Category Archives: tutorial & how to

November 28, 2011 · 3:50 pm

Free pattern for Courier Bag woven on the Martha Stewart loom

My new design for a Courier Bag woven on the Martha Stewart loom has gone live on the Lion Brand website 😀

Courier bag woven on the Lion Brand Martha Stewart loom designed by Noreen Crone-Findlay (c)

Here is the free pattern for the Courier Bag woven on the Martha Stewart loom:

[ Lion Brand ‘Yarn Play’ about Noreen Crone-Findlay’s new design for the Martha Stewart loom ]

I am in love with these looms!

Last weekend, I made a video tutorial, showing how to weave a triangle of any size on the Martha Stewart Loom:

You don’t need it for this bag, but it’s VERY handy for other designs! 🙂

And, happily, I have more designs for these great little looms in the works!

🙂
Happy Weaving!
🙂 Noreen

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Filed under Loom & looms & small loom weaving, tutorial & how to, weaving & handwoven

Tagged as bag, Courier bag pattern, free pattern, hand woven, Lion Brand, Martha Stewart Looms, small loom weaving, weaving pattern, woven Courier Bag

June 23, 2010 · 10:15 pm

Handmade-chunky-bead-teething-necklace-part-2

In my previous post, LINK, I shared my mis-adventure when I sliced the top of my knuckle off with the edge of the belt sander. Ouch.

So, that posting was more of a ‘how NOT to’ than a ‘how to’…..

Luckily, my finger is growing back 🙂 and I have finished the chunky 3 bead necklace….

I left the beads to soak in a bowl of vegetable oil for a few days. Because grandbaby is going to be chewing them, I don’t want to use anything that could be dangerous to him on the beads.

And, that is why I am using organic cotton to spool knit the cords that hold the beads together. (Lion Brand Organic cotton).

I spool knitted 2 short cords and stitched them into the spaces between 2 of the beads, and one long one for the neck cord.

NOTE: The neck cord NEVER goes around the baby’s neck!!!

It goes around the neck of his grown ups, or is looped through the tie of the sling , so he can retrieve it when he drops it.

He only has access to it when he is being held and supervised, and not when he’s sitting in the car seat.

The big holes are great for chubby little fingers to hold onto…..

And those big beads are just so satisfying for a little guy to gum away on! (Well… to bite with his TWO new teeth!!!)

He absolutely loves the necklaces, and so do we.

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Filed under eco crafts & green projects, jewelry, spool knitter & spoolknitter & spool knitting & spool knitting, tutorial & how to

Tagged as baby teething necklace, handmade wooden beads, spool knitted cords, spool knitting, what to make with spool knitted cords

June 23, 2010 · 9:55 pm

Handmade chunky bead teething necklace part 1

Our gorgeous grandbaby is teething and is chomping everything in sight as he tries to ease the pain of those pesky teeth pushing on his gums.

My daughter asked me to make her a necklace with large wooden beads so our wee fella could play with it and use it for teething.

I made her one necklace that was a great success: Minoan Goddess of the Bees necklace

So, I decided to make her another one- this time with several big chunky beads to keep him interested.

I cut a length of my favorite wood: Arbutus (also known as Madrona) that my sister in law had trimmed from a tree in her yard. (She saves me all their arbutus twigs and branches, bless her heart!)

Then, I split my mini log into 2 sections on the bandsaw, and did some preliminary shaping with the saw.

Over to the drillpress to drill holes for the beads.

And, back to the bandsaw for more shaping…..

Then, over to the belt sander for more shaping…..

and then to the bathroom to staunch the flow of blood, when I sanded the first knuckle off, and sliced the top off the second one.

Well… that was a surprise! I have never done that before! And not something I would like to repeat! erg….

it’s been 3 weeks, and my knuckle is finally healing… wowsa that hurt!

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Filed under eco crafts & green projects, jewelry, tutorial & how to

Tagged as baby teething necklace, chunky beads, handmade wooden beads, nursing necklace, one of a kind jewelry

June 1, 2010 · 10:31 pm

Video tutorial on how to make tarn or t shirt yarn

I absolutely love working with tarn, which is yarn made by cutting t shirts into a continuous length of fabric strips. You then use the fabric strips as stretchie, wonderful yarn.

Tarn is a terrific way to upcycle, recycle, re-fashion, re-purpose, re-use and reclaim old t shirts that are no longer wearable. Perhaps they are stained or have little holes in them, or the neck has gone all wonky, or they have a logo on them that you just don’t want to wear anymore.

In that case, turning the t shirt into tarn is a fabulous option.

