Purple Woven Wall Hanging

A few months ago, I started a new job and got my own office for the first time in my life.  I wasted no time decorating the space behind my desk so that when people walked in I would be framed by colorful clutter artfully eclectic decorations.  However the space directly across from my desk, which no one sees but me, is completely blank but for a retro wall clock I found in the supply room.  The cinderblock wall even has a screw installed in it, just waiting for something to hang on it.

I already had some posters and picture frames in my office and I was craving something a little different to put there.  Something 3-dimensional with a bit of texture.  Then I remembered a girl on my Facebook list who made these textile wall hangings (Shout out to Rachel, not even sure if you read my page, but if you do, thanks for the inspiration!).  I always wondered exactly how she made these things or where she even got the ideas for them.  I decided I wanted to learn about it and try to make one on my own.

It's supposed to look like that, I promise.

OK, so this is the craft that quite a few people have been skeptical about.  All while I was working on it, my husband confessed it "wasn't his aesthetic".  Many other people asked me "what is it".  I get it.  It looks like a tangled, knotted mess.  But it's one of those creations that, while it looks pretty slapdash, actually involved a lot of intricacy and skill.  Not saying I have those skills, but I am aspiring, at any rate.

I found some incredible tutorials on weaving here and here.  I used the first tutorial to figure out how to make my own loom since I wasn't sure where to buy one (try Googling "loom" and you find the industrial size shuttle-cock variety - not exactly what I needed).  Turns out the basic "lap loom" (as I now know it is called) is a square frame with rows of evenly placed little nails that you wind "warp" thread around.  Some tutorials said you could use a picture frame, but since I had some scrap wood and a husband who was in possession of a power saw, I had him whip one up for me.

The fork was important

Not gorgeous, but totally functional.  I had some random yarn I had picked up during Hancock Fabrics' fire sale and after reading these tutorials I decided to get some wool roving as well.  Wool roving, if you didn't know, looks exactly like dryer lint.  I decided not to use the "natural" wool roving because it made my hanging look like it got caught in a lint trap and used the pencil roving instead, which is basically wool roving that was spun into a thick yarn.  Much cleaner looking.  The only tools I used were a ruler, a fork, and a giant tapestry needle, which I actually already had for my Outlander Cowl.  There are fancier, more official tools you can use for weaving, but since my pattern idea was more random shapes than neat row after row, I decided I didn't need them.

Close-up of twill weave

The weaving was the best part.  The basic weave is very easy and relaxing, just over, under, over, under, etc.  The hardest part is making sure to keep your tension even (which I clearly didn't).  I got bold and used The Weaving Loom's amazing weaving techniques tutorials to experiment with different patterns.  The brown triangle and purple triangle are using the twill weave.  The purple streak at the bottom is an example of a soumak weave.  The light purple blobs (technical term) are loop/pile weave, and the tassels are rya knots.  The rest is plain weave, but I experimented with different thicknesses of yarn.  The white fluffy stuff is the pencil roving.

Close-up of different weaving techniques used

So, things I need to work on:  I think I didn't wind the warp thread around tightly enough in the beginning, because even though I was trying not to weave too tightly the sides of my project became kind of sloppy-looking.  I would also, most definitely, ALWAYS use a pattern of some kind before sitting down to weave!  The "letting the spirit move me" strategy ended up with more ripped out sections than you can believe because it didn't look quite right when I put it into practice.  Next time I will sketch out a rough outline of where I want the different colors and shapes to go in order to avoid that hassle.  

Finishing option: a stick I found

Overall I really enjoyed this project.  I took my time with it, only working for an hour at a time over the span of a few weeks.  It was very fun to try the different weaving patterns.  Next time I think I will try a less ambitious color/shape scheme and try a more monochromatic approach that will better showcase the different textures and weaving patterns.  Maybe I can find another blank wall that needs something a little different...