Seabreeze Spinners

This is the second rag rug from the same warp. First I tied on the old warp which I had tied off on the fabric beam side of the beater, then wove the rug.

The first rug:

Tropical Twister

The following is how I create a floating warp picked pattern on box/tape loom with double hole riggid heddle paddle. The double hole rigid heddle “paddle” was purchased from Finnsheep.

First I used a warping board to warp the loom ( 1 ). I used a flat bowl ( 2 ) to hold the cotton yarn to keep the balls from rolling all over the deck while I created the warp on the warping board ( 3 ). I had originally planned to use off white natural for the pattern warp. I didn’t have enough so used one stand of yellow and one of natural. Notice each color is tied off separately ( 4 ). The pattern warp needs to be heavier yarn. Traditionally weavers used linen for the background and a wool yarn for the pattern. My background thread and pattern threads are cotton and about the same weight so I doubled the pattern stands, treating the double strands as I would have a single stand of heavier yarn.

The warped loom looks like this:

Notice that the 13 pattern strands fill the upper holes and slots. While the background fills the lower holes and slots. Notice that manipulating the “paddle” the background threads separated to create the lower shed. Use a “stick” to separate out the light colored pattern threads ( 1 ) and then use another stick to mark the lower shed ( 4 ). “Pick” only the upper pattern threads ( 3 ). The tricky part is to pick up the upper background threads while dropping the unused pattern threads. Before the shuttle is passed through there should be an upper layer with all the slot background threads or on alternate passes the hole background threads and only those pattern threads that have been “picked” to float on the top for that particular pattern row.

The checker board pattern is simply a tabby using all threads ( 2 ). The second pattern celtic looking braid is the picked pattern ( 3 ). The picked pattern is from a pattern by Eve The Just There are six (6) repeating pattern rows. Notice the loop on the left ( 4 ). After I send the thread shuttle across the warp, I leave a small loop. After I have changed the heddle position, I tap the weft to compact the warp, I tug on the thread gently to remove the loop.

If you enjoyed this article, you might also enjoy other articles on this blog about box loom tapes.

Tropical Twister

Whether knitting, beading, or weaving when I use a pattern it is important to keep my place. I made an inexpensive “pattern place keeper” from an inexpensive refrigerator calendar.

I bought a magnetic white board calendar from Dollar General. I attached the magnets provided for mounting the calendar on a refrigerator to a ruler. (An opaque ruler would work best but a transparent ruler is what I had.)

I used the magnets provided to attach notes to the calendar to secure the pattern so that it doesn’t move.

I move the “magnetic ruler” along the pattern as I go to keep my place.

A handy idea from the Tropical Twister