Category Archives: tutorial & how to

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.

2 peg cords are also great for doll and toy making as well as bag handles and other things…

Here are the videos:

Video #1: Basic 2 peg spool knitting: Link

Video #2: How to spool knit a flat link braid: Link

Video #3: More 2 peg techniques: Link

Hope you’ll find them useful!

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Tagged as cord maker, making cords, spool knitting, video tutorial on how to spool knit with 2 pegs

April 8, 2010 · 7:17 pm

Video Tutorial how to weave bias triangle on potholder loom

I love the continuous technique of weaving that I learned from triangle looms.

It struck me that I should be able to adapt the triangle loom technique to potholder loom weaving, so I played around with it until I figured it out.

Triangles are such a neat design element that the more ways I can figure out for weaving them, the better it is.

In my book: Storytelling with Dolls, I showed a completely different way of weaving triangles on the potholder loom, using yarn.

Perhaps I will make a video of that technique, too.

And, here is the video for this version of how to weave a triangle using the bias or continuous weave technique: LINK

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Tagged as how to weave a triangle on the potholder loom, video tutorial

March 31, 2010 · 9:16 pm

Video Tutorial of how to wind a center pull yarn ball on nostepinne

One of life’s great pleasures is to be found in mastering techniques that may be simple, but take practice.

One of those very useful and satisfying skills is winding a center pull ball of yarn on the nostepinne.

I like to wind a ball of yarn on the nostepinne in 2 stages.

Here’s a little video that I made, showing how to wind lovely flat, stackable flat balls of yarn.

The nostepinne is contemplative and portable, and to be honest, I much prefer it to my ball winder.

Here’s the link to the video: LINK

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Tagged as center pull yarn ball, how to, nostie, video tutorial on how to wind a ball of yarn on the nostepinne, winding nostepinne

March 24, 2010 · 12:02 am

New video tutorial- how to weave with yarn on potholder loom

How long can it take to make a 10 minute video? LOL…. all day!

First of all…. you need to plot out how many looms you need to have on the go, and then get them set up so they can be grabbed quick like a bunny to keep the video flowing.

This means that each stage of the video has to be figured out, and just ‘that much’ weaving done on each of the looms.

I had a total of 6 looms on the go for this video.

So… let the taping begin….

Takes 1, 2 and 3 all were about 42 seconds long as I went… flubbadubba dubba…. cut…

Take 4 :

I bang into the camera stand and send it for a spiral dance, and drop everything as it goes ‘ga-doy-yoi- yoi-yoing’…

Delete.

Start over… (which does indeed mean, starting over! Unweave whatever I did in the video, and get all the looms back to their proper starting point…. EACH TIME – for EVERY TAKE!!!!)

Take 5 went really well, until I was baffled at why the weaving suddenly just seized up.

Oh… duh… I was standing on the yarn. sigh.

Takes 6 and 7 each had unique little moments….

I snipped the yarn on one of the squares,…… that earned me a re-start.

I BROKE the weaving hook in Take 7…. I have NEVER broken a weaving hook before, and Clever Clogs, I managed to do it in the middle of a video take. Throw that for a lark.

Delete.

Go out to workshop and carve a new hook.

Start over….

Take 8: The greyhound sees deer in the yard.

He yodels at deer.

He barks at deer.

He rushes to the door and pounds on it to take his barking and yelping outside.

He knocks me sideways….

Delete.

Start Over….

Take 9: Small dog decides to join the fray….

Delete.

Start Over…..

Take 10…. Brain locks up and tongue does a tap dance.

Delete.

Start Over…..

Take 11…

By this point, the light is fading and I am clenching my jaw in grim determination-

I AM GOING TO GET THIS VIDEO DONE! and that is that…..

Take a deep breath…. forget about Takes 1 – 10…. oh please oh please, may my brain stay in motion, may my hands go where they are meant to, may my feet stay off the yarn, may the dogs puhleeeeeeeeze not go daft again….

And then, it’s done…. take a deep breath… and attempt to upload the video! Fingers crossed… and…. yes! it’s a go!

Here is the link to the video: LINK

Please note: Everything on this blog is Noreen Crone-Findlay’s original, design, concept and work, and is copyright. Please do not copy without Noreen Crone-Findlay’s permission. Thank you!

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

Tagged as how to weave with yarn on the potholder loom, video tutorial on potholder loom weaving

March 10, 2010 · 10:23 pm