A tiny bog coat for Albert Einstein?  Say What?
The other day,
on one of my fave lists,
someone posted a link
to Bog Coats.
Bog Coats are an
ancient style of
woven coat that
are rather like
a kimono.
They are made from a
rectangular or square
woven piece of fabric
and are simple to make
but offer endless opportunities for embellishment and exploration.
Because I have been playing with tiny vintage Magic Looms that a friend sent to me, I immediately thought-
Woohoo! I could use the Magic Loom to make a tiny bog coat that would work as a Christmas ornament…….
I knew that I wouldn’t be
able to cut into the fabric
made on the …read more

I’ve been posting about flower looms lately, because a dear friend sent me a box of flower and magic looms.
The flowers from
flower looms work
beautifully  in combination
with crochet.
I quite like using
unusual yarns with
the flower looms.
This is slubbly quite
hefty silk handspun
in a shawl.
Here are a
bunch of flower loom
flowers in another
shawl- also all
made in handspun yarns.
The rainbow  flower
was made with
spool knitted cord
on a flower loom.
The white flower
was made with chained
yarn…..
so you can really play with
your yarn before you use it
with a flower loom.
What are those flowers part of?
Well…
a wild and wonderful
freeform crocheted, spool knitted,
tatted, woven, sewn, sculpted
doll made with all manner of
found objects.
Yes…. …read more

The post office loves it when we  decide to de-clutter.
We find treasures that we send to our friends- so the friends are happy, and the post office is sooooooo happy because Friend B then mails a treasure on to Friend C, to keep the de-cluttering going.
And, oh yes,Friend B has to send a little thank you back to Friend A.  Yes… the post office loves it when we de-clutter.
One of my friends(Friend A)
started a cycle of
making the Post Office
and me (Friend B)
very happy.
We were talking about
small looms and
flower looms.
She had noticed that I blogged about my broken  much loved flower …read more

I am writing this reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeally fast, as we are in the middle of a crazy thunderstorm and a thunderclap just made me jump an inch or two out of my chair! Yikes!
Anyhow…. in spite of the crazy storm, and fingers crossed that it doesn’t turn into a tornado (oh please oh please) (the clouds are VERY wild and ominous looking- eep)  um… where was I ? Oh yes, jumping out of my chair….
Well….. actually, I am ALSO jumping up and down with delight,
because I have been working for months and months on a new self published book:
Virtuoso Vests to Weave …read more

Woven cloth tapes, ribbons and narrow bands are so common and so easy to get that we don’t even think about them.                                      It hasn’t always been that way, though.
For centuries, tapes and ribbons were essential for so many reasons:
They were used for a lot more things than they are now-
Woven tapes were essential to hold clothing up, hold clothing together, hold shoes onto feet,as well as being used around the house and workshop in a miriad of other ways.
Fancier woven tapes and ribbons were used to trim and embellish all kinds of textiles, from clothing and fashion accessories to curtain …read more

For the longest time, I have been planning a scarf on the Butterfly Loom.  I have  handspun 2 shades of  yarn for the scarf .
I have been spool knitting variegated handspun for the edging, so I posted a tutorial about how to spool knit a sturdy cord on 2 pegs with thin yarn.  Tutorial
Here’s a pic of the 2 shades of yarn that I spun for it, as well as the Butterfly loom, a spool knitter, my Nostepinne, and a flower loom (I think I will add flowers soon….)
The instructions that come with the loom show how to stitch …read more

A simple, and very effective way to make a bag handle is to spool knit it.  There’s often a problem with spool knitted handles, though.
They can stretch and stretch and stretch. Not so good.
So, I use a couple of techniques to get around that problem.
Spool knitting with 2 interlocking colors works well.
Another way  to make a spool knitted handle that doesn’t stretch
is to spool knit over a stabilizing core of non stretchy yarn or cord.
I have been working on a bag that I have woven on the Lily Speed-O-Weave Loom.
I decided that I wanted to spool knit the handle and …read more

All week, I have been scrambling to get the various components made for a bag, using the Lily Speed-o-Weave Loom, spool knitters and vintage flower looms.
Why do cats always need to sit on freshly warped looms?
I worked with 2 looms set to their smallest dimension. (And was supervised well and truly by Ms Kitty)
You choose the size that you want the Lily Speed-O-Weave loom to be by matching up the holes on the sides and bolting them together.
I used Lily Sugar’n Cream in Black and White to make the front and back of the bag, and to spool knit the …read more

I have been working like mad on Lily Speed-O-Weave looms to show how good things can be created on these nifty vintage looms.
The project that I am working on is going to become a bag. I’ve been working on 2 looms at the same time.I have finished doing the knotting on both the front and the back of the bag.
Now I am working on the embellishment for the bag. It’s a butterfly/fairy, drawn with spool knitted cord.
This is the pattern for the butterfly/fairy. It’s about 9 1/2 inches wide and about 8 inches wide. I made 2 copies of the …read more

In the introductory video to ‘How to work with the Lily Speed-O-Weave Loom’, I showed a variety of things that you can make with the wonderful, funky old vintage Lily Speed-O-Weave looms.
I also showed how to wrap the 3 layers of yarn onto the loom.
In the second video, I am explaining how to do the stitching that locks the layers of wrapped yarn together to create the mesh like, knotted fabric.
I will be doing more videos explaining other aspects of working with the
Lily Speed-O-Weave loom.
I’ll get those posted this week.
And, I will also be working on a booklet detailing the …read more