I showed how to make a ‘buttonhole join’ in tarn here:

How to do the buttonhole join link

and in this video, I showed how to weave it on the potholder loom:

Potholder loom weaving with tarn

Normally, I use a swift to hold the t shirt when I cut my tarn. I decided that that wouldn’t be the best choice for making a video, as most people don’t have swifts, so I used a little stepladder to stretch the t shirt.

It’s kind of clunky, so you have to forgive me for the fumbly bits.

Here’s the video on how to cut tarn: LINK

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Tagged as re-fashion, re-purpose, re-use, recycle, reduce, t shirt yarn, t shirts, Tarn, upcycle, video tutorial on how to make tarn

May 14, 2010 · 8:48 pm

How to weave a square on the bias on the potholder loom

For weeks and weeks, I have been meaning to get my video tutorial of how to weave bias squares on the potholder loom posted to YouTube.

What with one thing and another, I haven’t gotten around to it.

One thing that was odd, was that I simply couldn’t upload videos for awhile. I just gave up on YouTube. Anyone else having trouble with uploads? Weird.

And, since it took me so long to get the video uploaded,

I decided to re-shoot it, using ‘Tarn’, since I am working with Tarn so much, lately.

Fun!

Here’s a link for how to do one kind of join with Tarn:

Tarn Join

I didn’t have a potholder loom when I was a child, so when I was introduced to it when I was a grownup, I didn’t have any preconceived notions about what it could or could not do. So… I have been designing all kinds of magical and wonderful things for it ever since (for decades, in fact- my love for the potholder loom is a long standing one!!!)

You can see some of the things I have designed for it here: Potholder loom.

Over the years, when I was designing for the Potholder loom, I realized that I needed to be able to weave different shapes and in unusual ways with the looms. So, I have done a lot of experimenting with it.
I have worked out a bunch of ways of weaving triangles on it, and this is how I twigged to how I could weave a square on the bias on the potholder loom…. after all, a square is just 2 triangles that happen to be in love.

The pesky gaps on the potholder loom were a challenge – but I have solved the mystery of how to deal with them!

How? Well.. check out the video!

Here is the YouTube video tutorial on how to weave a square on the bias on the potholder loom : LINK

Happy Weaving!

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Filed under Loom & looms & small loom weaving, potholder loom, tutorial & how to, weaving & handwoven

Tagged as how to weave a square on the bias on the potholder loom, re-purposing, reclaiming fabric, recycling, t shirt yarn, Tarn, upcycling

May 13, 2010 · 10:57 pm

How to make a join in fabric strip yarn or tarn

I’ve been working with Tarn (T shirt fabric strip yarn) a lot lately.

I remembered this afternoon that I had been asked how to make a smooth join in fabric strip yarn…. so I thought that I would post a quick tutorial on how to do that.

Everyone has their own system of cutting t shirts into fabric strips (tarn).

My favorite way is to stretch the t shirt over my swift and open it up until it stretches the t shirt taut.

I then cut a narrow strip, starting at the hem of the t shirt, spiralling up to the sleeves.

Then I stop and cut away the neckband, and cut strips around and around until I reach the sleeves.

I cut them off, and cut them into strips.

And then I wind them up into yarncakes on my nostepinnes.

This pic has a touch of oddness, doesn’t it?

The scissors floating in mid air are posing politely while my cutting hand is busily taking the picture.

You can see the loops of Tarn pooling up in my lap.

So, what do you do if you need to join one length of fabric strip to another?

Cut a small slit into each end of the 2 fabric strips.

Take the shorter piece through the slit of the longer piece.

Now, take the tail end of the shorter piece through the opening of the shorter piece.

Tug on it to pull it up tight, and Voila! the 2 strips of fabric are magically joined!

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Tagged as how to join 2 fabric strips, t shirt yarn, Tarn

April 20, 2010 · 8:07 pm

How to spool knit with 4 pegs and cast off

People keep telling me that they have forgotten how to get themselves started with spool knitting.

So, I have made a video tutorial on how to spool knit with a 4 peg spool knitter. LINK

And, they also ask me: ‘How do you cast off or finish your spool knitted cord?’

Good question!

Here’s a video tutorial on how to finish your spool knitted cords: LINK

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Tagged as how to spool knit with 4 pegs, spool knitting video, video tutorial on how to cast off spool knitted cord

April 15, 2010 · 9:10 pm

How to spool knit with 2 pegs- 3 video tutorials

I am working on designs for all kinds of spool knitted jewelry. So I have just made 3 video tutorials that explain how to spool knit 2 peg cords, as these are wonderful in jewelry making.