Tag: weaving

A Weaver’s Guide to Yarn

I have weaving on my mind these days. I’m ready to fire up my Cricket rigid heddle loom with something gorgeous and easy. The project I’m starting is a combination of handwoven yarn and commercial yarn. Choosing yarn is one of those things that can stop a new weaver from starting weaving. It’s overwhelming, and really we just want to use our stash or showcase our handwoven yarns. A Weaver’s Guide to Yarn by Liz Gipson is a gem. It gives you the basics on how yarns work in weaving, and makes picking yarns a whole lot less stressful. If picking yarn is keeping you from scratching your weaving ...

WWW: a second life for public art projects; crochet prodigy; Tla’amin baskets + maths

Remember the twiddle-mitts sensory aid for dementia patients I posted a few weeks ago? A knitting group recycled yarn bomb projects into 187 cuffs! 11 year old Jonah loves to crochet. He learned at age 5. Jonah gives me hope for the future! The Callysto Salish Basket project at Simon Fraser University in Canada is a collaborative project that explores the functional mathematical beauty of the Tla’amin Nation baskets in a digital learning resource.

Thinking about Holiday Gifts: It’s Time

Do not yell at me! It’s time for me to think about holiday gifts, I didn’t say you had to. I’m not playing Rhinebeck sweater chicken, so It’s time for me to plan other fiber things. What do I want to make? Something perfectly handcrafted for each person I love in my life. What does the still rational not-caught-up-in-the-joy-and-delusion-of-holiday-making mind of mine think I will actually do? 2 woven scarves (commercial yarn) 4 zoom loom sachets (handspun) Something knitted and delicious that’s not a sweater (handspun)   I’m going to ask my local spinning and knitting friends ...

Handspun Summer Sachet

This summer I challenged myself to make a quick handspun project that I could make while traveling, something portable, something useful. I made a Summer Sachet. It needs two Schacht Zoom Loom squares, a bit of yarn for embroidering and sewing and a little dried lavender. Zoom Loom squares only need 8 yards of yarn, quick to spin on a spindle. The stitching yarn uses even less yardage. I used a braid of Lisa Souza’s gorgeous (and so soft) Superfine Merino in her South Pacific colorway. I spun and wove it as it came into a almost-worsted weight 2-ply for the square. For the embroidery, I broke out purple and ...

What Do You Make with Your Handspun?

I’ve been excited and curious about many crafts lately besides knitting, I want to learn everything about them, and if they have anything to do with fiber or cloth I want to spin for them. The two that are big on my radar are embroidery and weaving. Other crafts that are jumping up and down trying to get my attention are sewing, punch needle, and watercolor. I want to be more methodical about some more than others. With embroidery I’m just jumping in, buying some gorgeous preprinted patterns to stitch, and every once in a while I’ll spin some yarn and stitch with it for part of the pattern. Weaving ...

TNNA 2018 – Things That Aren’t Knitting

Amy, Kate and I are just back from the annual National Needlework Association convention, where we get to touch yarns and plan with yarn companies and designers. Amy posted to the Knitty Instagram all about the knitting side while we were there. I get so caught up in looking and touching new fiber things and the hugging of friends that I forget to take pictures, but I have a few. I do have to mention one yarn company that always makes me smile with their creativity, Freia Fibers. That dress is knit from their gradient yarns. I have a crush on Tina’s yarn akin to the crush I had on Noro in the 1990s. She has a ...