I have been designing for and experimenting with the Martha Stewart loom, and just love it.
woven-heart-by-noreen-crone-findlay
One of the things that I have figured out how to do with the Martha Stewart Loom, is how to weave a heart shape motif on it.
It’s a little tricky, so I have made a video on how to do it.
I felted some of the woven hearts, and they are really neat…. the do get smaller as you felt them!
woven-heart-by-noreen-crone-findlay-5 (c)
What can you do with a woven heart?
They can be used as placemats on their own, (especially if they have spool knitted cord stitched to the outside), or they can be stitched to bags, scarves, stoles, shawls, pillows, throws, wraps, afghans, blankets, jackets, vests, stitch 2 together as a toy….
Hearts are the symbol of love, so perhaps, you can just weave one for the love of it! 😀
One of the joys of self publishing patterns is that I get to talk about them as soon as I finish them. (Not allowed to do that with commissioned projects! It’s up to the editors to decide when the word goes out on those).
Whimsical-woven-cats-by-Noreen-Crone-Findlay-(c)
My most recent self published pattern is for the Woven Whimsical Cats.
You can order the pdf pattern from my website: Link
They have been so much fun to design.
I started the designing process for them last February.
I went through several variations of them before I settled on the two versions that are in the pattern.
There’s the sitting Whimsical Cats, who are infinitely poseable (and can be convinced to wear shoes and play musical instruments, too!)
Whimsical-woven-cats-by-Noreen-Crone-Findlay-(c)
They have distinctly, ‘Who me?!’ expressions of feline innocence, which probably means that they are up to all manner of mischief!
Their ‘Laying Down’ cousins:
Whimsical-woven-cats-by-Noreen-Crone-Findlay-(c)
are lovely to rest your wrist on when playing with the computer mouse.
Of course, they might take a swipe at the mouse, but that’s to be expected, isn’t it?
Whimsical-woven-cats-by-Noreen-Crone-Findlay-(c)
Whimsical-woven-cats-by-Noreen-Crone-Findlay-(c)
The yarn is art yarn, handspun by the delightful Nancy Nagle of Nangellini: www.nangellini.com
Whimsical-woven-cats-by-Noreen-Crone-Findlay-(c)
When I was designing and weaving the Whimsical Woven cats, I was remembering all the wonderful cats who have graced my life with their marvelous ways.
So, here’s to our Feline Friends! with love and thanks for all the blessings! 😀
I am calling this series, ‘Woven Women’. I made a little video mini tour of one corner of my studio, showing ‘The Green Empress’.
The Green Empress brings together many of my favorite fiber techniques: Tapestry weaving, inkle weaving, small loom weaving, crochet, wire work, tatting and punch needle embroidery.
My plan is to eventually have enough ‘Woven Women’ for a one woman show. I don’t have enough of them finished yet, but I am working on it!
Here are some more photos and the video tour that shows The Green Empress:
Close up of one eye and part of the crown. You can see that I love Byzantine art, as there is a definite influence here.
And, here is the link to a mini studio tour, with my wonderful husband playing one of his compositions (with our small dog in his lap, as small dog insists on sitting in Jim’s lap when he plays and practices!)
A lady on Ravelry was having a hard time with wonky edges on the Martha Stewart loom, when she wove with more than one color. How to fix this?
2 color weaving on Martha Stewart loom by Noreen Crone-Findlay (c
By the way in the photo above, I couldn’t resist including the yummy cupcake my daughter made for her little one’s birthday – I don’t recommend eating while weaving! 😀
Here’s the link to the video tutorial that shows the nifty trick that I have figured out for making lovely edges when weaving on small looms.
And yes, this technique works great for potholder looms, too!
A lady on Ravelry just asked for more of a preview of what is in the Lily Speed-O-Weave loom book (link to page on my website)
Lily Speed-O-Weave Loom book by Noreen Crone-Findlay (c)
The first two sections of the book teach a ton of useful and neat techniques for working with the Lily Speed-O-Weave looms- there are several different ways of wrapping the looms, how to tie the intersections, how to weave more than just hexagons on the hexagon loom ( half hexagon motifs and triangle motifs), how to make easy linings for projects, how to spool knit edgings over a core, how to make butterflies and hearts on little triangle looms (don’t have a small triangle loom? I’ve made a couple of video tutorials on how to weave triangles on the potholder loom. See Potholder loom page ), plus the special hexagonal grid paper that I drew to be able to design with the hexagons. (Hexagons are tricky critters until you unlock the code on them! 😀 ) As well, there are instructions on how to work with the square and rectangular Lily Speed-O-Weave loom. And a whole lot more….
Then, there are 19 different projects:
Lily Speed-O-Weave Loom book by Noreen Crone-Findlay (c)
How to make hexagonal AND square baskets from upcycled fabric strips from torn up clothing- of course, you can use yarn, roving, string or cord to make the baskets, but I really enjoy using fabric strips, so I did the baskets with them.
Lily Speed-O-Weave Loom book by Noreen Crone-Findlay (c)
I am a dyed in the wool doll maker. No matter what loom or fiber arts tool I am working with, it doesn’t take long for me to wonder how I could use it to make a doll.
So, it’s no surprise, that as I was designing projects for my new book on the vintage Lily Speed-O-Weave loom, (that’s a link to my website to see more) I had to come up with some fun dolls and stuffies.
Lily-Speed-O-Weave-monster-designed by Noreen Crone-Findlay (coppyright)
Monster Dear was inspired by a book that my daughter loved when she was a very little girl.
It was about a monster who was afraid of the dark. She loved him, so of course, I had to make her one.
This is a new version of ‘Monster Dear’. I think he’ll chase away bad dreams!
And, a ball of squishy soft yarn inspired me to make the snuggly Bunny dolly:
Lily-Speed-O-Weave-Snuggle-Bunny-designed by Noreen Crone-Findlay (coppyright)
I’ve always loved rabbits and bunnies, so I’ve designed and made countless versions of them over the years.
These two fuzzy friends delight me. Ah, the joys of yarn- it’s endless!!!!
It’s full of how to techniques, including nifty things that I figured out, like how to weave half hexagons and triangles on the hexagon loom, so you can make awesome stuff. (like baskets and coats and vests and bags and and and)
Lily Speed-o-weave freeform stole by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright
One of my fave inspiration pieces in the book is a Freeform stole that I made using hexagons from the Lily Speed-O-Weave loom, as well as crocheted motifs (lots of fairies, flowers, hearts and butterflies), spool knitting, inkle band weaving, potholder loom motifs, and tatting, all connected by crocheted chain stitches.
I wanted to inspire people to think outside the box when they are playing with small loom weaving, and to feel brave about combining it with crochet, tatting, spool knitting and, of course, their Lily Speed-O-Weave loom motifs.
Lily Speed-o-weave freeform stole by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright
Lily Speed-o-weave freeform stole by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright
Lily Speed-o-weave freeform stole by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright
Lily Speed-o-weave freeform stole by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright
Lily Speed-o-weave freeform stole by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright
Lily Speed-o-weave freeform stole by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright
Lily Speed-o-weave freeform stole by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright
Lily Speed-o-weave freeform stole by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright
I couldn’t resist putting in the pic of our greyhound. As soon as I laid the stole down to take pics, he was on it.
He was sure it was for him!
LOL
This stole drapes beautifully and is wonderfully comfortable to wear. Hope it inspires you to play with your yarn in new ways!
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