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.

First look at Pin Loom Weaving book

I have been on pins and needles, counting down the days until the Pin Loom Weaving publication date and waiting for the return of the items that will appear in the book. Many of the items are now back and I have started taking pictures to share, you can see some below. However, the publication date has been moved back a month, it is now June 1st, 2014.  AAAAAUGH!

I know that in the larger scheme of things it won't make that much difference, but I am really looking forward to sharing the book with everyone. In the meantime, here is a beginning sample of the Pin Loom Weaving items.

This is my most recent take on a yarn bag. I wanted to make something very simple, very usable. I like the idea that you can make them as deep as needed by adding on extra rounds of weavies.

Dogs and cats... The dogs came first, the rest of the farm animal set (sheep, horse, cow, pig, cat, chicken, house and barn)  followed. The design is variable enough so that you can create your dog favorites and put together your own dog show.

Animals Toddler Blanket... one of my favorites. It offers a number of features including soft, cuddly edges, a colorway and illustrations that will work for little boys or girls. The illustrations are applied with black crochet cotton and are reasonably easy to apply. The heavy lines are made using a crochet hook, fine details added with a tapestry needle. All the instructions and illustrations are available in the book and the book will be available June 1, 2014.