Weaving for the Holidays

 Stress-Free Weaving for the Holidays 

We all love weaving, but making handmade gifts for all of our family, friends and co-workers can get a little stressful around the holidays! Giving handmade gifts bring so much joy to the giver and receiver and is always worth the extra time put into creating something from your passion for weaving.  

Isn't it exciting just thinking about a loved one opening a gift that you spent so many hours on, and then to see their smile when their gift is revealed? 

I'm a true believer that giving a hand-made gift can truly express how much you care, and shares something that can be cherished for generations to come. It's the perfect way to share your love of weaving with friends and family and show them how much you love them. 

Unfortunately, gift giving season always creeps up on us faster than we think. Luckily, with a little planning we won't have to feel the pressure to create last minute gifts, because that extra stress is very unnecessary during the holidays.  We want to take our time to weave love into the gift, as we think about the person that will be receiving it.

Here are some helpful tips to prepare you for the upcoming gift giving season that will make it stress-free.

• Make a list of recipients you plan to make gifts for.
• Find out their favorite colors or home decor theme.
• Decide on the type of projects you would like to make.  For example, kitchen towels, scarves, placemats or table runners.
• Check your yarn stash to see what you have on hand. 
• Order yarns you need so that you can transition on to the next project without delay.  It's frustrating to wait for the mail delivery when we are itching to get our looms warped.
• Jump in and get started on your first holiday project.  Before you know it, your list will become shorter, and you will be ready for the holidays with time to spare!  

We have even more ideas that may help with your project planning!

Idea #1:  Make Your Warp A Canvas for Creativity

Projects that can be woven several ways all on one warp save time.  Warping with a basic natural or simple striped warp allows you to be creative with weft colors. A basic warp can be a canvas of sorts to be used with many different patterns. 

You can then weave in simple stripes, plaid or use a pick-up stick on your rigid heddle loom or different treadling on your shaft loom to achieve texture and design.

                  Here are some project ideas with this in mind.

Now that you have your basic warp on the loom, you can plan your weaving strategy.  

You can decide on a single color for weft which lets you use just one shuttle throughout the entire project for a quick and comfortable rhythm or go wild with many colors for lots of weft stripes. 

I love to weave towels because everyone enjoys a handwoven towel in their home.  Each towel can be unique, which make excellent one-of-a-kind gifts too.

Our Aurora Earth Mini Cones are perfect for endless design possibilities!

Idea #2:  Order a Weaving Kit

Another way to save time gathering supplies is to leave the work to us.  Cotton Clouds has over 200 weaving kits to choose from, making the planning process a breeze.  

Our kits supply all of the yarns you will need without having to shop around for all the colors required. 

As I browse through my Handwoven magazines, getting ideas for the projects I want to weave, I see that some of the patterns call for ten colors or more!  That's a lot of gathering and checking on yardage amounts for a single project!  Cotton Clouds has made this easy with so many kits to choose from!

Idea #3:  Join One of Our Weaving Clubs! 

 Jodi Ybarra