Weaving to Woo - Mini Loom Heart Patch
By Jane Patrick
The term "wearing your heart on your sleeve" shouldn't be taken literally—however, if you make this heart patch you really could wear a heart on your jacket or sweater. Show the person you love how much you love them and the environment by using leftover yarn!
Take the Mini Loom along with you and weave up this pile patch in time for Valentine’s Day. Learn a traditional rug technique, the ghiordes knot, for an overall textured patch. I’ve applied my patch to a pillow made from leftover handwoven fabric scrapes, but it could just as easily be sewn to a jean jacket or tote bag.
Photos below show the project on a Mini Loom, which is no longer available. You can substitute any of our frame looms—the Lilli Loom comes with all the weaving tools you'll need.
What You'll Need
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cotton carpet warp in brown (shown on loom) or red (shown on project)
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worsted weight wool (we used Lamb’s Pride from Brown Sheep) in 2 shades of brown, deep purple, deep red, bright red, and orange
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frame loom and weaving tools—the Lilli Loom includes a plastic beater, plastic shuttle, plastic needle, and weaving stick
Materials
Equipment
Directions
With carpet warp, wind 22 warp threads in the center of the loom. After measuring, take up the slack so that the threads are tight on the loom. Tie off.
Insert the weaving stick, weaving over, under, over, under all the way across the warp. Slide to the top of the loom. This will help you weave one of the plain weave rows and will serve as a guide for the opposite row.
Wind a shuttle with cotton carpet warp.
Insert the shuttle about 1½” above the bottom of the loom. Leave a tail about 3 times the width of the warp for hemstitching. Weave 10 rows, packing the weft tightly with the beater.
Hint: I used the weaving needle to pick the opposite shed before inserting the shuttle. Remove the needle after weaving across.
Hemstitch over 2 warps and 2 wefts. If you hemstitch often, you might like our handy booklet that comes with a needle.
- Wind a shuttle with worsted wool (I used red).
Cut 3 ½” long lengths of yarn for the ghiordes knots. You will need: 41 light brown, 34 dark brown, 6 purple, 11 dark red, 17 bright red, and 23 orange.
Weave two rows of plain weave.
Make a row of ghiordes knots following the photo for colors.
Repeat steps 9 and 10 until pattern is woven.
Finish as you began with 2 rows of plain weave in red worsted yarn and 10 rows of cotton carpet warp, ending with 2 over 2 hemstitching.
Before removing your weaving from the loom, trim the pile with small sharp scissors to between ¼” and ½” long.
Remove the weaving from the loom and trim the fringe to about 1” or desired length.
Notes
This pillow was featured in Time to Weave as an alternate idea. Here, we’ve provided the details for making it. This book is out of print, but it can be downloaded in e-book format.
Pillow was constructed by Louise Bradley.