If you’re embarking on your pin loom weaving career, or are ready for some clarifications, here are some 102-level basics.

***Remember, you can click on a photo to enlarge it; click the back arrow (upper left corner of this page) to return to these instructions.

Right, Left; Odd, Even; Corners, and Edges

When I talk about weaving and patterns, I frequently have to refer to the edges of the loom. Top and bottom, left and right are arbitrary if you turn the loom while weaving, so I try to refer to the sides by their corners, e.g. the “left” side of the loom is the 1-3 side. This information is useful, though for the life of me I can’t think why at the moment!

Corner and side designations shown on a Weave-It

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General Conference weekend is the best, best weekend–and it happens twice every year! When I was a little girl I used to watch my older sisters crochet chain-stitch monkeys. How I ENVIED them! Never have made a chain stitch monkey, but I learned to crochet and have spent many a divine conference weekend crocheting up a storm.

But now I weave. Got to have something to do with my hands while my mind and heart and spirit are feasting on the talks, prayers, and music.

Last time I blogged, I posted a variation on a Loomette design. I got caught up again in the rapture of designing squares, so that’s what I’ve been doing. The four squares on the right, in the photo below, are variations of each other and they all involve manipulating the threads in the lower layers of the warp. Such fun, such madness, such perseverance was required on the part of the designer. It took four times till I got it right.

Oh, the things you can think up!

Oh, the things you can think up!

Earlier this week, I saw some pin loom blankets on Meg Stump’s website that are absolutely gorgeous. Take a look: http://www.pinloomweaving.com/2016/04/pin-looms-love-crispina-ffrench-blankets.html

They’re watercolor heart blankets! Naturally I want to make one, and have set about designing one. I thought it would be cool–if I ever get a triangle loom–to make triangle squares to give the heart a slightly less blocky look. My mind jumped ahead to the prospect of sewing all the triangles into squares and I thought, “What if . . .?” Maybe I could weave a square that was made up of two triangles. Put the blanket on the back burner while I work on this idea.

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I realize that pictures of freshly dyed yarn drying on a rack can lose their appeal after a while, or awhile (long time/short time). Yet the thrill of doing the dyeing does not die. How many times have I dyed now? I feel like Phil in Groundhog Day.

Today's harvest

Today’s harvest

The two hanks of yarn on the outside edges were once what we call white in the wool world, though off-white, or natural, is more accurate. In the past several days, I’ve woven up the other yarns I dyed and noticed I was lacking a yellow representative, so I MADE MY OWN! (Yeah, yeah, I made all the others too, but it still thrills me that I can make what I need right here at home.)

Yes, we're also missing blue and lavender squares. This will never do . . .

Yes, we’re also missing blue and lavender squares. This will never do . . .

The two skeins in the center of the drying rack photo were gray–hand spun by yours truly. That emerald green is not my usual fare–I have to make mistakes to get out of my comfort zone–it was meant, ahem, to be blue. So, great news, I still have some dyeing ahead of me. And, to get the colors I want, I’ll either have to buy more Wilton cake decorating gel dyes or actually mix up the Pro Chem stuff I bought last year. (Which do you think is going to happen first?) In the meantime I’m spinning up my undyed merino wool so I can truly own this project!

In other news, I wove a Fourth of July tree with beads (and yarn). It’s a toss-up between weaving with beads and dyeing–which I enjoy more. Luckily, I don’t have to choose. I can do them both!

Happy Independence Day, a few months early.

Happy Independence Day, a few months early.

Some people call it browsing the internet; others call it research, shopping, etc. I was doing that thing earlier today when I ran across a marvelous, but unpurchaseable, contraption.

Hazel's Adjust-a-peg Loom (not associated Hazel Rose Looms. It appears that to be in the current loom market you need to have a color or two associated with your product--Hazel Rose, Blue Butterfly. Except for Zoom Loom.)

Hazel’s Adjust-a-Peg Loom. (Not associated with Hazel Rose Looms. In fact, it appears that to be a member of the current loom market you need to have a color or two associated with your product–such as Hazel Rose, Blue Butterfly. Except for Zoom Loom.)

I snagged a few pictures from http://www.knitting-and.com/blog/hazels_adjust_o/, but there are more. What an utterly spiffy little object! With this one loom “I could, dare I say it, rule the world” or, well, no, probably not. But I sure wanted to try it!

It occurred to me that I own an object kind of like it. My gadget is for shaping wire (a sport I gave up on some years ago).

Wild Wire implement

Wild Wire implement–with attempted 3-pin configuration

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