Trying my hand at weaving

For Christmas this year, I picked out a Cricket weaving loom. You know, because I don’t have enough craft hobbies.

The loom is pretty easy to work and comes with a little instruction booklet on how to warp it (the vertical strands in these photos that are attached to the loom), and how to weave the weft, which is just passing the yarn back and forth through the warp.

This is my second attempt… my first practice looks like a kindergartener made it, so I went more slowly the second time and am much happier with how it looks.

I still have some figuring-out to do – for example, how do I switch colors without making the edges messy?

There seems to be a dearth of beginner-level tutorials/instructions online for weaving, so I’m trying my best, but am sure there are lots more possibilities and tricks that I’m missing. My local library sadly does not have any weaving books, so I may actually (gasp) buy a book so I can learn something beyond the very basics.

As Ryder keeps asking me “what are you going to make with this?” Truthfully, I don’t really know yet. Scarves are the obvious answer, but at the moment I live in a place that does not require scarves, and it’s rather the wrong season to be giving them to my Michigan family.

My other ideas include place mats, decorative pillows, and kitchen towels (once I learn how to warp finer yarn onto the loom). I’ve seen mention of double-width weaving which would enable me to weave 30″ wide fabric on my 15″ loom, which opens up possibilities of small blankets, rugs, and surely other things too. What do you think? What else can I make with my loom? In the meantime, I think I have some more practicing to do…