Update 2 on the big weaving project.

Slowly, slowly I've been weaving.

A little bit here.

A little bit there.

I'm up to a solid 1/3 done. Creeping towards the halfway mark.

And just in case you're starting to think "geesh that's taking her a really long time". I've been working on other projects too. I don't want to discourage anyone from trying a big weaving project because you think I've been doing nothing but sitting hunched over this project day in, day out.

4th of July Woven Flower Pot

I hope you're not sick of weaving yet... but I had to share my 4th of July themed woven pot.

I started by gluing on some red, white and blue ribbon.

And began weaving it with jute.

I first made a woven pot like this last spring- if you'd like to check out my complete tutorial jump over to this post for the instructions.

I promise it's really easy- just takes a little bit of time!

How do you eat an elephant?

One bite at a time.

That's what the mister always tells me when I'm facing a big project that seems never ending or overwhelming. The point is if you just take it one manageable piece at a time you can accomplish anything.

This weaving project is the epitome of that saying.

It seemed so daunting when I started that first lonely little row- I had so much more to do! Even a dozen or so rows in it felt like this project was going to be huge.

But I put that thought and of my mind. Instead I've been picking this up each evening to weave a few rows before I turn in for the night. And look-

I'm a quarter of the way done!

Now that I have some built up I can really see how the colors are starting to mix and line up with each other to form patterns. I love watching that random aspect unfold before my eyes.

A New Weaving Project

Completing my first Saori project definitely gave me the weaving bug. To make my Saori I used a wonderful tutorial posted by Pam on her blog Gingerbread Snowflakes. It was easy and fun and really relaxing. I highly recommend it!

In the middle of that project inspiration struck. The idea for a woven picture frame started forming in my head. The thought of covering a frame with all that woven, yummy, yarn texture seemed gorgeous.

However, the thing about Saori is that it's supposed to be random. No planning, just impulsive creativity. Which normally sounds good, but I have a very specific look in mind for this frame- So I don't really think I can call this weaving a Saori. But it's certainly Saori inspired!

The yarn I'm using is one of the first I ever dyed myself. The colors are some of my favorites and they mixed exactly how I'd intended. These tones remind me of being at the ocean (a place I love) on one of those bright breezy perfect early summer days. When the clouds are high and puffy. And everything sparkles from the light of the sun and movement of the water and wind.

I had this yarn for almost a year waiting for it to speak to me- and it turns out it wants to be a woven frame. Who knew? Certainly, not me!

I've just started weaving. It's a big frame. I also have to account for the weaving shrinking when it comes off the board so the board is even bigger than the big frame.

There's a long.

long,

LONG,

way to go before I'm done.

Finished Saori

I finished weaving two days ago and was waiting to post it because I thought I had an idea for what I wanted to do with it. I guess though this isn't technically completely finished because I haven't cut it off the cardboard and tied the edges yet.

Unfortunately the dimensions I happened to make the weaving won't work for that the idea. But I still have hopes that I can find what I need in the right dimentions so I'm waiting just a bit longer on cutting it off the board just to be sure.

And if it absolutely won't work... I guess that means I'll just have to make another one. Yeah that's right I'll just have to use up more of my yarn scraps and imperfect handspun to make another really fun, beautiful weaving and and hope the "secret" project have in mind will work this next time. Too bad huh!

I'm so happy with how this turned out- Pam's how to really was easy, so easy that it's a little addictive. There were a few nights that I took this to bed and wove a bit before falling asleep instead of reading.

My favorite parts are the bits of over-spun spirals that happened to come out on the front side.

I just love that biggest mistake areas in my handspun yarn wound up being the my favorite areas in this weaving.

And as Pam suggested in her post I switched up the pattern a bit here and there so it would randomly sync up

or there'd be strands that ran over for a while instead of "over, under, over...".

Even if I end up making this one work with my new idea I hope to start my next one very soon... maybe next week.

Happy weekend!

My first Saori Weaving

Did you see the great tutorial that Pam of Gingerbread Snowflakes put together for Saori Weaving? If you didn't see it I highly suggest popping over to check it out. And believe it or not it's even a portable project! You can throw it into a bag and take it with you to work on while your waiting for an appointment or just getting in some relaxing time.

It's the first time I've ever done weaving like this and so far I'm really happy with how easy and fun a project it's been. I'm mostly using handspun yarn from my first spinning classes- which didn't turn out exactly well enough to knit with but seem perfect for this type of project. I'm also throwing in some leftover scraps of machine spun yarn that I like.

I don't know exactly what it's going to be yet... maybe just a nice mat to throw under a vase on the table. But I do know that I'm taking it with me tonight when we go to the drive-in! (It's the first weekend of their summer season and I'm so excited to go.)

This was a shot I took there last year (I remember I was knitting). Having a wool project to cozy up with on these chilly nights early in the drive-in season it especially nice.

Which is good because I still have a way to go before I'm done.

Happy Weekend!

Woven Flower Pot- Part 2

Today I finished my woven pot project. I haven't done much weaving but it was kind of relaxing once I got into a groove. (It was the perfect TV watching project).

To recap, I started with a pot that I painted a creamy yellow. Then I used an all purpose craft glue to attach some of my favorite ribbons onto the bottom of the pot.

My first idea was to weave wide ribbon around the pot too- but soon realized I couldn't get the ribbon to lay flat on the tapered shape of the pot.

After experimenting with a few different ribbons and strings I settled on using jute. Which turns out made this look so much more like a basket (which is what I wanted) than my original idea.

I continued weaving the jute over and under the ribbon, pulling it tight and adding a tiny dot of hot glue every so often.

Marking my starting point ribbon by putting a small arrow on the bottom of the pot helped me keep track of each round. (So glad I did that!)

I only glued the jute down when I was going under a ribbon, never over, and I tried to keep the glue off the ribbon so I could pull it left and right to straighten it as I wove.

I also kept turing the glue gun on and off so the glue was warm instead of hot. There were two advantages to that:

1. The glue was easier to control- I only used the tiniest possible dot of glue (about the size of a round plastic head on a pin). To do that the glue can't be so warm that it oozes out of the gun like hot glue usually does.

And 2. No hot glue burns- not even one!

So I wove,

and wove... and wove some more.

But when I was done- the clay pot was totally transformed.

I'm pleased with the way it ended up and with some more experimenting I think I could get a bunch of different results using the same basic idea.

Working on a Woven Flower Pot- Part 1

It's been so warm and sunny this past week. The leaves are starting to bud and it's put me in the mood to get the flower pots out and the garden going.

But at this time of year I know the warmth won't last and it's still too early to put most plants outside. So I did the next best thing... this weekend I cleaned out the flower beds and started a garden related craft project.

I started by painted a clay pot a creamy yellow. I wanted to somehow give this a spring basket look. But I was totally unsure about how I was going to make that happen.

I tried gluing some of my favorite green and teal ribbons all around the bottom.

And after some experimenting came up with this...

weaving jute through the ribbon.

You'll have to wait until tomorrow to see how it turns out... I have a lot of weaving to do between now and then. If it turns out well I'll post the step by step.