I love buying vintage crochet cotton at the thrift shop. It speaks to me of the hands that it has passed through, and the pleasure it has brought to other thread lovers.
I like to use it in my weaving, crochet and tatting, as it gives me a sense of connection to needlewomen of the past.
BUT… storing balls of crochet cotton can be a problem. Those hollow cores take up a LOT of space!
So, for many years, I have been upcycling old credit cards or pieces of cardstock to make bobbins like this:
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Because, storing yarn or thread on a small flat bobbin is so much more efficient than leaving it on the cardboard tubes:
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Last night, I had insomnia, and was thinking about winding off a pile of vintage crochet cotton, when I had a flash of inspiration!!
Instead of making chubby little embroidery style bobbins, if I made ‘dog bone’ shape bobbins, I could use my bobbin winder to speed up the process of winding them. AND, they’d take up less room, as it would be a longer, leaner shape.
I jumped out of bed, and started cutting the new shape bobbins:
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And, winding up balls of cotton:
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In a twinkling of an eye, I have compactly wound bobbins that won’t tangle with other bobbins, as the thread is taken through a slot and secured. Another bonus! No snaggles!
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This shape of bobbin is great for warping the Mirrix loom, as it’s so compact. Yep – it’s a win!
And, they can be easily stored in unusual containers, like this:
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I made a video to show how quickly and easily this works:
I haven’t tried using these bobbins for tapestry weaving, but I will, and will let you know how I like them.
I love making tapestry bobbins from wood- especially upcycled wood, so I will be showing you how I do that in an upcoming post.
Happy weaving, and here’s to creative ways of storing yarn and thread stash! 😀
At the beginning of May, a ‘new-to-me’ loom , a large Mirrix tapestry loom, arrived in my studio. (Courtesy of my son and daughter in law who picked her up in the city 4 hours away, that used to be her home- the previous owner didn’t want to ship her).
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I immediately sat down and made a whole lot of heddles for her, as she didn’t come with them.
And then, I warped her up- ooooooooohhhhhhhhhh, I love how easily she warps! Bliss!
As I was warping her up and starting to weave, I thought…. ‘Hmmmm…. there must be a group for Mirrix weavers on Ravelry’
(Ravelry= the facebook of the yarn world)
I looked, and sure enough! There is a Mirrix group…. which I joined, pronto.
And the first thing I saw was that Claudia (the inventor of the magical Mirrix looms) and Elena, her talented daughter, had posted that they were accepting applications for their annual ‘Social Networking for a Mirrix Loom’ campaign. Link
Well… I had decided within hours of starting to weave on my ‘Joni’ loom that I wanted to fill my studio with Mirrix looms.
So, I sent off an application….
Um… I wanted to fill the studio with ~Smaller~ Mirrix looms!
MEANWHILE>>>> The Joni is one big Mamma, and even though I am tall, my arms are short, so I found that I was having shoulder pain.
My clever daughter in law subtly sneaked the information out of me that I was longing for the treadle kit for the Mirrix loom. Then, she orchestrated the family buying me the treadle kit for Mother’s Day! What a sweetheart!
To say that I was thrilled was an understatement!
THEN! on the 18th of May, was just tickled pink to hear from Elena that they had picked me as one of their team for the 4 months of the ‘Social Networking’ campaign. Whee! What a couple of thrilling days!
And, now… I am starting to keep my part of the bargain, which is to chronicle my experiences with the Mirrix loom(s).
So, since I began my Mirrix adventures with making string heddles, I am going to show you my quick and easy way of making the string heddles for the Mirrix looms (or inkle or frame looms, too).
The colors! the textures! the complete wonderfulness of them- sigh….
For many years, I did a lot of off loom beading- using brick stitch and peyote stitch to create pieces like this necklace:
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This necklace is an homage to the Minoan Goddess of the Bees.
The blue teardrop shapes are dew drops, as the Minoan Goddess of the Bees is also known as ‘The Dewdrop Goddess’.
I love that—- dew happens when the earth is waking up and shifting from the dreamtime to the waking world.
How wonderful that there is a tiny Goddess there, guiding us back from our dreams, to our waking lives, and refreshing our spirits with dewdrops!
The red petal is a pomegranate seed, as The Minoan Goddess of the Bees is also closely aligned with the Goddess, Persephone.
