Geometric Woven Macrame Hoops

1. Intro to the Class: Hi, I'm Kelly from Kelly iMac design and welcome to woven macro many hoops. This is the beginner class where we talk about very beginner level information around macro me about the materials that you'll need. And we will be learning, reviewing how to create your own macro may woven piece. We're going to be basically using hoops as a loon and learning how to weave within the hoop itself. So there are multiple designs that you can make. As a result of this class, you will be learning how to attach the warp thread to the hoop. We're going to be learning how to weave within the hoop itself and how to attach it at the end, we're going to learn about finishing touches like creating the fringe. And if you want to add something onto the hoop, you can. And we're going to talk a little bit about how you might read a pattern in order to create a pre-made design. Patterns that I've included here are in the resources part of this class and you're free to use those, or you're free to create your own design as well. But we are going to be creating either one or multiple hoops together. You can create multiple hoops that are tied together, or you can create multiple hoops with different designs in them that are so low pieces, so lots of different opportunities in this class, it is a beginner level and we will be finished with a hoop or more than one. After finishing the whole class. I hope you'll join me. I hope you learn a lot and I hope you really enjoy the piece that you make as a result of this class. Good luck. 2. Materials Needed: Let's talk about the materials that you're going to need for this project. First things first, you need a macro, may hope when you look at macro, many hoops, they come in different sizes. They are talking about the diameter of the hoop when you look at the size. And I would recommend getting one that's over six inches wide. So I usually use between 810 or 12 inches wide. If you get a smaller hoop, It just means that you can't fit as much of a design inside. And you might also want to think about the macro make cord that you're gonna be using. Because if you use a thicker rope, then you're also going to have less of a design. If you use a thinner rope, you'll be able to fit more. But I would recommend getting an 810 or 12 diameter hoop. And depending on what kind of design you want to make, you might have multiple hoops, you might put multiple together. You might do different designs and different sizes of hoops, but you can vary your design. You can vary how much you can fit in the diameter of the hoop based on the size. So one hoop, they come in different colors. These ones are nice, shiny gold, but you can find them in different shapes as well. I've seen rectangles, I've seen triangles. So you can really do whatever you would like depending on what you can find. But when you're using the hoop, you want to make sure that you will be able to have some vertical threads and some horizontal threads. So your warps and your wefts, because that's how you're gonna be doing your woven design. You'll need a hoop. Second thing you're going to need is some academic cord. So what you're looking for in your macro may threading is you want the kind that will fray at the ends. You want them or rope style one rather than the woven and a chord like one. Because you want the frame in order to have the nice fringe on the sides of your woven design. You're looking for that, that you can kind of come out and the thread will fray at the end. This is a three millimeter wide. You can buy 234. But like I mentioned before, if you're using a smaller hoop, you're going to want a thinner thread just because you'll be able to fit more of a design. If you're using a really large hoop, you might be able to use some of that thicker thread. This is a pretty easy project to shop for. You really don't need too many supplies, but you can accent your design with a couple of different things. So if you want cool little accents, you can get little beads or buttons or something like that, which you might be able to put on a little bit later, something like this. Up to you. If you want to do something like that, that's totally optional and that will come later. The last couple of things that you're going to need is you're going to need some scissors. You can tell them mine are broken from US. But you'll need some scissors. You'll probably want some good ones with a nice look, sharp blade. Then if you want, I have some resources with some patterns on some designs that you can use. You don't have to use these. You could do whatever you want as you make your project. But if you would like to use the designs, I'm gonna be teaching you how to read this pattern so you can then transfer it onto your hoop. After that, it's really up to you if you want to add anything else, you really just need that hoop, the scissors and the thread or the macro McCord. I have sometimes used some glue or mod podge just in the knots to make sure that they don't come on done. Or I have also used the thin sewing thread in order to put on an accent like this or a button. So up to you. But you're going to need a hoop of whatever size. You're going to want your thread and you're courting of whatever size it is measured by millimeter. And I am using three millimeter. I'm using three colors in my design. I have my white, I have my black, and I have my turquoise. But they come in so many different colors, so you're really able to buy whatever color scheme fits in your home. Then we are ready to get started once you have all of those supplies collected. 