A customer contacted us: “I think I didn’t count eight wraps for my TexaTURTLE, and now I’m out of yarn before the hexagon is done … HELP!” Our dear friend Dyan commented “All of the sudden my students were weaving stripes, and I hadn’t even taught them that!”
So let there be a blog entry about connecting yarns while weaving hexagons!
We suggest two different methods, depending on where in the weaving process you are:
(1) WHILE YOU ARE WEAVING THE BIAS PART you can change colors at the end of a row. Just knot the two strands together as shown, so that they stay on the outside of the woven area. This is a method that tri-loom weavers would use for color changes.
If you want to change between two colors frequently, like every other round, just carry the yarn outside the nails to where you are going to use it next.
In this example, we’re switching from blue to red. It is easiest if you change colors at the beginning of a “round”, but you can change at any nail location.
(2) WHILE YOU ARE WEAVING THE CENTER SECTION, working back and forth, you can either use the “end of row” method just described, or you can use a method that rigid heddle weavers and traditional weavers commonly use: Have the end of the old yarn and the beginning of the new yarn overlap in the same shed (same under/over) for at least one inch. Then continue to weave as usual. You can clip the ends after you take the hexagon off the loom.
In this example we are changing from red to yellow …
After you take the hexagon off the loom, you can clip the ends.
It depends on the yarn, but in many cases the transition is barely visible.
Happy weaving!