A couple of weeks ago, we went camping and my much loved little Mirrix Saffron loom came with us.
I was weaving away while we were camping (and I still am, but I have advanced to the video filming and editing stage) for the week that I will be leading the Summer Weaving Challenge (August 8 to 15, 2022).
Here’s the link to join in the fun (and you can buy my book: Innovative Weaving on the Frame Loom on the Mirrix website, too on the Starter Kit page 😊 or at any of the online book selling websites.
The death of our beloved 15 year old small dog has been really hard on both my husband and me.
I wrote in my previous post about the Comfort Doll that I carved from a fallen branch- LINK
When I was carving her, I was inspired to carve a Teddy Bear that would have an open space in it’s heart…..
I used amber color shellac to paint the Teddy Bear to look like our little dog, and then…
My husband and I each placed a tiny scoop of our little dog’s ashes in the open circle.
Then I glued a gold heart over it to seal it….
The glue seals it completely.
It took a while to dry and turn clear.
We both held the little teddy bear and found it to be very comforting….
We sat Teddy Bear and Pollydolly in front of the box of our little guy’s ashes, but when I finished weaving her outfit and knitting a red sweater and blue jeans for him, we sat them on top of the box:
My husband loves working with metal, so he made a little steel doggie: Edward Alloy in tribute to our wee fellow, and it has joined them on the box…..
We have found this tender making of small things in celebration of our wee dog to be very comforting!
Last week, our darling little dog died. He was 15 years old and we miss him terribly.
The day before he died, a branch fell from the huge Elm tree in front of our house. I love the tree and so I picked up the branch and moved it onto our lawn, thinking that I should probably carve something from it.
A couple of days after we came home from the Vet, without our dear boy in our arms, the impulse to pick up the branch and start carving grew stronger and stronger.
I had been feeling called to carve another 6 inch doll like one that had carved last fall, so I used her as a companion and guide:
I used the same branch for her arms:
And for her legs, but I got the first pair all wrong, so I made another pair from another scrap of wood.
Of course, it took me a few days to carve her and to allow the still wet wood to dry before I could paint her.
This allowed me to follow my inner prompts that were a gift from this little healing dolly and start work on carving a teddy bear. I have posted about him here: LINK
I was surprised that she wanted a very round head, but when I went to carve it down, she firmly told me to just sand it smooth and live with it. Okay…. it’s important to not try to push the doll where she does not want to go!
She let me know exactly what she wanted for her hair, leotard, leggings and boots:
I knitted her a dress that was totally wrong for her, but works beautifully on a different doll.
Then I tried a different dress that I had knitted for another little doll. Nope.
She wanted me to weave her a white skirt and shrug from yarn that my daughter in law spun.
So, I did….
Her name is Pollydolly and I have found the process of carving her (and the teddy bear that I will post about next) to be very soothing and healing.
Dollmaking is very much a healing art and no matter what form it takes, it’s good for the soul.
Grieving is a journey that is unique to each person who has to follow the path, and it’s important to do the things that help the grief be nurtured in a transformative way that becomes the root of compassion.
Carving dolls and bears and knitting and weaving are an important part of my way of healing.
In the next post about the Teddy Bear that Pollydolly told me to carve, I’ll show you where she is sitting now. LINK
If you are grieving, please know that you are not alone. There is so much to grieve right now, and we all have to find our way through it. Blessings on your journey!
Last summer, loved relatives gave me 2 boxes of crochet cotton that they had adopted from the ReUse Centre in their town.
This is the smaller of the 2 boxes.
I immediately used some of the cotton to tat butterflies, and thought about what to use the generous and unexpected treasure that remained.
I decided to weave Tea Towels for my family – I wanted the cotton to become something useful, rather than just languishing as ‘stash’.
I had no idea, when I began, just how much I would love weaving the Tea Towels!
It was so meditative and contemplative- and watching the play of shadow and light on the various shades of cream and white cotton was deeply pleasing.
To begin the journey, I warped up several warp chains.
And wove
and wove and wove….
The blue bands look odd, because I used several strands of variegated blue thread held together…
I used one of my favorite weaving drafts, ‘Rosepath’, which gives the diamond effect when woven to the ‘correct’ treadling, but also a pleasing zig zag twill and of course, plain weave tabby.
This was perfect for me, as it allowed me to add definition to the hems, the cream colored borders, the blue bands and the body of the tea towels.
Once the tea towels were all woven, washed them and then ironed them and hemmed them.
I had hand stitched the hems between each of the towels while they were on the loom, but then stitched the hand stitched edges again by machine before cutting them apart.
I then rolled and pinned the hems and stitched them by machine.
I had hand stitched the hems on some of the prototype tea towels, but wasn’t happy with the way they looked, so opted for the machine.
Ooops… at one point, my grandson, who has been taught how to sew on the machine by his mother, chastized me for sewing over a pin. Oops!
He has the family ability to raise one eyebrow very high and fix you with a baleful gaze.
This is also a family trait. We pass along such interesting legacies, don’t we?
My father could transmit a world of ‘ahem’ with his eyebrow. Ahem.
I didn’t sew over any more pins after I was given ‘the eyebrow’!
Earlier in the process, I wove miles of tape on my narrow band loom.
But, I forgot to take a picture of the weaving process for the tape.
I cut lengths of tape from the miles of narrow band.
Then I sewed the hanging loops with it onto the tea towels by hand.
Then, off to the washing machine for the towels….
It was so exciting to see how washing the towels snugged them up and made them all soft and inviting.
And then ironed the living daylights out of the tea towels again.
Most of them have been designated as gifts.
Generous gifts of boxes of abandoned crochet cotton by our relatives turned out to be such a lovely gift for me.
