How To Make A Pin Weaving Board

 

In an earlier post I spoke of Pin Weaving with hand spun and dyed wool. In detail…

I made a Pin Board of three sheets of 18″ x 18″ cardboard that I quickly glued together.

I then covered the Pin Board with a heavy woven fabric from my stash and glued it in place around the cardboard core.  You will be able to  iron directly on this board if you are careful not to glue the fabric to the large surface area of the board, but only the edges. This finishes the Pin Board. It is a good size for lap work giving up to a 16″ square weaving area.

Prepare a sheet of Muslin larger than the Pin Board. Square the fabric – meaning that when it is cut in the store the cut does not follow the weave of the fabric. Nick the edge of the fabric with scissors and tear through the width. Do the same with the tightly woven ends at least an inch in width. Some strings along the edges with be easily pulled off. Machine wash and dry the square. A finished size of 20″ square is a good size to cover the Pin Board.

Using the Muslin will allow you to draw a square with a pencil using a wide ruler to assure accuracy. Holding the ruler along the pencil line, insert pins either 1/8″ or 1/4″ apart along the length of the line on opposite ends.

Use glass head or plain metal pins as you will be finishing the weaving by ironing directly on the Pin Board. This can be a painful persuit so use small pliers to hold the pins as you insert them into the muslin covered Pin Board.

Depending on whether your pins are set at 1/8″ or 1/4″ will determine the size of yarns you will use for the weaving, and, more importantly, the warp size.

 

 

In the photo above I used black upholstery thread for the warp and fine weight yarns on a 1/8″ wide space between each pin.

Tie the end of the warp to one corner pin and wrap back and forth ending with a knot at the last corner pin.

Now the weaving begins!

Tags: glass head pins, Muslin, Photo, photograph, Pin Board, pin weaving, pins, sewing pins, thread, upholstery thread, warp, weaving, weft, Wool, woven, yarn