Looming Lady Blog
Make a girl friday for your desk - or someone elses. she can hold your craft supplies - office supplies- or a gift card for the holidays!Girl Friday Off the Loom Description About 5 inches tall, this girl will stand on your desk and hold a variety of necessities in her arms and her skirt. Loom hook and scissors. Crochet hook and measuring tape. Pencil and small notepad. Plus, you can put a small bowl underneath her skirt for small items, like paper clips or stitch markers. She takes about 1 hour to make if you aren’t in a rush. You can customize her for your needs. I hope she’ll make you smile. What you will need
Make the head. With hair color, E-wrap all the pegs, flat stitch knit (U-wrap) 5 rounds. Attach face color. Rounds 6-12, flat stitch knit (U-wrap) 6 rounds. Attach dress color. Make the body/dress. Flat stitch knit (U-wrap) 1 round. Round 14: flat stitch knit first 6 pegs, knit off peg 6, flat stitch knit next 12 pegs, knit off peg 18, flat stitch knit to end. This creates arm holes. Round 14: flat knit stitch to empty peg 6, e-wrap peg, flat knit stitch to empty peg 18, e-wrap peg, flat stich knit to end. Rounds 15-20: flat stitch knit (U-wrap) 5 rounds. Round 21: e-wrap around, knit. Rounds 22-32: flat stitch knit (U-wrap) around. Attach apron color. Make the apron. Round 33: purl around. Rounds 34-44, flat stitch knit (U-wrap) around. Knit off all stitches. Make the arms. E-wrap all the pegs, turn, flat stitch knit back. Flat stitch knit 3 more rows. Lift the loops from the 1st row onto the pegs, knit off all stitches. Finishing touches. Pull arms through armholes, lining up the arms so they are even on each side. Sew the ends together. Weave a piece of the dress color yarn through round 21, pull closed. Stuff top of doll. Put in safety eyes, or stitch eyes. Close top. Make a tassel with hair color, sew to top of head. Weave in all threads. ©Pamela Murrey 2022
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I’m in the process of setting up a page on this website for my Looming Lady series. Check it out! I hope to make it interesting and informative. Looming Lady Series - Yarn Cats Birds & More (weebly.com)
Also, A Looming Lady Beginning will be offered in E-book free on Amazon Kindle from 07/15/22 – 07/18/22. See how the story starts in this third book of the series. https://www.amazon.com/Looming-Lady-Beginning-Book-ebook/dp/B00XSB3JME/ There are 18 patterns in A Looming Lady Beginning, created by a woman living in her car. You’ll find they could be useful in any walk of life, however. Yarn crafts are pretty, soft, and useful. These are no exception. convert flat piece patternsIn my last blog, I described a simple, straight forward way to translate a crochet ball pattern into a loom knit crochet pattern. In this article, I want to explain how to use the same method on a flat piece.
We’ll make a washcloth in crochet, then on a loom. What size and shape do you want? Start with the basics. I want an average 8 inch square fabric and will use a simple single crochet stitch for this project. For a washcloth you will need a small amount of cotton or similar yarn. You can also use a loom hook, large eye yarn needle, and a pair of scissors. Choose your hook. I chose a standard H crochet hook to crochet my cloth. Crochet your piece. I chained 23, turned single crocheted in 2nd chain from hook and each chain after it. 22 single crochets. Turn. Row 2 – 22 single crochet in each stitch across, turn. 22 single crochets. Chain 8, slip stitch into final stitch, bind off. You have a flat piece with a loop on one end. Choose your loom. I used a 31 peg round loom for this project. Loom your piece. Start by doing a swatch for gauge. E-wrap 10 pegs, flat stitch knit for 10 rows. My swatch showed 3 stitches = 1 inch, 3 rows = 1 inch. Row 1 – e-wrap 24 pegs. Rows 2 – 23 flat stitch (u-wrap) each peg across. 24 stitches. Row 24 – knit off all stitches to the last. Knit the last stitch 8 times, creating a chain. Bind off. Use your yarn needle to sew the chain closed on the last stitch for a holder. Weave in all tails. Conclusion The key to converting this simple pattern is to know your shape, size, and gauge. Next, we’ll try patterns with stitch patterns inside them. Crochet to loom knit, part 1two yarn balls, side by sideYarn work is delightfully fun because it can be done in many ways. I love to crochet – that was what I learned first, when I was about 9 years old. A crochet hook and a ball of yarn is easy to carry, even in a purse or pocket.