3. Reading A Pattern: Let's talk about designs. I have included two designs for you in the resources part of this class. They are made as patterns on a grid. And I'll teach you how to read this grid so you can follow along if you'd like, if you wanna do something completely different, like on this one, I've used a combination of different things. You're free to do that because we're going to just be learning how to set up your vertical lines, which are your warp threads. And then going back in and doing the weft threading, which is the horizontal lines. So you'll be able to do whatever design you'd like. But if you want something that's already made for you, I have included these patterns. So let's go over how to read something like this because it looks like a grid and you can see the different designs in there. But it might be a little bit confusing to just start. So each of these columns is a warp thread, that is the vertical. Each row is a weft thread, which is the horizontal. So as you start to follow this pattern, you're going to see some are white, some are black. The white part means that your weft thread is going under and the black is over. You'll notice that sometimes there won't even be a warp thread depending on how many you want. For example, you don't need to have all of these. You'll only need 1234567891011 in order to complete these nice diamond designs. So you don't actually need all of this if you don't want to, but depending on the size of your hoop, you're likely going to have more warp threads so that you can make a bigger design. You are able to expand these designs if you would like, if you want to make the diamonds bigger. But this gives you an example of how you would do your over and unders in order to complete a design. So I've numbered your warp threads down here. If you wanna do 21, then you would have 21 where I've told you what to do. You are able to have more and then you're going to just complete these designs. So for this first row, you're gonna have your 21 threads. For this first row. You're going to have these go under. And then this is going to be the one that is over. You're going to see that That's what I've done right here. This black is what this thread is doing. So under the whole way, under one over, the whole way under. Next, you've got under, over, under, over, and then under the whole way. And you'll be able to see that here. So this second black thread is under, over, under, over, and then under the hallway. Next one you're doing the same thing but you're expanding out. So you have three in-between now. So you're making the symmetrical on both sides. You're going to do under than over. Have three where you're under again, over and then under again. So that third one, you can see that I've done that under the hallway, over, under three, over one. And then under again, you'll notice that as these expand out, you have more overs in a line. And this is really where the leaving comes in because you're having this nice pattern that's popping out because you are weaving these in different places. Now you'll notice that sometimes these warp threads, the vertical ones, we'll get a little bit shifted. So you can always go back in and shift them back over so that the design ends up pretty symmetrical and nicely woven in there. As you can see, with this one. It's going to make something like this. Something like this is actually going to make the inverse and look something like this. So this is actually the back of the design that I'd already created, but this is what the inverse will look like. You can tell that instead of going under the hallway and then over one and then under some and then over, you're going over the whole way and then under is where your accents are. So that's what this looks like. With this design. You're making three different pyramids. One of them is going to look like this. Then you're going to shift and the inverse is going to happen. And then the third row would be this one, but it's going to lay down in one row. Now this is a pretty large design. So you might actually not be able to finish this whole thing depending on the size of your hoop. But I have included what you're doing. And then this last triangle, because it didn't fit on my paper, you're going to go back and just follow the rest of this. Just make sure that you're paying attention to these little messages down here so that you know, okay, well this is where I am. I'm gonna go back up here and follow this one. Alright, so that's that one, or this one. A lot easier of a design because you're just making some triangles. So again, this one only has 13 warp threads, so it's only 13 across. This would be good for a smaller group. And you're gonna go under, have one over and then under again, under and then three over and then under again. So you're making a nice block to triangle here. You're doing the inverse. And then you're going to just leave some room here if you'd like, or you can start again and make your triangles. So this is an example of what a triangle would look like. I haven't done the whole thing over. I've only done three at a time. So three warp threads where I'm going over and then I'm under. And so I've made this kind of triangle. But if I inverse it, it will look like this. So really, once you make a design, you have two different designs on there, the front and the back. You can hang it with each showing. It doesn't really matter. The knots will just look different on both sides. And we'll go over the OneNote that you'll be using because you only have to use one for this project in order to make it look good. Here's a final product. And that again, is a mix of a couple of different designs. I've used one of the diamonds from here, and I've used the concept of the triangles for the rest of the design. There. 