Thursday, February 20, 2020

Pin Loom Patches save the day


I think its safe to say that we live in a post-patching, post-darning world. There seems to be little point in conserving clothing when it is so easy to end up with way too many outfits.

My red knit mittens are an exception to that rule. I live a cold country and good mittens are important to have and hard to find. Pin loom patches have made it possible for me to wear these perfect and almost irreplaceable mittens for several years longer than expected.

I am now rockin' three patches on the right mitten and two on the left, secure in the knowledge that I can continue to weave as many patches as needed to keep my hands toasty. 

I have been thinking about starting to add 4 x4" pin loom woven patches to a few sweaters, just for fun, but haven't had the time to work on pin loom squares for embellishment.

If you have added patches to anything- out of need or for adornment, send me a picture to add to this post. My email is at the bottom of the right hand column. 


Monday, February 10, 2020

A Pin Loom Valentine UFO


There are a bunch of ways to turn pin loom squares into hearts, this is one simple way.  Take three squares and join them, turn down the four top corners to make a more heart-like shape and outline the shape with a line of single crochet in a coordinated color.

I had an idea about making a blanket of hearts, joined with a neutral square at the top of each heart. My plan was to connect them in the neutral color and leave the holes open so that the hearts would sort of float in the blanket.

Here is my problem, I went too far. I found too many different colors, made it too random and then one day when I laid it out, I realized that I didn't like it. And now I'm stuck and don't know how to get unstuck. I like them too much to throw them away but not enough to finish the project.

This heart blanket was an idea that I was going to include in my first book, Pin Loom Weaving. But I lost heart and stuffed them away in a bag until now... and find myself just as stuck as I was when I squirreled them away.


Take three squares and join them, turn down the four top corners to make a more heart-like shape and smooth and outline the shape with a line of single crochet in a coordinated color. 


This is the corner that comes closest to the finished idea. My plan was to connect them in the same taupe/gold color and leave the holes open so that the hearts would sort of float in the blanket.


So this is where I am. With a pile of hearts and a project two-thirds done but no heart to continue. I would love to be able to figure out something else to do with the squares, that would be a great way to reconcile the work I've already done.

Considering that we are coming up quickly to Valentine's Day I am very open to any suggestions that people might have about how to get unstuck or what to do with all these fricking squares.

This is not my only UFO ever, but it is really bugging me because the project is exactly balanced between "interesting" and "meh".

If you've ever struggled with this or if you have any thoughts about what I should do, please leave a comment. 



I may be reworking them into a cat bed. 

Saturday, February 1, 2020

A Dragon Blanket is evidence that you can weave most anything with pin looms


I've been doing some cleaning up on my hard drive and came across pictures from my Dragon Blanket project, also mentioned in a 2013 post on blankets and afghans. This was a gift to a young couple for their new baby. Since the couple was deeply into the Renaissance Festival, I wanted to make something that would be specific to them and their child. I went for a larger  blanket, this one measures about 38" x 46" so that it would be usable for longer time.

This project turned out to be a lot more challenging than I expected. I knew that I wanted to make a relatively friendly looking dragon. After making a few sketches, the only way that I could figure out how to create the blanket was by making a life sized pattern for it. That way I could break down the different colors and parts and just weave each part separately.


The large grid of squares is what I used to re-scale my plan from a smaller sketch. The pictures show different stages of dragon building. I used 4"x 6" and 6"x 6" squares for the background in order to give it a contrasting texture from the smaller squares that make up the dragon body. As with a number of projects that I've woven/constructed over the years, there were a number of times when I decided that I had made a terrible mistake and that this project was definitely not going to work out. That's usually a good time for me to take a break.

But it finally did work out and it was a lot of fun to do-- though challenging enough I have felt absolutely no need to try to do it again. My only regret is that I did not manage to get a better, less fuzzy picture of the completed blanket and I didn't get a picture of blanket with baby.


I need to remember that for next time.  MS