I have so much nice long stemmed lavender waiting to be harvested,  I'm wondering if anyone has used it as weft? The piece itself would smell wonderful.

Comments

debmcclintock

this weaving is not on loom but look up lavender wands on the internet, you can do some neat woven patterns with ribbon on the wand or bottle....make sure you leave yourself a very long stem to give room for the weaving

Sara von Tresckow

 It works - just dry the stems well and handle gently. It is messy and drops a lot - try to ensure that the finished piece will not get bumped often.

You might even try to find out if there is some sort of spray coating that's used on those bundles sold in gift shops - I've always wondered that my homegrown stuff  "sheds" all over the house if I just pick it up and those gift bundles behave so well.

(I just finished harvesting mine and had to vacuum the front of the house after just putting it up on the top shelf to dry.)

runamuckweaving

 Thank you! Actually, I was thinking of using the stems only ( they smell nice too) and the flowers for sachets to put in with my wool yarns. I cut a large bunch today and will start it drying. It doesn't take long in southern Oregon to dry stuff. Very little humidity to deal with in all seasons here.

Sue Prior (not verified)

We did a Guild rigid heddle project several years ago using dried lavender stalks to make a wall hanging.  The idea came from a book called Rigid Heddle Weaving.  We used two ply linen for the warp - total of 20 ends sett in five groups of four with spaces in between, total width about 6".  Apart from the lavender stems, you need three branches about 1/2" thick to weight the weaving.  Coloured willow looks good for this.  To make: weave in the first branch, then weave rows of lavender, placing heads on alternate sides for 4.75". Weave another branch.  Weave another 2.5" lavender. Weave another branch.  To finish: tie ends in groups of four.  Make one big knot 3.25" from the top to make a hanger.  Hope this is of interest.

runamuckweaving

 Oh, what a great idea! I would have never thought of the branches as weights. I have a narrow (10") cotton rug warp on my old Murphy loom which has some extra warped on. When I finish the planned pieces I'm going to give the lavender a try.