Anna Yamamoto: shawl design; Green the whole year roundAnna Yamamoto: shawl design; LongsufferingAnna Yamamoto: shawl design; Seashells on the SandAnna Yamamoto: shawl design; Bonsai
My favorite is Bonsai! Oh by the way, clicking on each picture will take you directly to the page where you can download the pattern.
This past weekend, Curls & Q’s clued her readers into these delightful knitting patterns. Do you want to know something? They’re free. Q is quite the enabler! I’ve purchased plenty of crochet and knitting patterns via the Ravelry site and I’ve picked up a few free patterns also. Naturally, I’ve already snapped up these patterns and stored them in my library on Ravelry. I’m looking forward to seeing more designs (priced or free) by Anna Yamamoto the knitting designer who created these fabulous pieces.
I’m nudging the super talented Nicky, so she can take advantage of these lovely designs also.
Even before I purchased my 32″ Kromski Harp rigid heddle loom, I knew that I wanted to weave a blanket. Initially I thought I’d make a blanket in simple weave but now I believe I’ll step up my game and incorporate a Houndstooth pattern for the blanket design.
The houndstooth pattern is a favorite pattern design and I’m already thinking of other woven items that I can make. At some point I’ll weave cloth using the houndstooth design and set the material aside until the fabric tells me what it wants to become.
Yesterday, my Mirrix Loom-16 inch Big Sister with shed device arrived! If you thought I was bead weaving as soon as it arrived you would have been wrong.
My daughter and I were out when it arrived and after we returned home I was helping her with another (second) beaded creation; a bracelet for her grandmother.
Check out the above photo. I think my daughter did a great job for her second bead weaving project! She did all the bead weaving herself. I gave her some suggestions on what she should use for the outside strands and she listened. I imagine as she gains confidence, she’ll be doing more on her own.
No additional purchases needed
The loom is about the only thing I needed to purchase and at a price of $292.99 that’s a good thing, wouldn’t you agree? I still have a lot gorgeous beads, findings, and an assortment of jewelry tools to get the creative juices flowing. I look forward to migrating to a large loom for some of my big beading projects.
In an earlier post, I stated that I had enough beads to last me for a while, but I thought it would be nice to let my daughter pick her own beads since she’s really showing an interest in bead weaving. We headed downtown to Beadazzled and I let her choose beads for herself. My daughter was thrilled, and thanked me repeatedly for letting her pick out her own beads. Beadazzled was one of my favorite haunts when I lived downtown in my mid twenties; Almost twenty years later, most of the beads in my collection came from that store. Yes… I had quite the bead stash. 🙂 I still do!
The concept is the same as the other beaded looms I’ve worked with, but the warping of the loom is a bit different.
There were detailed instructions included with the loom for that process. The above video, is found on Youtube and shows how to warp a Mirrix loom without using the shedding device.
Simple woven beaded band. I think I’ll add something decorative to it also…. we’ll see
Before long I was bead weaving! For my first Mirrix project I decided on a simple piece to familiarize myself with this loom. Shortly after starting, I realized that I really did not have to do this since the bead weaving was no different than the beaded looms I’ve worked with in the past. But since it’s been years since I’ve done bead weaving on a loom, I mainly do off the loom bead weaving, I continued my project.
By the end of the evening, my daughter and I had both made great progress. We would have gotten a lot more complete, but the time was spent talking with each other, and taking numerous breaks to be silly.
In our home, spending hours chained to technology gadgets is not an option. Sure, we enjoy them, but there’s balance since I know what’s more important is spending time interacting with one another.
As the video below shows you can create some amazing works of art with a loom and beads.
I’m a bit torn at what my big project will be with my Mirrix: 16″ Big Sister Loom. I’d love to do something with beads, but then I think about tapestry. Perhaps I’ll combine them both into one design? We’ll see…
Guess what? My daughter has really taken to beadweaving, since I love working with beads, I’m thrilled that we seem to share the same passion for the same craft. Time will tell if she keeps up with her new crafting love. I hope she does. Earlier today, she made a really lovely bracelet for her grandmother. She’ll be gifting it to her for her birthday tomorrow. I gave her a few pointers, which she took, and before I knew it she was asking me advice on how to weave in the ends.
I knew when I purchased my 32″ Kromski Harp, it was simply the gateway to other looms. The fact I’m receiving another so early was unexpected…
Say hello to the Mirrix Loom-16 inch Big Sister with shed. This loom is made in the United States and I should receive it tomorrow. Just look at it, even if it wasn’t functional it would be lovely in your home!
But it’s more than a beautiful work of art. It’s a loom after all and it can be used to make beaded and tapestry pieces. I plan to use it for both. So why can’t I use my Kromski? The tension on my Kromski is fine for cloth, but it’s definitely not tight enough to do some of my beadwork designs.
Thinking back, my first experience with weaving was potholders made on a rinky dink plastic loom when I was a child. My first serious loom was a beaded loom that I’d purchased in my twenties. I loved that loom, but after making a few items with that I moved on to making numerous off the loom beaded pieces. The reason was simple, I’d outgrown the small beaded loom that I had, and instead of making an upgrade I just started working off loom. It’s high time I return back to a loom for my beads, don’t you think?
No additional purchases needed
The loom is about the only thing I needed to purchase and at a price of $292.99 that’s a good thing, wouldn’t you agree? I still have a lot gorgeous beads, findings, and an assortment of jewelry tools to get the creative juices flowing. I look forward to migrating to a large loom for some of my big beading projects.
Early this week, my daughter asked if we could make pizza. Of course we can!
My daughter is a great helper, she ground up the various ingredients in our mortar and pestle while I got the dough out of our bread maker.
Homemade pizza ready to be slid into the oven
We added a lot of veggies to the pizza. I did not feel like making a homemade pizza sauce and so I sliced fresh tomatoes onto the dough.
Piping hot pizza
We also added spinach, I would have much preferred adding the greens for the last few moments of pizza baking, but my daughter wanted to add them when we slid the pizza into the oven. So how was it? Well… my daughter raved about this pizza, but she did agree that in the future the spinach should only be added in the last few minutes. I’m sure we’ll make something similar soon.
We spent a lot of time in the family room chatting while being absorbed in our own creative world. One of the gifts I gave to my daughter was a beading loom, after showing her how to use it she immediately started working on a bracelet. I purchased her glass beads to accompany the loom and even gave her one box filled with some of my favorite glass beads. The loom I purchased, is the same type I’d bought for myself in my early twenties. I told her this loom was the gateway to much fancier looms if the beading bug bit her. It seems as it has since she spent hours yesterday familiarizing herself with the loom and weaving a lovely bracelet.
While she was working on her beaded bracelet, I finished my loom woven dishcloth and was able to make two washcloths from the same warp!
Woven dishcloth
Today marked another first, I sewed my own woven cloth!
Cotton woven washcloths and dishcloth; Threads still need to be trimmed before these are tucked away.
Securing my woven fabric with a sewn hem
Once the fabric is woven it needs to be secured. How did I do that? Well… I secured the edges of the dishcloth and two washcloths with a zigzag stitch; I used my Brother PC-420 sewing machine. From my online search, I’ve see a lot of fringes used on items made with the rigid heddle loom. Cute… but I’m not a big fan of fringes. That’s why I secured my woven fabric with a sewn hem. I have three more washcloths on the loom. I’ll be pulling out my Serger machine; Brother 1034D and will secure the edges with a rolled hem.
Last week, I didn’t keep my commitment of two washcloths/dishcloths per week, but I’m making up for it this week. By the end of the week, I should have woven five washcloths.
