


Thumbelina Loom happiness
Thumbelina Loom happiness
I made a video that shows how to weave square, triangle and diagonal motifs on the Thumbelina, Mollie Whuppie and Vasilisa looms.
But… it was 2 hours long! Whoa! That’s just too long.
So, I thought: I wonder if I can figure out how to ‘fast forward’ it?
And, I did!
But, I think that I got a little enthusiastic with the fast forward function- LOL!
I turned a 2 hour video into a 2 MINUTE video!
Prepare for take off… buckle your seat belt…. here we go!
Um…. next time, I might not speed things up ~quite~ so much!
Happy weaving!
Octopi are amazingly clever and rather charming creatures.
I’ve had so much fun designing a woven Octopus family to weave on the Three Sisters Looms that I designed and Gary and Donna McFarland of Dewberry Ridge looms is building and selling LINK.
The largest Octopus was woven on the Vasilisa loom: LINK
It’s about 13 1/2 inches tall.
The medium size Octopus was woven on the Mollie Whuppie Loom: LINK
And, the littlest Octopus was woven on the Thumbelina loom: LINK
All three are great for babies- as long as you don’t use beads or buttons, but embroider the eyes instead.
I just read a report that babies love holding onto the tentacles of toy cephalopods, because they find it comforting. Apparently, the tentacles feel like the umbilical cord, and most babies play with the umbilicus before they are born.
Fascinating!
The smallest octopus lives quite happily on a lapel or collar or pinned to a hat, scarf or bag when you stitch a pin to it’s back.
The loop on top of their heads is great for hanging them up on push pins or curtain rods for room decor.
The loop also is perfect to hang the octopus from the baby’s crib, cot or stroller.
The pattern, with step by step instructions is available in my etsy shop: LINK
Happy Octopus weaving! Enjoy those cephalopods!
The enchanting little Thumbelina loom now has 2 big sisters!
I have designed 2 gorgeous new little looms and Dewberry Ridge looms are building and selling them.
I am just thrilled with them!
The Three Sisters are: LINK
Tiny Thumbelina: LINK
And her sister: Mollie Whuppie: LINK
And, the biggest sister: Vasilisa: LINK
What can you weave on Mollie Whuppie and Vasilisa?
Well, everything that you can weave on Thumbelina, but on a larger scale.
I’ve written an instruction booklet that shows how to weave techinques so you can weave:
Tapestry pouches:
Tapestry dolls:
Freeform tapestry ‘Weavies’:
Baskets:
Statement necklaces:
Prayer Flags:
Banners and bunting:
And, the Mollie Whuppie loom has a secret power!
She can mend socks!
You can’t make socks on the Mollie Whuppie loom, but the patches that you weave are totally perfect for fixing the worn out heels of precious hand knit socks.
Here’s a little video that explains the origins of Mollie Whuppie and Vasilisa’s names and shows the projects:
I love Mollie Whuppie and Vasilisa, and hope that you will, too!
I’ll be showing you more with them, in upcoming posts.
Happy Weaving!
A wreath is a cheerful and welcoming thing.
Here’s one that I have designed to be made with flowers woven on the Thumbelina loom.
I used autumn colors, but you can make it with colors that match any season.
Feel free to use as many flowers and leaves as you would like.
I made the wreath by tying the vines shed by a weeping birch tree. I gathered them up, and shaped them into a circle, then wrapped the circle with thread to hold it together. I added a twisted wire hanger at the top.
And, here’s how to make it:
Happy Weaving! Enjoy making wreaths 🙂
Yesterday, I showed a sketch of a tiny toy bunny rabbit that I designed.
Here are a couple of them:
I have just uploaded the video for how to weave the toy bunny on the Dewberry Ridge Thumbelina Loom:
The bunnies are about 2 1/2 inches long and about 1 1/2 inches tall.
They are quick and easy to make and fit in a pocket or would make a great stocking stuffer.
Happy Weaving!
Just over a week ago, my lovely husband and I went to a gorgeous symphony concert at Convocation Hall at the University in Edmonton AB.
When I got home, I thought… hmmm…. I have friends who take their little carved wooden dolls on outings with them- and I haven’t been remembering to do that….. (I carve little wooden dolls that I call my ‘Story Door Dolls’- they are inspired by Hitty Dolls.)
And, I also thought…. I am working on a bunch of new ideas for my Thumbelina loom, as well as doing the Inktober challenge (hopefully arriving at drawings that will work for tiny tapestries to be woven on Thumbelina)
So, it made sense to me to find a very small tin or box that my Thumbelina, some yarn, a little yarn snipper and a wooden doll would fit in so they could travel about with me.
The winner of the ‘Who gets to go with me on this weekend’s fun events’ was Siobhan, the tiny mermaid:
I carved her last year, and she does love a good adventure, but hasn’t gotten out much lately, so she’s pleased.
Here’s Siobhan and Thumbelina in their little traveling tin.
(I would love to have a tiny suitcase that they could travel in!)
We were at the Edmonton Symphony orchestra Mozart concert this past weekend, and during a pre-concert lecture, I sneaked Thumbelina and Siobhan out, and did a little bit of weaving.
Siobhan wanted to take a peek at the orchestra when they started to file in and sit down:
But she was quite alarmed by the noise of all the instruments tuning up, so she opted to dive back into the tin and listen to the concert (it was divine!) from the safety and comfort of her wooly little nest with her friend, Thumbelina.
Besides, it was time to turn my phone off, and bask in the glory of Mozart!
The next day, Siobhan was delighted that she and Thumbelina got to go out to lunch…
She thought that that was just delightful!
But, now the other wooden dolls are feeling rather jealous that Siobhan had all the fun while they stayed home…
oh dear…. I guess I will have to remember to take them on adventures, too.
For a couple of months now, I have been working on a large project…
I wove a shawl on my 7 foot Triangle loom from Dewberry Ridge looms:
And have been designing and weaving all manner of motifs on the Thumbelina, heart, dragonfly and 2 inch Wiz looms, to stitch to it:
I really don’t like gardening anymore, and would much rather be weaving…
So, I have created a garden on a shawl…
To wrap myself in Garden pleasures all year round.
That’s a dragonfly shawl pin that I made.
All the links to the videos to weave all the motifs are here on my blog and on my youtube channel,
so if you would like to weave yourself a fantasy garden, too, you can!
Just click on the Thumbelina category and follow those, or simply click on the back arrow, and you can scroll backwards to find all the tutorials.
Here’s a video slide show of the shawl:
The looms are all built by Dewberry Ridge Looms LINK
I am now moving deeply into a commissioned tapestry, so I won’t be here quite as often as I have been in the last few weeks, but I will be back!
Blessings until then!
Happy Weaving!
The Hedgehog
is the last in the series of fanciful beings that I designed to be woven on the Thumbelina loom and appliqued to my Garden Shawl.
Our little dogs are always ‘commenting’ on life in almost every video tutorial that I make,
so it makes sense to weave a little puppy dog….