Welcome to Project Knitway or should I say Project Renottaway? It's my cyberspace place to post my favorite things...thoughts about family and creativity and design. One of my favorite things is making stuff, specifically clothing and accessories from fiber and metal. So you'll see a lot about that here. I also love spending time with my family, so there will be a bit about that too. When I'm not with my family or in my studio, I am most likely at nextdoor, my store. I have always had a store ever since I was a young woman. I started with a weaving store called the niddy noddy in Waukesha eons ago. I ended with nextdoor in Brookfield. It's my dream store filled with great clothing, especially denim. Really nice women work and shop there, it's a fun place to be. You can find us there every day and online at www.shopatnextdoor.com So come for a visit here and there.

Saturday, March 19, 2011

What Twill Be Twill Be

Perhaps you are wondering why I am writing about weaving on a knitting blog. Well, stick with me, there is a common thread here in more ways than one. This image is from an old hand colored drawing that my mother found for me years ago. It is one of my favorite objects and sits on a shelf in my studio. It has a wonderful message beside picturing this young woman sitting at a loom that looks much like the one I work on. Weaving has taught me so much over the years, most importantly patience. You have to carefully follow each step from winding the warp, to threading the loom, to weaving the fabric row by row. As the fabric is woven, it is wound around a cloth beam. It is not until you finish and cut off the woven fabric that you really get to see what you have created. 



 For my return to weaving I have chosen a twill weave. My yarns blend nicely with this strand of old African beads that a friend recently brought back from a trip there. I plan to make a colorful coat to wear with the beads. Twill weaves are very versatile and lend themselves nicely to garments as the fabric has a nice drape. You can see from diagram a twill weave has a distinct diagonal line. It is one of the most basic weaves with many pattern choices. In fact if you look closely at a pair of jeans, you will recognize it. 






So you say, this is all very good, but what does it have to do with me? First of all if you enjoy knitting, you'll love weaving as well. It's the perfect way to use up all those odds and ends of yarn you've saved. You can weave beautiful little tapestries on simple looms that can be added to a sweater for collars, cuffs and pockets. Weaving patterns can also be used as fairisle designs for knitting. Pictured is a  knit sweater and woven saddle blanket that I made back in our horse show days. I plan do something like this with my coat that I am weaving. Perhaps I will knit a sweater to go with it or a big colorful bag to carry. Time will tell. I hope you will follow my project. In the meantime...


In the Loom of Life, May You Weave Joy and Happy Memories.


Renotta