Unearthing Old Pin Loom Projects

After falling off of my very lax schedule of posting a couple times a month, I found that I needed some inspiration to get back in the swing of pin loom weaving and writing about it. I ended up going through some very old boxes that had been lost in the basement and found a hanging that I did in about 1980. Sad to say that the mice had found it and made the most of it. But despite some holes and evidence of an ancient mouse nest, I still like this hanging very much. I completed it back when I was falling in love with weaving squares, but struggling to figure out what to do with them. The strips of cloth between the colored squares were sewn from upholstery cloth that I had dyed black.

I also found the original paperwork and one so-so picture of an early weaving project, Victorian House. I am really quite proud of the project except that I look at the construction and wish that I could go back in time and teach myself how to properly join the squares.  It took me another thirty plus years to build a library of good pin loom joins. 

That's it. Two pieces that I feared would never see the light of day again. I will get back to posting on current projects again very soon.  I hope everyone is well and working to be patient in dealing with the many issues (plague, crazy violence, etc.) that we are facing these days.  MS

Felted Pin Loom Purses

I am definitely not the first person to discover that pin loom squares can felt up wonderfully. All you need is yarn that is about 95 to 100% wool and some time on your hands and you can make any number of strong, usable felted bags.* 

The bag examples below are the first two in a series of experimental bags that will hopefully encourage you to try an even better one of your own at home. The smaller felted bag on the left was made from a trove of wool squares that someone gifted to me, probably woven by an elderly relative a long time ago. Unfortunately, perhaps because I had not put in the time to weave them myself, I did not take proper care when I felted them, blithely throwing the bag into the washer and dryer with a load of jeans and towels. The result was that the bag is too tightly felted, overworked to the point that it looks weird and fuzzy. 

* A quick footnote (right here in the middle of the page). As any fiber expert will tell you, the process of "felting" a knitted or woven cloth is actually called "fulling". The true definition of felting is making cloth straight from the fiber without spinning or weaving. However the term felting is more understandable and better known, which is why I am using it here. 

Also, I designed the bag to have big hoop handles, thinking that it would be a fun tribute to the 70's style. The problem is that the hoops don't work well. They are awkward to carry and they don't allow easy access to the purse interior. So here is my updated bag with a long, flexible strap that makes the bag work beautifully!

 

The second bag is quite a bit bigger, the finished size is 12" x 12" x 2". I was much more careful when felting it and am pretty happy with the result. I think that when felting, it is optimal to reduce the 4" square to about 3". That gives a nice, sturdy fabric without becoming overly fuzzy. To make sure that I didn't overdo the felting I decided to felt this bag by hand. Which means that I put the bag in a sink with hot water and a little shampoo and agitated it by hand until the squares had shrunk to about 3" across.  

The other thing that made finishing this bag possible was my increased confidence on the sewing machine after making a whole bunch of masks. I had enough confidence in my sewing ability to stitch four loops to the top of the bag. 

These loops, which are just visible in the photo to the left, allow you to turn any type of belt or strap into purse handles. You can use the belt to make two shorter handles or you can slide it through the loops to make one long shoulder strap. 

The top picture shows the bag using a 38" belt for handles. This bottom picture shows the bag with a 50" pink strap forming two long handles. 

The other challenge in creating this bag relates to the yarn choices. I have managed to accrue an incredible selection of really old yarns and decided that it would be fun to make a bag that featured the oldest of the colors, an Iced Coral Heather from about 1967. 

Not only do I have enough of this yarn color to make everyone in my family some sort of bag for Christmas (note to family- be prepared) I also have equally ancient wool yarns for contrast. So this bag has been woven in Pantone Bizarro colors, which means that it is either terribly dated, perfectly in style...or both. 

Be aware, there are more felted items coming. If there is one problem with felting pin loom squares, it is that it is just as addictive as all the other forms of pin loom weaving.  Happy weaving and stay tuned!

Pin Loom Shark Mittens in Little Looms 2020

Easy Weaving With Little Looms 2020, the principal magazine for small looms, is now available and features FIVE super cool pin loom projects including one that I am really proud of, the Pin Loom Shark Mittens-- because I made them. 

