Tag Archive | pin loom

Valentines Loom!

Just wanted to offer a few ideas if you were wondering what you could do with the SweetHeart Loom. We make them in a larger size now, too.

Make a gift tag or do a bit of beading around the edges!

A pencil topper to write I love you. A valentine to say I love you. A bookmark to keep you place in a book you love!

A needle book to keep things together. A case for your phone. Or you can just wear your heart on your sleeve!

I’m sure you’ll find a lot more way to use them and they are fun, too. Older children love weaving on them as well. A customer says she makes little sachets using two and adds then to the packages when she ships out orders of her handwovens. She also keeps a bag of them with her when she goes out and gives one to anyone who looks like they are having a bad day and can use a little love. She says she has changed kiddies sobs to smiles with these little “hugs”. So you can see there are plenty of ways to enjoy these little looms. I’m sure you’ll enjoy yours in natural woods or prettily painted.

New family memeber

Jan18

We decided it was time and Randy found this lady on a rescue site. We contacted Shelby and Wyatt and they liked us and so Stella has a new “forever home” in Coffee Creek. I think she has been a city dog all her life (6-7 years) but seems to be adapting to country life rapidly! She did fine on the 4+ hour trip up yesterday, did not want her dinner but had a ‘bone’ for breakfast and has now gone with Randy, in the rain, to check his business up the hill. We are working on the No Dogs in the Kitchen rule, but when I point she knows already to back up! lol Randy is getting lessons, too. 🙂 Stella is a lap dog, something Randy isn’t used to.

No yarn stories again. I still haven’t been able to find what the heck I did with my pattern. I guess I’ll have to go see if I can find another one that will work. I know this one will show up, probably about the time I don’t need it anymore! You know how that goes. Meantime, I hope you are making better progress on your projects and keeping your looms dusted off!

Wishing you warm and dry!

Okay, I apologize…

Jan4

I know I have not been posting after saying I would but I figure you have all been busy with Christmas and the new year and all the other holidays this time of the year, too. I have not gotten back to my woven cardigan but in part because I have some new ideas about its construction and partly because I’ve been knitting. Yes, I love weaving but I also love knitting. I finished my MIL’s vest in time and it fit her perfectly and she loves it- really! And I forgot to get a picture of her in it. 😦

Also I have been knitting a cardigan for me. Sis was making this one and I loved it so I am combining sis’s with the vest pattern for MIL’s. Yeah, I liked that ruffle so incorporated it. Now I’m on the sleeves, except I don’t have any #9 dps so I’m going to have to take care of that first.

But I hope you are all having a great start to 2015! It’s been cold here after all the rain but now there’s no precip so no snow. 😦 Mother Nature just can’t seem to get things together.

Himself and I bought ourselves a new bed for our gift to each other. A Number Bed. It’s due to arrive this week from Salt Lake City. He built a base for it, one which will have drawers one of these days. That’ll be handy.

I guess that’s all our news and I’ll get back on the cardigan as soon as I find out if my idea is going to work. Be patient with me and let me see you weavings, meantime!

Have a happy & creative New year!

Trying freeform again

Oct11

I have tried before but it always seems to end up– well– normal. what happens to my free spirited creativity here??! I am trying to take a lead from Frida. I am starting with a rectangle of knitted fabric. This was a huge bit of knitted something a friend gave me. she had tried to make some kind of garment with it but gave up. I frogged most of it. Got 11 1/2 balls of yarn from that part, and am using the rest in this experiment. so far. I have sleeves, a shrug-like thing.

With chained underarms. Now i am exploring free from web sites. And I am getting out my little diamond to make some star or flower shapes to add in. Not very creative yet but we’ll see.

Meanwhile, I have garden stuff to tend to yet.

Rain early next week and it feels like frost is not far off. Only 65 at noon, today.

And the Giants are playing the Cardinals tonight! Go Giants!

October already!!

Oct8

Well, Sorry I’ve been so slow posting here. We’ve been to OFFF, had nice weather this year, and nice crowd, did well, met lots of interesting people, took the long way home, calling it a vacation and here we are again. Himself has gone off for the week to help a friend re-roof his Mom’s house so Cori and I are In Charge here. She’s a little confused and just a bit worried. Didn’t want to come in Monday night, but finally had to come eat dinner, then wanted out again but he still hadn’t returned so agreed to come in at last but spent the evening watching the kitchen door. She was better last night. She likes me but she’s not my dog. lol

Meanwhile, on the fiber front, I’m knitting at the moment. Working on a Christmas gift. I bought the yarn in April but am falling behind, as usual, as other projects also need doing. And one that really didn’t need doing. Himself found in the trash at OFFF this great wad of fiber, someone’s very beginning spinning, maybe a child’s even as there were two colors involved. It was very little spun, from thread size to fatter than my thumb. He was shocked that anyone would throw away something that cost as much as $5 an OUNCE! (He’d been looking at a neighbors booth and noticed some roving at that price and was shocked at that, too. This is the guy who paid $30 for a rusty old wood plane on eBay!) He gave it to me asking me if I thought it would be usable. So not being able to settle into anything the other evening I re-carded and re-spun his ‘find’ and presented him with a 1.8 oz skein of soft wool yarn. He felt justified. 😉

Have not started to wash my fleece. I bought a pound of mohair at OFFF to blend with it to make the kid fleece a bit stronger, I hope. Did I say I bought a Navajo Churro kid fleece? I want to try my hand at a little Navajo type tapestry weaving. Very basic and simple. It will be awhile before I get to that, I’m sure. Have to do a little research first. And some spinning, of course.

