Sticks of Wood

 Last week I spent £264.70 on lots of sticks of wood.

To be fair, they are sticks of wood with a purpose. Most of this pile became a stand for my weaving loom.

And some of the little ones made shelves to clip on each side of the stand. They even have a slot to hold your scissors.

I'm on a mission to make my weaving easier to do and less painful for my back, hence the stand. I'm not sure I would have bought it just for this loom but it comes with an extra brace for the bottom so that it can also be used for the bigger sizes of Ashford Knitters Looms too. It just so happens that I have a 20" loom in my sights for the future so this is good.

I've had my loom for years. You can tell that because it has the blue plastic parts, rather than the more grown-up (and boring) brown ones they switched to quite a while ago. I have woven lots of scarves on this loom but I've been wanting to branch out beyond plain weave for some time and also to try sewing with handwoven fabric.

Rather than worry about what to make I've decided that sampling is the way to go. I'm going to try lots of the techniques in Jane Patrick's wonderful The Weaver's Idea Book. The first one I did was a long warp with lots of different pick-up stick patterns which were so exciting to do.

Who knew that you could weave all sorts of textures just with an extra stick of wood? Well, lots of people probably but it was news to me. Needless to say there were two more pick-up sticks in that pile of wood ... and a few more shuttles too. 

Not only is weaving samplers very freeing - you can make all sorts of mistakes and poor choices and learn something from them all - but it will give me lots of practice with warping. I want to train my muscle memory so that I can do it more easily and it would be nice if it didn't hurt my back so much too.

This leads to one of the other benefits of getting the loom stand. I can use it when I'm warping the loom. Before this I've always had the loom on a little low table or stool which wasn't the best thing for my back. Now I can put the loom on the stand which makes it just about level with the table that I clamp the raddle to. 

Once the warp is on the loom, it needs to be wound on which used to be very difficult until I bought this little device.

The plastic block clamped to the side of the loom is one of a pair that hold four dowels which control the warp as it's wound on so that the threads stay in order and the tension isn't messed up. This next picture shows it with the first two dowels in place.

As you can see, these go under the warp while the other two sit on top of it. Then the tops of the tension blocks are screwed down and off you go. I bought mine from Etsy; you get the dowels yourself as they have to be cut to suit the width of your loom. The first time I used this system I followed the instructions which said to take the warp off the raddle before winding and this resulted in crossed threads so I wasn't very impressed. This time I left it on the raddle and let the stand with the loom on move across the floor towards it as I wound. 

The next problem I had was when the loom met the end of the table the raddle was on. I'd planned to take the loom off the stand at this point and move it on to the table but the clamps holding the tension blocks on were in the way. Finally, I came up with the bright idea of putting a heavy book across the warp and then taking the ends off the raddle. The book was heavy enough to keep the tension but light enough to move with the warp as I wound.

Best of all, when it came to tying on the warp ends, I didn't have anywhere near as much trouble sorting out the tension across the warp. It normally takes ages trying to get an even tension but not this time. So, what with the new stand and the warp tensioner, I had a much easier time warping the loom for this sampler. It still took me hours mind but I'm hoping to get quicker with practice.

Ready to weave.

This sampler is yet more pick-up stick patterns, some of them calling for more than one stick - oh the excitement. I used King Cole's Bramble DK for the warp; the shade is Cloudberry. Then I've been trying all sorts of plain colours in the weft but they all looked horrible. The best of them was black but I didn't like even that.

There was too much going on with all that contrast and texture for my liking. Also I ran out of shuttles. I had to filch some from the old Spear's Weaving Loom I bought at Orinoco a few months ago.

This is actually a 16" wide rigid heddle loom. I have yet to have a play with it; the first thing is there isn't a stand for the heddle so I'm wondering if I could rig something up. Anyway, in the meantime, it gives me four extra shuttles.

Yesterday I decided enough was enough and switched to using the same yarn for the weft as the warp and it's settled down nicely. I can see the texture better despite the variegation in the yarn. 