Easy Weaving with Little Looms has been published for several years now. It is interesting to note that the issues have grown, offering more unique patterns for small looms, and that the number of pin loom patterns continues to increase. [Sending a celebratory high five to pin loomers everywhere.]

If you haven't seen the magazine yet, please follow the link above and check it out. In addition to these three items, there is an incredibly cute pin loom raccoon pillow and a charming baby onsie, as well as a whole bunch of extremely cool rigid heddle, inkle, and other small loom projects. 

It was never my plan to identify as "the pin loom person who makes animals" but I am very proud of these mittens because they are warm and comfortable as well as funny and cute. I am also pleased to find that its possible to create a variety of mitten patterns using pin looms. As we are all learning, there are incredible worlds beyond scarves and blankets using these little looms.

Dum-dum, dum-dum, dum-dum, dum dum dum dum dum dum ... [background shark music]  

Be well, happy weaving!

We have to start our holiday projects right now... or maybe last week.

All of my best ideas for the holidays usually arrive about two weeks before Christmas when it is waaaay too late to carry them out. I can only hope that hasn't happened to you.

So this is the year to turn it around.

Here are a few ideas for the holidays.

Pin Loom Advent Bags

I love this idea because almost every time I work on a project, there are always a few squares that don't get used, usually because I've changed my mind about some aspect of the project halfway through. Since there is no way that I am going to throw away a perfect good woven square, I've got one Advent bag halfway made!

The little bag to the right started out as part of another project, it is made with one layer of sparkly silver rik rak and dark blue single ply worsted weight yarn.

Lay two 4" x 4" squares together and single crochet around the edge in a matching or contrasting yarn. Use the same yarn in an eight inch crochet chain to complete a light handle for each little bag. Add the numbers or images in contrasting yarn. String them across a fireplace or wall. The traditional Advent calendar calls for 25 bags numbered one to twenty-five. But you might prefer to weave fewer bags and use some traditional images instead.

Pin Loom Gnomes

Who doesn't need one or a dozen pin loom gnomes at Christmas?  Grab the full instructions with this Gnome Link.

Pin Loom Christmas Trees

Gather up a couple foam cones, your favorite stray bits of yarn and Christmassy pin loom squares to make some fabulous table decorations for the holidays. I would suggest using lots of glue to get the squares in place, then secure with glass headed pins for a festive, ornamental look.

The cones would make a really special decoration if you added pictures of the family for a Family Album Tree.

Teacup Pincushions

They're fun, they're small, they're really cute and they have some utilitarian value to the recipient. What more could you ask?  See the whole post with this Teacup Link.

Pin Loom Scarves

You can never go wrong with a scarf and pin loom weaving can offer an unlimited number of ways to make one.

This is a creation by Laura Waskiewicz Sapko. You can read more about her creation at this Scarf Link.

Or think about Endless Scarves, great for any time of the year. See a bunch of ideas at this Endless Scarf Link. 


Hopefully you are way ahead of me and have been working on pin loom items for the holidays for weeks now. But if not, here is a place to start.  Happy Weaving!

Loom Blooms for Everybody!

Loom Blooms are one of the many delightful things that you can do with pin loom squares. They are one of my favorite pin loom hacks to quickly make a small gift for a friend. This particular loom bloom variation came about because I was rooting through my stash of already made squares, looking for a few that would work to make a quick loom bloom “thank you” gift. The one I wanted to use had some cut threads on one corner so I decided to take advantage of it and turn it into a casual frayed flower.

This bloom was made with three 4”x4” squares, two in the flower, and one green square folded to make the leaves underneath. A loom bloom is made by pulling on the middle horizontal and vertical thread to gather the square into four petals. Once you have pulled on the two threads and made the square pucker up, tie the two loops together to keep it in that shape. Stack the layers together and stitch them in place with threads to represent the stamen.

