaver’s Craft by L. E. Simpson and it got me really interested and curios about it. And of course I had to try it right away! I combined some of my handspun yarn with commercial novelty yarn and some silk fabric that I cut into strips. The results where really stunning and with exciting possibilities of combining colors and textures. Now what can I do with a woven circle? How about using it for a hat! It is actually just perfect for that. I crocheted the brim, just because I like the look of the crocheted fabric. Of course it can be made with knitting needles. But I like the texture of the crocheted fabric. I’ve been searching online to find out if other fiber artists are using this concept to make  it into wearable arts, but I haven’t found anything. I love weaving, and I have a couple of weaving looms, but most of the time I just don’t have the time and the energy to set the looms. This type of weaving only requires a piece of cardboard that I cut into a circle. The next thing I did was to make and odd number of small grooves around the perimeter of the circle at intervals of about 1/2  cm.

This is my “state of the art loom”! The warp was set treading the yarn on the grooves starting at one given point and then going always clockwise, from one side to the opposite side. Am I making sense? I forgot to take pictures of what it looks like in the back of the circle.

What makes me laugh is how little time it took me to set the warp. And If I don’t like the color, I can just undo the whole thing and start with a new color.

Then the fun comes with  choosing the  yarns for the project and with the weaving itself. This is perfect for using up all those scraps that I don’t know what to do with, but at the same time I don’t want to trow them in the garbage. They are just too precious to do that!

This circle is almost done. I have to make sure to add chunkier yarns at the end, because the gaps between the warp are more separated that in the center.

This is my first hat with the crocheted brim. This is kind of addictive, because more ideas and color combinations keep coming to me!

I made this hat using some of my handspun llama.

I think this is a goofy hat. Did I mention this is addictive? I’m very excited at the different possibilities and I’m thinking about putting it into my Etsy shop for sale. I would like to know if anybody has tried this or if you do please feel welcome to send pictures to post them here.

“Don’t stand by the water and long for fish, go home and weave a net”

Chinese proverb