One of our Christmas traditions is to make ornaments to give to our family and close friends.
This year, my husband and I are making hearts using the Incredible Rope Machine from Schacht.
It’s the neatest tool… it looks like something Leonardo da Vinci would have invented.
I made a video showing how to make the hearts:
In my previous post, LINK I showed how to weave a 2 inch/5 cm diameter Teneriffe lace motif on an upcycled loom.
The antique Teneriffe lace loom that my sister gave me has a smaller diameter set of holes that makes a motif that is 1 5/8 inches/4 cm in diameter.
At first, I thought… 2 inches is so small, why would you want to go smaller?
But then, I realized, that depending on the finished piece that will be combining lots of Teneriffe lace motifs, having smaller sized ones could be good. There may be spaces that need filling.
And, then I thought… What if I make the smaller one, and make it ~really~ quick and easy so that someone who might be uncertain about trying Teneriffe lace would be willing to give it a try?
Here’s the smaller version of the loom: When you print it out, try to get the circle of holes to come out at about 1 5/8 inches or 4 cm.
You’ll need 48 pins.
I’ve marked the pins that the first loop goes on- one more thing to make it quick and easy 🙂
I’ve made a video showing how to make the Smaller, Faster, Easiest Teneriffe Lace motif.
I hope that you’ll enjoy making Teneriffe Lace! Happy Lace Making!
I have been loving working with the antique Teneriffe lace loom that my sister sent me.
I decided that I needed to figure out how other people could join in the fun and make Teneriffe lace.
The answer of course, is ‘upcycling’!
So, I drew out the pattern for a Teneriffe Lace loom:
The loom has a 2 inch/5 cm diameter circle of 52 holes.
Print it out so that it’s 2 inches across or to the size that you want to work with.
I made one loom with sturdy plastic that I upcycled from an old daytimer cover, and another one with cardstock from our recycling bin. Both work great.
I also made a pin cushion by stitching 2 pockets together from a pair of dead blue jeans that I have been using in other upcycling projects.
I stuffed it ferociously full to make it VERY firm, and sewed it shut. It works perfectly for the base for making the Teneriffe lace.
You can see it, and full instructions on how to weave lovely Teneriffe Lace motifs.
Note: These instructions are based on my experiments with this loom, so may well be different from the way that other people present Teneriffe Lace. I’m happy with the outcome, but I just wanted you to be aware that there may be some folk who dispute the way I do this.
I made a video of how I make Teneriffe Lace with this loom:
In the meantime, there are a couple of other Teneriffe Lace videos that I have made:
and
My friend, Teresa gave me a bag of gorgeous Alpaca fiber – bliss!
I started spinning it up, but realized that I had misplaced my Niddy Noddy.
So, I thought… I can make one from cardboard.
One thing lead to another, and I soon ended up with 2 charming little characters who do acrobatics to help me wind a skein of yarn.
They are sturdy, work perfectly and are easy to store.
A totally successful upcycle of re-using cardboard. Yay!
Here’s the pattern that I finally settled on… after a LOT of tweaking and twiddling:
Print it full page:
And here’s a video that shows how to use it, as well as the inspiration for Niddy and Noddy’s faces:
Happy Spinning, Happy Weaving, Happy Upcycling!
I love making one of a kind wooden buttons from twigs and branches that I find on the ground.
It’s a great eco-friendly project that is upcycling at its best.
They are a great way of embellishing hand woven, knitted, or crocheted fabric, or to make a sewn garment or accessory even more special.
You don’t have to have a woodworking shop full of power tools to make lovely wooden buttons- a few simple hand tools are all that are necessary.
Here is the video that I made, showing how to make 3 different kinds of buttons from the same twig.
I hope that you will have a wonderful time making your own unique buttons:
Filed under eco crafts & green projects, tutorial & how to, video tutorial, woodwork
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!
I have lost count of all the times that people have asked me how to sew hand woven fabrics together by hand.
This little video shows quick and easy ways of stitching together fabric that you have woven, no matter what loom you use:
Recently, I designed a fun shawl, and made a video about how to weave a shawl with a collar using 3 triangles woven on the 3ft triangle loom.
The border is made up of triangles woven on the potholder loom.
Here’s the video: The video is full of hints and tips for triangle loom weaving in ‘outside the box’ ways.
Here are 2 ways of weaving triangles on the potholder loom:
I used the first method for this shawl: How to weave a triangle on the potholder loom: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6ahC…
How to weave a triangle on the bias on the potholder loom:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zl-GN…
I made a separate video about how to stitch the pieces of the shawl together:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-tKIy… Happy Weaving!
The flu knocked me for a loop, and as I have been slowly pulling myself out of it, I haven’t had much energy, so my blog has slipped off the rails.
I did want to mention, however, that I made a video about cutting up garments to upcycle them by weaving or knitting with the fabric strips.
In early October, 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:
I have always loved mermaids, and I am totally addicted to weaving mermaids these days.
I’ve made a video showing how I used my Mermaid pattern on etsy to weave Mermaids of different sizes on peg looms.
I took the original Mermaid that looked like this for the pattern:
And added a wooden face, leather hands, a little tatting, and a seashell:
She was woven on 1/4 inch diameter weaving sticks and is about 11 or 12 inches tall.
Also woven on the 1/4 inch diameter weaving sticks is this Mermaid, woven with hand spun art yarn and needle felted:
The same etsy pattern can be used to make totally different mermaids by changing the size of pegs or weaving sticks used and different thicknesses of yarns.
I used the smallest pegs on my 6 inch peg loom to weave the smallest Mermaid, who’s about 7 or 8 inches tall.
She’s woven on the 1/8th inch pegs.
The Mermaid woven with the 3/8 inch pegs is about 20 inches tall:
I did some geometric pattern weaving in her body, but it’s a little hard to see in this pic.
I used 2 strands of a very bulky chenille yarn held together to weave the largest Mermaid, who is around 28 inches tall.
When I was weaving the different sizes, I did tweak the pattern somewhat to adjust for the differences in the size of the pegs and thickness of the yarns.
Here’s the link to the pattern in my etsy shop: LINK
(sorry – it’s not free)
Happy weaving and happy Mermaiding!
The looms are from Dewberry Ridge Looms: LINK
My book: Peg Looms and Weaving Sticks is available from all your favorite online book sellers, and can be ordered through your local book store. It’s full of weaving yes-ness!
Here’s the video about the Mermaid dolls:
Noreen Crone-Findlay, designer and author
