Girl on the Rocks

Woven animals August 31, 2007

A continuation of The week of weaving series…*
It is fairly easy to construct square and rectangle shapes out of the tiny squares and rectangles that you produce on a hand held loom. But what about other shapes? With a little creativity and a little fiberfill stuffing, you can make tiny adorable animals.

I spied some adorable softies on the eloomanator blog. A square folded into a triangle and decorated with a ribbon makes little sheep heads! It wouldn’t be hard to convinve me that you can make these look like little teddy bears, too.
But closer to home and closer to my heart is an idea brought to life by my friend Abbby. How adorable is this little fella

Photo by abmatic
Head over to Abby’s blog to get a better look at the little chicken that she created. She used a weave-it square woven in a twill pattern and a little bit of crochet to make an adorable Tweed Chicken.

*It seems that it is taking me more than a week to write up all of the weaving ideas I have, but don’t fret, more are on the way. We can just say that I was giving you enough time for your ebay auctions to end
What posts do you have to look forward to? Well, weaving with garbage and another cute easy project designed by me are coming up. Would anyone be interested in a few step-by-step weaving pictures to see how the little buggers work? Leave me a comment if you are intersted and I can post that too. Have a project that you want to share? Leave a comment, or email me!

Stitch markers at the Loopy Ewe August 30, 2007

I just sent a big batch of Kitchener stitch markers to the Loopy Ewe. Get some super-nice sock yarn AND stitch markers.

Threadless sale August 29, 2007

Threadless is having a $10 sale until Sept. 3rd.

Woven cocktail napkins August 24, 2007

Woven cocktail napkins

Zakka Napkin

To be honest, i designed the whole ‘Week of Weaving‘ idea around my Whiplash entry this month… This month, Whipup is focusing on small crafts, and the Whiplash theme is ‘Zakka.‘ I struggled with this a bit as I never had a good idea of what zakka really meant. I don’t know that I have figured it out, but I was able to see some common elements in all of the examples. To me they seemed to be simple handmade projects often for a practical use, that are occasionally tastefully embellished. I don’t have a lot of free time this month so I thought that I might be able to add a little embellishment to something.

Many of the examples used very natural colors and fabrics, which made me remember a stack of 4 inch weave-it squares that I made out of a natural colored hemp-blend yarn. It struck me that they were the size of petite coasters, but had a fantastic hand to them, more like a cloth napkin. As I examined the cloth I noticed that the fabric looked just like counted cross stitch canvas.

And then it hit me… Cocktail Napkins. I started decorating and couldn’t stop. I ended up making more woven squares so I could try out all of my ideas. Want to make some?

Cocktail Napkins – a tutorial

I made my napkins out of a 4×4 inch square that I made on my weave it loom. You could also use a 4×4 knit square, or fabric. I am also figuring that you have some cross-stitch skills. If not, the only skills required are making X’s and the backstitch (which you can learn about here) This is the perfect starter project!

Tools

• 4 inch weave-it or Weavette loom and appropriate weaving needle
• Elsbeth Lavold Hempathy Yarn – less than one skein. You can substitute another fingering weight yarn, but cotton might be best for the look, and the washability.
• Various colors of cotton embroidery floss
• Cross-stitch needle

Weaving the napkin

This part is really simple enough. Weave a standard square on your 4 inch weave-it or weavette using the yarn held doubled. The fact that the yarn is doubled is part of what makes it look so much like cross stitch canvas. If you only use a single strand of fine yarn, your finished square will be too lacy to support your cross stitch. Make sure that that you don’t wrap the yarn too tightly around the pegs. If you do, it will make the needle-weaving part very difficult. Carefully weave in the ends when the square is complete.

Decorating the napkin
I charted up a few of the drinks I designed to get you started.

Click to embiggen – free for your personal use.

The two rows nearest to the edge of the weave-it square are a little loose. Plan the placement of your design carefully so that you don’t have to cross stitch on these rows. Carefully make your cross stitch x’s making sure they all cross in the same direction, and don’t pull them too tightly.

I used appropriately colored embroidery floss, and I used all 6 strands of it. I outlined the designs with a backstitch using 3 strands of black floss. Secure the floss in the back by running it underneath the completed stitches.

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I made 8 napkins decorated with various drinks. Click through to my Flickr set to see them in detail, and figure which drinks they represent…

View all of the posts in my ‘Week of Weaving’ Series.

A week of weaving – Introduction August 23, 2007

I know I am a little late with my start to the week, but let’s just say our craft week starts on Thursdays. My friends and I have had a lot of fun with our hand looms, and I thought I would share some of our projects, and perhaps tempt you to buy one. My plan is to spend this week posting about my (limited) experience with small, hand held looms.

I first learned about small hand looms from a post on the Craft: magazine blog. Each loom is a wood frame with vertical pins on it (usually metal), and comes with a long tapestry/weaving needle. The simplicity of the set up and the sophistication of the finished squares immediately piqued my interest. It was a matter of moments before I had ordered a 2×2 inch loom for myself (and one for a friend). When I received it I immediately started making squares, and was delighted at the color patterning and textures that were coming out of my short yarn scraps in no time at all.