Persephone was snatched from this world, and taken to the underworld, where she ate 3 pomegranate seeds. This meant that she had to return to the depths for 6 months of every year.
In Western Canada, where we live, winter reigns for at least 6 months of the year, often longer, so I resonate deeply with Persephone’s journey!
By the way, I love how the corded part of the necklace formed a figure ‘8’ – tilt it sideways, and you have infinity!
I worked the cord in peyote stitch, using tiny brass beads that a friend found in a thrift shop. Nice!!! 🙂
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I carved her face from a tagua nut (an ecologically harvested palm nut) that is also known as vegetable ivory.
I have never done much loom beading, but that is about to change!
Every year, Claudia and Elena at Mirrix looms have a ‘social media campaign’.
They choose 2 weavers (a bead weaver and a tapestry weaver) to be part of the team, and then give them each a Mirrix loom.
Then, the weavers blog and post and tweet and fb etc about their adventures with their Mirrix looms for 4 months.
Well… I am soooooooooooooo delighted!
They picked me as one of their weavers! wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!
A few weeks ago, I bought a Mirrix Jonifrom another Canadian weaver who hadn’t bonded with it. I am working on a series of woven tapestries and fiber arts collages and I need Joni Mirrix to be my loomie for that 😀
Woots! I fell madly in love with Joni Mirrix (although I felt unworthy of her at first… will tell you more about it, later) and thought-
‘Hmmmmm… there must be a Ravelry group for Mirrix looms’.
I joined, and the first thing I saw was that they were having their annual Social Media networking campaign.
I sent in my application, and last night, I was doing a huge happy dance to discover that I got picked for the team!
(good thing I don’t have to catch a ball or throw one to be on the team, or else I would still be standing on the sidelines! ahem)
Oh ho! I want to fill my studio with Mirrix looms, (tapestry is slow, and I want to be doing bead weaving, toooooooo, so I am just ecstatic!)
Speaking of bead weaving, I treated myself to Claudia’s bracelet workshop on Craftsy(anyone who has seen any of my video tutorials will know that I am madly in love with bracelets!) and I am chomping at the bit to get going on a bunch of yummy woven bracelets!
Alright…. back to work on design deadlines so I get back to my weaving!
Go gently! 🙂
Oh! PS: if you would like to knit yourself a Minoan Goddess of the Bees, I designed one for you to knit, and can be ordered here:
Link to the doll page on my website (scroll down, waaaaaaaaay down the page to click the ‘buy now’ button)
Last week, a friend asked me what I was working on these days.
In response, I rattled off a list of projects and tasks that is the length of my arm.
The next day, as I was leaving the dentist, he drove up to the stop sign, he said: ‘Oh yah, you say you’re working on all these things, but here you are, just walking down the street!’ 😀
Um… if I could master the transporter, I would! Zap! into the dentist chair! Zap! Home again! Sparkle sparkle zing. 🙂
I would like that…. 🙂
Anyhow, here are some of the things that are happening in my studio right now….
(Not ~ all ~ the things that are happening, as I can’t show projects that I am designing for magazines etc- the editors would be smacking me on the side of the head if I did….)
(and I am working on some stuff that I need to not talk about until it ripens. You know how it is.)
Okay… first things first…
We have adopted an adorable little rescue…. he’s 4 1/2 years old and is just wonderful.
(except for being a cat botherer… that is NOT good 😦 ) This is him (in his fetching blue harness) with his adopted big brother. (Our dear old chihuahua/daschund cross).
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Ah, well, other than being oh so barkie about the cats, he is completely adorable. As you can see, he has settled in beautifully.
Although, every adoption takes time and patience and attention….
Alright…. a brief zip around the studio:
Okay, in the southeast corner, there’s a big project happening on my tri loom (configured to the 3 foot size).
I’ll be posting more about this as the project moves closer to the finish line:
Hearts are one of my most favorite design motifs ever.
I decided that I should design a tiny little woven heart motif as a project for the ‘Stitch Red’ heart health campaign, and also work as an embellishment on a special ‘I love you’ scarf for my daughter.
