Celtic Cross

For my first project on the tapestry loom I initially thought I would like to weave an icon of Christ but since I have no formal instruction, save from what I am able to procure from a book, I thought better of it and opted for a simpler design. I am a little nervous about the circular knotwork but this being my first attempt I am not going to worry so over it not being perfect.....yeah right....ok let's just say this will be an exercise in resisting the temptation to rip out anything that does not look exactly perfect.

On our recent trip to Earth Guild I found a Dover stencil edition that featured pieces from the Book of Kell. Interestingly enough at the time I had no real plan for it, but being of Celtic descent I was indubitaly drawn to the artwork, so I purchased it anyway. When I decided to try my hand at tapestry weaving I pulled it out and found some really good ideas for future projects. Funny how these things happen. I pulled this design up and took it to Staples, it cost about 0.06 cents to blow it up in black and white. After weaving a few foundation rows in a contrasting colour I pinned the bottom of the "cartoon" to it and then tied each upper corner to the frame of the loom by using clear packing tape to fashion a tag on each side and punching a hole with a hole punch to lace the string through.

I choose some merino that I spun up earlier this year (see archives, January 26) for the background and I am thinking of gold for the knotwork, I will have to look for some fibre commercially dyed that colour as it is impossible to attain through natural dyeing, or even something already spun, depending on what is available at SAFF later this month. I have some rose colour fibre I may use for the cross but I think green would look better, again we will see what pops up.