History
Small hand held looms were born back in the 1930’s, and a popular model was the Weave-it. It was most commonly available available in a 2×2 inch size (junior) and a 4×4 inch size. Production of it in some form continued until the 1970’s and a wealth of pattern books were published in those four decades. The Weave-it was the grandfather to today’s Weavette loom, produced since 1998 by Buxton Brook Looms. Buxton Brook makes a fantastic hardwood lacquered hand loom, and has expanded the available loom sizes to larger looms and rectangular shapes. They are also a source of appropriately sized weaving needles and carrying cases for your looms.

Patterns and Projects
The definitive source for weave-it history, patterns, and projects is eLoomanation. This site has a thorough history of all handheld looms (there were more than just the weave-it), and even has some pattern books available for download (saving you a trip to ebay). Now, there is also an eLoomanation blog where you can find some of Jana’s recent great project ideas.

My looms. top: 5 inch weave-it rug loom, right: 2 inch weavette, left: 4 inch wooden weave-it.

I want to buy one
If you are thinking of buying (especially a vintage loom), research at eLoomanation first. For a modern Weavette, you can purchase directly from Buxton Brook Looms or Purl Soho. At the time of writing, however, both are out of the popular 4×4 inch and 2×2 inch sizes, so you might have to turn to ebay if you are impatient.

But what can I make with it?
Well, you can only make squares or rectangles. Which you can sew together to make larger squares and rectangles. Hmmm… doesn’t really sound that fun… That’s okay, I have the rest of the week to show you how fun they are! Stay tuned!

To the next post..

Click to see all of the entries in my “Week of Weaving”.

Some might say I am old. August 19, 2007

Last week was my 30th birthday! Happy birthday to me! I think there are some people that think 30 is old. Luckily I am not one of them, so it isn’t a big deal. Since I believe in taking care of yourself and making your own fun for your birthday, i did just that. Craving my favorite birthday cake, i called Mamere and got her recipe for Red Velvet Cake. And then I made myself two batches, one as cupcakes and one as a 9×13 cake. I ate a lot of cake last week. When it was just about to go stale, I started eating it right out of the cake pan. Total Cake Massacre. It was delicious and I would do it again.

Mamere told me a little about her recipe. Apparently she got it it when she worked at the General Motors factory (must have been late 40’s) from a girl whose father worked in the kitchen at the Waldorf. Amazingly, the internet lists the Waldorf Astoria as the possible origin of the recipe. I am from Ohio and have eaten this cake almost every birthday of my life, so I certainly wouldn’t say this is a southern recipe, but somehow it has that reputation. See the end of this post for the recipe.

On to the birthday loot… I had to show you a few pictures of some gifts I got. Ingrid showed up with a perfectly wrapped gift… She sewed a little bag to serve as the giftwrap!

inside…. Last Minute Fabric Gifts Awesome!

Some other goodies include the cutest doormat in the world (from target!) and The Meat Club cookbook

I am off to finish my whiplash entry… Click ‘more’ if you don’t see Mamere’s Red Velvet Recipe below

(more…)

Japanese Pattern Help August 14, 2007

My little Mochi has a guide for those of us that would like to read japanese patterns, but don’t know japanese.

Saturday Shopping August 11, 2007

I had a plan to get a lot of work done today, but I couldn’t start until after a visit to my favorite thrift store. Carmen and I walked the few blocks that separates our apartment building from an adorable little thrift store. I had two great finds today – a set of 4 woven placemats, and a pyrex bowl. edit: How could I forget to mention… the bowl was only $1

And they happen to match! How cute!

Speaking of cute, I noticed that Superbuzzy is having a sale on some of their items. If you haven’t shopped there before, Superbuzzy carries a TON of cute Japanese import fabric. Be warned – it is too adorable to resist. Here is a selection from one of my previous purchases.

I noticed that there are some cute cross-stitch tape kits on sale too. Tempting…..

Hopefully next time I post I will have finished a pair of handknit socks for myself.

People pay good money for this August 7, 2007

Not too much craftiness to report… I had some fun this weekend hanging out with kitties and spinning at Abby’s parent’s house.

I can’t believe I didn’t steal one. What I am I up to now? Did I mention that I ate some mangoes this weekend? And then when i got home I ate another… Apparently I am more allergic to mangoes than previously thought. I mean, I know they are in the poison oak family, and I know they usually make my lips and palette itch. Yesterday I woke up and my lips itched (not that unusual since I am allergic to everything). I noticed that it seemed like I had a cold sore, and my lips were a little splitty and weepy (gross). Then I walked by the mirror and saw that my face was twice it’s normal size. I must have looked hideous because I didn’t even have to do any convincing to get a shot at the student health center. Today, I’m mostly recovered. All I have is hives and this giant set of lips

That’s me. My lips aren’t usually that huge. Check here for comparison if you don’t know what I usually look like.

Why didn’t this happen to me on Sunday morning since I had a mango on Saturday as well? Well, I did have a little bit of irritation in the corner of my mouth that I thought might be a cold sore. The internets seem to think that rinsing your mouth out after eating a mango helps minimize the reaction, so I will credit the Bourbon slushies and the wine for preventing me from blowing up like a balloon. And the internets also seem to think that some mangoes are worse than others.

i think I might have to add mangoes to the list of things to permanently avoid. It’ll be right up there under peanuts. Are you allergic to anything?