Dad put another leather handle for cast iron pans on his wish list, so I delivered. I used some unfinished tooling leather, cut it to shape, wet it, and formed it to the handle of my Lodge cast iron pan. The design is wrap around, with only the end sewn, so that it can slip on and off. I sewed the ends together with waxed thread using a baseball stitch.
Photo description: dried leather is pan handle, side viewPhoto description: sewn end of the pan handle
I wanted to add some decoration to this so turned to my pyrography setup.
Photo description: starting the decoration with spirals done with a pen tipped pyrography toolPhoto description: completed pyrography in Zentangle style, with spirals going to stacked tear drops to clustered bubbles finished with parallel lines
I finished the leather with Resolene, a leather conditioner that will protect against food splatters.
The Baize Shetland wool was the first Livestock Conservancy Shave ‘Em to Save ‘Em fiber I purchased. I bought a 13 oz batt, and have been spinning it at demonstrations and fair booths. I’ve been quite remiss in actually making a fiber page! That is now rectified, and this wonderful fiber has a page in my sampler book.
Photo description: Post card from the breeder (top left), single spun and two ply yarn (top right), unspun wool as purchased scoured and carded (middle left), crochet round (middle right), two Shetland lace knit samples (bottom left), nålbinding (bottom middle), and a woven swatch with combed fringe.Photo description: same page, but with the samples folded up to show the descriptions
Shetland wool is a joy to spin, and is definitely on my “will purchase again” list.
I had a long period of time in which Sculpey clay was my go-to medium. I found this photo from March 2007 of a thread cutter made from layered oven bake clay surrounding a wheel cutter blade with a brass wire loop. I formed each side of the cutter using a mold that I made, baked it, sanded it, then assembled it, probably with glue (tsk). The loop was properly made with a mechanical connection: prongs that went into holes in the clay.
Photo description: striped red thread cutter with indents to allow access to the blade inside, but protect from accidental cutting
I made several of these at one point. If I were to attempt to make them again, I would make sure there was a mechanical connection holding the blade between the sides. I’m sure the glue didn’t hold up to time or dropping.
Once again I was down to the last set of cotton loops for a potholder loom. I actually started several patterns gleaned from Pinterest, didn’t like them, and took them apart. Once woven, the knitted cotton loops are quite robust, but if woven and unwoven repeatedly, they have a tendency to unravel. I needed to make a choice and stick to it. I love spirals so decided to tackle a spiral pattern potholder. This was easier decided than done. I did find a picture of a spiral potholder, but couldn’t wrap my head around the sequence of under overs working straight across. I ended up working from the center, slowly adding loops on each side and meticulously tracing the spiral, fixing the woven path as I went.
Photo description: potholder pro loom with horizontal loops set and five vertical loops woven together only in the centerPhoto description: more loops added, the spiral growing out from the center of the loomPhoto description: spiral is largerPhoto description: weaving complete, the spiral disintegrates toward the outside because I ran out of purple loops
The key to the spiral is that sometimes loops go over two, rather than one opposing loop. These floats happen at the corners when the color needs to be continuous. The order of loop color is the same for the vertical and horizontal.
Photo description: finished potholder with chain edge and corner loopPhoto description: back side of the same potholder showing an equally interesting V pattern
I managed the make this whole week a throwback with this series of potholder experiments! The loops are now all gone and the looms have been absorbed into my weaving tool box. I plan to use the pin looms with yarn next. Tomorrow will be an actual throwback post.
When I bought the potholder loom kits for my kids, I bought one regular size and one Pro. The Pro box still had intact seals. I fixed that, and thought I might make a small bag because the Pro potholders are larger and there were only enough loops for two projects. The loom also has an odd number of pins, rather than the even number for the regular loom. It opens up different design possibilities. I wanted to experiment more with twisting with my first project with a Pro loom. I counted all my loops and divided them in half, then came up with a design based on the number I had of each color.
Photo description: first pass, the center horizontal loop going through twisted adjacent strandsPhoto description: second pass on either side of the center horizontal loop, hook tool showing how the strands are picked up in pairsPhoto description: closeup of the third pass in process, showing how the horizontal loop returns the twisted strands to the original positionPhoto description: potholder loom with the center pass with two passes below the center, returning the loops to the original position, and four passes above the center, showing the twisted loops
The overall pattern when weaving is three fold: twisted path, plain weave, plain weave.
Photo description: weaving finished with the last four passes in plain weave on the top and bottomPhoto description: finished potholder with chained edge and corner loopPhoto description: opposite side of the same potholder
I was going to make a coordinating but opposite twist design, but it turns out when the strands are twisted the opposite way, the pattern is just being worked upside down, it doesn’t look different. Hm. I don’t want twins, so I’ll try something completely different for the next potholder.
Critters and Craft 