March 12, 2024 · 2:43 pm

How to Weave a Small Comfort Butterfly on the Chloe Loom

A couple of years ago, I made a youtube video on how to weave butterflies on the Mirrix Saffron loom. LINK

When I was chatting with Claudia and Elena on a webinar a few weeks ago, wonderful Sandy from Mirrix, mentioned about the tabby butterfly. This inspired the living daylights out of me, as I ‘aha-ed’ that I could weave smaller butterflies on the Chloe loom. (BTW, the butterfly woven on the Saffron loom can easily be woven on the Chloe loom, if you use the 8 epi combs.)

Why are small woven butterflies so exciting? For me, the most meaningful reason for weaving the Small Comfort Butterfly is to be able to offer kindness and comfort to people, whether I see them in person, or I mail one to them. People are worn to exhaustion nowadays with all the dreadfulness in the world, so even a tiny glimmer of hope in the form of a woven Comfort Butterflies is a lovely reminder to hold on and carry on, knowing that we are all in this together.

Also, the Comfort Butterflies can be appliqued onto to larger woven pieces or used for creative mending projects or worn as brooches, pins, zipper pulls or earrings. 

They also hang happily in house plants to brighten a cloudy day.

And, for those who still enjoy books that are made of paper rather electrons, the small butterflies make lovely bookmarks.

Oh my goodness! I ended up weaving more than 30 prototype butterflies in order to get to this simple little butterfly! It was worth all the work to get there, as it’s now a delightful little butterfly!

I’ve made a video tutorial on youtube to show you, step by step, how to weave and assemble the Comfort Butterfly. I hope that you will enjoy weaving lots of them, and giving them away as a symbol of hope and transformation in these challenging times!

Happy Weaving! May weaving and giving the Small Comfort Butterflies bring you joy! ❤

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March 12, 2024 · 12:53 pm

Vasilisa Comfort Dolls that are still available March 2024

Several people have messaged me recently, asking if I still have any Vasilisa Comfort Dolls available for sale. I don’t have the stamina to carve wood anymore, as I am living with Long Covid/post viral syndrome (blech). So, there won’t be any new ones and these are the only Vasilisa Dolls that are still available.

If you are interested in buying any of them, please leave a comment and I will get back to you asap.

These are the Vasilisa Comfort Doll ‘Mamma/Great Mother of All’ series- they are $75 each + shipping. They are between 4- 5 inches tall

Small Vasilisa Comfort Dolls: These two are $45 + shipping

And, the Kitten is sold but the Vasilisa Comfort Doll #14 is still available $50 + shipping

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February 19, 2024 · 3:19 pm

A Cozy Cape to weave for the Lily Doll

The days are getting longer, and certainly are warmer than a month ago!

But it’s still winter here. Which inspired me to design and weave a cape for Lily Doll:

The kit and pdf are available at https://mirrixlooms.com/lily

I just noticed that the background screen has a white loop that looks like it’s part of the cape sticking out of Lily Doll’s ear. Sigh…. not at all. I could go and re-shoot the photo or I could tell you that I didn’t notice it until now, which is what I have opted to do instead of the sensible solution of re-shooting the photo. Ah well…. and, perhaps you didn’t notice, but now you have.

And, if you did notice and thought that I did something odd, well you were right… I placed Lily Doll in just the wrong spot. Haven’t you ever placed yourself or something in an odd place? It happens.

Mercy on us all!

I weave all the dolls and bears and toys and clothes for the Lily Doll Project on the 5 inch wide Mirrix Chloe loom, which I am madly in love with. It’s a wonderful little sturdy, delightfully adjustable little miracle of excellent design.

Yup. Love it and highly recommend it. I keep having ‘Aha’ and ‘Oh Wow’ moments with it.

My apologies to the 8 inch Chloe loom, which is also a lovely loom, but I am totally smitten by the 5 inch Chloe.

Yes, I am lucky enough to have both, but it is the 5 inch Chloe that is my ‘go to’ loom).

Happy weaving! ❤

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January 15, 2024 · 10:56 am

It’s the little things- A tiny woven dog, cat and bunny

I love designing and weaving little things. And, today, we are releasing the pdf pattern and kits for 3 dear small woven critters-

I love cats, dogs and bunnies, so I couldn’t resist weaving these three friends as part of the Lily Doll project. 

The puppy and kitty were based on ‘real life’ critters, but feel free to adapt the colorways to match your own personal favorite pets.

The kit for weaving these 3 wee charmers is available at https://mirrixlooms.com/lily

By the way, on the 15th of each month through 2024, we will be releasing a new kit for a design that I have made for the Lily Doll project. They’re all available at the mirrix website.

We’re planning some other fun things, too. I’ll post about them as they come up.

Hope 2024 is full of good things for you and yours: Blessings and hugs ❤ and happy weaving!

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December 22, 2023 · 1:25 pm

Little wee woven Panda bears

I wove one miniature panda, then another and another- I couldn’t resist weaving the tiny tiny pandas using the pattern that I designed for the wee teddy bears that are part of the Lily Doll Project that I created for Mirrix looms.

The pandas and bears are all woven on the Mirrix Chloe Loom.

The pandas are made the same way as the tiny teddy bears, except the ears, arms and legs are different color yarns, and a couple of little stitches are added to the face to make their face patches.

The pdf and kit for the teddy bear are available at https://mirrixlooms.com/lily.

To make the pandas, use scraps of yarn or embroidery floss from your stash.

Happy Weaving! <3

I made a little video – https://youtube.com/shorts/AUeD4A7BMwQ

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December 20, 2023 · 2:01 pm

I made a little video about the Pixel People

The Pixel People are quirky little woven wonderfuls that I designed for the Lily Doll Project.

