Weave It

In the run up to the end of 2015, I decided, having missed one of my besties birthdays, to challenge myself and get creative - that and the lack of inspiration on the highstreet - and come up with something I'd had in mind to do for a while and this seemed like the perfect opportunity to do so. I did have a teeny tiny experiment prior to the real thing - it's amazing what you can do with an old picture frame serving no particular purpose and a handsaw. The challenge? Teach myself to weave in a matter of weeks - and just for good measure, make the loom on which to do it to boot - in order to create a large-ish wall hanging for my friend.

I thoroughly enjoyed the whole process - albeit by complete trial and error - sometimes having to take a row or two back, sometimes more or even starting again. Making the loom wasn't very hard and after scrolling around various weaving blog posts, I was confident enough to set out with my needle and yarn. The bigger the better in my eyes, especially when it comes to something I'm unfamiliar with!

The design itself was the main hurdle, I scribbled many different ideas down before settling on 'the one', then set to drawing it to scale - a very long drawn out process... Initially, I thought that from the first row to casting off it would take a day, maximum two. One and a half weeks later, I finally got to the last row and indeed, was quite overcome with glee when I knotted the last couple of warp lengths and packaged the precious item ready to fly to Australia and be delivered to my friend.

Hang loose. Ph. by Jem