Month: December 2024

Potholder tips

On By CarynIn Craft

As I’m going through my Pumpkin Spice Friendly Loom cotton loops and weaving potholders, I’ve found a few tricks that help my process flow.

Marking the center peg of the Pro Loom helps reduce counting. I used a metallic Sharpie to mark the 14th pin on all four sides of my loom.

Photo description: Pro sized Friendly Loom marked with a gold pen at the middle peg, black dog looking up at the camera in the backgound

Rather opening and closing the bags every time I need a new color as I weave, I loaded my arm with cotton loops in the order I need. The loops are large bracelet sized and quite comfy to wear. This speeds up weaving time as well, since I’m not fumbling for the next color.

Photo description: Pro loom with warp set with alternating colors of spice and linen colored loops and my arm covered in the same alternating colors for the weft

This is the biggest thing, y’all. I stumbled across a vast repository of potholder weaving patterns. Piglet’s Potholder Patterns has over 600 weaving patterns in very easy to read charts, for free. Piglet Evans and Matthew Simon Cavalletto do a fantastic job with the website and have patterns for a variety of loom sizes as well as blank pattern charts. 600 pattern possibilities, I may have swooned.

Photo description: Pot holder woven with spice and linen colored loops along with the weaving chart from Piglet’s Potholder Patterns called Floating Circle

I love optical illusions and just had to try the Floating Circle pattern, which uses straight lines to trick the brain into seeing a circle. So neat.

Throwback Thursday: Box repair

On By CarynIn Craft, throwback

In December 2010 I repaired a jewelry box for my Mom.

Photo description: jewelry box after removing the old green lining and laying out all the parts to be cleaned and reassembled

I glued sections back together, cleaned the hardware and reinstalled, cut new mirrors, and lined the jewelry box with new purple velvet.

Photo description: restored jewelry box shown open

I regret not taking more in progress pictures of this one, but at the time I was not blogging and just need the photo record, not a detailed analysis.

Recycled wreath

On By CarynIn Craft

I had a grapevine wreath covered in origami flowers that lasted two years before the flower picks started looking sad. I hit an after fall sale (really, even though it is still very much fall here in Texas) to get some decorations for a chorus concert, then after the concert used the picks and garland to redecorate the grapevine wreath. So all the elements have been used at least once before, so I feel safe in calling it a recycled wreath.

Photo description: Fall wreath on a red front door with faux pumpkins, orange and red berries, and leaves on a grape vine base

Nothing is glued in, just twisted and tucked, so it can all be taken apart and used again. Bonus.

Couldn’t resist

On By CarynIn Craft

Friendly loom has my number, or rather, my email address, and had a sale and a color collection called “Pumpkin Spice.” I couldn’t resist, especially when I found out they had an online design app. Ooo.

I made one of the designs they suggested on a card they sent, and the card also has a link to the Potholder Design Wizard. Like I said, they have my number.

Photo description: Pro sized potholder made from flax, orange, and tiger lily colored cotton loops with wood ring sitting with the Friendly Loom design card with QR code

I ordered the wood rings too, since they are such a nice way to tie off the last loop, and I didn’t know about them before either. Ooo.

Meadow cat increase

On By CarynIn Cats

We’ve had an additional cat join the meadow colony. He is a large fluffy black tom, who has seen some scraps. I hope his notched ear was from getting fixed and not the same fight that caught his lip giving him a permanent fang exposure. He is getting along with the other cats, and gets close to me, but doesn’t trust me enough to brush him yet. On the brushing front, I currently brush two long hair outdoor cats. I’ve been able to get close enough to brush Momma cat (a long hair calico) a couple times, but she has a long memory and doesn’t trust me.

Photo description: impressive long haired black cat with notched ears and the lower right fang showing