A Letter from camp, I mean, Fiber Conference

Dear Mom and Dad and Everyone who may have wondered where I wandered off to...

 I have been weaving furiously to prepare for the Midwest Fiber Conference, currently underway at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, MN. I am going to be sharing a booth with Marcella Edmund, a fiber and pin loom artist!

While this may be great for me, I have totally abandoned the many pin loom weavers out there with whom I have been corresponding.  So this is not an excuse, but is an explanation of where I have been and a promise to return soon with new ideas and new posts.

ps. This is one of the items, along with a bunch of books to sell, that I am taking up to the Midwest Weaver's Conference.

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.  

Pin loom sheep declare Spring is here

This is Minnesota, so the grass isn't up yet and the weather isn't all that warm. But the Fiber Festivals will be sending out schedules very soon and the pin loom sheep are getting ready for a great year.

People have asked about the genesis of the pin loom sheep. Below is my fanciful representation of pin loom sheep being born, moving slowly from woven pelts, acquiring their little pointy heads, and then legs and ears.

These sheep are all destined for craft shows. This would be a great week to share a sheep or two in an Easter or May Day basket. Complete directions for making a Spring Pin Loom Sheep are located in Pin Loom Weaving - 40 Projects for Tiny Hand Looms.  Have a happy Spring!

Postage Stamp Quilt Blanket

This blanket was intended as a tribute to a classic Amish quilt with a special note of thanks to the U.S. Post Office.

In 2001 the U.S. Post office issued this series of stamps commemorating the Amish quilt.  I thought that they were all incredible but was particularly drawn to the quilt that reflects a very "pin loom" flavor.

Over the next nine months or so I wove and constructed my Postage Stamp Blanket. As with the Amish Bars blanket, they are not lined or quilted, the weigh of the woven fabric is quite warm enough without extra layers.

This blanket is close to six foot square.

Here is the beginning of those middle squares, made with one 4"x 4" square and topped with two light blue squares, whip stitched in place.

The blanket was made with 2" x 2" squares, 2" x 4" squares, 4" x 4" squares, 2" x 6" squares, 4" x 6" squares, and 6" x 6" squares. Most of those looms were Weavette Looms, which came out with all six sizes.

It uses three shades of green for the 2" line around the 9 square design, 3 shades blue plus a slate blue and a very dark navy blue. Plus the red.

All of the woven pieces in the blanket were finished with a single crochet edge in the same color, then whip stitched to join. You might notice that the small squares above do not have a crochet edge, that was so that they would sit within the dimensions of the 4" x 4" square.

Below the middle panel is finished, I'm working on the panels to the right and left.

When a blanket gets this big it is amazing how many rectangles are needed for the border!

           A just-finished blanket. The edging is a line of half double crochet in navy.

This is a later pattern for the blanket with a few proposed color variations.  This Amish pattern lends itself to a number of colorways.

Have fun with this. If anyone decides to make a new version of the blanket, I would love to see the results!  MS

Amish Bars pin loom blanket

Winter is a great time to work on really big pin loom projects. After months of weaving the separate squares there comes a point where the project needs to be assembled. What better time than when the days are short and it feels great to hold a lap full of blanket?

This is one my favorite Amish quilt design patterns. I believe that the Amish quilt is one of the preeminent gifts of American crafts and design. I have been able to reflect this design style into a number of woven blankets. These blankets are not quilted, but like all pin loom work, they are pieced.

 The Amish Bars pattern calls for a few colors with large swathes of black running through it. In order to express the original color variation brought about through the use of a variety of pieced cloth, I purposefully changed colors several places.  This also adds some tension to the design, keeping it from being too rigid.

The Amish Bars blanket in the sample shown here was constructed with 120 - 4" x 4" squares and 64 - 4" x 6" rectangles. Each square and rectangle was finished with a single crochet edge and the pieces were joined with a whip stitch.


Squares needed to complete this blanket:

(80) 4" x 4" square - charcoal or black
(24) 4" x 6" rectangle - charcoal or black

(32) 4" x 4" square - green
(4) 4" x 4" square - alternative green
(8) 4" x 6" rectangle - green
(2) 4" x 6" rectangle - alternative green

(4) 4" x 4" square - red
(20) 4" x 6" rectangle - red
(10) 4" x 6" square - alternative red

Yardage requirements for weavies with single crochet edge and yarn for joining:
Black or charcoal yarn - 1160 yds.
Green yarn  - 440 yds.
Alternative green yarn - 70 yds.
Red yarn - 340 yds.
Alternative red yarn - 150 yds.

You can find the yardage requirement for most of the popular pin looms on the Pin Loom Essentials page.

The 100 Pin Loom Squares weaving book

Is there any pin loom fan out there who has not yet checked out the new pin loom book-- 100 Pin Loom Squares: 100 Exciting Color Combinations to Try, Plus 15 Stylish Projects by Florencia Campos Correa?

I am excited about the book because it offers directions for tabby and a variety of patterned weaves. It has suggestions for using the pin loom as a regular warp/weft loom, which is necessary for certain kinds of patterns, like houndstooth or diagonal weaving.  I can see this being a great resource for building ideas on patterns for projects.

I am hoping that Pin Loom Weaving and 100 Pin Loom Squares are just the beginning trickle to a flood of great new pin loom weaving books!

Ellie's First Purse

Happy New Year! Its been a busy season here with the introduction of pin loom classes. After years of weaving on my own, it has been enormous fun to play with pin looms with other people. Pin looms have brought me a lot of joy and its twice the fun to see others enjoy it too.

I am learning a lot from my students. I have had the opportunity to work with a number of moms and daughters and have come to realize that kids can take to pin looms as quick or quicker than adults. Here's the proof.

Ellie T., age 11, was in my class a couple months ago. Here is her first purse.

The purse was made with 6) 4"x 4" pin loom squares (love the colors) with a braided string handle looped on each side of the purse. Of course the shining feature is the jean pocket-- which works beautifully to contrast with the woven fabric of the purse. 

I should mention that we did not cover purses in  the pin loom class. While I hope that my book, Pin Loom Weaving, was helpful to her, this is Ellie's own design.

I will leave it to each of us to reflect on our capacity as artist or craftsman at the age of 11. I know that I did not make anything half as well thought out or well done until I was considerably older than 11, maybe more like 40.

Ellie, thank you so much for sharing your work with us.