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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
