Small bags

I put a short warp on the Baby Wolf in Montana for weaving small bags.  I planned to use a warp dominant structure, since the weft might be plarn (plastic yarn - cut up plastic grocery bags). Another requirement was to utilize cotton yarn that I had in my stash, so either 8/2 or 5/2 cotton.  Searching through the warp rep projects in old Handwoven magazines, I found this 6 shaft plain weave, using thick and thin weft to create different warp stripe or block patterns.  I wove enough for 6 small bags, 5 which had flaps of handwoven fabric and one used a button closure.  All had straps made from the same 5/2 cotton doubled in an 8 strand kumihimo pattern.  I wove several using plastic bags for the thick weft and several with 3/2 cotton doubled as the thick weft.  All used a 20/2 cotton for the thin weft.  I liked the look and feel of the bags with the 3/2 cotton weft better than the plarn bags.

Structure   Almost Rep Weave
Source       Handwoven Sept 2005
Date Finished Sept 2015

Loom     Baby Wolf

Reed      12, 24 epi

Warp     Fiber   5/2 cotton

              Count

              Color  red, orange, yellow, blue
Warp     Width in Reed  8.5

              Ends  220

              Length  4 yds

Weft      3 with  plarn (plastic grocery bag yarn) and 20/2 cotton                 orange
              3 with 3/2 cotton doubled, navy blue and 20/2 cotton      

Beat       Warp Faced

Bags from Bags

I recently had about a yard of rug warp left on my 4 harness loom, without a project in mind.  I had seen several posts about using plastic bags as weft.  Plastic bags cut up into strips and used as the yarn in weaving, knitting or crocheting is called "plarn".  I liked the idea of re-using grocery bags, since they seem to multiply in my house.  Cutting the bags into 1 1/2" strips is a pretty quick and easy process and can be seen on this you tube video here.  I used Ingles Grocery bags which are tan in color with red and black printing, the red and black showing up occasionally as red or black streaks in the cloth. I alternated the plarn with a weft of the same cotton rug yarn used in the warp.  The bag size is approximately 7 1/2" X 7" with a 72 inch strap.  The straps were made from an 8 element Kumihimo braid.  Each element has 2 strands of 8/4 carpet warp in 2 or 3 colors matching the color of the warp.