Tag: weaving

Fast food basket

On By CarynIn Craft

We picked up a fast food dinner and were given a plethora of paper napkins. I had a stash of straws. Could I make a basket? (Because that is the logical thought process with excess disposable paper products, right?)

Photo description: unbleached paper napkins and paper wrapped straws

I unwrapped and split the straws by running a scissors down the length to obtain four plastic strips from each straw. I wove a square base (6×6 straw pieces). I tore the napkins into 1/2” strips and twined them around the straw “staves”.

Photo description: slivers of red plastic straws woven together and secured with paper napkin twine

It took some time to twine up the sides of the basket. The joining method I liked best was to overlap the end of a napkin strip with a new strip, fold the sides to the middle, then secure with a good clockwise twist. The two clockwise twisted strands were then wrapped counterclockwise around each straw, which isn’t as complicated as it sounds. To finish the basket, I trimmed the end of the straws to a blunt point, and used tweezers to thread them back down through the weaving.

Photo description: in process threading of the straw staves back into the twined weave, calico cat as a background

I was quite surprised that the little basket is fairly sturdy. It certainly won’t hold up to water or washing, but it is a cute little basket. I left the end of the napkin twine inside the basket to remember its humble origins.

Photo description: finished basket, top view, happy calico cat as the background
Photo description: finished napkin and straw basket, side view, sitting on a calico cat

Materials are everywhere.

Fiber page: Shetland lace

On By CarynIn Craft

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.

Potholder: spiral

On By CarynIn Craft

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 center
Photo description: more loops added, the spiral growing out from the center of the loom
Photo description: spiral is larger
Photo 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 loop
Photo 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.

Potholder: Pro

On By CarynIn Craft

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 strands
Photo description: second pass on either side of the center horizontal loop, hook tool showing how the strands are picked up in pairs
Photo description: closeup of the third pass in process, showing how the horizontal loop returns the twisted strands to the original position
Photo 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 bottom
Photo description: finished potholder with chained edge and corner loop
Photo 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.

Potholder: twill

On By CarynIn Uncategorized

I’m running out of cotton loops for my regular sized potholder loom. I have enough for one more, and the colors are not what I would pick given infinite variety (which is why they are last). To maximize potential, I counted the loops and divided each color in half. I put them on the pin loom in blocks of color, so I didn’t come up short one color in a more complicated pattern. I did want to try a twill pattern, and chose a 2/2 twill, which means over 2, under 2. The start point of twill moves over one strand with each pass, which makes the diagonal lines.

Photo description: purple, red, orange, and pink loops on a potholder loom with a third of the twill weaving pattern started and the weaving hook inserted for the next pass
Photo description: twill potholder finished with a chain stitch
Photo description: six potholders made from one Harrisville Designs kit. From top left to right: plain weave with rainbow order chain finished, light green and dark green plain weave with alternating colors chain finished, twill pattern chain finished, twisted warm and cool colors three sides chain finished, warm colors vs cool colors with 90 degree wraps chain finished, and purple vs rainbow 90 degree wraps loop threaded finish.