For some reason that I can’t fathom, I have a real yearning to do some triaxial fabric weaving. I need another project like I need a hole in the head - I must be delirious from lack of sleep.
I have no idea what I would do with a patch of said fabric weaving if I made one.
Has anyone done any weaving like this? Ideas?
If you’re not familiar, this is the gist of it. Obviously you don’t make very large pieces.
Uh. Oh.
Thanks, I think.
(Disappearing down another internet rabbit hole. See you on the flip side.)
If you do this, you must felt a Qbert. Mustmustmust!
Annnnd I’m back.
So, after a google-fu, a spin around Pinterest (watch that Vortex, it was a close call!), a hop through YouTube (there’s lots of triaxial goodies out there)…my conclusion is:
And then I landed on this instructable…I need to make it.
I am doing my part by finding this for you:
*Edit - I had no idea this was a thing for my original post, lol.
Squuueeee! Q*Bert was one of my favorite arcade games.
We doooo have felting needles in the fiber cabinet…
And OBVIOUSLY I need to do a triaxial weave Q*Bert mat for the needlefelted little guy.
From a practical standpoint, I have a fondness for mats about the size of placemats. They work good as a table thingy.
And more importantly, when I’m working on wire jewelry at home, if I get up for even a minute, I have to use a thickish cover cloth over my project because one of my cat supervisors is a thieving magpie with highly developed object permanence who likes to steal away “abandoned” (for 30 seconds) jewelry and wire rolls and spirit them back to her lair. And she can tell if there are covered valuables if the cloth is too thin. Has to be thicker because she knows what a roll of wire feels like and will dig it out.
So quilted or woven mats are perfect defense 
(Ethel’s innocent look is deceiving)
What an interesting 10x10 that would make …
Sounds like we need to plan a Maker Trip to the Free Play Arcade for a Q-Bert tournament.
When I was in middle school, we would make beer coozies this way with the plastic friend bracelet strapping. We used a clamp loom to hold the strapping. It was fun seeing how far you could push certain patterns.
What is a “clamp loom”?
Not sure that is the technical name but, it was a home made loom that one of the boy scout mom’s made. Had a set of screws and clips that you could tighten down to hold the strapping. This would allow us to make the pattern with a looser spacing. Then we would take the finished weave and use a hook to pull the weave tight, section by section. I think it was based on a basket weaving loom.
I’ve done this on a small scale to learn and working on a larger center piece for a quilt top like this now. (working on = haven’t worked on in about a month and it’s just pinned up on my quilt board looking at me.)
I bought wefty needles especially for this but I don’t think you need them. Just makes it easier.
I made all the bias tape and oh my gosh so much ironing. Also note, the fabric doesn’t actually need to be cut on the bias bc you don’t need the stretch. There are some people I follow on social media that say it makes it harder in fact. I’m no expert though.
Pictures! Wanna see pictures!
Okay! There’s some motivation for me. I’ll try to finish up the weaving this weekend.
I especially thought it would be interesting to see it in a quilt top, so your project intrigues me.
BTW, I saw the quilt rack Alex was making. Very nice.
I want to see the quilt top too!
That isn’t the face of innocence, that is the let’s agree to disagree about who is in charge here face. And cat owners/servants wouldn’t have it any other way.
You know what they say … “dogs have people - cats have staff”.
Sooo, @John_Marlow, this triaxial stuff got me thinking on the materials for it. There’s storebought ribbon, bias tape. Then there’s making own bias tape. Hm, could dye the fabric first…
Could mess with gradients in addition to the patterns…
And then I got to thinking, wouldn’t it be interesting with Inkle-woven bands?
And can always spin the yarn for that first…
(I can Rube Goldberg anything, given proper time and deliberation.) 
