A Tapestry Weekend

Ah, Sunday!  The end of another fun crafting weekend with family.  It is always sad when it is over, but the memories linger.  We sure do have fun.

My cousin working on a tapestry project.

This weekend was themed as a weaving weekend.  My sister and cousin are avid weavers.  By 'avid' I mean weaving is their primary craft over things like knitting and spinning.  And between the two of them, they have a large sampling of small, table top and floor looms.  The fabric they create is amazing.

My own tastes fall more to knitting as a primary hobby.  While I have tried weaving on a rigid heddle loom, I can honestly say it didn't 'stick.'  I still have my rigid heddle looms (3 of them) and I may return to that craft at some point, but my focus has always been knitting.  And lately I have been doing more crocheting - a craft that seems to be growing in popularity.  More on my crocheting efforts in another post.

My tapestry efforts for the weekend.

But a new craft has capture my attention over the last few months: tapestry.  It is a kind of weaving, but on a different scale than traditional looms - and it produces a different product.  Traditional weaving creates wonderful pieces like shawls, towels, blankets, and rugs.  Tapestry is more like painting a picture - except with yarn.  The 'picture' above is the beginning of a sampler designed to teach you tapestry techniques.  It will never be a true picture - just a sampling of various stitches.

The loom my sample is on is a table tapestry loom that I purchased about 5 years ago.  Something back then appealed to me about the craft.  I remember the seller had a beautiful - partly woven - picture of a tree and the sky - a landscape.  The whole tapestry process was reminiscent of my years doing needle point.  I enjoyed that as well.  But the loom sat idle for some time.  The last 5 years have been too busy to devote much time to learning a new craft.

Following along in a book to build my knowledge of tapestry techniques.

The picture below is the piece my cousin is working on.  It is a different sampler design, but it gives you a feeling of the lines, curves, and colors that can be achieved by this craft.

My cousin's sampler.

While tapestry can take a great deal of time to create, I find it relaxing and creative.  I will have to find a way to squeeze it into my available time - tapestry, knitting and crocheting.  That should pretty much fill up any left over free minutes in an already busy life.