Free Pattern Friday

Free Pattern Friday is featured each Friday on Universal Yarn's blog. This week, the featured pattern is the Maya Scarf, knitted with Bamboo Pop. It coordinates well with the Maya Top in the Bamboo Pop Adult 2 book. The pattern is free, so check it out!

Inkle Loom Weaving

I've had a few goals this spring. The largest one was to warp every loom that I owned and have them ready to weave at the same time. A smaller offshoot goal of this has been to learn to use my Inkle loom in a more productive and informed way. I've had a very small set of weaving cards for this for a while, but never learned to use them.

For my birthday recently, I received a mini Inkle from Henry, a set of color-coded tablets from my in-laws and a four-peg cone holder from my mother. I treated myself to an online course called Weave Turned Krokbragd on an Inkle Loom with Joan Sheridan. I've woven Krokbragd on my floor loom and rigid heddle, so the concept was not new, but I learned a lot of new techniques in this video. I can highly recommend it, but I will say make sure to do exactly as she says for the added heddles. This took me a couple of tries to get it right. It was so much fun to see the sheep emerging on this weaving.

I've had to get used to slight differences in the mini Inkle loom since it's structured a little differently from my larger Inkle.  I used the pattern that came with the loom and have just taken the piece off today. I'm thrilled with how it came out, even though I don't think I'll weave this width on this small loom again. I ended up adding rubber bands on the ends of the pegs to keep the warp from sliding off. Part of it did once, and that was not fun getting it back on the loom properly. It took time, but was worth the effort not to lose the thread. I used mercerized cotton, cone and Nazli Gelin 5 & 10. I plan to use this as trim on a purse in an upcoming sewing project.

I have retied my java hemp yarn on the 10" rigid heddle and have decided to weave the length that's left into a table runner. I've used one of the cloths I cut out for dishes and the other two for spa cloths. I'm still making up my mind on these, but again, being someone who hates to lose thread, I'll finish out this project and then share the pattern.

Two more looms, my floor loom and 15" rigid heddle are next. I'll save them for another post. I found a beautiful pattern in the May/June 2020 Handwoven that I'll try on the Mighty Wolf. As soon as another thread comes in, I'm going to attempt the North Light Meets Southwest Dish Towels. Cotton is definitely my favorite yarn to weave with so look for future posts.

Weaving With Java Hemp Yarn

I have had Java Hemp Yarn in my Etsy shop for a while now and it always sells really well. I always wonder what customers are making with this fascinating yarn. I have wondered how it would be to weave with this yarn, but haven't been able to find a single weaving pattern for it.

I gave up searching for a pattern and decided to just try a simple plain weave with the three colors that I have in the shop at this time. I'm using a Schact Cricket 10-inch rigid heddle with a size 10 heddle. I warped with stripes of red, purple and golden yellow. I then wove with one color at a time to see how the colors played against each other.

I wove plain weave for the red and golden yellow weaves. With the purple weft I added an extra pick-up stick to vary the weave slightly. I wove a few rows of this and then returned to plain weave. This seemed to add only slightly more texture, so I'm not sure if this is worth the extra work to get this difference. The hemp yarn has a lot of textur e and depth to it and with the bright colors, extra heddles or pick-up sticks don't seem really necessary.

Hemp yarn is from plants and does not feel as soft as cotton or even some wools. I does soften when wet, but returns to a little stiffer feel when dry. It will soften when washed and I'm thinking it will continue to soften the more it is washed.

I used one of the cloths I cut off the loom and hemmed on the sewing machine tonight to wash dishes. It felt very sturdy and did a great job on the hand-washed dishes. If you're planning to use this woven cloth for mug rugs or table runners or small rugs, I would suggest leaving enough between pieces on the loom to have fringe. I hated cutting off the fringe when I was hemming them. The fringe had fluffed up to a pretty size and would be very attractive in a small rug.

For more ideas of what to make with this fascinating yarn, check the listing on www.universalyarn.com. There are patterns there for crochet items. I'll try to write up the pattern I used tomorrow. I'm happy to share it. If you try weaving or crocheting with Java Hemp Yarn, please leave a comment and share your experiences.