In this case, after I had the flower stitched together, I cut around the corners of each petal to make the petal more rounded and to let the fabric fray.  Just for the sake of comparison, see my pin loom tea cozy below, covered with a bunch of single square 4" and 3" loom blooms. You can access the whole tea cozy pattern HERE.

This experiment shows just how many variations you could do with the Loom Bloom pattern. Imagine felting the squares first, or making a bigger stack, or making a pile of 2”x 2”, 4”x 4” and 6”x 6” squares. I think I am going to go back to my stash of squares and do some experimental felting and flower making. I hope that if you decide to do the same you will consider sharing some images. Just send me a note, my email is located at the bottom of the right column.  I would love to add them to this post.  Happy weaving!  MS

A new book - Pin Loom Weaving To Go

So here it is, coming out this month, a new book of pin loom projects and techniques. I am extremely excited (and a little scared) to see it go out. Its like sending your youngest child off to school.

My original idea for this book was that pin looms can offer a fun, first step into fiber arts. So I included a number of beginner-type projects that would work for younger weavers or groups of kids or adults who are just beginning to weave. I included a simple to make 2" loom pattern so that kids could learn to both make and weave on a loom.


But then I started thinking about how so many of us had our first weaving experience on a potholder loom and how cool it would be if we could turn all the potholder looms into pin looms. So I wrote a section on weaving in the pin loom fashion on a potholder loom. You use a potholder loom and a hook, I suggest using an afghan hook, and the directions teach how to weave a big square with finished edges so there is no need to finish with a crocheted edge when you pull it off the loom. There are also a number of projects, including scarves and shawls, to make on a potholder loom.

But then I started thinking that if you could pin loom weave on a potholder loom, maybe you could pin loom weave on other available looms. After some experimentation I found that the 7" fine gauge adjustable knitting loom could be used as a pin loom to make an incredible variety of pin loomed fabrics. Techniques and projects for weaving on the knitting loom are also included in the book.

These log cabin style pieces were woven on the knitting loom, the 2" pieces in the middle were woven on a 2" pin loom.


And then I remembered a pin loom friend, Marilyn Wing, who has been pin loom weaving since 1936 and long ago perfected a continuous warp, bias weave on the pin loom. She was kind enough to permit me to share her directions for weaving on the bias on a zoom loom/pin loom as well as allowing us to all share in her wonderful quilted look bag pattern.

By that time I had thought up a bunch of cool patterns for the 4" pin loom/Zoom Loom that I just couldn't leave out of the book. One of my favorites is the "Blooming Backpack" that appears on the cover. Another favorite is the Zoom Loom Blue Shawl shown below.

This is just a few of the 30 or so projects. It is my hope that people, including kids and fiber groups, will find at least some of the items in the book to be helpful and fun for them. Margaret (Meg) Stump

Weave a Sheep Pin

Looking for a simple woven gift or badge? This is a great little sheep pin that is made using two 2" x 2" squares sewn together with a little batting and a pin back.  I can't wait to make a bunch of them!

If I need a small gift its going to be perfect. If I have a big gift to decorate, this little pin will make a great embellishment. And if I need a pin loom related item for multiple goody bags, this little Lamb Pin hits all the marks.

Choose your favorite fleecy looking yarn, add head and feet in satin stitch.

What better way to introduce pin loom weaving--it's ease, it's usefulness, than by sharing an easy to make and unique gift.

This is a simple 2" pin for scarf or embellishment. Its made with two  2" x 2" squares, a couple of very small squares (about 1 1/2" x 1 1/2") of quilt batting or other soft cloth like fleece to add some body, plus a pin back.

The sample shown here uses a 1 1/2" pin back. The body of the pin back is buried between the two layers and sewn to the back layer. All that shows is the pin and clasp.

Minnesota Pin Loom Workshop

This is a quick shout out to weavers in the Minnesota area. I am going to be doing a day long workshop in Mankato, MN (my home town) moving through the whole pin loom process, from beginning pin loom weaving through making a woven, stuffed dog and weaving and joining a 4"x 4" Pooch Pouch.

I have several people signed up who are already experienced pin loom weavers. If you have some experience that will give you more time to experiment and complete projects. There is already a request in for making both dogs and cats, which we can do. This would be a great opportunity to share your pin loom passion with a friend or family member.

For more information about this workshop, see the Pooch and Pouch information at Mary Lou's Yarn and Ewe website.    If you have any questions, feel free to contact me at pinloomweaving at gmail.com.

There will be more news coming soon on regional workshops for pin loom weaving as well as information on workshops now scheduled at Convergence, Milwaukee, July 31 through August 6. 

Tea Cup Pincushions

We're now deep into gift giving season and I am faced with a frustrating situation. I am surrounded by loving family who don't really need anything new for Christmas. They are all independent enough and old enough to go out and get whatever it is they need or want.

Since I can't go out and buy them fabulously extravagant gifts, (I mean, its not like they would turn down a trip around the Mediterranean) I am hoping to send my best greetings of the season with something handmade and heartfelt and pretty.

This gift started with a tea cup and saucer that likely began life as part of a lovely set of china and ended with my discovery at a local thrift shop.  I found four cups and saucers and took them home in much the same spirit as a friend of mine adopts kittens. Its not that she needs more kittens, she just can't bear to leave them behind. I couldn't stand to leave the tea cups and saucers even though I had no idea what to do with them.

I did a search on uses for tea cups. Number one idea was candles, number two was pincushions. I went for the one that I could weave. After further research I found that the best stuffing for pincushions is ground walnut shells and that the easiest place to find ground walnut shells is at the pet store. They use it as bedding for reptiles.

Now all I needed was the pincushion cover.

I wanted a festive looking yarn that would match the tea cups. Since each cup has a gold handle and edging, this craft yarn by Isaac Mizrahi seemed like a good match. This is a wool/acrylic worsted weight yarn with gold accent.

I wove two 4" x 4" pin loom squares on the Zoom Loom and used a single crochet edge with slip stitch at corners to join the two layers. You could also choose to join the squares using a back stitch.



When you join them, leave an opening on one side. Turn the squares inside out. Use a piece of t-shirt to line the inside if you are going to use ground walnut shells for the pincushion. You don't have to stitch the lining, just overlap the sides and the ground walnut shells will keep the lining in place. Fill with ground walnut shells. Instead of the ground shells, you can use your choice of polyester or wool stuffing. No lining is needed with regular stuffing.

Attach the pincushion to the bottom of the teacup with adhesive. I used E6000 because it works with glass or china.

I could have stopped there, but, as an old friend used to say, "Anything worth doing is worth doing to excess." I was no longer interested in simply making a pincushion. Now I wanted to create a total teacup-sized sewing package.

Obviously a pincushion needs pins. In addition I added a selection of small spools of thread, a needle threader, a package of needles enclosed within a 2" x 2" square and either scissors or a thread cutter attached to the cup with about 18" of single chain crochet. I like the idea of a sewing set with everything you need in one place. I put the scissors on a chain because if it were me, I would totally lose the scissors the first time I used them. I'm hoping that this will bring new life to these teacups for a number of years, sitting someplace handy, not taking up too much space, ready to assist with snags and loose buttons.

Is this the best possible use for abandoned teacups? Perhaps it is, or perhaps my relatives will be getting candles next year.

Of course teacups are not the only vehicle for pincushions. There are a lot of other thrift store finds that will work as well.

My plans for these vehicles are just getting under way. I still have to figure out the best approach for including the rest of the sewing items. I will update this post with more pincushion pictures when these project are complete.

Pin Loom Hooded Scarf

This idea came about because I had some interesting yarn sent to me from an ancient stash. The hooded scarf was woven on a 6" x 6" pin loom and a 4" x 6" pin loom. It could as easily be woven on a 4" x 4" pin loom, like the Zoom Loom. There are diagrams for both patterns below.

This hooded scarf was woven from Unger Driftwood-- a two-ply yarn; one thick ply and one very thin ply that seemed to be there only to give the yarn some texture. The yarn is a medium gray with bits of color spun in at random intervals.

Please note, this pattern shows one-half of the hooded scarf. You will need to weave this pattern two times, in other words, 4) 4" x 6" rectangles and 12) 6" x 6" squares for the complete scarf.  If you are weaving with a 4" pin loom you will need to weave 42) 4" x 4" squares.

I wanted this to be a simple pattern that could be whipped up over a weekend. In order that it could be woven and assembled quickly--

• the weaving is done with the Triple Rib Pattern (see below), which reduces the actual weaving by about 30% and
• the scarf is joined using a mattress stitch, which you will find directions for on the Pin Loom Essentials page.

Weave the squares with a Triple Rib Pattern

The ribs are formed when you slide the needle through the warp without weaving. This produces a lump of three weft threads clustered together. This pattern can shorten up the cloth a little but it makes a nice texture, particularly for an item where you want to have some weight of cloth to keep out the cold and damp.


 

 

Triple Rib Pattern for 4" and 6" pin loom.

 1. Weave Plain
 2. Weave Plain
 3. Slide needle through threads without weaving.
 4. Weave Plain
 5. Slide needle through threads without weaving.
 6. Weave Plain
 7. Slide needle through threads without weaving.
 8. Weave Plain
 9. Weave Plain
10. Slide needle through threads without weaving.
11. Weave Plain
12. Slide needle through threads without weaving.
13. Weave Plain
14. Slide needle through threads without weaving.
15. Weave Plain
16. Weave Plain - THIS IS THE END OF THE 4" LOOM,

CONTINUE FOR 6" LENGTH LOOM.

17. Slide needle through threads without weaving.
18. Weave Plain
19. Slide needle through threads without weaving.
20. Weave Plain
21. Slide needle through threads without weaving.
22. Weave Plain
23. Weave Plain
24. Weave Plain

Join the squares using a mattress stitch. 

If you have already checked on this joining approach, you know that this stitch allows you to very quickly join two squares. Because this is a relatively small, lightweight item, the mattress stitch, which is a lightweight stitch, seems to work very well.

Full the cloth by hand washing with a wool fiber approved product or shampoo.

I keep of bottle of sensitive style shampoo around just so that I can easily finish my pin loom items. Washing the scarf will bring about some shrinkage and will let the fibers bind together more securely. I wanted a hooded scarf that would stand up to sleet and snow and cold, wet weather and this one works beautifully.

I have come to see that the style is as old as time, people were probably wearing something a lot like this since the beginning of weaving. I am also a bit surprised that the woven squares don't particularly stand out. I realize that all of us who weave regularly on pin looms could easily pick out the joins and would know that this hooded scarf was woven on a pin loom, but I think that most people would not realize that it was pieced together. And most important to me was that it wove up very quickly, had a lovely texture that matched the yarn and was sewn up just as quick. I have now made a couple of these hooded scarves and have found them to make a usable, reasonable gift.  So as we enter the season of gift frenzy, if you are looking for a handmade gift with a twist-- not exactly a hat but more than a scarf-- perhaps this will be just perfect.

Pin loom sheep carousel

Hello everybody! I hope you had a great summer!  I have not posted anything for months due to getting caught up in the process of designing new patterns and writing about them for a second book on pin loom weaving. The book should be out in another nine months or so. Yes, it takes longer to make a book than to make a baby and sometimes it feels like its a lot more trouble. After weaving and writing for months, I feel as though I just landed from a very long trip, a little dizzy and very happy to be back.

So, here is an idea that came out of the fact that thrift stores often have an enormous selection of embroidery hoops. It just seems like there should be a lot of ways to use all those cast off embroidery hoops.  This is one way, a pin loom carousel. Its intended as a mobile for a baby with the soft animals tied on with ribbon. The hoop was painted a light sky blue. It would look lovely with clouds painted on it or script written around it.

It would be possible to get much fancier with your design by getting a used baby's mobile that has a turner and music built in. Just hang the hoop on that mechanism and it will parade in a circle.

My choice was to use sheep, lambs and one dog. The sheep and dog are patterns that come from the Pin Loom Weaving book. But it would look great with any of the pin loom animals. Plus, when baby gets older, the toys can come down to be played with.* This could make a fun and thoughtful baby gift or, if you have less time, perhaps just one sheep as part of a gift decoration. 

*Keep in mind that there are chenille sticks in the design of each of these animals, so baby will need to be quite a bit older or the chenille sticks will need to be removed.  Here is a way to remove danger for a baby.

• With the dog, just leave the chenille sticks out of the legs. 
• With the sheep and lambs, you will need to crochet replacement legs. I would suggest making a chain in the length and color to match the original leg, then half-double crochet back up the length. Attach to the body. You will have made a floppy but workable leg.

Weaving with weird stuff

I love the idea that almost anything is weavable on a pin loom. Here are two of my most recent experiments.

We're coming up on the holidays and I have been looking at the multitude of spun and woven fibers intended for scarves with the intention of making some pretty little bags for the holidays. I think they would be great as part of a gift or as the basis for a holiday purse.

I found this particular fiber in a "Please get this out of our store" bin. It is flat and ribbon-like with a generous amount of gold colored fiber woven through.

Here are the specifics:
Red Heart Boutique Sashay Metallic
Fiber Content:     66% Acrylic, 23% Polyester, 11% Metallic
Skein Weight:     3.5 oz (100 g)
Yardage:     30 yd (27 m)

So the question becomes, can you weave with it on a pin loom?  The sample you see to the left was woven with two layers of the gold fiber and two layers of a wool sock weight yarn. I found that it was best to roll the fiber against my leg just before laying each 4" piece between the pins in order to turn it into a rounder package. I don't think it makes any difference to the outcome, but that made it easier to wind on.

I always wind on the difficult fiber first and weave through with something easy to handle.  As you can see this produces a wider shiny stripe of gold and with a smaller stripe of white. I think that it would be possible, but not easy, to wind on three layers of gold and then just weave through with the lighter wool yarn.  I think it would be possible to wind and weave all four layers in the gold fiber but the effort, for me, would not be worth the tremendous amount of difficulty.

Second strange fiber-

As I may previously mentioned, I am fond of shopping at thrift shops because the items are so interesting.  They represent a cross section of American passions over the past thirty or forty years.

I don't know that I can call this particular item a passion, perhaps more an infatuation, a reflection of an earlier age that introduced the slogan "Better Living Through Chemistry". 

From that earlier time I found one skein of a very weird yarn.


This is Phentex, a knitting yarn made of 100% polypropylene. It is reported to be:
stain resistant
machine washable and dryable
will not stretch or shrink
keeps the shape you knit in
non-fading fast colors
long wearing and
non-allergenic

It looks as though it is made from exactly the same stuff as pantyhose. I did a search online and found another person who had discovered a skein of this stuff, but it was white rather than brown. A newer version of this yarn is listed as "slipper and craft yarn" which makes sense because it is very hard to the touch and might work well for knitted slipper soles.

Comments in Ravelry notes the hard, scratchy feel of anything that is made out of this yarn, noting that it is extreeeemly durable, seemingly impervious to wear. There are 40 year old slippers still out there that were made from it. Of course, that may have as much to do with the fact that the slippers were so uncomfortable that they never had a chance to wear out.

There is no twist to it, so it splits very easily-- not quite such a problem for me as for a knitter, but still difficult to work with. The greater difficulty for me was that the yarn was a little too thick to comfortable weave on my 4" pin loom. I finally wove two squares on a Weave-it 5" rug loom which I crocheted together to make what appears to be an impermeable pot scrubber-- which is shown above.

Have you run into some strange fiber that has offered an unexpected gift? What unknown or underestimated fiber is out there, just waiting to share its gifts?  Please share your experience. 

My intention, metaphorically, is to spin flax into gold, to show each fiber in its best light.

New videos on joining squares.

There are now four new videos on the Video page covering some of the commonly used joining methods. I hope you'll check them out.  MS