I absolutely love weaving so it's good to be able to find ways to make it easier to do. At the other end of the scale I'm still enjoying my self-imposed task of weaving 20 hexagons in each of the 20 shades of Bramble to make a big blanket. So far I've woven seven lots - that's 140 hexagons. Here are the first 120 ...

.. and the seventh set, Blueberry ...

This is the little loom I'm using for my hexagons, together with the shade I'm using at the moment which is Heather. The loom is the fine sett original hexagon from Turtle Looms which is probably my favourite pin loom.

I didn't hink this shade looked particularly exciting but I've been loving seeing how the hexagons come out. I've had everything from dark green, through shades of purple to something that reminds me of raspberry ripple.

Four more to go and then these can go to join the others. I started off with a small basket, then this bigger one and it won't be long before they have to move again.

I have to say a big thank-you to my daughter who turned that pile of sticks into a loom stand for me on her last visit. Not only that, there was also this waiting for her ...

She turned this pile of sticks into another folding step stool for me. I have one on the middle floor but have been wanting one on the top floor for ages as that's where my craft room is. Climbing on and off a chair to reach things is a pain. So now that will be easier too. These are great stools; the step folds up inside so it can also be used as a small table.

That's it for now. Happy weaving to fellow weavers and, if you're not a weaver, why not?

Eleven Stitch Lace

It's been a long time but I've finally managed to publish a new pattern. Don't be fooled by the name, this is really an addition to my large stable of Ten Stitch Patterns.

Eleven Stitch Lace

I've been wondering about doing a lace version of the ten stitch for years and finally got round to starting it last year. The simple, one row pattern is a variation of one I found in Mary Thomas' Book of Knitting Patterns (the 'patterns' are actually stitch patterns) but I had to add an extra stitch to my knitted strip to balance the two lines of eyelets.

There were several challenges in designing this one, notably how to maintain the lace pattern while working the short rows for the corners but I got there in the end. I thought a lace blanket would be good for a baby so I changed colour every 'round' and used a range of different pastel colours.

As ever, I used Stylecraft Special DK for my blanket. You get a more accurate idea of the colours in the actual blanket in the picture below.

I was definitely out of my comfort zone with these colours as I normally favour much brighter shades but I think they worked well together in the end. I don't normally add an edging to my ten stitch blankets but, what with all that lace pulling it around, I felt it needed something. After a lot of experimentation I settled on an I cord edging worked in garter stitch which was just right. You can see it at the bottom of this rather dreadful photo. Oh the trouble I had taking photos of all these pale colours.

I hope you like this pattern. Next up will be a baby hat as I work through a collection of projects that I've finished but not yet written up.

Meanwhile, my mostly wild garden is full of flowers ...

... and indoors, the paeonies my daughter brought me last weekend are showing off on the mantelpiece.

Hexagons

It all started with an urge to do some paper piecing. Every so often I feel the need to sew little hexagons together and make something pretty like these cases that I use to hold mini cross stitch projects.

I particularly like working with these mini hexagons where each side measures about 2 cm. It's fairly mindless hand sewing and that appeals to me; I like the slow rhythm of it all. So, I cut out lots of paper hexagons (quickly, using my Sizzix machine) and lots of fabric hexagons to cover them (slowly, by hand). I don't have a die of the right size to cut the fabric hexagons on the machine but I quite enjoyed choosing the fabrics and drawing round a template.

I used a selection of thirties fabrics, all of which I pulled out of my scrap baskets. I wasn't counting but I ended up with well over a hundred hexagons. Here they are once I'd tacked them over their papers.

It will take me a while to sew them all together but I've made a start.

I'm thinking of perhaps making a drawstring bag with them, possibly with a plain band where the drawstring goes but I shall have to see how big a piece of fabric I end up with. At the moment I'm just enjoying seeing them come together.

This project reminded me of something else I started years ago, this time involving tiny woven hexagons.

When I first got my Penny Loom I made a bit of a start on a Grandmother's Flower Garden but didn't get very far. I decided it was time to bring it out again and look how it's grown in the last week or so.

