Category Archives: weaving & handwoven

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

How to Make a Niddy Noddy from Cardboard to Wind Skeins

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!

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Filed under eco crafts & green projects, tutorial & how to, video tutorial, weaving & handwoven

Tagged as alpacas, hack a skein winding tool, hand spun alpaca, how to make a Niddy Noddy with cardboard, Niddy Noddy, spinning hacks, upcycle cardboard, upcycled cardboard

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!

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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Filed under Loom & looms & small loom weaving, Mollie Whuppie and Vasilisa looms, tapestry, Thumbelina Loom, weaving & handwoven

Tagged as 'Faconner. Alberta Branded, Fabula Figures, hand weaving, hand woven, tapestries, tapestry

January 15, 2018 · 7:18 pm

How to sew hand wovens together by hand

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:

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

Tagged as hand weaving, hand woven, how to sew handwoven fabrics, Noreen Crone-Findlay, video tutorial, weave, weaving

January 15, 2018 · 7:13 pm

3 panel Triangle loom shawl woven on 3 foot tri loom

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!

Cutting garments into fabric strips to weave and knit

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:

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

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

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Filed under eco crafts & green projects, Findlay Bear and Flora Panda, gifts & easy to make gifts & presents, knitting, Loom & looms & small loom weaving, personal stuff, potholder loom, tutorial & how to, video tutorial, weaving & handwoven

Tagged as compassion critters, grief, how to make fabric strips for weaving and knitting, knitted teddy bear, upcycling, woven kitty

November 8, 2017 · 3:11 pm

Mermaids woven on peg looms and weaving sticks

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:

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Tagged as Dewberry Ridge Looms, doll, doll making, dollmaking, dolls, hand weaving, hand woven, handwoven, how to weave mermaid doll, mermaid, mermaid dolls, mermaids, Noreen Crone-Findlay, peg loom, small loom weaving, weave, woven mermaid

November 6, 2017 · 10:30 am

Triangle Loom Shawl woven on every other nail

I made a video tutorial showing how to weave on every other nail on the triangle loom when weaving with bulky yarns.

This creates an open lacy weave that drapes beautifully.

The shawl was woven on the 7 foot Dewberry Ridge Triangle loom,using super bulky yarn made by spinning together cotton threads with knitting machine and lace weight yarns.

The every other nail technique also works fine when 2 or 3 strands of medium or fine yarns are held together as if they are a single strand.
This is a very quick and easy way to weave a soft and drapey shawl.

The shawl in the video is a prayer (compassion) shawl made for a dear friend when she lost her Dad.

She loves the shawl, so I am pleased, because of course, I want her to feel that there is love in every stitch and that she can wrap herself in that love whenever she needs it.

Details: I spun a super bulky yarn by combining 7 strands of very fine crochet cotton and knitting machine boucle yarn- cotton and acrylic, on a bulky head spinner. The wpi is 5 wraps per inch. I plied it so it is 14 strands thick.

Here’s the video:

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Filed under Dewberry Ridge looms, Loom & looms & small loom weaving, Triangle loom weaving, tutorial & how to, video tutorial, weaving & handwoven

Tagged as #triangleloom, 7 ft triangle loom, compassion shawl, Dewberry Ridge Looms, hand weaving, hand woven, how to, how to weave open weave on #triangleloom, Noreen Crone-Findlay, prayer shawl, tri loom woven shawl, video tutorial by Noreen Crone-Findlay, weave, weaving

November 3, 2017 · 11:19 am

Blue Butterfly Mermaid Tapestry and how to weave tapestry on a triangle loom

When someone on facebook asked if it was possible to weave tapestry on triangle looms, I thought: ‘Great question!’

and then … ‘Of course it is!’

and then….’I have to try it to see if it really is!’

I had been mulling over weaving a new Mermaid tapestry for quite awhile, and had woven narrow bands on my Structo 4 harness loom as well as my rigid heddle box loom, to start.

I had a big ‘aha!’ about weaving the rest of the mermaid using my 14 inch triangle loom from Dewberry Ridge Looms. LINK

Because there are a few things to know about weaving tapestry on a triangle loom, I made a short video as part of the video about the Blue Butterfly Mermaid tapestry – it’s close to the end of the video.

I used other looms to weave the other elements of the tapestry: a hexagon woven in copper wire on the Lily Speed o Weave Loom, narrow bands woven on the 4 harness vintage Structo loom, narrow bands woven on a rigid heddle box loom, 2 small triangles woven on the 7 inch Lil Weaver loom from Dewberry Ridge Looms and some tatting.