I loved the process of bringing the cotton to life again and I hope that the towels will be a pleasure in some small, quiet way for years to come.
I have been weaving a lot of butterflies lately, as a metaphor of hope, transformation, healing, creativity, community, and so much more.
These butterflies are ones that I designed to weave on the Mirrix Saffron loom.
I love the way that I can set up the Saffron to the exact size that I want….
The pink butterfly is made by weaving a full size triangle on the Saffron (see instructions in my book: Innovative Weaving on the Frame Loom).
And, the blue butterflies are made by weaving half size triangles.
Because the smaller butterflies are woven using a variation on the technique that I developed for the book,
I have made a video showing how to weave them.
The bodies are made on the loom, using the same setup as the wings, so you can weave away without having to re-set the loom. Yay!
Here’s the link to the Video How to Tutorial:
Mirrix looms are selling a wonderful kit that includes my book: Innovative Weaving on the Frame Loom, as well as the Saffron Loom and the Sandy Stand for it. It’s a great kit! Here’s the link for it:
To see all the links for the ‘How To’ posts for the “Imagine” Banner Weave along, please go to L I N K S
To order the loom, book and extras kit for the Weave Along from Mirrix, please go K I T
FREE FORM WEAVING: HOMAGE TO ALBERT EINSTEIN:
Albert Einstein is woven (with a few extrapolations and a slight adjustment to the waistline) following the instructions for the Woven Dancer on page 30 of “Innovative Weaving on the Frame Loom”.
In order to hold the pattern onto the loom, a backing board is needed. See: LINK
INSTRUCTIONS:
HOW TOWEAVE THE ALBERT EINSTEIN FIGURE:
1: SET UP THE LOOM so it is 11 inches/27.5 cm) from the lower set of pegs to the upper set. Lock it into the ‘Sandy Stand’.
Fold the ends of the backing board to the back and slide it in place on the loom.
2: WARP THE LOOM: Following the instructions for the Woven Dancer on page 30 of ‘Innovative Weaving on the Frame Loom’, with 1 strand of #4 Medium weight (Worsted or Sport weight) yarn white and 1 strand grey held together as if they are a single strand:
Skip 6 pegs at each side of the loom and warp the loom, following the instructions in the book closely.
3: WEAVING:
LEGS:
Leaving only an inch or of a tail end rather than the long tail end listed in the instructions in the book, weave the legs with 2 strands of black yarn held together as if they are a single strand, and packing the weaving down closely to completely cover the warp strands. Follow the instructions in the book for weaving the legs, but noting that you will be beating the weft yarn in more densely than in the book.
SWEATER:
With 2 strands of light blue yarn held together as if they are a single strand, weave up to the neck. Beat the weft so it completely covers the warp strands.
DO NOT pull in the waistline as it is drawn in the book. Weave the sweater straight up to the shoulders.
Wrap the neck with the blue yarn and weave in the ends.
SLEEVES:
Weave the sleeves following the instructions for the arms, but, once again, beat the weft so it completely covers the warp strands.
FACE:
With skin tone yarn, weave the face, weaving under 1/over 1 and over 1/under 1.
MOUSTACHE:
Stitch loosely over the shed stick with 1 strand of white yarn and 1 strand grey yarn held together as if they are a single strand at least 3 times. Take the ends to the back of the head.
EYEBROWS:
Take 2 slightly tighter stitches over the shed stick for each eyebrow.
EYES:
Stitch 2 small black ‘e’ size beads on for eyes.
HAIRLINE:
Lock the top of the head in place by stitching around each warp strand at the top of the forehead.
Lift Einstein off the loom.
NOSE:
Stitch 2 vertical stitches with skin tone yarn.
SHOES:
With Brown yarn follow the instructions for the feet on page 36. Weave the yarn ends into the legs.
HANDS:
Weave in the single strand at the side of each hand into the arm so that it is the same size as the loop of the hand.
With skin tone yarn make hands the same way as the feet. Weave the yarn ends into the arms.
HAIR:
Stitch loops of hair yarn around the edges of the face and on the back of the head.
Use felting needles to finalize the loops into the ‘dandelion’ shape of his classic signature hairstyle.
FINISHING:
1: Steam the woven figure on the wrong side with a steam iron, being sure to not touch the iron to the weaving.
Finger press the arms down and the hair into place.
Weave in the ends.
Trim any ends.
2: Sew a plastic or metal ring to the back of the head for hanging the banner.
To see all the links for the ‘How To’ posts for the “Imagine” Banner Weave along, please go to L I N K S
To order the loom, book and extras kit for the Weave Along from Mirrix, please go to K I T
FREE FORM WEAVING: HOMAGE TO ALBERT EINSTEIN:
Albert Einstein is woven (with a few extrapolations and a slight adjustment to the waistline) following the instructions for the Woven Dancer on page 30 of “Innovative Weaving on the Frame Loom”.
In order to hold the pattern onto the loom, a backing board is needed.
INSTRUCTIONS:
HOW TO MAKE THECARDBOARD BACKING BOARD FOR THE SAFFRON LOOM:
1: With the corrugations running the length of the piece: Cut 2 pieces of corrugated cardboard that are 13 inches/32.5 cm long by 5 1/2 inches/13.75 cm wide.
2: Tape or glue the 2 pieces of cardboard together.
3: Score a line with a ballpoint pen or knitting needle 1 inch/2.5 cm from each end.
4: Cut a notch out of the center of each end piece that is 1 inch/2.5 cm by 1 inch/2.5 cm.
5: Trace the pattern for the largest Woven Dancer onto plain paper or graph paper and center it on the backing board.
6: Tape it in place, then tape a piece of clear plastic, either from recycled plastic or a plastic page protector over the pattern.
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