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! 

So Close!

 I am not usually one to sit on a website anxiously awaiting for a shop update so I can snatch up some wonderful product, but then I learned about Wild Juniper Fibre Art. 

Besides astonishingly beautiful handspun art yarn, she also makes beautiful resin looms and weaving combs with watercolor paints and dried flowers. The first time I saw one I gasped- I must have one. 

Yesterday was her monthly shop update, and I was ready. I had a countdown on my phone, I was watching the minutes tick by. The update went live at 11:00, and I jumped on and skimmed through the weaving combs, determined to have one to use with my Hello Hydrangea lap loom. 

At 11:01 I put two combs into my shopping cart so I could look at them more closely. I chose which one I liked best, deleted the other, and hit "update cart". The one I had just chosen had already sold! It was this one:

So I hurriedly went back, snagged the other comb that I liked, and hit submit. I got to the payment page, speed-typed my information in, and clicked submit. It was mine! Except it wasn't. I'd been cart jacked. This was the one I almost got:

So I hurried back to the looms and combs page to try to get any comb that was left, but they were all gone! Noooooooooooooooooooooooo. 

Oh well. I can certainly get by without one, and now I just have the fun of waiting anxiously for the next update! Maybe I'll end up with one someday. :-)

What about you? Is there a shop update that you anxiously await? Have you been cart jacked out of something amazing? Let me know in the comments. 

Happy crafting!

Distractions During Virtual Meetings

How are all of you surviving the seemingly never-ending stream of virtual meetings? Zoom, Teams, Google Meet...how do we even keep these all straight? 

After awhile I feel like I can't focus unless I'm doing something with my hands, so I often turn to knitting or crocheting. It's kind of fun to look back at pictures I've taken of a project while I was attending a webinar or a Zoom meeting. 

I try to have a project going that is simple and repetitive so I can easily pay attention to the words of the meeting without losing myself in a tricky stitch pattern, although I have occasionally muscled through with a trickier project. 

It's funny- looking at these pictures makes it look like my computer is doing a cameo in my crafting life.

 

I've even been known to do a little weaving in front of the computer (on a small scale).

And of course, in the era of attending constant Zoom meetings, I have obviously also attended some Zoom fiber arts classes!

It's nice that not EVERY computer-related thing I've done in the last year has been all about work.

It's great that we have the internet to help connect us to others, but it's also nice to have a good craft project to help us stay sane while we attend a constant stream of virtual meetings. I hope you have found something to help you get through it all. I'd love to hear about your Zoom meeting projects! Feel free to comment on this post so I can hear all about it. 

Happy crafting!

New Crafty Goodies On The Way!

I may have a problem. When I am feeling particularly sad, I buy crafty things. Let's be real, I buy crafty things often for other reasons, too, but I have learned through the last year that the way I cheer myself up is by buying crafty things.

I've been feeling pretty down about my RL (real life) job lately- it's pretty hard to be a teacher during a pandemic. So I've been on a crafty shopping spree over the past several days. All of this spree has been via the internet, so nothing has arrived yet, but I look forward to fun deliveries in the near future!

First up- I got a wild hair and decided to order some macramé supplies for a really pretty dreamcatcher that I saw on Instagram. The project was designed by Miss Knottie Macramé, and the YouTube video of it can be found here. They didn't have a kit, but I found the materials I don't already own on their website. I bought the C-frame for the dreamcatcher, some 1 mm cotton cord, some natural 3mm/4mm cotton cord, and because I am a sucker for pretty things, these gorgeous stainless steel gold scissors. I can't wait to make this beautiful project!

So, that was Sunday morning. Plenty of things to be excited about, right? Oh no. Flax & Twine had to go and make these great kit bundles. I decided to get two bundles, because there are four projects I've been wanting to try. I ended up with this crochet rope basket kit, the Sunburst basket kit, the Adeline linen dish kit, and the April basket kit. I also got an extra skein of the 3mm flax cord to make an extra April basket. I'm going to be busy once these arrive!

That's enough, right? More than enough, perhaps? Well, on Tuesday Imagined Landscapes announced their new mystery knit-along gnome, Gnot Just Another Gnome. I've been participating in each of these gnome MKALs, so of course I bought the pattern right away! Here is a Ravelry link to the pattern, please use with caution (Ravelry has accessibility issues that have caused migraines and seizures in some users). If Ravelry is not accessible to you, here is the Payhip store link. The MKAL starts on May 7th- I can't wait!

We've only made it to Tuesday afternoon now, but I'm afraid more crafty money was spent! I have been longing to purchase some of Stephanie Soebbing's fabric line "Nocturne" from Quilt Addicts Anonymous, and when I saw a kit for their Split Nine Patch Quilt featuring Nocturne, I just had to have it. The fabric line is going into a final printing in the coming months, so I had to jump at the chance to get it before it's gone!

Good news- that's all the money I've spent this week! But there are some temptations on the horizon...

First of all, there is a Monty Python inspired MKAL shawl (another Ravelry link, proceed with caution) that I might need to get in on. The pattern is only $7, so that's not a huge expense, but after all the other money I've spent this week, I'm trying to be responsible. I'll check and see if I have the yarn in-stash for it first. I'm not buying more yarn right now!

Second, I really want to buy an umbrella swift, and was fully preparing to do so THIS WEEK until I spent all of the above money. I'll hold off until next month now, but I'm planning to get the Knit Picks umbrella swift. 

I'm also going to try to purchase a resin loom and/or weaving comb from Wild Juniper Fiber Art at the end of the month. She makes the most beautiful looms and combs, and they sold out in a matter of minutes at her last shop update, so I really do mean that I will TRY to get one. 

So, yes, shopping like mad. Whew! I look forward to showing you all of the beautiful things that I will be making with these patterns and materials in the coming months! 

What have you been splurging on lately?