Category Archives: Loom & looms & small loom weaving

November 11, 2019 · 10:22 pm

Potholder Loom Book- Baskets

I love baskets.   I love weaving them and I love using them.

These soft baskets  hold a lot of stuff, and fit great on shelves and into cube shelving.

When they are  empty, they are easy to store, because they fold flat.  You can fill a soft woven basket with other soft woven baskets until they are needed.

I designed a whole bunch of them for my new Potholder Loom Weaving book.

The baskets are a compendium of a slew of techniques (some of which I figured out for the book) that can also be used in all kinds of other ways- the sky’s the limit on the creative possibilities!

By the way, the baskets work great as market bags or project bags.

 

Here’s the video:

 

 

The Potholder Loom Weaving book is available now online for pre-ordering and will be available in stores and online worldwide in January of 2020.

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November 10, 2019 · 11:08 pm

Potholder Loom Book- Scarves Shawls Stoles

Here’s another sneak peek into my new Potholder loom book:

Scarves, stoles, shawls…. all to weave on  potholder looms!

For now, the book can be pre-ordered online  and then in January 2020, it will be in bookstores worldwide.

Here’s a little video that shows scarves, stoles and shawls from the book:

Happy Weaving!

 

 

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November 1, 2019 · 4:12 pm

Potholder Loom Weaving book- preview- Wall Hangings

I was asked by someone yesterday what loom to buy to learn how to weave wall hangings.

What a great question!  Why?  Because I designed lots of wall hangings for my new book: Potholder Loom Weaving

The book is available for pre-ordering from all the online booksellers and will be available in bookstores in early 2020. Here’s a link: L I N K

And here are links to order potholder looms:

Harrisville Designs

Dewberry Ridge

Wool Novelty Co

And, here is a video showing a sneak peek at the Wall Hangings in the book:

 

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October 31, 2019 · 2:40 pm

My new book on Potholder Loom Weaving

For the last couple of years, I have been working 24/7 on 2 new books as well as a solo show of my mixed media wovenworks.

I am so delighted that both books will be released in 2020 in bookstores worldwide.

My publisher, Stackpole Books/Rowman/Littlefield has made ‘Potholder Loom Weaving’  available online worldwide for pre-ordering.

It will be on bookshelves worldwide in January of 2020.  😀

It’s a BIG book!   It is 264 pages of tons and tons and tons of techniques and projects and I am thrilled to bits with it!

You can pre-order the paperback version of it now from all the online book sellers, and here’s a link to the Book Depository, who ships worldwide for free: LINK

The electronic versions of the book will be available in January- I don’t think it can be pre-ordered for Kindle etc yet.

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October 10, 2019 · 11:10 am

Follow the Thread Mixed Media Weaving- Terpsichore

The last couple of years have been really intense as I have been working night and day on two new books as well as new tapestries and woven works.

One of the books is now up online available for pre-order (I’ll post links asap) and one of the series of tapestries is now in the gallery (Harcourt House Gallery in Edmonton), awaiting the opening on October 18.

This piece is from my ‘Follow the Thread’ series of mixed media weavings:” Terpsichore- Carmen’s Birds”.

Terpsichore is the muse of the dance.

This piece is definitely influenced by my husband, Jim Findlay‘s commitment to playing flamenco.

I was having trouble resolving the piece, because I knew that she needed something to lift her to completion.

Then, my friend, Carma, who sings and dances with Jim and Susan and Barb in Corazone del Flamenco gave me a beautiful little black necklace with tiny birds, and Voila! Done! The birds were exactly what Terpsichore was needing (demanding!)

She’s at the #HarcourtHouseGallery in Edmonton until November 23.

I’ll post more pics of pieces from ‘Follow the Thread’ soon.

#YEG #YEGflamenco #YEGart #YEGweaving #YEGtapestry

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December 18, 2018 · 11:20 am

Handspun Alpaca for ANOTHER new book

HURRAH!  In 2020, my publisher (Stackpole books) will be releasing not just one new book from me (I was hard at work for almost all of 2018 on it), but-

WHEEE-   while I was working sooooooooo hard on the book that will be released in January of 2020, I was also busting my chops on laying the foundation for the NEXT book that I am writing.

And, the good news is that they will be publishing the NEXT book  in the fall of 2020, so most of 2019 will have me hard at work on it.

In fact, I am happily working on it now.

Last summer, my friends, Teresa and Darren Griffith gave me a huge bag of fluffy, fabulous fuzz from 4 of their gorgeous alpacas.

I don’t have a drum carder, so I hand carded and carded and carded it all and spun and spun and spun….

this basket of yummy yarn….