These hexagons are even smaller than the fabric ones; each side is only about 1.5 cm. The fun thing about this project (or frustrating, depending on your mindset) is that I've decided to weave the whole thing with one shade of King Cole Bramble DK, namely Loganberry. This means I weave the colours as they come and can only put together the flowers when I have six hexagons in one colour. At one point I did nothing but weave shades of green and I still haven't got enough yet to surround each new flower.

Now I'm back to building flowers. I shall need twice as many for the next round, not to mention more greens.

That little bundle at the top left of the photo is the hexagons that are either mixed colours or a colour I don't want to use (basically, the light brown). Maybe when I'm finished I'll have enough of these to turn into a pincushion or something. I'm hoping my flower garden will eventually be big enough to cover a small round table I have.

Of course these hexagon looms come in different sizes so I was tempted to get out my bigger one too. Hexagons woven on this one come out at about 5.5 cm per side.

Having wanted single colour shapes with my flower garden I thought I'd see how the yarn wove up on the bigger loom. Before I knew where I was, I had a whole new project started.

This one is all about random colours. The plan is to weave twenty hexagons out of each of the twenty shades of Bramble - I'm nothing if not ambitious - and then sew them all together into a patchwork blanket. I've started with the shade called Cloudberry and this is what the first fifteen look like.

Aren't they gorgeous? I love the process of weaving and seeing how the colours develop. This is my favourite yarn for weaving - actually, it's one of my favourite yarns full stop. I've knitted and crocheted with it quite a bit but the colours do different things when you weave them, Will I actually weave 400 of these? I don't know but I shall enjoy trying.

I haven't forgotten my woven squares I showed you last time either. I'm crocheting them together at the rate of one row per day, using a lacy join. I've just got the last row to add today and then I shall work out a border for it. The shade I used for this one is Thistle. 

Is any one else as big a fan of this yarn as I am? And no, they haven't paid me to promote it, it's an honest opinion. I'm very pleased when they bring out new shades (as they have just done) as it shows it must be popular and isn't in danger of being discontinued. 

Before I go, I thought you might like to see one more new project. This one is also lots of little shapes but this time the shapes in question are circles.

Can you see what they are? A knitted version of the popular fabric Yo-Yos. These are fun to sew; you can buy special Yo-Yo Makers but they're really just circles of fabric gathered round the edges. There are some lovely designs out there for crochet yo-yos, either single, flat ones or doubled puffs that are a closer match to the originals.

I also found a pattern for Loom Knit Yo-Yos which looked just what I wanted but there was a problem. They start with a drawstring cast on which is easy on a loom but with needles? I think you might be able to do it with some variation of the provisional cast on but, as I've never mastered that, I can't say. Instead I decided to re-invent the wheel so to speak and worked out my own drawstring cast on. Needless to say, it took hours and I kept having to stop to make copious notes on what I was doing before I forgot it. The result though is perfect knitted yo-yos.

As you can see, I've only knitted half a dozen so far but I have lots of plans for using these. Please tell me I'm not the only one who thinks being able to knit yo-yos is exciting!

Learning Stuff

I really like learning new things. Whether it's from something I've read or a podcast I've listened to, it makes life interesting. Now that my life is so constricted, mastering new crafts or projects in particular gives me a real sense of progress on what are mostly very difficult days.

Recently I've been working on a mixture of crafts, not to turn them into patterns (although I always make notes in case I want to try them again) but just because I feel like it. I've been trying various little ideas using some of my vast collection of scrap fabrics. First I made these.

A dozen new hankies. Why has it taken me so long to realise that I could make my own hankies? My existing stock were wearing thin and it's not easy to find anywhere to buy hankies now, especially when you can't go out. These are 12" squares, double hemmed on the machine. They're a bit thicker than bought ones but they're already softening up after a few washes. I have plans to make some Christmas ones too and then bigger ones from plain fabrics for when I have a cold.

