I finished weaving a 2-inch-wide band on my Inkle loom using cotton yarn with a metallic gold thread, and string heddles. I like how easy it is to change the thread with every other string secured with the heddles. It doesn’t make for very interesting patterns, just a plain weave, but it is quick, solid, and I can weave more of the warp.
So on this inkle loom I have used a rigid heddle and string heddles. Next will be weaving a band using tablets.
I’m a little chagrined. I have changed out the strings on nearly every musical instrument in the house, but haven’t on my husband’s Seagull acoustic guitar because I didn’t intuitively know how to deal with the bridge pins.
On classic guitars and ukuleles, I can see how the strings are twisted to attach, on my mandolin, the ends of the strings are handy loops, on a cello there are little colored cylinders (called balls?) that hook into a fork like apparatus, all very straight forward. Turns out the guitar is also straight forward, if you have the right tool (and YouTube).
Once the tension is released from the strings, the bridge pins pull straight up, releasing the ball (still don’t know why the little donut is called a ball) on the end of the string. I put the pins back in place so I wouldn’t loose them or forget which was the matching hole (theoretically they should be the same, but the guitar is 31 years old, and things shift). Putting the new strings in was straightforward, although I appreciated the tip from one YouTuber about bending the string at the top of the pin hole, it helps keep the pin from popping up until tension is applied.
I tuned up the guitar, and all the the other hand-held string instruments because I like to, and played it a bit, but it hurts my left hand, not the fingertips, those are developing calluses nicely, just the position of my hand on the neck. Hm.
I did look it up, and the ends of the strings for instruments did used to be a small sphere or bead, it is just easier to manufacture and wind cylinders, but the “ball end” name stuck.
In February 2019 I made a wind spinner from wire clothes hangers and plastic string cut from water bottles. The original post is here: https://crittersandcraft.blog/2019/02/11/recycled-bottle-wind-spinner/
The wind spinner spun for about six years before the fishing line holding it up broke. I did not hang it back up. I do like the shape I made with wire, but the application of the plastic string was more hassle than it was worth.
For all you do, for all you’ve done, for all you gave, thank you.
I’m a little obsessed with the corner-to-corner crochet method. I’ve been making 7×9 inch rectangles for Warm Up America with scrap yarn, but I have even smaller lengths of yarn and wondered if I could connect small C2C squares.
I used a wood K crochet hook, which has been working well for my Tunisian crochet experiments, but was a little too big for this project. I do like the idea of the connected squares, so I’ll give it another go with a smaller hook.
On another rabbit hole, C2C crochet can also be used to make pixel art blankets. It is fun to scroll through the images, except the AI ones, those are frustrating and should all have disclaimers.
