Here are a few points for the April 2024 workshop for anyone wanting to come and have a go.
You will need
- A strong cardboard box (dimensions up to you but I suggest the smaller the better to being with)
- Reinforce the top edge with extra card or turn the top flap down to make a double thickness
- Strong, sharp scissors for notching the top edge (or a sharp craft knife)
- Notch the box all the way around the top at ¼ inch intervals to ½ inch depth.
- Start the notching process before coming to Guild as the warping of the long sides can take time.
- Strong cotton threads or string or ribbon for warping – as a rough guide you will need circa 33 feet for a 5 inch by 3½ inch box. But it is important that you have enough warp to go around the whole box in a continuous length as joining can cause breakages.
- For the weft – a selection of rovings, ribbon, carpet thread, tapestry threads, knitting wool.
- Long tapestry needles or mattress/sacking needle with curved end.
Edna and I may have a small selection of boxes with us, but preferably bring one to suit you.
Start at one corner on one of the long sides. Leave a tail of yarn on the inside. Bring the warp through the first notch, down the side, across the bottom, and up the other side to the corresponding notch. Hook the warp in this notch and back out the adjacent one. Wrap back to the next empty notch on the opposite side.
Continue until both opposite long sides and the bottom of the box have been warped. Do not cut the warp. Measure out enough additional yarn to warp the other two sides of the box and the bottom again. Leave all of this dangling from the last notch.
Weaving bottom and final stage of warping: With weft, weave ¼” on bottom, starting on the side of the box where the warp is hanging. After weaving ¼”, thread the reserved warp in a needle and weave it through next to the weft. Alternate section of ¼” plain weave in weft with warp ends, securing warp in notches along both short sides of the box as you did on the long sides.
Weaving sides: End the last weft pick of the bottom at the corner where the extra warp is available. Make one extra warp end at this corner so there are an odd number of warp ends in the circumference of the box. Begin to weave around the box. Weave both up from the bottom and down from the top (it’s easier to work the last picks of the sides in the middle, rather than at the top by the loops).
