“Cool that you made it, but also I REALLY like it!”
So, double knitting didn’t work out for me. If you’re an experienced knitter, you can knit while doing other things… If you’re good with time, you can fit it in. I don’t fall in to either category. I’ll have to take another go at knitting sometime in the future. Bottom line: between work and kids, I wasn’t going to make good on last year’s WIP Christmas present to my wife. WIP fail…. What to do? I had not a clue, until I co-wrote our rigid heddle buying guide.
The solution surprised me, and might surprise others too: I made a hand woven silk scarf, quickly and easily. One of the best parts? Monica really does like it. Another best part? Even if you’ve never woven before, you could do this too, easily. Three sincere words describe how: Rigid Heddle Fun!
Learning time? About 10 minutes thanks to Ashford. Ok, I might have had a little head start since I helped to write/edit our rigid heddle buying guide. Mostly though, co-writing that post got me interested in trying something I’d not been interested in before.
Weaving always seemed expensive and complicated. (I don’t know if I’m allowed to say this while working at Halcyon Yarn!) I couldn’t have been more wrong: Weaving this scarf was affordable, quick, and easy! Granted, it could have been made for less: I used 4 colors of silk, and a good quality expandable loom, so this wasn’t the cheapest route to a scarf. But once you have a loom, your stash and remnants become endless inspiration.
Is it worth the investment in a loom? My perspective is yes! Rigid heddle looms range in price from, say, the cost of taking my family to dinner on the low end, to the cost of taking them skiing for the day on the high end. This makes it relatively easy for me to justify the cost of something that everyone in my family can use, and could last long enough for my kids to give to their kids.
The scarf took a couple of weeks worth of work using only a part of my lunch break. I was excited each day to work on it. More importantly, the scarf has been worn almost every day since Christmas. According to Monica, she likes it not only because I made it, but also because it’s, er, actually cool. And if I, a knitting failure, can do that, imagine what you can do!
My main point in sharing this is this: Give rigid heddle weaving a try. I think many folks, myself included, are discouraged from trying weaving by pre-conceptions that aren’t quite right. As my artsy-crafty superhero co-workers say: If Amos can do it anyone can! I’m planning my next project… For a list of the materials I used and some basic notes on how it was woven, see this list. Feel free to contact me with questions / comments, and, happy weaving!