4. Setting the Warp : We are ready to start putting on our warp string. So I'm going to be warping with this ivory white color. You're free to choose whatever colors you want and you can do multiple colors in the warp if you want to. It's really up to you and the design that you want to make. But this just gives us some structure so that we actually have something to weave between when we are ready to do the larger design. When I'm setting up my warp strings, I'm going to be measuring how much I need. Cuttings strips of more or less this length, so that I'm able to do multiple across my hoop. This is a time where you're just going to be cutting a bunch of different sizes. You are going to trim these later, so it doesn't really matter if they're not all the same size. You just want to have multiple. If you want to decide to use one of the patterns that I've already included, then those have either 13 or I think the other one was 21 warp strings. So that would be a good number to start with. But again, it's really going to depend on how large your hoop is, because that will help you decide how many warp strings you're going to need and what kind of design you're ultimately going to use. Let's learn that not that you're gonna be using to attach all of your according to your hoop, you're only going to have to learn one naught, so that makes it a lot easier, but you're going to do this not repetitively in order to attach every single end to the different parts of the hoop for both the vertical warp threads and the horizontal weft threads. So you're going to take one of your strings and you're going to start with it at the back of the hoop. You want the hoop to sit on top of the string and you want ends on both sides so that you can then cut it later to be whatever size fringe you want. When you're doing this not you're going to take that one thread, the end, and you're going to wrap it around one side of the hoop. I'm starting on my right side and just doing a loop around the hoop. Then I'm going to take that end and I'm going to loop it around the left. And I'm going to bring the end through that little loop that I've created on top. I'm going to show you this again. So don't worry, once you're there, you're going to pull it tight. Now, this makes a nice little loop on both sides that you've pulled your string through. And then at the back you can actually see that not, but that will normally be the back of your design. So you won't actually be looking at that part. Let's do this again, and I'll do a little bit of a zoom in. I'm starting at the back. I'm folding around and pulling. Now I'm going to create that loop. Okay? So there's my first loop. I'm creating a little loop at the top. And I'm bringing that end on the left. Through the loop. I'm pulling tight. Now I've got two. I'm going to leave these here for now because I'm gonna do that in a bit to try to make them as tight as I need them. Let's show you one more time. At the back, I'm going to fold. You can actually go this way if you want because it's going to be backing up onto the other nots. It really doesn't matter because you're making it the same way. So I'm just going to keep doing the same thing, but feel free to do the other side. Bring it around to the right and to the bank. Bring it around to the left and create that loop on top and bring the end through the loop. And then pull tight. Alright. So now we have three attached to our h2. Just a couple of tips for you as you're going. If you do not start at the back of your hoop all the time. And you're instead doing your loops this way with your hoop being at the back and you're threading on top, you're going to get some weird looking. Knots in there. So you're going to want to make sure that when you're doing all of your knots, you are trying to remember that your hoop always needs to go on top of the thread before you start looping it around. The second thing I wanted to mention is that you really don't have to have the same size thread up at top because you're actually going to be trimming this later. Once you're done with the weaving portion of the project, you really only need to make sure that you have enough of an end on both sides in order to create a nice taut warp thread before you start the weaving portion of this project. So keep going. Make sure that you have enough warp threads to start with. And when you're ready, you can start attaching these to the other side of the hoop. You're going to use the exact same. Not the thing you want to make sure is you're going in order because you don't want to get these crossed. So what I recommend with is just starting with one and then going from there. So with this one, I'm going to try to make it as straight as possible down the hoop. And to me that looks pretty good. You can see again, the hoop is on top of my thread. And I'm gonna do the exact same, not so turnaround in one side and around the other side and pull it through that loop. It doesn't need to be super, super tight. But you do want it to be somewhat taught because you want it to be able to hold this design without sagging. So you can kind of pull this end. Hold that, not pull that in. And you're gonna get a nice tight warp thread. I'm gonna do that again. Right? Hoop is on top. One side. I'm going to push this side over so that it hits that other side, around the other side and pull through the loop there. And I'm going to tighten it up and push it together. Next one, C, I'm going in order, so little by little, I'm going in order so I don't get any mixed up. One side. Well through that loop and other side. So now I've got three of my threads here. We're going to just leave these ends. We're gonna do that at the last step. You don't really need to do much there. You're really just trying to create everything inside the hoop before we start working on the outside. So keep going. And once we have all of our warp thread setup, we are ready to start adding in some of those designs with the weft thread. 