Comments

sdoak (not verified)

I love these. Nice tip about the amt of floss needed for each one.  I agree on the hemstitching but when done right and with practice it sure looks nice.

Sandra

thelmaweaves

I like the bright colors.

Sharon

bolivian warmi

I know nothing about crackle but would like to learn more. These are so pretty and four shafts/4 treadles...this is something I could set up on my backstrap loom.

Bonnie Inouye (not verified)

Usually crackle is woven as a balanced weave so you see the same amount of warp color as weft color. With 4 shafts, you use a 2/2 tie-up. Where did you find this variation that emphasizes the weft color? I am guessing that you wanted the weft to show more because you have pretty weft yarn. There is a brand new book on crackle by Susan Wilson and she is an excellent teacher. I have not seen the book yet.

Bonnie Inouye (not verified)

Usually crackle is woven as a balanced weave so you see the same amount of warp color as weft color. With 4 shafts, you use a 2/2 tie-up. Where did you find this variation that emphasizes the weft color? I am guessing that you wanted the weft to show more because you have pretty weft yarn. There is a brand new book on crackle by Susan Wilson and she is an excellent teacher. I have not seen the book yet.

prairiegirl (not verified)

Hi Bonnie,

I'd love to claim credit for the weft facing, but that's actually a happy accident. My theory is that it's because my warp isn't sett tight enough- I did this at 20 epi and i think a sett of 25 would have been better. Also there is a slight size discrepancy between the warp and weft. The draft is available on handweaving.net- I forget the draft number but I believe it's one of Ralph Griswolds'.

prairiegirl (not verified)

I hemstitched bookmark # 5 before heading into work this morning... I don't know that I'm doing it correctly because I couldn't figure it out from the instructions/diagram that I had, so I will have to discover that once I've cut them off and wetfinished them. However, I must say that the concept of hemstitching is growing on me. The fifth one sure looks a heck of a lot better than the first two! Went faster, also. Oh- the embroidery floss I'm using is size 3. I think there is a bit more than 27 yards in a skein, and I haven't checked but I think there is actually enough for two bookmarks in a skein. (And on another happy note my husband has given me the OK to purchase a swift and a winder now that he's had to hold open 5 skeins of embroidery floss while I wound them onto bobbins!)

endorph

on these. , and as for hemstitiching - I use it on everything - well almost everything. Once you get the basic stitch down there are several variations that are fun to play with. Tina

Artistry

I like your bookmarks and agree, very pretty colors. A handy little book for hemstiching and the like is Finishing Touches for the Handweaver by Virginia West is a really good book with excellent diagrams. Can't tell you how many times I've sat with it opened in my lap trying to replicate the stitches! Can't wait to see your project!

Artistry

I meant, Can't wait to see future projects, it's early:)

Cynthia

What did you use for your warp?  These look like a lot of fun.

ttkjohn

Love the bookmarks.  Great colors and patterns.  I haven't tried crackle and will have to put that on my long list of things to learn.

sdoak (not verified)

LOL....that's the way to train a husband.

Sandra

prairiegirl (not verified)

the warp is aunt lydia's crochet thread, size 10. I like to use it because it's cheap (especially if you use the 50% off coupons that certain craft stores put out on a regular basis).

Finished Length Unit
yards
Finished Width Unit
yards
Length Off Loom Unit
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Length on Loom Unit
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Notes

My bookmarks are off-loom and mostly finished! (Some still need to be washed and trimmed. ) It's amazing how different they are before and after wet-finishing- it's so cool to discover the changes! The multicoloured tabby one is a silk weft: I wanted to do the crackle with it also, but the color changes are so short that the pattern just vanished in the colors, so it's just plainweave. I'm really looking forward to finishing that one and discovering how the silk changes, because that's the first bit of silk I've gotten to play with so far. The pale blue and the really pale violet ones are using crochet thread for the weft instead of the embroidery floss, so I'm curious to see how they react to washing. The three I've washed already were all floss wefts. I got seven bookmarks off of this warp and I could have gotten at least eight and probably nine (I ran out of patience. I wanted to give one to my boss this morning!). Definitely a fun project, and now I've got some thoughts on what to do differently in the future....

These were originally intended to be Christmas gifts, but I ran out of time- and ambition- about a week and a half before the 25th. I'm really enjoying working on them now, though! It's so much fun to do tiny little projects like these that I can get finished in an hour or so. These are my first try at a crackle draft, and also my first pathetic attempts at hemstitching. (The learning curve seems to be fairly steep, thank God, but needle crafts have never been something I enjoyed.)  To my great joy, I discovered that an embroidery floss skein contains almost the perfect amount of weft, which is going to allow me to really "get my color on" with my next batch.

Number of Shafts
4
Number of Treadles
4
Project Status
Weaving
Sett Unit
epi
Width off Loom Unit
inches
Width on Loom Unit
inches