Mermaids are a beautiful metaphor for staying afloat, no matter how hard the waves may crash upon the rocks.
This video tutorial shows how I took the idea of Yarn Baby (Tassle) dolls and created Mermaids with a little bit of yarn, a whole lot of love and a little bit of head scratching.
Oh, yes, also a few sneezes are included with love from our aged rescued Chihuahua mystery mix dear old dog who seems to respond to the making of video by coming into the studio and sneezing loudly whenever the video camera is turned on. Why? Who knows?
Anyhow, I hope that you will enjoy making Yarn Dolly Mermaids!
One of the members of the Peg Loom weaving group on facebook just asked what people were weaving on their Peg looms, and my response was ‘Mermaids!’- which is a very normal response for me.
In fact, recently, a friend introduced me to her sister’s kids, saying- This is Noreen- she makes mermaids. Indeed I do!
I love to weave mermaids and to carve them in wood.
Here’s a video of a ‘swoop’ (I just made that up as a way of describing a group of mermaids) of new mermaids that I have woven up using a pattern that I designed for my etsy shop.
I love Mermaids, so of course, I had to design a Mermaid for the Teneriffe Lace Weave Along.
There are several ways to make her- you can use either triangles or dewdrop shapes for her fins and you can do the more tightly shaped lower body on the left or the wider body on the right.
If you don’t like the ‘Fairy Hair’ option, you can use the Dewdrop shape for her hair.
Here’s the video showing how to make the Teneriffe Lace Mermaid:
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!
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!
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.
The hair is twisted cord made with a cord twister from Lacis.com.
The metallic threads used in the tapestry are from Kreinik. LINK
This Mermaid has been tapping me on the shoulder for months, asking to be woven, so I made a plan.
I carefully chose my colorways when I was making all the ‘how to’ videos on the hexagon loom, (see previous posts) so that I could use them to build a Mermaid tapestry.
And, here she is: Sophia is her name:
She’s about 44 inches tall.
She includes techniques for weaving tapestry technique, mandala (tapestry woven in the round), Teneriffe and floral motifs on hexagon looms as well as a little help from the Vasilisa and Mollie Whuppie looms.
The glittery narrow band that outlines her body was woven on my little narrow band rigid heddle loom, using Kreinik metallic threads.
This tapestry is a one of a kind piece, and there are no patterns for her.
My friend asked me to please photograph the process of how I was weaving the mermaid tapestry, so I have – although I was well into the project by the time I started the photographing.
Anyhow- here’s a video showing glimpses of the hundreds of hours I put into weaving Sophia, the Mermaid, tapestry:
