How I wove a ART YARN warp and weft into a throw on my Saori loom

I get asked " what do you do with art yarn?" I usually say" it is art in and of it's self ,you do not have to "do " anything with it . But that being said i do use my art yarns often  woven in scarves, pillows, and a jacket. I decided to weave my latest adventure of my art yarn into  the warp and weft  on my Saori ch60 loom.

First  i wound  a warp  using my art yarns on my FREE STANDING SAORI WARPING FRAME HERE

 This is all an experiment! first time  art yarns as warp on my Saori loom!

i decided to use my KENZO WINDING AND THREADING TABLE TOP SYSTEM HERE
here i am beaming on the 7meter warp.

next to thread the heddles . lets talk about about that!

 I substituted the heddles that come on the Saori harnesses with larger wire inserted eye heddles  made in north america that i bought from a place ,that i can not remember  now,  early last year .
there are do it your self hacks but i wanted these to stay on the harnesses and i wanted the option to us a reed and these heddles can me that in the future. larger eye heddel you hack wont work as the shed is weird because of the  over size of the do it your self type heddles.

  i tried out different yarns to see if they would fit through the heddel eyes  some would as you can see  ….

   and some would not ….the beehives and large poofs  art yarns would not  fit . those were elimated as warps.

so i limited my art yarns to  the warp with the non behive type and  hoped that it would work!

 and i proceeded to thread the heddles 

 

so far ,so good. it is working

 

   all  threaded and off the  the threading holder  here is my  inside set ready to   go over to my SAORI CH60 LOOM HERE
 you could weave this on a saori folding loom  but the the cloth beam for this much bulky yardage would fill up after a few advances because the cloth beam is located right below the front beam on the folding looms it hits ones thighs  . with my ch60 loom the cloth beam is off set to the  back  so the bulk and size will all fit on the beam.
because the cloth is so bulky you could try the "catch" on the folding saori looms but it would have to be caught very quickly and very often because of the bulk and would become  much more  tedious . i  just did not want to go there.

You can see i did not use a reed. instead i used my finger to beat or a weaving comb 

  and i have started to weave .

yes some of the art yarns have large  un conventional textures  and got hung up a few times and need to be coaxed  through the heddel here and there as i advanced the warp but it was  all doable.

 90%  or more of the weaving is my art yarn hand spun, the rest is a heavy worsted  merino mill spun yarn for contrast 

  the cloth beam is huge ! even with the 7.5 yards it was to long  next time i will do 6 meters or less
the harness were hitting the cloth  that last 20 " of weaving but i managed to swing and push  them out of the way each treadle change  .

  here you can see i am starting to unfurl the finished cloth

 time to sew the 3 panels together , this was not easy because of the bulk, i needed to be vary carful not to sew over my fingers because the yarns caught on the presser foot . yes i could have hand sewn it but sewing on the machine is stronger and this throw is heavy

  time to soak and dry in the sun

  i added extra fringes and knotted them

  MY SAORI ART YARN THROW IS FINISHED!

  it is snuggly and so soft  and the sparkles do not  show in the photos  . it is so amazing to look at besides being warm!

                          PEACEFUL WEAVING IN THE  CALIFORNIA REDWOODS

                                                  JILL NICKOLENE SANDERS
                                       
                                 WWW.SAORISANTACRUZ.COM

I look

First of all the wire heddels that come on the saori loom will not fit my art yarns