Tactile Weaving - My First Attempt

I first found the 12" bamboo embroidery hoop at the ReUse Ctr along with sunshine yellow wool roving for free.

That is when I decided Okay I guess I'm going to give this project a try.

The yellow cotton thread is what I used for the warp thread which is where the yarn and interesting fiber will be woven into.

With the ring being bamboo I did not feel it would take paint well so I decided to stick with the warm honey tone.

I started gathering coordinating supplies.

Wrapping the warp thread around the hoop went pretty well. 

There is math involved to figure out how much thread you need so I found that on the web somewhere.  I believe and odd number is best.  I had a few issues with 38.

I tied all the threads together and I wanted the focal point not to be in the center.  At this stage it is quite movable so I just moved it to the right a bit.

Here the warp thread is not tied.

I pulled together yellow, blue and white supplies together.

Some acrylic yarn, cotton thread, wool roving, wooden beads, wooden rings, some fancy yarn and long needles/crochet hooks to help me pull the weft through the weaving.

You will notice that I had not put the outer hoop onto this inside one which made it very difficult to keep my warp threads evenly spaced.

Things went a lot better once the warp thread had been evenly spaced and  the outside hoop was screwed tight.

Here are my first weft threads.  I chose to put some yellow cotton at the focal point.  It helps to make the warp thread disappear when it is the same thread in the weft.

I then started adding color in the navy yarn on the right hand side.

After that it was adding texture, color and resisting just wrapping all my weft fibers around the focal point.

The sparkly white yarn added texture and hid the warp threads nicely.

The yellow wool roving was luxurious and smooth which added a different texture to the weaving.

Loved that the wavy yarn was the same color as the roving.

I added beads in the weaving as well as on the hanger to add texture and color.

The wonderful grosgrain ribbon has recently been acquired as a leftover from some project - maybe from my niece.

I really wanted to hide the screw tighthener at the top of the outer hoop.

The ribbon was over 1" wide and with a bit of planning the solution presented itself.

The hanger adds color and height to the final piece.

All the pieces came together so nicely.

The piece I decided would hang so that required a bit of something at the end of the ribbon.

The large wooden ring was oiled to bring out the wood grain.

This added texture and color to the overall presentation of the weaving.

The white bead repeated the shapes and colors in the weaving itself.

It was sewn in place with some of the yarn in the piece which added to the cohesion of the elements.

I created a back for the piece to hide the knots and transitions between fibers.

I cut a piece of navy microfiber fabric just a wee bit smaller than the outside hoop.  I serged the edge to finish it off nicely.  I then hot glued it in place on each warp thread which will help those stay in place.

I have attached a credit label printed on fabric which has been hand sewn to this backing fabric.

I pinned the gallery's information tag with a safety pin.

The final piece will be revealed when the show opens next week.