Here’s the link to the previous post about using tambour crochet to embellish the scarf: Link
The yarn used in the heart motif is from Koigu, made specially for the Stitch Red campaign. Link
Here is the pattern to make the pin board loom to weave the heart:(Note: Print it out so the pattern is 2 inches by 2 inches)
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Materials and equipment: a square of foam (I upcycled some packing material) that’s about 4 inches square by an inch or so thick.
34 pins or 1 inch fine finishing nails. (You may need a nail file to file rough edges off the tops)
A 3 or 4 inch square of clear plastic from a clamshell package or other recycled thingie.
Knife to cut the foam, scissors.
2.5 mm crochet hook
small tapestry needle
Instructions
1: Copy the pattern, and trim to fit the size of piece of foam.
2: Place the piece of clear plastic over the pattern. Push the pins into the dots.
Warping: The right hand arch of the heart is held vertical and the left hand arch is horizontal.
3: Tie 2 strands of yarn together (Note, you need to be working with fine yarn, like a sock weight) and place over the pin at the point of the heart.
4: Skip 8 pins, go around the next pin and down to the lower edge, and around the pin to the left of the pin at the point.
5: Go up and down across the 5 pins at the top and their mathcing pins on the lower edge.
6: Take the yarn up to th emifpoint pin (there are 3 empty pins above it) and down.
7: Go up and down across the next 5 sets of pins. There will be 3 vertical pins/nails left empty. Make an ‘8’ around the last set of nails to bring the yarn back down to the lower set of nails.
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8: Weaving
Row 1: Weave hook from right to left: Over 4/Under 4 between the 1st and 2nd pins.
Make a loop of yarn and place it on the hook, then draw it through the warp strands. Place the loop on the 2nd nail on the right hand side.
Adjust yarn.
Rows 2 & 4: Weave Under 4/Over 4 across, pick up the loop of yarn, ease through, place loop on nail/pin.
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Row 3: WEave Over 4/Under 4 across, pick up loop, ease through, place on nail on right hand side of loom.
Rows 5 & 7: Weave )ver 4/Under 4/Over 4/Under 4/Over 4… make loop, ease through, place on pin on right hand side.
Note: on Row 7, the yarn passes by 5 pins before it’s woven in.
Rows 6 & 8: U4/O4/U4/O4/U4 make loop, ease through, place on pin on right hand side.
Row 9: Working with top 3 pins only: U4/O4/U 4 make loop, ease through, place on pin on right hand side. (It already has loops on it, but not to worry).
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Finishing:
Wrap the yarn around the circumference of the heart 2 1/2 ties and snip.
Working in a counter clockwise direction: Thread the yarn ends into a darning needle and lift the stitches off, one by one, stitching through them.
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Some nails have 2 sets of threads on them, so lift the sets of yarn off one at a time.
Stitch over the long floating threads to capture them.
Stitch twice at the tip of the heart.
Untie the beginning knot and weave in the ends.
Adjust the circumference stitching to shape the heart, and stitch through the outside edge again if desired.
Weave in ends and trim.
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The hearts can be used to embellish or trim scarves, hats, mittens, gloves, cowls, hair ornaments, bags, stuffies, dolls, toys, blankets, shawls, stoles, vests, coats, wall hangings, cellphone and tablet covers. The sky’s the limit!
Here’s the video tutorial on how to weave the heart motif:
I think that people might like to have a heart loom in wood, so I asked Donna and Gary McFarland of Dewberry Ridge looms Link if they would make them, and they said yes, so if you want one, drop them a note.
PLEASE NOTE: All content of this blog, including video, audio, written and photographed is the sole work and property of Noreen Crone-Findlay, and MAY NOT be used without my permission. Thanks so much!
My husband is a jazz musician and composer and completely awesome bundle of wonderfulness, and I love weaving beeeeeuuuuutiful shirts for him to wear when he’s performing. (last year’s Jazz festival shirt: Link).
I have been weaving away on fabric to make him a new shirt for this year’s Jazz Festival, LINK
But…. oops… it’s cream and ecru with lotsa colors…. and, the color that the guys mostly wear to perform in is black.
Our daughter made Jim a gorgeous black shirt from the Folkwear Victorian Gentleman’s shirt pattern, so it’s kinda dumb to weave him another one….. sooooooooooooooo the big AHA was…………… weave him a VEST!!!!!!