But in my 40s I started to loom knit. I was transported by delight with the ease of loom knitting. Then I decided I wanted to do both. But patterns for loom knitting was hard to find at the time. They have become easier and more popular, but I like to make what I want to at the time. Often, that means making something I would do in crochet but with a loom. How can you transpose patterns from crochet to loom knitting? There are two main questions to answer in advance. Which shape? Round or square? What size? I will walk you through the easy example of a ball. First, I will crochet a ball, then I will loom knit a corresponding ball. For the crochet project I will use a standard H crochet hook, a small amount of yarn, scissors, and a yarn needle. I chose this hook because it seems close enough to the gauge produced by my 12 peg loom. It will be almost impossible to make exact items in every detail. The goal is to complete similar items with different tools. I made a magic circle and crocheted 12 single crochets for the first round. I did not attach the yarn to the first stitch but made a spiral by beginning round 2 onto the first stitch of round 1. I made a single crochet, 2 single crochets in the next stitch around. 18 single crochets. I continued the spiral. Rounds 3-5: I single crocheted around. 18 single crochets. Round 6: I single crocheted in first stitch of round 6, decreased next 2 stitches together, repeating from * around. 12 single crochets. Stuff the ball with your desired material. For my cat ball I used dried catnip. Round 7, decrease stitches by single crocheting 2 stitches together around. 6 single crochets. Round 8: decrease stitches by single crocheting 2 stitches together around. 3 single crochets. Bind off. This makes a ball of about 2 inches diameter. Toss it to the closest cat. To use the pattern on the loom I used a 12 peg mitten loom, loom hook, small bits of yarn, and a yarn needle. Scissors are also useful. The 12 peg loom was my smallest, which is why I chose that first. It was also the nearest loom on hand. I wrapped all the pegs on the loom and flat stitch knitted for 6 rounds. I cut a long tail and used it to pull through all the stitches on the pegs and lift them off. I pulled them closed and seamed over the end. I filled the ball and seamed the other end of the ball. This was also tossed to the cats. So, I go back to the beginning. What are the answers to my 2 questions? The ball is round. This ball is for a cat so it is small – about 2 inches diameter. These are the key questions I needed to answer to create my crochet project on a loom. Next time, I’ll try something flat, like a wash cloth. Who knows what we can graduate to? I did some work on the loom this month, celebrating April and Spring WINDSPINNER Yes! I made a short one ON A LOOM and hope to try for a longer one yet. This is how I did it. What you need: baby hat loom, mine was 31 pegs. Loom hook. Three colors of yarn, small amounts of each. Yarn needle. Double e-wrap all pegs. Turn, knit off. Flat knit back to peg 1. Attach new color. E-wrap all pegs. Turn. Knit off. Flat knit back to peg 1. e-wrap all pegs, turn. Knit off. Flat knit back to peg 1. Change color. e-wrap all pegs. Turn. Knit off. Cut long tail, twice the length of the loom. Pull the tail through each stitch, picking each stitch off. Draw stitches closed, pulling the spinner into circles as you pull. Weave in all threads. Attach your anchor at the bottom. I used a stemmed flower! Pull a thread through the top loops and create a loop for your spinner. Enjoy! Ah, spring. Everything seems to go crazy, including me. The sun is shining, it’s time to plant seeds and see to clearing the yard. The animals are nesting and starting families, birds included. One can get out and about, working carefully with the cost of gas these days. Plants and nature, gardening, travel, and lots of yarn work are going on in my spring this year. Fall is my favorite time of year, but spring runs a close second. This month, I started sorting through my stashes. After a long, cold, and dreary winter I have bags of projects, finished and unfinished. I have full skeins of yarn that I bought, often impulsively. And there are tons of partial balls of yarn. I unbagged, took pictures, and resorted the projects. If I remembered my plans for them, I started to effectuate those tasks. If I didn’t, I re-bagged them with hopes of finding homes for them. Some will be gifts; some will go to charities. Some, like my little knitted kitty, will be used by me. Check him