Vintage yarn gadgets are heart stealers
November 5, 2009 by Noreen Crone-Findlay
Filed under flower maker, yarn crafts
When you are a yarn lover, chances are good that you’ll fall in love with gadgets and devices that allow you to make, manipulate, and play with yarn in lots of fun ways.
Yesterday, I posted about a wonderful box of goodies that one of my friends (who is also a fiber artist) sent me- with a set of Magic Looms in it.
photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright
As well as the Magic Looms,
she sent me a set of
flower looms,
which made me
so happy.
I know, I am easily
amused…. but these
are such charming
little looms-
The booklets say
that they were sold in 1970.
They feel a touch brittle, and, given that I broke a vintage flower loom recently, I want to be very very careful and gentle with these ones.
One of the things that I love about finding different versions of vintage tools and gadgets is that, when you are lucky enough to find ones that still have the instructions with them, you will often learn new ways of working with the tool…. Today, I learned a new way of stitching the center of the flower….I think I am going to have to do a video tute to show the different ways to stitch the centers….
I am really enjoying working with yarn that I spun from paper (here’s a tutorial on how to do that ) and I particularly like the way paper yarn works on the flower looms.
The two flowers with faces are pins that I made a week or so ago. The other 2 flowers are ones I made today, when I was experimenting with the new flower looms.
I have a fun idea for a cute gift to make with them……. so stay tuned!
By the way, I was sure that I had seen a current version of these nifty flower looms, and so I did a websearch. I was really pleased to discover that they are still being made. They are called Knit Wits nowadays. (no profit or connection or affiliation in my posting the link, just the fruit of a happy websearch)
I
I made my mother-in-law an afghan with a daisy loom back in the early 80s. She loved it! I hated joining all those little flowers together, but it did look pretty when it was finished!
These types of gadgets are a lot of fun! We have a variety of flower looms and weavettes. They are great to use with children and for embellishing freeform crochet and knitting. I usually have good luck finding them on eBay. Thanks for posting about these!
Hi Jennifer
Yes, I love doing all kinds of ‘cross current’ work with flower looms, small looms and crochet and knitting, too… It’s all so yummy, isn’t it? blissy bliss!
Hi Diane
Did you join them as you finished them, or did you put them together later?
Joining each one as you finished it could end up being very cumbersome. I think that I would prefer to make them in strips and then work joining rows with crochet.
I have always worked with the flowers one at a time and combined it with crochet, knitting, spool knitting, tatting and weaving.
I love flower looms!