Ding! Lights go on, whee’s and skippetty hops and happy dances ensue….
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When our son got married, I used the Folkwear pattern to make him and my hubby kilts, (oh my word.. the grooms men, hubby and our son, all wore kilts and they looked FABULOUS…).
The kilt pattern has a really spiffy vest pattern, which Jim likes (that’s essential- why make it if he doesn’t like it?)
Oh oh, whenever I go on the Folkwear pattern site, it makes me want to buy more patterns. I love their patterns and have been wearing them for more than 3 decades. We actually got married in clothing I sewed from Folkwear patterns, and our children grew up in Folkwear.
(No profit, affiliations etc, just love their patterns)
Okay, just had a brief noodle through their website, and am seriously in love with the Siberian Parka….. hmmmm… that would be fun to weave the fabric for…. hmmmmmm.
Anyhow…. in the midst of meeting design deadlines, and new projects that are so delicious and tantalizing and time consuming,
I am in the throes of weaving up narrow bands for this vest, and loving it!
The vintage Structo looms are kind of like the ‘Featherweight’ sewing machine – tiny, perfectly formed workhorses that are beautifully engineered and much sought after.
Although, after I spent hours the other evening, warping the black cotton, I would have cheerfully sold the blessed loom to the first taker. (Warping black thread at night is not so much fun).
Luckily, I got over my snit, and am now utterly enchanted and weaving merrily away.
Which is good, as the Jazz festival is getting closer and closer…. eep… I need to go meet some deadlines and then get weaving!
😀 Happy weaving!
PS: I carved the shuttle in the photo a few years ago. 🙂
My dear friend, Terri Bibby, is a Saori teacher and weaver extraordinaire, who told me about some shuttles that don’t have a metal rod through them.
This intrigued me, so I made myself one to see how I liked it.
I absolutely love it. I made it small and low profile to fit the small shed of Structo and Peacock looms. Thumbs up, indeed!
The bond was formed in childhood, when my beloved teddy was a panda (a pink and white one at that- you can see the very tiny homage I made to her on my website at About Us )
Panda designed by Noreen Crone-Findlay for Lion Brand yarns/Martha Stewart Loom
I hope that I will contribute to other people’s Panda love with this design for a Panda bear knitted on the Martha Stewart loom.
I needed to make a long narrow piece to fill a gap in a woven piece that I am working on.
I thought…. why weave a rectangle, when I could weave a whole string of little fishies!
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A few years ago, I figured out how to weave Cluny knots or Clunies, which are little woven circles or ovals, on the potholder loom.
While I was doing that, I thought that I could probably figure out a way of weaving fishies instead of circles. This thought has been lingering on hold in the back of my mind for years, and so, today, I decided to go for it.
I also decided that the Martha Stewart loom would work even better than the potholder loom, because you can just put in whatever pegs you want, wherever you want them. Brilliant!
So, I wove and un-wove and wove and un-wove and wove wove wove wove and came up with some pretty darned cute little Swishy Fishies!
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They are about the size of a penny. You can weave one little Swishy Fish, or a whole line of them.
The fish can either be used individually (earrings, perhaps?) or can be woven as a continuous strand to make trim for wall hangings, towels, pillows, bags, hats, vests, coats, mitts, totebags, cards, journals, scrapbook pages or whatever your heart desires!
Here’s how to set up your Martha Stewart loom:
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Here’s the video:
What do you need to weave Swishy Fish?
1] A Martha Stewart loom
2] Craft needle and a finer darning needle
3] Warp: A ball of smooth yarn that is medium weight
4] Weft: Each Swishy Fish takes at least a yard of yarn
5] Beads for eyes, and needle and thread to sew them on.
Here are some diagrams to hopefully explain things even more….
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Here’s the warping path:
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On a sad note: 😦 This video is dedicated to a very sweet little fish who lived in my daughter and son-in-law’s fish tank for 5 years, ‘Won Ton’ was a friendly little goldfish who was always interested in what was going on outside the tank! (I wove the little white fish in memory of Won Ton for my daughter.)
Sadly, Won Ton went to swim over the rainbow bridge while I was making this video, which struck me as a sad bit of synchronicity.
Swim on, little Won Ton!!!!
And, may weaving these little fish bring delight to weavers where ever they may be!
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