Make it: Weaving in the Round

Ever since I spent a week driving to and from Austria a couple of years ago I have loved weaving. I took a small loom and some yarn in the car and learnt a few basic techniques whilst my Husband drove down the autobahn.  I have loved learning a new crafty skill and really enjoy being able to do something with wool and fibres that I wouldn't knit or crochet with.

Anyway, I recently saw a pin that made me very excited. It showed an embroidery hoop being used as a round loom! My little mind was blown (it doesn't take much these days) after some research I had a go and now I am hooked on weaving all over again.

Now that I have practised a little, I thought it would be something that you guys might like to try too. Once you have the basics down I bet you will be as addicted as me!

You will need: An embroidery hoop (the one I have used here is a 10") strong string or thread, a selection of yarns, a wool needle or bodkin and some small scissors.

Step 1. Take the outer ring off the hoop and put it to one side, take the thread and tie it around the edge of the inner hoop leaving a inch or so of thread to tie later.
Step 2. Pull the thread straight down over the bottom of the opposite edge of the hoop, take it over the edge and to the back.
Step 3. Bring the thread up and over the downward thread.
Step 4. Then bring the thread over the front of the hoop about 1 inch away from where you started.

Step 5. Continue taking the thread over the edge and over the other side in a figure of 8.
Step 6. Make sure to keep the centre crossing over, until you reach all the way around the hoop.
Step 7. Before threading the last strand take the thread around the centre a couple of times to keep it all together.
Step 8. Take the last strand up to meet the first thread and tie it to the end you left at the beginning.

Step 9. It should look something like this, you can choose to put your threads closer together but I would start with them at this width as it doesn't take too long to finish.
Step 10. Starting at the centre, take a length of yarn on a wool needle and start threading in and out through the strands.
Step 11. Keep threading in and out back and forth.
Step 12. Use your needle to keep the yarn tight to the centre and keep moving around the hoop.

Step 13. To finish off each colour simply thread the yarn back down in through the previous layers and snip away the excess.
Step 14. Keep going, changing colour when you want to. Mix it up with different colours and textures to keep it interesting.

These are some ideas for simple versions using regular and chunky yarns but they would also look great with some more textured yarns, ribbons or fabric scraps. You can of course take them out of the hoops and use them as place mats and coasters, but I love the look of them as art on my walls in the hoops. They would bring a quick splash of colour to any space for very little cost, always a winner in my book!

For more instructions on weaving and different kinds of techniques check out this cool blog The Weaving Room, Kate has lots of really great tutorials and videos on lots of different kinds of weaving.

As always, if you have a go at this tutorial please #livelovemake on Instagram or Twitter, as we would love to see them.

Sammy xxx


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Make it. Embroidery hoop art

Last week we did our monthly Craft Club down at Norden Farm and this time it was all about Embroidery. We took our little group of participants through a few basic stitches and then showed them how to make their own artwork. We love embroidery, I (Sammy)  like free hand embroidery an H is partial to a bit of cross stitch. We thought we would show you some of the examples we showed our students last Thursday.

I really enjoy the freedom of free hand and the flexibility of using any fabric you like. Most of the designs I stitch I end up leaving in their hoops, but you can always take them out and frame them up too. 

 These are four of my favourite  pieces, they show a range of different stitches on different fabrics.

This stag picture is done in basic back stitch on teal taffeta with a gold metallic thread. Sometimes the simplest things make the best pictures.

This Hello beautiful is taken from an idea I saw on Pinterest , I used spot cotton fabric, chain stitch for hello and back stitch for beautiful.  For the love hearts I used lots of different stitches to appliqué some red fabric hearts and stitched love with chain stitch.

 This little guy is one of my favourites, I love using long and short stitch to give texture, it worked so well for this foxes fur. I used some fabric, a lovely blue and black tweed used to be part of  a jacket that was my Dads.

A few years ago my Mum gave me a great stitch leaflet she had kept from the seventies. It is falling apart but I still use it as a reference when I am stitching. I love the drawings that accompany the descriptions. Here are some of the basics from the leaflet.

As well as the leaflet, I have a few books that I use for ideas and for learning new techniques. These are my favourites, Adventures in Needlework by Jessica Aldred and Emily Peacock, Love Embroidery by Future Publishing (the guys behind Mollie Makes) and Doodle Stitching by Amiee Ray. 

Love Embroidery has great projects to use your embroidery on as well as taking you through the basics.

I adore this Brooch from Adventures in Needlework, I haven't made it as a brooch yet but I used the template to stitch a piece for a friend of mine as a birthday gift a couple of years ago.

Doodle Stitching has a great selection of cute templates and it comes with a DVD of all the images so you can upload them to your computer and print them any size you like. There are a few more books in this series to try out too.

We had such a fun time last week and all our ladies went home with the start of hopefully a fun new hobby.

Our next two Craft Club evenings will be released for booking shortly over on the Norden Farm website. We are making ribbon rose corsages at the end of May and creating Button Jewellery at the end of June. We will let you know more as soon as the booking goes live. 

Sammy xxx

Don't forget the closing date for the Company Magazine #StyleBlogAwards is this Saturday! 

So if you haven't already voted for us, Pretty please pop over and cast your vote now. We are up for Best Blogging Duo and Best Craft Blog. If you have voted, Thank you so much and keep your fingers crossed for us!