Card Weaving Class

Card Weaving Class

This last weekend I took a Card weaving class at my Guild. Judy Kavanagh was the teacher. I am not a weaver but this looked so fascinating I wanted to give it a try.

After Judy explained generaly how it all worked and how the chart we would use to thread our cards worked we picked our colours and made our own charts for the colours we had picked.

We used playing cards to make our cards. First we cut them square and then we punched holes in the corners and labeled them so we could thread them correctly.  We wound a short warp (the long threads we put through the holes) I don’t have a picture but you just wound threads around the 4 corners of a warping board. We could have used anything with about a 1.5 meter circumference.

Then following our charts we  threaded the cards. It looked a bit of a mess to start, but after making sure all the cards were the right way and I straitening them we were all set.

 

 

Some of us tied to the cabinet doors and others to the looms.  We started weaving.  It got very quiet as we all concentrated. The shuttles we used were made by Judy. I bought this one because I really liked it and didn’t want to give it back.

We rotated the cards 4 turns forward weaving between each turn and then backwards 4 turns weaving between each turn so that we made lozenge shapes in our weaving.  We tried variations on that.

Here is a short video (taken by Judy) of me actually weaving…..  applause here. LOL

Ann doing card weaving from Judy Kavanagh on Vimeo.

You can see that mine is smaller than the others. Judy said to beat the weft (the cross fibers we are putting in) very firmly. It seems we have different definitions of firmly. No matter, the only thing I didn’t get to try because of it was making my weaving round like a tube. My weaving was to inflexible. You can see the little broken thread sticking out on the right hand side of the right hand picture. That is where I tried to pull it into a tube and broke the thread instead. if you click on the picture it will pop up bigger so you can see it better.

It was cool. This was only 10 cards but you can do as many as you like. There is a free program that you can use on line to make patterns for up to 64 cards I think it is. https://twistedthreads.org/ You have to join to play with it but its free. You can get very complicated, turning some cards forward and some back at the same time. You can spell out words and do very complicated patterns and pictures. If you google image card weaving patterns you will see so many. I couldn’t chose which to show you.

 

 

 

 

 

 

14 thoughts on “Card Weaving Class

  1. That is such a clever idea! We enjoyed watching the video and love the weaving that we could see. It would make a great handle for a felted bag/purse.

  2. Wow! I am impressed Ann. I had no idea that you could weave that way. It looks like fun. Everyone’s patterns are cool. I think I might get easily confused but taking a class would be fun.

    1. It’s not that complicated but you do have to concentrate to remember if you are going forward or back and have you already turned the cards or not. We had an arrow on a piece of paper we would flip every time we switched from forward to back to help us.

  3. that makes 2 kinds of weaveing you enjoyed doing and you have a floor tapestry loom calling to you you may be a felter who weaves at any moment! looks like you were hasving fun!!
    thankyou for sharing!

  4. Wow, just seeing all the threading up of the cards made my eyes glaze over….then you mention you can have up to 64 cards!!!
    The results are fabulous, I love the lozenge patterns, and I’m sure after a while you can really develop a calming meditative rhythm with the weaving….just don’t stop!
    I always find it interesting how instructions (in your case ‘firmly’) can have so very many interpretations.
    Thanks for sharing what seems a cerebral challenge but with rewarding results.

    1. thanks, Antje. It wasn’t that hard really. Keeping track of what you are doing does take some concentration. I do not know that I would want to get to complicated without lots of practice.

  5. Wow, the result is gorgeous, Ann 🙂 It’s a lot like the kind of bracelets/anklets I like. I’m not sure I understand how it all works, but the video looks interesting too.

    1. It s confusing looking. I took the class because I was curios as to how it worked. It was also appealing because it didn’t need a loom or anything expensive to do.

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