And I’ve been making lists of projects I need/want to accomplish this winter. Yikes! The winter better be long one! lol Well, I have my book, Weaving For Your American Girl Doll ready and will get it on the web page soon. The projects fit most any 18″ girl type doll. They start out with just the 4″ Multi square, as that is the most common sized loom people have, I think, and then there are more complicated projects, too, using more than one loom. Some you’ve seen but there’s new ones, too. I have lots of patterns to write up, people have been asking for them. It’s laborsome work so I keep putting it off, but it’s on The List now so…

Okay, there are projects to finish and I will get to them, but those two white buckets in the photo with Cori are full of wind fall apples that have to be tended to first. And because the sow bear and her cub cleaned the tree of all the good ones, these are all I have this fall so don’t want to lose them. And the tomatoes are still producing. Well, you know how it goes, but I will get back to weaving soon. Hope you’re making progress on your projects!

A couple of new old projects.

Sep23

I was rummaging and found these two. The quilt top was one of the first projects I made with our looms. I used the Tiny Weaver set, the 3 1/2″ square and triangle, to make this quilt top. I ran it though the washer and found some quilt batting and fabric for a backing and now it’s a proper quilt. I think it’s about crib size. The backing color is not ideal, but it was the only bit of fabric I could find in my stash that fit.

The other thing I found was a blouse I made for myself back in the day, too. It has used an assortment of loom sizes. The 12″ and the 3 1/2″ I think. The yoke and sleeves in this one are knitted. I can’t recall off hand what the yarn is called but it’s a sport weight (I think) cotton. It was comfortable and nice to wear but you probably notice that I am speaking in the past tense. Well, you know how things go when you ‘grow up’.

But now we’re almost ready to leave for Canby and OFFF. Randy is finishing up his 7 foot shawl loom. He promised someone (Sorry but we can neither of us remember who) that he’d have one this year. I think I am ready. Tomorrow I take the cats in to the ‘motel’ & buy groceries for the trailer and Thursday we hit the road. Keep your fingers x-ed for a cool but dry weekend!

Do come see us if you can!

Not what I started but…

Aug7

I think it worked out okay, tho a more simple garment. I know poncho’s haven’t really been in style since Martha Stewart got out of jail but I’ve never had one and thought it might really work as well as a shrug for those coolish times of the day when you don’t really want a sweater. For one thing, sleeves are difficult in the shop. The sleeves either catch on the nails or sweep them off the work table, then I have to get out my handy dandy magnet on a handle and get them up off the floor. And same thing just sitting and weaving, they get hung up on everything. Not sure this garment will work any better but I’m going to try it. After trying it on again, I think I might end up adding a couple more rows to the neckline to raise it a bit, but I might wait until cooler weather to decide if I need that. I fitted a 12″ triangle at the back neck to raise the back a bit. I just about had a heat stroke wearing this for Himself to take the photo. lol What with the smoke from the fire and the thunder storms, the heat and humidity are trapped at ground level here and it gets pretty uncomfortable. But here’s what I came up with. I’ve had some suggestions for the shrug and I have more Jiffy so it is still a possibility. But next on my to-do is tending to the peach crop!

What’s next?

Aug2

Added 8-3 Shrug is not working. Wanted to warn you here so you can rethink if you are following my examples. :-0 Not sure if it’s the plan or just my size. Plan rather simplistic, I agree. But it seemed like a good idea. Too short in back and too tight under the arms. tho the sleeves were plenty big. I could probably weave more squares and then cut and sew but I think I’ll just try something else this time. Stayed tuned!

I was thinking of trying another shawl, maybe a little bigger but the yarn I pulled out of stash proved to be insufficient for that but I think it’ll make a nice shrug. It’s, Lion Brand Jiffy that I bought when our Five & Dime went out of business some years back. Got a nice price for it. I could buy more but I’m trying to use stash. It’s a bulky yarn, acrylic. Soft, a little fluffy so that you have to open the shed each time to avoid tangles, but it weaves fast enough. I also have a skein of charcoal LB ‘Homespun’ that I might use to assemble or for some accent. I’m using the 14″ square this time and my squares are coming out about 12 1/2″.

Here’s the plan. So far.

It’s a twill: Weave 7 rows plain.

Start pattern;

o1, u1,*o2, u1* end o1, u1.

The thing is that it is going to change at the ends every other row, just go with the pattern. And this might not work if you’re using another size looms but I’m sure you can figure it out. You just want to keep the edges neat. You can work a couple o1, u1 at each side if that works better for you.

This is what I more or less envision. You could use a couple more big squares on the sleeves if you have enough yarn to make them longer. I think these are going to be about 3/4 sleeves. Maybe even less. Humm….. Well, no point worrying about it now. I have a few more squares to weave.

Hazel Rose

My Life in the Country