It may not look like much, but there is over a kilogram of yarn in that basket!

I thought that Teresa was brilliant to staple a lock of fleece from each of the alpacas to a card, so I would remember the name of each of the sweet alpacas who donated their loveliness!

And, now, I am joyfully weaving the alpaca yarn and will be including it in the NEXT book.

Hurrah!

and a thousand thanks to Teresa and Darren for their amazing generosity! ❤ and blessings to them both

 

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March 13, 2018 · 11:31 am

Butterfly Woman Spreads Her Wings Tapestry

In 2012, I wove a tapestry that was quietly part of a series of tapestries that I have been working on for many years:

In the last few weeks, she has let me know that she wanted to really spread her wings….

So, I wove her a face on my hexagon loom from Dewberry Ridge looms: LINK

I built a little loom to weave hands for her, and stitched on butterflies that I had designed and crocheted many years ago.

I used really thick wire to make and armature for one of the larger butterflies.

And, then, she had wings!

I am so pleased with her, and she is very pleased with me, too!

She’s about 39 inches/100 cm  tall and her wingspan is about 22 inches (55 cm).

Here’s a little video that I made about her:

My book, Peg Looms and Weaving Sticks LINK shows you how to weave tapestries on the peg loom.

If you’d like to know how to weave tapestries on the hexagon loom, here’s a how to video:

 

After a very long, very cold and very snowy and icy winter, I do believe that Spring and Butterflies on their way!

 

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March 7, 2018 · 6:01 pm

Fabula Figure Tapestries

Last year, I wove a series of tapestries that I call, ‘The Fabula Figures’.

Fabula means ‘story’ in Latin… and each of the Fabula Figures is about the power of story.

The one in the photo below is called ‘Fabula Figure: The Storyteller’ and is about 44 inches tall.

She’s one of the later figures in the series.

I had woven a few prototypes for the series before January of 2017, but I really committed to the series on January 1 of 2017, and I haven’t stopped weaving them.

10 of the Fabula Figure tapestries are part of the ‘Faconner’ show that I wrote about in the previous blog post.

Here’s a little video of the Fabula Figures that I wove from January 1 – September 30, 2017:

 

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December 11, 2017 · 10:11 pm

Cutting garments into fabric strips to weave and knit

Recently,  I made a video about cutting up garments to upcycle them by weaving or knitting with the fabric strips.

In early October of 2017, my son in law’s step-dad passed away.

This was, of course, very hard on our grandson.

I talked with him about what it meant to him to have his ‘other’ grampa (not my husband) pass away.

I asked him if he needed something of his grampa’s to hold onto, and he said yes.

So, I asked for a couple of Bill’s shirts so I could make comfort critters with them.

I cut them up and wove them into kittys, as that was what my grandson asked for, so he has one, and other family members have them too.  (I didn’t photograph all of them).

I also knitted a teddy bear for one of our relatives, as he is definitely a teddy bear guy 🙂

The bear and kittys have been well received and they do carry the love that went into every stitch of making them.

I’ve done this before, and have found that ‘compassion critters’ made from upcycled clothing of a dear one is very comforting for people in grief.

Every little thing helps….

Here’s the video:

The woven kitties and knitted bear are made from the following patterns:

https://www.etsy.com/ca/listing/88710…

and https://www.etsy.com/ca/listing/27430…

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September 6, 2017 · 2:58 pm

Projects in Peg Looms and Weaving Sticks- Part 3- Baskets

Peg Looms and Weaving Sticks are great for weaving baskets.

Because I had already designed a collection of weaving stick baskets for my etsy shop (https://www.etsy.com/ca/listing/111292892/pdf-pattern-for-all-kinds-of-baskets?ref=shop_home_active_4)

I wanted to do something completely different for the book.

I was really happy about figuring out how to weave squares on the peg loom and weaving sticks, so it was natural to weave baskets using squares.

I also thought that it made sense to make round baskets for the book, as well, so I came up with a very simple little round basket that I call the Blessing Bowls.

The size of the baskets is determined by the thickness of yarn, cord, t shirt yarn, string or what ever you decide to use, as well as the thickness of the weaving sticks or peg looms.

Baskets are such a useful thing, and they are so much fun to weave. I hope that you will enjoy weaving them on peg looms and weaving sticks!

The book can be ordered  from your local bookstore, or from any of the usual online sellers or from the National Book Depository, (new to me!).
Here’s the link for it:
https://www.bookdepository.com/Peg-Looms-and-Weaving-Sticks/9780811716123

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