I learned how to do an art called cardweaving in about 1995, sparked by a book called Cardweaving by Candace Crockett.

The book included some cardweaving cards in the package (shrinkwrapped with the book), so once I got some yarn, I was all set to get started.

I use a small lap-sized Beka brand loom to hold my cardweaving projects, and I find it is quite handy.

A band with my chain design, in cotton, on my loom.
I have already completed this one.

A nylon chain band on my loom.

My Chain Design

The chain design is one I developed myself, using the Malarky Tablet Weaver software.

My chain design, as shown in TabletWeaver.

I made a cotton band using this design:

Red chain band segment, in cotton.

More of the red chain band, in cotton.

I cut off a portion and made a bracelet, which I wore every day on my left wrist (until I sadly lost it). The bracelets I make fasten with a plastic buckle. I use my sewing machine to sew the edges before I cut them, and also to attach the buckle.

Red chain bracelet in cotton. I wore this pretty much constantly, as it has deep personal meaning for me.
I need to make another one.

I have another band on my loom with the same exact design, only using nylon thread instead of cotton. I believe that nylon is more durable than cotton, especially for outdoor and tough applications, and it is easier to keep clean, and has less of a tendency to get frayed.

An Experimental Band

Here is an older band I wove using blue and white cotton crochet thread. The techniques I used with this one involved putting two strands of blue and two strands of white in each card, except the edges (first and last cards), which I threaded with only blue for a framing effect. I do very much like how my woven bands look with a single color at the edges. I think it looks neater.

Segment 1 of the blue and white band

Segment 2 of the blue and white band

On this band, I spun around the cards in different ways to make different designs - mostly zig-zag lines and diamond patterns. It’s a bit of a sampler to show how simple changes in the position of individual cards can affect the design profoundly, in addition to any changes in the overall rotation sequence. I usually do pretty simple turning sequences of four turns forward, then four turns away, repeating.

This is because I like to Keep It Simple, Smartie. :) Also I get confused easily if I mess up the rotation, and keeping it simple helps me recover when I make a mistake. And when you turn the cards, the warp threads twist. Another consideration is that if you keep going one direction, the twist builds up, and my style of loom doesn’t deal with that very well. So by turning one direction and then turning back an equal amount, my designs stay twist-neutral.

On some bands, I have experimented with different rotation patterns, however.

Weaving Letters

One of the first bands I made way back in 1995 was an experimental band where I tried weaving some letters. I am a snarky person, so the very first words I wove were “BITE ME”.

What happened next was a Really Bad Time. I was working at a dog kennel back then, and I got in the middle of a fight between three dogs. Two large dogs were attacking a small one that I was carrying, so in the throes of panic, I took extreme measures to save the little dog because I thought the other two dogs would kill him.

I ended up with bites all over my hands, pretty severe ones, too. I did succeed in saving the little dog, a beagle named Hobbes. And I also eventually healed from all my wounds, thankfully. I have some pretty wicked scars, and I tell the whole story in my writings.

But yes, I wove the words “BITE ME”, and lo, I got bitten, quite severely.

In the future, I would like to experiment more with weaving letters and other free-form designs, but that quest is tabled for the moment. I will seek out videos and other materials to help me learn how to do it well. I have my eye on some pixel fonts that I would like to buy for this, but I haven’t gotten them yet.