5. Multiple Hoops: Let's say you want to start putting hoops together and you want to use multiple hoops and a design, you're gonna be still using the same, not, but it's going to look a little bit different based on where you're at. So I'm going to start just like we have before with our one naught on this side here. And pull through tight. Okay. When you're trying to put multiple hoops together, as you go down the middle of the hoop, you're going to want to join these in this same naught. So you'll notice right here at the middle where they join, they're right next to one another. But as you get further out, you're going to have some space in-between. So when you're right in the middle where they're touching, you're going to want to do one naught around both hoops. And this will help anchor it together. When you're out here, if you're doing your warp threading this way, you're going to need to do one naught here, have a little bit of space and another not hear the same knot over and over and over. But just when they join, you're going to want to do the not to anchor them both. So my both hoops are on top of my threading. I'm going to go around one side, one loop. Then I'm gonna go around the other side. I have my hoop, my little loop that I'm going to pull through. So this is the larger version of that knot. And I'm going to pull these, tighten it up so that they are right next to one another. You can see that this holds them, right. This is pretty tight. And then I'm going to continue this all the way down the line. The first couple of times when you're joining two hoops, it does get a little bit tricky because the threading is difficult to keep straight and the hoops are moving back and forth. Luckily, once you have one of your knots done, you can fiddle with these to make it look like it's more or less straight. This is one way to join them. The next time that I do this, cut another long piece. The next time I do this, I'm probably going to put another single naught here and single naught here. But let me show you what it will look like if you get over here. If you're doing the joining. And you start to have an area where there's quite a bit of space in-between the hoops. You're going to do one not around one hoop. So again, you have the hoop over the top. You do the one loop. You go around the other side and pull through the Little Mermaid and pull tight. So I have this thread and just imagine that there's multiple here, right? So these ones are gonna be joined. And I have this little area now where it would be weird to have a single knot here because it would just look like way too large to cover this space. So I'm going to leave this as just a normal piece of the thread. And then I'm going to go, so back in. And I'm gonna do a second not on the other hoop. So I'm going around, I'm gonna go around this side. And I'm going to pull tight here. So now I've got two different knots. And this creates another little woven piece. There's nothing that you really do with these because it's hard to weave through here. But it does make it look a lot more uniform. If you are trying to join groups together. And then you'll finish at the end. You'll bring that red down and you'll do I'm not at the end and pull tight. So as you start to join your hoops, you're going to have multiple threads that are maybe overlapping both hoops at the same time to join them. And then you're going to start doing knots where you have one on each tube and there's just this little space in-between where you have your normal threading. This will create a nice work for you, for you to do multiple different hoops at one time you can join as many as you want, really, but you wanna make sure that you're cutting a lot longer of chords so that you have enough room to do all of the different knots. As you add multiple, it tends to get a little bit more complicated and a little bit harder. This is how you can start to join them and have a nice line of hoops with different designs inside of them. It can create a pretty cool effect. And you can use different colors and the different hoops. You can do different things. But this is how you can start to join them. You can either have them sit horizontally or you can hang them vertically. Once you're done, you can really go either way. But the multiple hoops look is pretty cool once you get it finished. 6. Weaving the Shapes: We have finished with our warp threads. So we have the structure to start doing our weaving and we are ready to start putting some shapes in here. So you might have a plan as to what you wanna do, or maybe you're using the pattern that I gave you. I'm just going to start and we're going to see where this goes. So as I think about what I want, I already have this one made. I want to keep more or less the colors in here. And the same kind of idea of a design so that I can have these two together as a set. So what I'm gonna do is I'm going to actually start with some black here. And I'm going to create some more of these diamonds. I'm going to cut a bunch of different threads. You will likely need multiple of a similar size in order to start doing some of these shapes. And I'm going to do the exact same. Not over here on the Horizontal. Now let's say you're working with a rectangular hoop. You're going to start doing the opposite, the perpendicular of whatever threads you've already made. If you're using a triangle, that one tends to be really difficult because it's hard to get a perpendicular line. So if you need to add some structure, you can add some knots around here. I like to leave some of the hoop empty just because otherwise it looks more like a wreath to me. But if you want to add some threatened here and you