Soft Boxes - An assembly for 4" pin looms

IN THE JUNGLE SOFT BOX

Soft boxes combine the fun and creativity of pin loom weaving  in a medium size project. A lovely little 3-D box that comes with a canvas on each side.  These boxes were made as gifts. The attached jungle animals and cats are buttons that are usually available at fabric stores.

Each soft box is constructed from twelve 4"x4" squares. The squares were woven on a pin loom, then a single crochet edge was added. The exterior squares were finished with free stitching, buttons and yarn pulled through using a crochet hook to create loops.

FOUR SEASONS SOFT BOX

After completing the embellishment, an exterior weavie is sandwiched with another weavie for the lining (I usually weave a lighter matching color for the interior) with several layers of quilt batting in the middle.

The two woven layers with batting are whip-stitched together. The sides and bottom are whip-stitched to create a box. The top edge of the box is finished with a single crochet row to give it extra structure and to carry the color that was used for joining around the top.

The soft boxes were made primarily with medium weight worsted wool.
You may notice that the background of the "Winter" side of the Four Seasons box is woven with stripes of white and a cream color. This is accomplished by winding one color on the pin loom for the first two layers, then knotting on the second color to use for the third layer of winding and to weave through.

The top of the soft box was made by the same process as the sides with the addition of an extra row of single crochet, chain 2 at each corner, then two rows of half-double crochet with no  added chain stitches to create a box lid. 

ADOBE HOUSE SOFT BOX

The boxes have proved to be very lasting and reasonably useful. Most end up being used primarily as ornaments and holders for jewelry or other personal items. I use one when I travel to protect a glass cologne bottle. They are soft and crushable and easily straightened out at the end of the trip.

One thing that surprises me when making a soft box is just how much weaving and work goes into it. That may sound like an unfortunate admission but what you get out of the work is a small but treasured prize. 

Rosebud - pattern for a pin loom blanket

This is a blanket made using 2" x 2", 4" x 4", 2" x 4" and 4" x 6" pin looms. It measures 50" x 60" (126 cm x 152 cm). My intention was to capture the flavor of an Amish quilt, with the joins between the individual weavies substituting for the quilting. It is called "Rosebud" because that was the idea for the stylized flower in the corner of each piece.

As with any quilt pattern, the variety of pieces in each block opens the possibility of tremendous variability in the final design. Personally, I like the simplicity of using a dominant color for most of the weavies, letting the bit of color in one corner stand out.

My concern in using one dominant color for the blanket was that it would feel flat, that it wouldn't have enough texture. I decided to add texture by deliberately buying a few skeins of navy yarn at a time, ensuring that the colors of the blocks would vary and that I could afford to buy the yarn.

The blocks were primarily made separately. I would weave enough weavies for one or two blocks, then join them and add a crocheted edging to each. That way I could put them away until I had the 30 needed for the blanket.



One feature that I consider an advantage to using pin looms is that it is not as important to match colors in an exquisite manner. Many people have had the experience of finding that the yarn they want to use comes from two dye lots, almost but not quite a match. With pin looms it is possible to separate those different dye lots in a pattern so that the difference is indiscernible. Or you can feature the differences.


The Rosebud blanket was assembled by using a single crochet edge on each weavie, then whipstitching the weavies together. That has been one of my favorite approaches to joining items because I feel that the edging matches the weight of the pin loom fabric. But as you can see with Rick Fahrenbruch's work, there is no need to edge the individual pieces in order to get a finished look. I am going to write at least one article on various approaches to joining weavies together for this blog, as well as have a bunch of information on approaches to joining in Pin Loom Weaving.

Pin Loom Advent Calendar, part I

I didn't fill in all the numbers
but you get the idea.

Christmas brings forth my best intentions and designs, such as plans for a Pin Loom Advent Calendar that has been in the works for a number of years. I am getting closer. The green 4" x 4"squares for the banner and the 2" x 2" multicolored squares for little pockets for treats are all woven and waiting to be assembled. My original plan called for a simple grid, which is a perfectly acceptable way to put together the calendar, but seemed boooring.

Here is the newer plan, still in the formative stage. Proof that I'm basically a "nothing succeeds like excess" kind of gal.

This Advent Calendar calls for 25 green squares as well as 24 background squares in a variety of neutral colors. It measures approximately 20" wide by 30" high. In the real hanging the green squares will be a little more random. My plan for the numbers is to use short lengths of brightly colored nylon cord, attaching them with hot glue and then binding them in place with micro-filament thread.  The skinny yellow stars will be yarn embellishments. I am not sure how I am going to make the top star on the tree, I might change it out for a pin loom angel. 

Although it will be too late to use the Advent Calendar this year, I will continue to work on it. I hope to share pics of the actual weaving in  Pin Loom Advent Calendar, Part II.

From the little bit of experimenting that I have done so far on the real squares, it looks like I will need to make a number of changes to this plan including adding more ornaments to the tree and throughout the hanging. One idea that I hope to initiate with this project is making small ornaments out of felted weavies. After all, what better medium for felting than small woven squares? 

Wish me luck. Meg