Holiday Thread Along - Online Guide

Hi there, glad to see you again here. This page is accessible to all Holiday Thread Along participants and in here is the written guide of our session.

Part I. Anatomy of a Weave + Materials

To give you a bit of a background, the art of weaving is considered as one of the oldest surviving crafts in the world. Being one of the primary methods of textile production, weaving is composed of interlinking a set of vertical threads (the ‘warp’) with a set of horizontal threads (the 'weft’).

Here are the materials you will need to weave your very own Christmas Tree!

• Triangle Loom 
• Tapestry/Plastic Needle
• Scissors
• Yarns (in variety of thickness/weight)

Your triangle looms are already warped when you received them, all you have to do is to weave in them! The needles are used to weave the yarns in and out of the warp strings, and the yarns included in the kit are in different weights to give you more freedom to play around it, that will also add more textures to your woven piece.

If you're ready, then let's move on to the first weaving technique!

Part II. Plain/Tabby Weave

Plain Weave is the most basic technique but the most versatile as well. It is executed through the over and under movement, creating opposite woven rows. To start, load your needle with enough yarns and follow the instructions below:

You just made your first row! Now, load again your yarn back to needle, and we'll be weaving the opposite row.

Yay! While you can repeat the technique using different yarns to explore, let's move on to making tassels using this other technique!

Part III: Rya Knots

This next technique creates tassel sections on your piece. Begin by preparing your yarn as always. Cut 3 inches (or longer) of your yarn for us to use. 

Step 1. Take TWO pieces of yarn that you have cut and hold it in the middle.

Step 2. Locate the MIDDLE WARP THREADS connected to the top most nail. Place the 2pcs of yarns on top of the warp threads (see photo above).

Step 3. Carefully insert each sides in the middle of the two warp threads.

Step 4. When both sides are safely inserted, hold them together, and pull it down closer to the nails.

We'll be working from the middle to fill up the whole row. You can continue making rya knots to your desired length, yarn color, and thickness!

Don't worry too much about the length of your rya knots because you can always trim them later when you're done!

Part IV: Freestyle Weaving

This section is all you! Feel free to use the Plain Weaving or Rya Knots to make use of your yarns and fill up the rest of the space. Make it unique by just playing around and enjoying the experience! I will be showing here each of the yarns and techniques I used. 

Here I added a row of the red cotton yarn to add color to the green I already have.

 Adding a section of gold/yellow yarn using this thicker thread! I used 2 warp threads at a time to weave this in.

 Adding my rope thread this time, and filling up the rest of the rows connecting to the gold/yellow yarn.

Time to use the maroon roving! I used Plain Weaving on two warps again to emphasize its thickness.

I'm adding another layer of green to balance out the Christmas colors! On top of the plain weave, I'm adding short Rya Knots that I'll be trimming for later.

Now I added a few more plain weave and topped it off with a yellow Rya Knot! 

Part V: Finishing

The loom you have it designed to be ready for hanging on the wall after you have finished weaving! You can make changes later but you should be very proud of the work you have finished here! Just to wrap this all up, you only need to weave/tuck the ends of the yarns on the sides underneath.

And there you have it! Once all sides are cleaned up, it's ready to hang on the wall. Hooray, and congratulations, Modern Weaver!

Excited to see your finished pieces Hope you can post your finished projects hanging on your wall and tag me in it on Facebook or Instagram (@theartofyarn). Have a Very Merry Christmas.