Triaxial (fabric) weaving

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 :slight_smile:

(Ethel’s innocent look is deceiving)

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What an interesting 10x10 that would make …

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Sounds like we need to plan a Maker Trip to the Free Play Arcade for a Q-Bert tournament.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Pictures! Wanna see pictures!

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Okay! There’s some motivation for me. I’ll try to finish up the weaving this weekend.

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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.

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I want to see the quilt top too!

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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.

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You know what they say … “dogs have people - cats have staff”.

:heart_eyes_cat:

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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.) :innocent:

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Well, things have certainly escalated around here. I blame @John_Marlow and @talkers @heyheymama for my current timesuck obsession.

I’m armed with a 10x10” art show board, a sentimental love of Q*Bert, and a compulsion to over-engineer things.

The triaxial weaving needs even sized bands. And why buy them when I can waste hours weaving them, right?? :slight_smile:

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Your cat looks like What is she doing with allytat yarm I cant play with it there

Re cat photobombs
I need a lot of supervision

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Are you a wizard, cus the next maker Meetup is at cidercade

Testing…testing…testing…

I got my hands on a 10x10” board today, so before I start weaving the first strap, I wanted to super-verify the approximate wild-leaping ballpark guess I was doing.

The desired weaving width, if I’m doing this triaxial Q*Bert Thang, is for seven steps, if you look at the game pics. I want it to fit reasonably well on the board, not too big or small. Some room for spacing on the weaving.

I played around with different inkle straps I had laying around yesterday, guess which might be closest to correct size in order to guesstimate the approximate number of threads to warp on (80) the loom.

So, I warped the loom, but have held off weaving until I had the board and did the zigzag with closest strap to visualize kinda how this width will fit on the board. And if it had needed adjustment, I could add/remove warp threads before weaving commenced.

It also gives me approximate scale to start percolating thoughts on making Q*Bert and his little friends.

Also pictured, shuttle wound and ready to weave.

The piece of folded-double plastic is going to be used to make sure the width stays extremely consistent (goes around the strap, stationary as I weave. I’ll mark width once I settle into things, slide it, and check periodically). Thanks to the erstwhile milk jug for its noble sacrifice to the greater good.

So…I think the guess on width and warping was pretty good, no changes. Well, close enough any changes smack of effort, so not happening.

Time to weave.

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Only on the weekends :exploding_head: