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

Pin looms love Crispina Ffrench blankets

I am posting these images primarily as a feast for the eyes. These are all Crispina Ffrench designed blankets, made from upcycled, felted wool sweaters. Don't forget to visit her website at crispina.com. 

Considering that most of the people who look at this blog have lovely little looms, capable of producing perfect 4" or 2" squares of cloth, an alternate method of celebrating these lovely patterns comes to mind.  It looks likes Ms. Ffrench has used 3" squares of felted cloth... which might work perfectly if one were to weave in wool and then felt the 4" squares. Beautiful.

Classes at Convergence

This is the year of Convergence, happening this summer from July 30 to August 6, 2016, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. I am going to be teaching three courses on pin loom weaving! Yes, I am very excited.

I am doing an introductory course for people who have not woven on pin looms at all. I am doing two courses for pin loom fans that will be all about weaving and constructing objects that can be completed during the class: sheep, owls, and cats.  Check out all the details on the Pin Loom Classes page. 

Click this link for the main Convergence page to go to the official website for registration. Because Convergence only happens every two years, class openings can go fast, so check it out. 

We will be weaving an Owl and Pussycat with plans for a Pea-Green Boat.

You can weave a pasture full of sheep. You can weave a sample sheep for each sample fleece!

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.

Endless scarves

Scarves are everywhere and pin loom infinity scarves can serve as an endless source of gifts and accessories. Plus, infinity scarves provide a great vehicle for weaving with variable yarns like the Mochi yarns.

Instead of crocheted or knitted lumps of color, the pin loom allows a fusion of colors; blending, muting, amplifying one another in unexpected ways. The challenge of weaving with variable yarns is to pick a length of yarn that does not include the entire rainbow. As you may remember from experimenting with paints or markers when you were young, if you mix them all together, you get a mud color.

All of the squares in this scarf project came from one skein of Mini Mochi yarn.

Just as there is no end of colors that work for a scarf, there is no end of yarn types or weights that will work. This infinity scarf, still in process, was woven with Mini Mochi fingering yarn, which produced light, somewhat lacy squares.



If you are looking for thoughts about how to complete your Infinity Scarf, check out Infinity Squared - designed and woven by Constance Hall.

I think that her choice of crocheted border sets off the weaving beautifully.

Ms. Hall's design is just one of the many Zoom Loom/Pin Loom patterns available through Schacht Spindle-- Zoom Loom Resources. Check them all out HERE.  

The Nanny-Fanny Pack

I had the opportunity to visit my daughter, Taylor, in Portland, OR. While I was there she taught me about simplicity in weaving design and that if you have your phone, you don't need much else.

Her goal was to devise a "Nanny Fanny Pack", so named because, "Nanny and fanny rhyme... and I am a nanny. I need something that will hold just the essentials. If you're on the job you've got to have your cell phone as well as a pocket for a key or money. And it has to be secure whether I'm riding my bike or running down the street to the park."

Get the pattern for the Nanny Pack below.

The yarn in this particular nanny pack is a Superwash Merino by Ella Rae, a chunky yarn. Despite the description as chunky, it worked very well on the 4"x 6" and 4"x 4" pin looms.  Taylor also used two large eyelets, a heart button, a 12" length of yellow elastic cord, 36" of yellow webbing for the alternate belt and a 7" zipper, cut to fit the 4" opening.

When I was working on my copy of the nanny pack, I couldn't find any elastic cord. I did find packages of Goody hairbands that worked very nicely.

Because my phone is a slightly smaller size, the grey nanny pack has just one row of single crochet on each side. The original pack has two rows on each side in order to accommodate a larger phone.

This pack could be made equally well with all 4" x 4" squares. I would suggest joining the squares for the bag using a mattress stitch. See the page, Pin loom essentials for information on joining the squares.  Turn the sides of the bag to the inside and stitch to obtain the correct size bag for your phone.

Taylor talked about her experience with pin looms, noting that when she was little they were always around the house and she wove some small squares, with some help from her mom. When she was seven or eight she put together her first real woven project. There is a box in my attic filled with dolls and bears as well as doll and bear clothes. One of the most precious items (to us both) is a little baby doll blanket, woven and sewn by a little girl with her mom.

Slender Man doll wishes you a creepy Halloween

Though the existence of Slender Man continues to be in doubt, no matter what every tween I've talked to asserts, I now have photographic proof of the existence of the Slender Man pin loom doll. As you can see below, this poses a terrible risk to play families everywhere.

Due to the fact that I live in a creepy old house, I mean, a creepy classic house, once I started looking around, it proved surprisingly easy to discover the Slender Man doll in its preferred environment.

  Give a Slender Man doll to someone you love for Halloween... or perhaps someone you're stalking. Use the basic pattern for doll making found in Pin Loom Weaving; 40 Projects for Tiny Looms  with body in white. Make the body element longer by adding crochet to top and bottom of the square only. Embellish with black yarn satin-stitch necktie. Add a suit jacket by wrapping a 4" x 6" black weavie around the body, stitch closed at shoulders and fold back at neck to create collar. Substitute two crocheted "tentacles" for the arms.  To make each tentacled arm, chain 18, sc5, hdc10, dc3 and attach at the shoulder.  

Wishing everyone the very best for a super creepy and frightening Halloween!

John Mullarkey; weaver, teacher, artist, Zoom Loom creator

Pin looms are, in many ways, defined by their size. The fact that they are small supports their capacity to offer convenience, portability and ease of use. However the fact that we are always producing small patches of fabric leads to the number one burning topic among pin loom weavers, how to join them together.

Which leads to my introduction of John Mullarkey. You have likely heard his name. John is the weaver who worked with the Schacht Spindle Co. to design the Zoom Loom.  This is a link to an excellent article on John's involvement in Zoom Loom's genesis.


But that's not all... remember how I said that joining techniques are so important to pin loomers? John was the Best of Show winner in the 2010 "Not Just for Socks" Contest for the Spanish Moss Shawl, using a single crochet join to create this light, airy shawl.


Schact Spindle is now offering a variety of projects for weaving including the Spanish Moss Shawl as well as purses, pillows and a variety of projects that are all made with the Zoom Loom.

Click here for complete directions for this incredible weaving including a close-up of John's joining technique.

Creating pin loom prairie points

Caroline Fylpaa is an inventive weaver who had a problem. She was weaving the gorgeous blanket shown on the right and she wanted to  finish it with Prairie Points. (I had to look up Prairie Points and now understand that it is usually a quilting technique that makes a right angled triangle used to edge a blanket.)

She noted, "My pin loom weaving started with a trip to Goodwill. I found a loom for 49 cents and it had directions! I hated traditional table top weaving due to the amount of waste and non-portability. I am a spinner in love with drop spindles, I do have and use a wheel, but sometime less is best!" 

In this case the challenge was, make a Prairie Point to match the 4" x 4" square with just a 4" loom to work with.

She noted that she tried to fold the 4" square in half on the diagonal, but that makes too big a triangle.

She realized that she had to make a 2" x 4" loom, which she did.




Caroline says, " This is my adjustable bar made from an oak strip and a metal dog comb. I had to pull out some of the teeth to get the pattern right.

I carved the oak strip to hold the dog comb stable on the weave it loom. I hand carved it all with a wood carving knife and had blisters on top of blisters! I used cocktail toothpicks as shims to ensure a snug fit."

Here is it in place on the loom with an adjustable snug fit. I am really impressed with the fact that not only can Caroline make a 2" x 4" rectangle, she can also weave a 1" x 4" or a 3" x 4" as needed.


Below is her Prairie Point, corners of the 2" x 4" folded in and stitched closed.  She noted that she is making a very pastel Blankquilt, almost finished. The yarn is a 70/30 Targhee wool and nylon sock yarn from Montana, described as beautiful and lofty.

"All it needs is a few more points, weaving in the ends and fulled."

 I am really hoping that she will consent to send a picture of her finished blanket as well.

  Thank you, Caroline.