Let’s say you want to design a weaving pattern but don’t know how to go about it. First let’s decide what kind of pattern you want to design—a textured pattern or a figure (e.g. heart, diamond…).
Single Heart Outline, Solid Heart, Cross My Heart 3
(for Amelia in Korea—thank you for asking!)
- Why do pin loomers use three-layer warping?
- Is it stronger?
- What are the differences between 1-, 2-, and 3-layer warping?
- How do we decide which warping method to use?
a small selection of Weave-It looms and squares
First of all—and this is easy to overlook; I often make the l-to-r mistake when I forget to pay attention to what I’m doing—READ ROW INSTRUCTIONS LEFT-TO-RIGHT ON EVEN ROWS, RIGHT-TO-LEFT ON ODD ROWS.
These colors usually appear only on three-layer warp (3LW) patterns:
Red = UNDER
Blue = OVER
White or Gray = PLAIN weave
Green = optional Under
Light Blue = optional Over — not used very often
Here are some examples:
Star Valley
By no means do I consider myself an expert adviser on the subject of making patterns pop. I’ve made a lot of squares—enough to know that there are no rules, or if there are, they elude me. If I say, “Use high contrast,” along comes a pattern to defy that rule—it’ll show up better in two subtle tints of the same color. (I have such a square in my collection, but can’t readily lay hands on it.) And don’t get me started on “Use complementary colors”—that rarely works.
Because I have too many squares and it’s been waaaay too long since I looked at most of them, I’ve decided to limit my subject today to the topic of using variegated yarn in pattern weaves.
First, let me say I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE variegated yarn, but I think it looks best in plain weave squares.
Read More →
How to make a buttonhole—I learned this nifty trick from a book on rigid heddle weaving and saw that it would easily adapt to pin loom weaving.
Before plunging in with buttonholes on your treasured project, it’s a good idea to practice first.
Read More →
Enough time has passed since I last considered the issue of shrinkage that I had to check to see if I’d written about it before. I have, here: Shrinkage — Beginner’s Corner.
I guess this post makes my second time approaching the subject. As I do more projects I’m thinking these little practice sessions will come in handy.
Two squares woven with the same yarn on the same loom.
The alphabet and numbers sets are now finished. The best way to find all of them in one place is by visiting the Topical Guide, under the heading Letters and Numbers. Click on the desired pattern and you’ll go right to it.
These 13 squares represent an all-night effort to finish two basic sets of patterns—ABCs and 123s.
The numbers and letters can also be found by clicking on the Alphabet or Numbers category, but they won’t show up in alphabetical or numerical order (rather by the date on which they were published).
OR you can find them all here:
Letters and Numbers
- A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, S, T, U, V, W, X, Y, Z
- 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9
MEASURING WEFT (L4)
First, check the PIN WRAPS AND YARDAGE page (see tab at the top of this blog) to see if I’ve already figured it out for you.
If your loom size isn’t covered there, or if you’re on a desert island (you brought your pin loom weaving supplies of course) and don’t have access to the Internet, I’ve discovered a Helpful Hack for measuring weft.
Here is a sample loom with the first three layers in place. (By the way, I DO NOT recommend warping your loom tightly as shown–I warped it tight for the sake of the photos.)