In honor of the day, I tried my hand at designing a heart motif. I drew two drafts before attempting to weave it, but the paper and pencil technique was not giving me a true idea of what the heart would look like. So, ultimately, I created the heart as I wove it.
The yellow portion is pick-up only, while the grey center area is a combination of pick-up and drop down. As I was weaving, I realized the only way to create the illusion of the “V” in the middle of the heart was to create background. For every grey thread I picked-up, I dropped its partner yellow thread. It seems to have worked pretty well, but I think the “V” could be a pick or two shallower. I may weave another and see.
Yesterday, I revisited my Valentine’s Day post from February 2013, after Liz Gipson of the Yarnworker blog shared the post on Facebook. It was fun to look back, but also inspiring. In the original post, I wove a heart out of woven inkle bands. Rereading the post reminded me that I pondered then about making the heart smaller and turning it into a pin. Guess who made a pin yesterday? I updated the original post with the details of how I made the pin.
Happy the day before Valentine’s Day. I revisited this post today after Liz Gipson a.k.a the Yarnworker, shared the project on her facebook page of the same name. Thank you, Liz! I am so glad she did. I haven’t seen these little hands and fingers in so long. They are still cute, in my unbiased mommy opinion, just 8 years bigger. Time does fly. In revisiting the post I made a few updates. The update is in two parts, so be sure to keep scrolling to the part 2.
Happy Valentine’s Day! Today is the perfect day for my first post since June; the perfect day to share that the reason for the break is the new love in my life. Growing this new love has kept me from weaving and writing, but ultimately has brought me so much joy. I am happy to introduce you to my new love, our new son, who joined us on January 10th.
My new love!
Now that I’m not “growing”’ this love anymore, I feel more like myself and am so happy to be weaving, writing and creating again. Although, arguably, I was creating for 9 months… So, here is an “inkle bit of love” project for you. I hope you enjoy.
Supplies needed: Craft glue, scissors.
You will need a band no wider than 3/4″ cut into four 8″ long pieces, any wider and it just looks wonky. However, shorter pieces will give you a smaller heart and longer pieces will give you bigger heart. (and the world needs more of those!) Use the glue to seal the edges of each band piece so they don’t fray and to glue the band ends down after you’ve gotten them into place.
Updated (2/13/21)
The Steps:
Interlace four ends of your cut bands, lining up the cut edges with the selvedges.
2. Fold the left vertical band over the top and under the bottom horizontal strips. Be sure not to twist when folding.
3. Fold the top horizontal band over, under, over the three vertical bands. Be sure not to twist when folding.
4. Fold the bottom horizontal band piece behind the center heart and glue in place. It is not woven in.
5. Repeat step 4 with the right vertical band.
Wouldn’t this heart be fun made into a lapel or scarf pin, a hair clip, a magnet… What else? Do you have any ideas?
Update part 2 (2/13/21):
Looking back on this post gave me the urge to make a pin. In my bin of bands that have no purpose but were fun to weave, I found a thinner 1/2″ band, in Valentine’s Day worthy colors. The heart is smaller than the original , about 3 1/2″ wide by 2 1/2″ tall.
The main difference from the original heart and this one, besides being smaller, is I bent the two outer bands back instead of over and back. The smaller size just seemed to call for it.
Then, I sewed a pin to a piece of felt cut to fit the back of the heart and glued the felt to the heart.
inkled pink 