out, on my plantstand! Then I gathered all the small balls of yarn and started working to reduce them. Tassels, bookmarkers, wind spinners, and balls. I tried some in crochet and some in loom knit. I had a blast and got a very sore hand after a week. Flowers on stems What you need - a 12 or 16 peg loom. I used 16 pegs because that was available. Loom hook. Small amount of yarn. Start with the stems row 1: double e-wrap first 1 pegs. Turn. knit off, row 2: wrap peg 10, pull bottom loop over top onto peg 11. wrap peg 10 again, pull bottom loop onto peg 12. wrap peg 10 again, knit. Move stitch on peg 12 - 13, stitch on peg 11 to peg 12, stitch on peg 10 to peg 11. leave peg 10 empty. wrap peg 9, bring stitch to peg 10. wrap peg 8, bring stitch to peg 9. Wrap peg 7, bring stitch to peg 8 wrap peg 6, bring bottom loop to peg 7. wrap peg 6, knit Knit stitches on pegs 5-1. turn. row 3: Knit all stitches off until stitch 13. put stitch 13 onto peg 16. attach yarn for flower head or continue to use same color. HEAD -complete rounds. e-wrap all pegs. knit off in round, continue to knit rounds 2-3. Weave in all threads. One way of using this applique is by sewing it onto a bag, or the cover of a soft book. Check out below! I will try to make a visual example for this over the next month. In the meantime, enjoy! I loom knit a wreath to symbolize that I stand with Ukraine during this tragic time of war. Here is how I did it. What you need for wreath: 72 peg loom, loom hook, large eyed yarn needle, 2 colors of yarn (dark blue and yellow). Rounds 1-2: With dark blue yarn, double e-wrap all pegs, knit 1st round, flat knit 2nd round. I knit off the first 25 pegs of e-wraps and immediately u-wrapped or flat knit the same pegs, then repeated from around. This completed 2 rounds at the same time. Rounds 3-4: *e-wrap, knit around. flat knit around. Change color to yellow. Rounds 5-9: repeat *rounds 3 – 4 twice. Round 10: purl around. Round 11- 14: repeat *round 3-4 twice Rounds 15-19 repeat *round 3-4 twice Bring round 1 loop up onto the pegs of the loom, knit off all loops together. **Knit first 2 bottom loops over top loop on peg 1, knit off 2 bottom loops over top on peg 2, move loop on peg 2 over to peg 1, knit bottom loop over top, move back to peg 2, repeat from **around. What you need for sunflower (national flower for Ukraine): 16 peg loom, loom hook, large eyed needle, yellow and brown yarn.
*Double e-wrap first 2 pegs, knit, turn, flat knit back 2 pegs, turn, flat knit back 2 pegs, ** repeat *on next 2 pegs. In last turn, bring loop from between pegs 2 and 3 onto peg 3 and knit off with other loops. See picture 3 above. Repeat ** 6 times. You will have 8 petals. Change color. Rounds 2-3 flat knit around. Cut long tail, pull tail through loop on each peg, pull off loom and pull closed. Weave in all threads. Sew sunflower to wreath. In honor of fall I made a desk set using patterns from my Looming with Leftovers book. The colors are pleasant and brighten the windowsill they sit in.
I made four and five petaled pencil toppers, a cover for the jar they’re in, and a rose magnet all from the same yarn. Talk about using up leftovers! I’m contemplating using holiday covers to make sets for my office group at work. They’d have something practical and pretty. Once nice feature about the five petaled flowers is that they also make up great snowflakes! I’m going to post them next. Or spider webs…. Hmm. Maybe I’ll experiment a bit. Check out my yarn gallery for pics as I add them. Week 4 – the results of the yard sale yarn challenge were a sizzle in the hot days of August. I made 6 small bags and worked on, but did not finish a hat. So, the answer to how much yarn did I use up in a month is – not much.
This was all on a spur of moment – without a plan – in the busy days of summer. My confidence hasn’t diminished even though my yarn supply didn’t decrease by much. Instead, I believe I know how I failed so I can improve next time. I still have 2 large bags of yarn to use up. I plan to inventory it. Then I plan to make a list of projects I can use it in, with timeframes for completing the projects. How long do I think it will take? We’ll see when I have my plan in action. It was fun and sporadic, but not productive. Now I want fun and productive. Give me a week. I’ll come back with a new challenge! |
AuthorI am an office worker by day but a writer and crafter in my free time. My books can be found on Amazon in print or on Kindle. Archives
October 2022
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