want it to have some structure, I can show you what that would look like. Basically what you're gonna do is you're going to take a little loop here. And you're going to thread the loop under and bring it around the top so that you have just a basic hanging not there. This will create some more structure here so that whatever threads you put here won't start creeping up. But it does make the whole thing more full. So you don't actually see any of the brass. If you're working with a triangle, Let's say you might have to do this in order to create some structure for you to have some perpendicular threading. But this is just an optional thing. If you want to add that structure on there, I can show you that again. You're just making a loop with the smaller piece of thread. Again, putting it around the back and pulling the ends through the loop there and pulling tight. And that will add a little bit more of a wreath. Alright, so I'm gonna take that off because I'm not going to use that. But I am going to start with my weaving here. I'm going to put my not on here the same note as we've been doing the entire time. And now I'm going to start weaving. So this is where I decide what do I want to do. And I'm thinking that I want to do the inverse of what I've already done. So I'm going to actually put my, my weft thread over and I need to find the middle here. Alright, so this is the middle. So I'm going to put this under the middle and have it go over. Now, when I start to weave my shapes, I would recommend not attaching one of the sides until you're done and happy with the shape. That way you can always just take it out and redo it as you need to. And it makes it a lot easier in case you mess up. Because sometimes that happens, we all know that as you go, you're going to just attach one side of the knots. And then you're going to just leave the other side loose so that you have some flexibility in case you don't like how things are turning out. So basically I'm just weaving this in here. I'm starting to create a design. And I'm trying to go for a nice triangle, kind of diamonds. And the way that I did this one was that I would have three at once, right? So I have two MCs before I have the three. So I'm going to try to maybe do the same size. I'm going to every single time I'm doing one less. Right. So this one, I had all of these that I went over. The next one, I had one less. Then this one I'm going to have another one. And I hope for here that I'm under and it's going to have to be five. So in order to keep that same shape where I just have to empties in-between the over-under. I'm going to actually go over one in the middle. Okay. You can probably start to see what I mean here. I've got over the whole thing and then under one and then over, over one, less under three, then over and then over and then under two because the two is really the separation that I had in the other ones. So I know that it will create the same size. And then I'm going to go one over and then two under and over again. I'm creating the inverse of the design that I already had in my other hoop for this set, attach one side. You can kind of tell that what I'm doing is I'm creating something like this where I'm over, under, over, under, over, over, under, over a bunch, under and then over buttons, right? So I'm creating this one. Alright, here we go. I'm gonna go over and then I'm gonna go under the two, right? Because that's my separation. I'm going to go over three, under two, and over three again. Hopefully you're understanding what I'm doing here, right? It makes more sense the more threads you get. And as you, as you go, if you're not attaching these sides, it means that you can see what you're doing, which is really, really helpful. I'm going to continue with this and keep making this design as I go. I'm going to remember a couple of rules here. I'm always going one less on the one side, and I'm always using two as my separation between my renders on my triangle. Alright, so I'm going to continue with this and continue building this design. I've now finished my whole black diamond design. So I'm going to start now on the Aqua that I'm going to do on the sides here. And I'm just going to continue doing just the one side so that I can start to make this design and make sure that I like it before I actually attach it. And I'm going to do again the opposite. You might notice I liked doing opposite designed. That way it kind of evens out the threading. It compliments each other without being the same. But we're gonna do some small little diamonds on the end here. I'm going under and then over one, under, one over one again. So what I'm gonna do, I think is I'm going to plan on doing a design like this with the small little gaps in between the lines here. As you add your accent colors, you're going to notice that sometimes this is getting kind of full. So you can always tighten it and push those knots altogether. That will help keep it a little bit more condensed. And you'll do the same once you do the knots over on this side. You don't have to use different colors if you don't want to. Um, but you can, if you do want to, I think the multi-color makes it look a little bit more visually interesting, but it does get a little bit more complicated. So it's up to you. If you want to do that. If you don't want to, then you can just do different designs with different overlaps on the work threading. You can also use your warp color as a weft color as well. You're not limited to what you're doing. I'm really liking the look of this. I'm going to add another one of these over here as well. But I'm going to start actually doing the knots for each of these designs so that I can get a better idea as to how this is laying. So I'm gonna go one by one. Again. I like to