Spinning, Dyeing, Weaving!

As homeschoolers, some of our best projects are the ones that we do as a family.  Handwork is no exception!

For the third year, we have made a woven table runner together. We use it on our dinner table, for nature tables and other displays in the home.  Here's how it goes:

1.  Spin fiber into yarn on one of our spinning wheels.

2.  Dye the fiber with plants and natural materials at the annual Griffin Dyeworks Dye & Fiber Retreat in Castaic, CA.

3.  Warp up the Ashford Knitter's Loom with a crochet cotton.

4.  Wind our yarns onto stick weaving shuttles, singing: "Up and down, up and down, we are making figure eights. Up and down, up and down, we are loading shuttles."

5.  Weave the weft (yarns on shuttles) into the warp.  We take turns and do a little bit each day.

6.  Trim the ends, tie knots for fringe, and we are done!

2008 Table Runner

2009 Table Runner

2010 Table Runner

Click here to see books and supplies for weaving, dyeing and other handwork projects!

Woven Table Runner Project

We finally finished our table runner!  Just in time for Winter.  Here is how we made it:

1.  Spinning:  In the Spring, we spun up yarns out of plain wool on our spinning wheels.

2.  Dyeing:  In Summer, at the Griffin Dyeworks Dye & Fiber Retreat, we dyed the yarns with natural plants. 

Broom & Copper = Chartreuse

Broom & Indigo = Green

Logwood = Lavender

Indigo = Blues

3.  Loading Shuttles:  In the Fall, we wrapped the yarns onto stick shuttles as we sang.

Up and down, up and down

We are making figure eights

Up and down, up and down

We are loading shuttles

4.  Warping:  We found a nice cotton crochet thread that had green, blue and ivory for the warp.  We dyed it in blueberries for a couple of days so that the colors blended well with our yarns.  The ivory parts turned lavender.  The warp thread was then wound into a ball using a nostepinne (this one in the picture is our favorite "nostie", made with reclaimed wood from Hurricane Katrina).  We then "warped up" our Ashford Knitters Loom.  The warp threads are the ones that are vertical on the loom.  They are threaded through the large and small slots on the "reed" and attached to the ends of the loom.  Warping takes time and two people to do it well!

5.  Weaving:  Taking turns each day, members of the family wove stripes with one of the yarns through the "shed" which is space between warp threads created when the reed is moved up or down.  Weaving back and forth created the "weft", or horizontal threads.  Mommy and Wilson made up a song as they wove.

Warp and Weft

Reed and Shed

We are weaving on the loom

Warp and Weft

Reed and Shed

We are learning weaving

We love our table runner!  So far, we have used it for our Nativity set and on the table under candles and food during dinner.  This is our second family weaving project.  We look forward to spinning, dyeing and weaving again in 2010!