The internet is a great source of inspiration for small sewing projects. I found this little collapsible thread catcher on a blog and then worked out my own version. I used a ring of plastic canvas in place of the cardboard tube and changed the measurements a bit. This means that there's a little hole n the middle when the pot is twisted closed but I liked the fact that it was shorter. I gave this one to my daughter.

It's a clever idea but does involve a fair bit of hand sewing so it's not particularly quick to make.

Next I started looking for origami ideas that could be made from fabric scraps and found several ideas that I liked. I made a little butterfly which is rather nice. Those antennae are cut from a black paper clip, not at all safe but it didn't look very much like a butterfly without them.

It took me a while to get the hang of these folded fabric flowers. I used my Sizzix machine to cut out circles and then folded and gathered them into flower shapes. The centres are another fabric circle gathered round a button. These hide all the raw edges. Again, these were hand sewn but they don't take long.

I blu-tacked them to the side of the shelf for this picture but they soon fell off so now they've got wooden stalks and are standing in one of my pencil pots.

My favourite make though was this little folded fabric ornament. Again, it's just two circles of fabric cut with the Sizzix and sewn together. A bit of folding and pressing and a few hand stitches and you're done. The clever thing is that you can tuck a square of card in the back which gives it a bit of stability. I used this tutorial but started off with smaller circles to make a little ornament. 

Regular readers will know that I am working on improving my tatting skills this year and I'm glad to say that it's paying off. I'm now able to tackle some of the lovely patterns in this book.

There are actually 49 snowflakes as a sample pattern is included at the beginning. I'm working through the easiest ones first and, so far, I've mastered five of them.

I love the fact that the designer includes diagrams and written instructions, together with clear photos of the finished snowflakes so I can work out where I'm going. I tend to get confused in the diagrams when the work is reversed so the written instructions really help. I am working each snowflake three times in size 20, 40 and 60 thread. Repeating the patterns with thinner thread is a challenge but gives me lots of practice so that I can fix the techniques in my head. Here's the first snowflake (the sample pattern) in all three sizes.

I stiffen them with diluted superstarch and then store them on card as you can see. Then each set goes in a little square envelope that I make with the envelope punch board I found in Orinoco. This is a very handy little tool. I've been using six inch squares of Christmas paper to make the envelopes.

In between tatting snowflakes, I've also been making a few of Diane's different Ice Drops. I'd only ever attempted her basic design before but I felt ready to try a few of the others now.

The two little snowflakes with metal flowers in the middle are Diane's pattern too, the first of her Doodad Snowflakes. I don't know if my glass gems are smaller than hers or if I just tat more loosely but I was having trouble getting the tatting to fit. Even after soaking in hot water, the gems would sometimes fall out. so, I plucked up my courage and tried paying with the stitch count to get a version that worked for me and I'm very proud of the result.

I've also been doing a lot of weaving lately. My absolute favourite yarn for weaving is King Cole Bramble DK. It's a variegated yarn with a heathery look to it that really works well when woven and it comes in lots of lovely colourways. At the moment I'm using the shade Thistle to weave lots and lots of four inch squares.

I'm trying to finish five squares a day so that I can get on with the joining as I want to try out a lace join that I haven't used before. I need 81 squares all together and I've got eleven to go so I'm nearly there.

I was weaving with the loom on my lap when it occurred to me that I could use my small book chair to hold it upright. This worked but the loom kept moving around and then inspiration struck - Lego! I had fun playing around with my small collection of Lego bricks and finally came up with a loom holder that holds the loom firmly in place while I weave.

I'm very pleased with this and it does make the weaving quicker. Now I'm wondering what other craft tools I could make with Lego. There's quite a bit of K'Nex in the cellar too ...

After this blanket is finished I want to try joining woven pieces together on the loom, something I've seen before but not really understood. Finally, I found these instructions and light dawned. Not only does it give a perfect join on the right side but I quite look the look on the back of the pieces too.

I have lots of ideas for using this technique but first, I'm going to finish that blanket.