The Art of Weaving

While you can buy a frame loom that is already fully set up, it’s also very easy to make one yourself from things you can find around the house.

With the loom set up, Maria will now show you a set of techniques that will enable you to get weaving. The first is a basic weave, which forms the foundation of all weaving techniques.

Building on the basic weave, you will learn how to add a yarn in a different colour to create a striped effect.

The third technique Maria demonstrates enables you to weave vertical stripes in alternating colours.

As well as weaving with alternating colours, another way to mix colours is to combine two coloured yarns into one weft yarn to create a marled effect.

Maria shows you how to give your woven piece tassels - a flourish you could add at the end or beginning.

Once you have finished weaving, you can cut your piece off the loom and complete the finishing touches.

Colour is a big part of creating and designing a woven piece - your preferences and choices will be completely personal to you, and will give everything you make a quality and style that’s unique. In this lesson, Maria advises on how best to approach this aspect of weaving.

Maria encourages you to repurpose materials that you already have to give them a new lease of life. She demonstrates how to turn an old t-shirt into yarn.

Using the T-shirt yarn you have just created, the next project you will work on is creating a rag rug.

The equipment you will require is pretty much the same as the previous project, just the frame and yarn will be different.

You may find it helpful to draw out a plan for your rag rug, especially if you want to use multiple colours - Maria shows you how.

Using techniques you learnt in previous lessons, you’ll be setting up a new larger loom by adding the warp strings first.

Next, Maria takes you through the process of adding the weft rows and flattening the warp strings.

This lesson details the final steps of loom preparation.

With the loom set up, Maria begins showing you how to weave the initial section of your piece.

T-shirt yarn is chunkier than ordinary yarn, so in this lesson, Maria will be showing you a way to handle the t-shirt yarn to make weaving easier.

You will now be ready to start work on the main body of your woven piece, and Maria introduces another new technique for you to try.

Maria shows you how to change colour midway through a row in your rag rug.

After spending hours crafting your beautiful rag rug, it’s now time to do the final checks and detach it from the loom to see it in all its glory.

You’re now ready to do a few final finishing touches.

Maria congratulates you in completing your first hand woven rag rug! She also offers different suggestions for how you can use it in your home, and ideas for future projects.

Join Maria on a tour of her studio, where she makes all of her woven pieces. See her floor loom in action as she discusses the differences between the different weaving methods.

For your third and final project together, Maria will be showing you how to weave a placemat - and this time, you’ll be using a circular frame loom.

You can use the same tools and materials you have gathered for the other projects, the only new equipment to source will be a circular frame.

As you’ll be using a circular frame for this project, the process for creating your loom is slightly different - Maria takes you through step-by-step.

Before you start weaving, it’s important to think about how your piece will look, and what you need to do to bring this vision to life.

It’s time to begin making your placemat. Maria shows you how to start using the basic weaving technique you will be familiar with by now.

In this lesson, Maria will teach you a new technique that sees two weft yarns criss-crossing through the loom to give a plaited effect.

Once you’re happy with the size of your placemat, Maria shows you how to finish weaving and secure all your hard work.

It’s time to take the woven piece off the loom and secure each of the warp strings.

Finally, you can complete the finishing touches under Maria’s guidance.

Your third and final project is complete! Stand back and admire your hard work as Maria suggests ideas for what you can make next.

Maria bids farewell, and offers words of encouragement and inspiration to take with you on your weaving journey.