a woven wall hanging

Several of you have already given me great suggestions about what to do with the buffet area of our house, so thank you much for that! It is really getting me inspired to work on it.

Today I want to share with you what I hung on the wall right next to that space, which is my handmade woven wall hanging. I got the idea for this from Rachel’s blog, fell in love with it, and decided it would be one of my vacation projects. I built a loom using scrap wood, nails, and string I found at my parents’ house. Then I gathered some different types of yarn and cording from the craft store and just dug in.

It took awhile to figure out the best way to weave, but after awhile I got in a groove. I got about halfway through during vacation and then it took me several more weeks of stolen time here and there to finish it up. You could do it in a day or two if you had the time. I’d say it took about 8-ish hours.

When I got near the bottom and my yarn ran out I just decided I was through. In theory I wanted it to be longer but I was too excited to finish it up right then. So I just cut the strings and tied them up.

To hang it I just fed a small dowel rod through the loops at the top and tied another piece of string on. I had to tie it pretty tight, otherwise it kept slipping in toward the middle.

I am proud of this project because I had never tried something like it before and I think it turned out pretty well. I am already planning to do more.

There are some things I would do differently next time. First I would choose more varieties of texture  with my materials. Plastic string, fibrous twine, ribbon, and fabric would be great. I also want to try one that is “messier” using natural twine as the base and letting it show through more by not weaving as tightly.

So who wants to have a weaving party? :)