What's OTN?

 OTN- "On the needles"

So, what are you working on currently? I'd love to hear about it! "On the needles" refers to knitting, but I really mean anything- what crafty project are you currently working on? I have several projects in the works right now:

1. A small tapestry weaving on my Flax & Twine hand loom

2. A knitted gnome mystery knit-along

3. A lace rose weaving on my large Hello Hydrangea frame loom

4. A set of kitchen towels on my Schacht Flip rigid heddle loom

5. A baby quilt (hand sewing the binding currently)

Plenty of projects to work on! I'd really love to see what you've got in the works. Do you knit? Crochet? Weave? Sew? Felt? Scrapbook? Leatherwork? Any craft counts! Let's share what's keeping us entertained right now in the comments. 

Happy crafting!

How to Dabble in Weaving

Have you ever thought about weaving, but you didn't want to make the financial commitment of purchasing a loom without knowing if you'd like it or not? Despite my extensive loom collection, I was once in this boat. I have some project ideas for those of you that would like to try weaving without buying an expensive loom. 

Let's start with some non-loom projects! I found an article about weaving a bag on a cardboard loom in a book, and decided to cut up a cereal box and give it a try! Here was the result:

The book was called, "Spiders' Games: a Book for Beginning Weavers" by Phylis Morrison. 

I've also made some cool non-loom projects from Anne Weil's book, "Weaving Within Reach". This bag was made by laying the yarn down on a table, weaving it bit-by-bit, and then stitching it together to make it stay put. 

By the way, Anne Weil sells kits for a lot of her loom-free weave projects on her website Flax & Twine. 

Here are some free internet resources that may help you jump into weaving without a loom:

How to Weave Without a Real Loom

Weave This: Weaving Without a Loom

Geometric Weaving Wall Hanging (this one weaves on a crochet background- clever!)

Boho Woven Wall Hanging Without a Loom

DIY Macrame for Beginners/Macraweave Tutorial (if you're interested in macramé, try this!)

Perhaps you want to create your own loom? I made a loom out of an embroidery hoop to make this pretty trivet:

This project is also from Anne Weil's book, linked above.

There are a lot of tutorials out there for constructing your own simple loom out of a frame or a canvas. Here are a few:

How to Weave Without Special Equipment

DIY Dollar Store Woven Wall Hanging

Create Your Own Frame Loom: No Tools Necessary

Make Your Own Weaving Bookmarks

How to Make a Woven Wall Hanging and Weaving Loom

Weave Thieve: How to Make a DIY Weaving Loom for Less Than $20

How to Weave and DIY Loom Tutorial

How to Make a Simple Weaving Loom

I could go on and on- I love looking up crafty things on the internet! I hope that these links give you a place to start so you can dabble in my latest obsession and see if you enjoy it, too! 

Happy crafting!

April Wrap-Up

Doing a monthly wrap-up for projects during April this year is a bit strange. I only finished one thing! But I spent most of the month casually working on a variety of long-term WIPs (works in progress), so I'll share them as well. 

The only project I completed during April were these pretty towels for my friend, Tif.

They have magnetic snaps! They will stay on the oven door handle a lot better this way. 

Here is what else I worked on in April:

I nearly finished this lacy, woven wall hanging. It's finished now, but on the last day of April it was still on the loom, looking like this:

I also worked on my brioche cowl, especially while watching Zoom meetings:

I finished my ADVENTure gnome except for weaving in a couple ends and blocking the beard. I don't have a picture of what it looks like right this instant, but here is a picture of his lovely hat:

I warped my Schacht Flip loom and started another set of kitchen towels for my friend, Lorna:

I also worked on the binding for a baby quilt that I finished quilting AGES ago, and have been procrastinating sewing on the binding. I don't seem to have gotten a picture of that! I'll just have to get it finished up and share a photo of the finished object! 

Not as much crafting in April- it's just been a busy spring, and I've been tired out from my real-life job. I'm a teacher, so I'm looking forward to some extra crafting time in the near future as the school year wraps up. I'm attending a virtual conference later this week, so I anticipate plenty of crafting while watching Zoom meetings all day! 

What have you been working on lately? Let me know in the comments! Happy crafting!

Success!

So, in my last post I tried valiantly to get a weaving comb from Wild Juniper Fibre Art, to no avail.

However! The owner announced that some people had technical difficulties, plus she had some delays due to a sick kid, so she decided to have a mini-update last Friday, and I am pleased to announce that I had some success! I scored this beauty:

I tried to get a loom, too (not that I need one!), but those were gone in an instant. I'll just have to try again in the future. 

I can't wait to have this beautiful comb in my hand! It will take 2-4 weeks to ship (it's coming from Abu Dhabi), but when it arrives I will be sure to post pictures!