craftgrrl | Weaving on the Cheap (Reply)

I've been seeing (and coveting) a lot of weaving around lately, and wanted to play with the technique without having to spend a lot of cash on a loom. So I made my own, all cheap and simple-like, and this is what I came up with:

My First Weaving

This project is all about making something on the cheap and upcycling- just about everything for the project was re/upcycled, from the yarn (old t-shirts) to the loom (scrap wood from building cat toys, leftover nails and lots of tape). I was inspired by a threadbanger episode (I'm not sure if I can link to it), but did things differently enough that I thought it wouldn't hurt the internet to have another tutorial floating about, so that's back on my blog if you're interested.

I made the yarn from old t-shirts:

Yarn!

The loom from scrap wood, nails, tape and a table:

Stringing the loom

Spent a few hours poking and prodding it all, with Loki's help:

Helper

And voila! A scarf. Granted, a scarf that hearkens back to those nylon-loop potholders I'm sure most of us have woven at one time or another, but it's kind of a nice nostalgia to throw back to as a crafter, and the basic technique and "loom" could be applied to all sorts of other fabrics and such to lessen the resemblance.

Ta da!

It took me less than two balls of XXL t-shirt yarn for this project, so I've got plenty more to play with from the thrift store raid. Some day I hope to have my own loom and do all those crazy detailed pieces with luxury yarns and such... but I bet I'll keep this set-up around even then.