start in the middle just so that I can go one thread at a time. And I'm going to start to put these into the same knots as we've been using the entire time. And I'm going to try to pull these pretty tight so that I can arrange them how I like them on here. You'll notice that your design is going to start to get a little bit messy looking. But just make sure that as you go, you are trying to do each thread in its order so you don't get messed up. Again. You can always not these as you weave them. But I like to do it a little bit later just so that I know that I liked my design before I make it permanent. Once you put all these knots on here, it becomes a lot harder. Undo a design, even though you can, if you have a needle or some sort of like tapestry needle, you can usually undo the knot and then retire later if you want to redo something on that design. But I find it easier to just do all of the designing piece, do the shapes, and then start to do the nodding afterwards. As you go, I do recommend going back in and just evening out the strings as they start to get a little bit more taut, you're going to want to go back in and make them sit a little bit nicer. Have them sit a little bit straighter. So that is the next step is starting to do the knots on both sides. I will eventually do this other side over here so that it's symmetrical. But when you are done with your weaving, you can start to attach them on the one side. 7. Finishing Touches: Alright, so my whole design is done, and I'm about ready to put on some finishing touches. Before you start cutting the fringe, you're gonna wanna make sure that this design is looking like how you're hoping for and moving around some of the strings to even out the design. You can also since the sides in so that you're trying to get a compact weave everywhere on the hoop. Once you are ready, you feel like it's done. You're liking how it's looking. You can start to cut the fringe. So when you cut the fringe, you're going to cut off some of these excess ends. And you're going to want to cut them a similar length, even though you'll go back through once it's on woven and even it out. So you're just going to start with as trimming the beginning. Then if you have a comb or something like that, it tends to be easier to start to unweaving these with some tool. I'm just going to use this stick for now and start to weave this. You can do it by hand. You can do it with a needle. You can do with a comb. But it tends to go faster if you're using some sort of tool. So you're gonna start to weave these like this. You're going to go through your whole design. All edges. And then sometimes I use a straightening iron or a steamer to get some of the kinks out because you can see that it's kind of wavy. Or you can just keep combing it until you feel like it's straight enough and then go back through with some sharp scissors and cut the edges to be a similar size. You can see on this one, I have an woven at all, right. So I've gone through and unwell woven and then I code. Take your scissors and you're basically cutting around the whole thing in order to give the fringe of very similar size and length throughout the entire design. These are gonna be my two designs together. So you can see that they compliment each other without being totally the same. And I'm going to cut the fringe on this one with a very similar size to this one. Let's say you want to add in some sort of fancy addition later. Let's say you want to add like a button or maybe you have something fun. Here's a bunch of writing stones, right? You can add those on later. And I would recommend just using some sort of thread to tie them around your warp threads. You could do weft threads to, it really depends on whatever you feel like would look good with your design. Maybe you want some sort of matching design, right? So it's really up to you how you end up doing this. You want to make sure that as you start to do your finishing touches, you're moving around your strings to try to relieve it so that it looks pretty uniform. You're starting to get all of the fringe on woven and cut to a similar length. And then you're ready to hang it once once you're done, I use just a nail. The nail through here and hanging on the wall. But you could also use any sort of picture hanger, or you could tie a little bit of thread around it and make a loop to hang it from really up to you. I'm going to continue with my French and I hope that yours is turning out in a way that you love. Race. Almost done. The cutting of the fringe is the most tedious and the most messy. So if you need a vacuum or something that does help get the little bits that you are cutting off. And here is my finished piece. I have this one. And then it will come in a set with this one as well. 8. Finished Project: We have reached the end of the class where we get to see the final piece up on the wall. You can see that I've attached it just with a nail there. These are pretty light so you don't have to worry about anything that will hold a lot of weight. If you're making a set or even if you have multiple hoops, you can decide how to hang them. So you might do the same warps so that the patterns match. Or you can even do it the other way. If you have more than two, you could do more on your wall. But let's zoom in a little bit to get a close-up of some of that awesome weaving work. I'm hoping that you're totally loving how your piece has turned out and that you learned something in this class. If you want to share a picture of your final project, the final piece that you made, please do so and upload it to the projects gallery page so we can all see it. And I hope that these brighten up a wall in your home. Thanks so much for taking this class and good luck making these in the future.