Luxury Laces - Handspun Shoelaces to Weave

Shoelaces are a great beginning tablet-weaving project or a fun, quick project for tablet weavers with more experience. This project assumes you already know how to tablet weave, and if you don’t, check out John's vide, Tablet Weaving Made Easy to get started.

This project utilizes a 2-ply handspun silk. Silk is wonderful for tablet weaving because of its strength, and handspun yarns created with hand-dyed silk fiber provide a richness and depth of color you can’t get from dyed yarns. It may seem like a lot of time to spend on shoelaces, but these shoelaces will last longer than the shoes—guaranteed. As an added bonus, they will greet you with beauty each time you look at your feet!

This PDF includes spinning notes, as well as the instructions and charts for this tablet weaving pattern.

Materials

• Equipment Inkle loom with at least four pegs that can accommodate a 2¼ yd warp length; fourteen four-hole tablet weaving cards; 1 belt shuttle.
• Yarns 2-ply handspun bombyx silk, 36 wpi, 6,763 ypp.
• Warp: dark purple, 72 yd; golden yellow, 36 yd; green, 18 yd. Weft: dark purple, 24 yd.
• Warp Length 56 ends 80" long (allows 20" for take-up and loom waste).
• Woven length: 58–62" including aglet ends when measured under tension on loom.
• Finished length: 56–60" including aglet ends.

Author/Designer: John Mullarkey