Windowpane lace cell phone holder plus scarves for Spring

I was originally going to call this post, "Things to weave while hanging out at home" but realized that covers everything I have ever posted. If there was ever a perfect craft for something to do while hanging out and watching TV, I think that pin loom weaving is it. So this is one more-- actually, several more ideas of fun, easy things to do that are going to turn out really nice and be fun to have as Spring emerges.

The pin loom windowpane lace pattern is a favorite of mine because of its extraordinary simplicity and speed of weaving. I used a 100" cotton fingering yarn below in order to highlight the light, airy fabric for Spring.

The first step is weaving the squares. You will need four squares in Windowpane lace pattern for the cell phone holder.

WINDOWPANE LACE
Row 1: weave plain
Row 2: (U3, O1); repeat across the row, U3.
Alternate Rows 1 and 2, through Row 14.
Row 15: weave plain
Row 16: weave plain

The lovely thing about this pattern is that for the odd rows, you just weave plain. For the even rows, you just have to weave "under three, over one" all the way across the row, ending with "under three. The last row, Row 16, is woven plain as well. This is a pattern that I can handle while I watch TV- there is no counting, there are no complex changes from row to row. Its like the simplest pattern of all time and yet it turns into this lovely, lacy cloth. 

Next step, join the four squares to make a strip of fabric. I used the double overcast stitch to join the squares because I wanted to be able to carry my cell phone in the bag I'm making, so I did not want the fabric to give way. Here is the link for instructions for the double overcast stitch located on the Pin Loom Essentials page. 

Fold the fabric over to make a bag. My cell phone is short enough that I decided to make the bag with a flap over the top. When I am actually using the bag for my cell phone I may tuck that flap inside the bag.  You may prefer to fold the fabric in two and make a slightly longer bag.

Starting at the bottom of the bag, join the two sides using a single crochet stitch. When you reach the top of the bag, continue with a crochet chain for 36 to 44", depending upon your preferred length for the strap.

Then continue with a single crochet stitch from the top to the bottom on the second side of the bag and knot it at the bottom.

That's it!  I thought about turning the bag inside out but found that my phone is chunky enough that it works better with the crochet on the outside, you may choose to do it differently.

You will notice that I mentioned scarves earlier. I do not have any scarves made yet but I do have a bunch of really nice windowpane lace squares that will shortly go into a scarf. I'm thinking that once you discover how fun it is to make this fingering weight squares, you will soon have enough for your cell phone holder plus a scarf.

When you are ready to make your scarf, check out the different joining techniques shown on the pin loom essentials page and check out this crochet joining technique used in John Mullarkey's shawl for a variety of joining ideas/techniques for your Spring Scarf.  Now, go have fun and make something glorious!

Dr. Who Pin Loom Scarf

I don’t know how much overlap there is between pin loom weavers and Dr. Who fans, but I am a major weaver/Dr. Who overlapper.

When I stumbled across the website, Dr. Who Scarf, I knew that I wanted to weave my very own homage' to the original, knitted, Dr. Who Scarf. I wanted it to be as close to the original colors and design as I could get— without having to do any knitting.

For those who might not remember (or not have been born at that time) Tom Baker portrayed the Fourth Doctor Who from June, 1974 until March, 1981, which was the longest appearance of any one actor in the role of Dr. Who.

One of his most recognizable features was a very, very long scarf.

The Dr. Who Scarf website was extremely helpful by giving specific colors needed as well as a layout for the design. The original scarf was 10” by 13 foot with fringe -- which stretched to about 17 foot over the years. My recreation turned out to be 11 foot, 6 inches without fringe. I’m pretty short and decided that fringed scarf ends would end up acting too much like a dust mop.

To create the color blocks, I used 4x4” and 4x6” pin looms to make blocks 10” across. There are several sections that measure 8” x 10”, where I used multiple blocks of the same color. For thinner color blocks, I used 2x4” and 2x6” looms. For even thinner sections, I single crocheted 3 rows back and forth for an approximate 1” x 10” section.

I joined the blocks and all the color sections using a double overcast stitch. You can find information on this stitch on the Pin Loom Essentials page as well as a demonstration of using the double overcast stitch on the Pin Loom Video page.

I decided to limit my yarn choice for the project to what I had available in the house (which is not a ridiculous limit since I’ve got about two rooms full of yarn-much of which has come to me second-hand through various thrift stores). I found a very close match to all but one color in worsted weight wool. I had to use an acrylic yarn for the chestnut color.

This is the scarf laid out flat on the ground
pictured in sections.

When I started weaving and putting the stripes together I was blown away by how the color palette reeked of the 70’s. It dawned on me that my color choices may have been helped by the fact that some of the yarn I was using could have been spun in the 70’s. I may have been using the original colors!

This scarf project turned out to be the perfect choice for several weeks of travel. Since I had a clear diagram, with my modifications, from the irreplaceable Dr. Who Scarf website, I could pick up and do a few squares whenever I needed something to do with my hands. Because I was weaving in different sizes and colors, it was never boring and the project took shape surprisingly swiftly.

It was only after I finished the scarf that I did some further investigation and found that there are a number of people actively knitting, and selling, Dr. Who scarves. However, none of them are woven on pin looms, which I still consider the absolute best, and most fun, fiber technique.