They began as doodles on graph paper and were so delightful that I had to weave them right away! They are very small, so they are quick to weave and are great little stash busters. (they’re 1 1/2 inch or 3.75 cm square). I always put a ‘Lucky Penny’ and a paper heart inside to make them even more good natured.

They should probably come with a warning that they are so much fun to weave that it becomes quite addictive to weave them. This is really okay, as people love them so much that the Pixel People jump merrily into other people’s hands and hearts and pockets, too.

There’s more information about the Lily Doll Project at www.tottietalkscrafts.com and the kits and pdf’s are available at https://mirrixlooms.com/lily

Happy happy weaving!

Here’s a link to a little slide show that I made when I was playing with some of the Pixel People that have flown away from the studio:

https://youtube.com/shorts/zLK585kU68s?si=raKLc_i29TNe200o

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December 19, 2023 · 2:52 pm

Pixel People

I find simple little things to be endearing. That’s how I feel about the woven Pixel People that are part of the Lily Doll Project.

I was inspired to design and weave the whimsical little Pixel People when I was sketching on graph paper (one of my most favorite design tools). I was doodling ‘inside the squares’ and started drawing cheerful little faces in the squares. I was captivated by their sweetness so one thing lead to another.

I warped up my Chloe loom and these quirky little darlings evolved from those simple sketches. I love them with their little circle hands and feet, but you can also play with other options, too. They have lucky pennies and good wishes hearts inside, so they have very good energy.

They are fun to carry in your pocket or attach jewelry findings and click them onto a zipper, bag or as a charm on a pouch, phone or other device.

Stitch a pin back on them to wear them as a pin. Glue a magnet to the back and they can live on the fridge or a lamp or other metal surface. These quirky little Pixel People are fun, easy and a delight to make!

The Pixel People Kits are available at https://mirrixlooms.com/lily

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December 17, 2023 · 1:16 pm

A Teeny Tiny Woven Panda

Panda bears…. so sweet! I can’t resist…. so I wove a tiny Panda, using scraps of yarn left over from the Lily Doll kit (using the instructions from the Tiny Teddy Bear in the Lily Doll Project)

He felt like having a little nap so I tucked him into the teeny tiny crib. Two of the Tiny Bears raced over to see who was this new little friend in the studio.

Panda said that he was a little chilly all alone in the crib, so the Little Bears invited him to hop into their cozy bed and tell them all about himself….

They are so happy being together in the studio that they are hoping that there will be more bears coming along, soon to join them! They posed for a few photos…

And went back to bed to tell each other winter stories and to nap and dream of Springtime….

The kits and pdf’s are available at https://mirrixlooms.com/lily  Happy Weaving! ❤

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December 13, 2023 · 9:59 am

Lily Doll has a tutu and shrug for Ballet classes

Once upon this time there is a darling 3 year old, (named Lily) who inspired me to create the Lily Doll Project- a year long celebration of delight, joy and creativity.

When Lily’s Mamma, Elena Kawachi, posted pics of little Miss Lily taking her first steps into the world of ballet, I couldn’t resist designing a tutu for Lily Doll, woven on the Mirrix Chloe loom.

And because ballerinas need to stay warm after class, I designed a wee shrug for Lily Doll, too. The kit for the shrug and tutu are available at LINK

The Shrug also looks great with the Pinafore Pocket Dress (kit also available on the Lily Doll page LINK)

Here’s to the joy of woven dolls and imagination! Hope you’ll join us in the delightful, healing art of dollmaking and make your own, unique version of Lily Doll and her friends! <3

Happy weaving! ❤

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December 4, 2023 · 11:38 am

Lily Doll has 2 new dresses and a new friend, too

It’ s the festive season, so I designed a party dress for Lily Doll:

And, then I discovered that there is enough yarn in the Party Doll kit to be able to weave the Pinafore Dress (with a pocket!), so, I asked Elena and Claudia at Mirrix if we could add the Pinafore Dress to the Party Dress kit. They thought that that was a great idea. 😀

It struck me that people might want to weave the Lily Doll in a way that is unique to them. I love exploring creative and imaginative options, so I decided to weave a doll using the Lily Doll Pattern, but to change things up a little.

Well, LOL…. I ended up having to weave her arms twice, because I managed to (HUH?!?!) mess them up on the first go. Okay, so I un-picked them and wove them again. Got it right this time. Whew.

Then, I was weaving too late at night, when, thanks to Long Covid, my cognitive function isn’t always at the top of the loop- oops… and I wove the body in plain white, which I hadn’t meant to do. Went to bed shaking my head. Got up the next morning and wove the body using Herringbone technique. (I’ll do another post about weaving Herringbone on the Chloe loom). YAY! Got it right!

Next, I merrily wove her legs using pick and pick in tapestry technique which mysteriously gave her very out of proportion legs. Sigh. Un-wove them and wove them in pick and pick, but THIS time, I used the tabby technique. AND YAY! The legs are totally tickety boo…. whew…..

And, luckily, her dear little head (using the pink and purple yarn and hand dyed silk left over from the Party and Pinafore Dresses kit) turned out perfect the first time round…. so…. here she is!

Lily Doll would like to introduce her cousin, Lally Doll!

and here they are, wearing the Party Dress and the Pinafore with a Pocket Dress:

Ooh, I am so delighted with them! Even though I seemed to get so much wrong on the way to getting Lally Doll right, she was totally worth the effort.

The Herringbone technique is explained in step by step photos in my book: Innovative Weaving on the Frame loom. It, and the kits and patterns for the Lily doll project are all available at: LINK

Happy Weaving! ❤

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