New loom!

On January 23, 2021January 21, 2021 By CarynIn Craft

Here is my exciting thing for the beginning of 2021: a new loom! It is a Schacht tapestry loom, which has heddle bars and a way to control warp tension. I felt that it would be the most flexible and easily stored commercial purchase. I wanted more room to weave than my frame loom provided, but didn’t want something that had a large footprint. It is rather larger than I anticipated, though! It doesn’t quite fit on my chair, so I’m glad I also purchased the A frame stand for it.

Schacht tapestry loom compared with a notched frame loom

Now to get it warped!

I don’t like it, but it’s done

On January 21, 2021January 19, 2021 By CarynIn Craft

I had a hard time finishing this weaving. I had the idea of forming shapes using only hatching, but my design was not a good and one. I wanted four basic leaf shapes, but half way through I realized that two of the shapes wouldn’t work the way I laid it out on the paper and I had to wing it. I also don’t like vertical lines, those were a missed opportunity for more hatched shapes. And I really don’t like that the yellow and green I picked for one area are too visually similar, so the shape is all but lost. But. Now it is done, can be used as a washcloth until it dies, and I can move on to other things!

Woven cotton with four shapes. Woven on a frame loom with cotton warp and weft, finished salvages by pulling warp through.

I did switch to my little shuttles for the top part of the weaving, because my bobbins wouldn’t fit. I like the little shuttles.

My only motivation for finishing this is to move on to a new thing. Yay I get to put together something new! Blog post to follow. 😉

Second Anniversary!

On January 19, 2021 By CarynIn Craft, photography

It is my second year anniversary on writing this blog! Hurray! I probably should have called it “Of Critters and Craft”, but the chickens are still clucking away, so we’re OK.

Happy Anniversary written in cotton yarn

Since the traditional second anniversary is celebrated with cotton, I grabbed some cotton yarn from my stash to form my banner. I used a small bowl of water to wet the yarn, then wrung it out, which made it easier to form the words (especially the pinched parts).

I’m still enjoying blogging, and hope my readers get some chuckles and maybe even some inspiration to do their own handcrafts. Here is to another year!

Spinning

On January 16, 2021January 11, 2021 By CarynIn Craft

When you haven’t spun in awhile, and open a new jar of vitamins.

Apparently I need to get back to spinning, because I really do have better fibers to spin than this. However, I feel like I need to make usable items from my spun yarn before I spin more, which is my hang up. I have several projects to finish up that are dragging on. So I guess I will spin the bit of fluffy packing material for now!

The spindle is one I made from an old button, a rubber band, and a steel mandrel (I used to make glass beads). I couldn’t find the spindle stand, so I used a serving spoon.

Thank you notes

On January 14, 2021January 10, 2021 By CarynIn art, Craft

Here is an idea for hand made cards: printing a large “thank you” outline, and drawing within the words. It is a fun artistic exercise to come up with different ways to fill in the blanks. And the kids actually finished their thank you notes!