Raffia Danish Medallions Ornaments

Posted on by texasgabi

Oh, the bliss! Easy Weaving with Little Looms Holiday 2021 is here!

It is showtime for the TURTLE Elongon 2″ R in this issue, with Edith’s adorable Foxy Birch Blanket in one of her favorite yarns, Blue Sky Fiber Woolstok, and my Painted Pillow, in one of my favorite “doodle” yarns Noro Kureyon.

And there is so much more (including my article about joining pin loom squares, may the TURTLEs forgive me)! Get the printed copy right here, or check out the digital or subscription offers directly from Long Thread Media.

But because this is a “holiday” issue, we also decided to treat you to a free project, as it was announced in our advertisement: The Raffia Danish Medallions Ornaments are an interesting way to explore a classic hand-manipulated weaving method that looks great on both sides.

Universal Yarn’s Yashi raffia is the perfect fiber for the ornaments, because it creates an instant stiffened fabric that stays flat without further treatment.

The ornaments are designed so that once you take them off the loom, they are (almost) ready to go onto the tree.

Get your Original TURTLE Loom “R”, then download the pattern and have a wonderful time!

20210923-RaffiaBaubleOrnament-V10Download

Harvest Hues Winner

Posted on by texasgabi

It was so much fun to read the comments! Cat toy (with catnip or … a bell!) seems to be the most popular suggestion, but dish scrubby (Hobby Lobby carries the hedgehog scrubby holders again this year!), acorn, pin cushion (good one), gnome (yes, we really should have another gnome), pumpkin , dryer ball (hmm … haven’t made one of those yet), shower loofah (yass!), potpourri sachet, soap sack, pot scrubber, or hacky sack. All of the above would work! Click on the links to see some examples.

But before we go any farther, let’s congratulate Melinda Crittenden on winning the skein of I Love This Cotton in Harvest Hues! Melinda, check your messages for some more information.

The project in the picture is a little sponge puff, made of the leftovers from the one skein of “I Love This Cotton” that I used to make the Leaf Pile Hand Towel.

When I weave hexagons, I measure start and end tails as recommended in the instructions, so that I have enough yarn to sew the hexagons together. This does leave clip ends that can be used as stuffing for something, or to make a “leave no ends behind” hexagon: Just knot the clippings together and weave away! It will be fun and funky, and is very functional.

I also had enough of the cotton to weave one more “normal” hexagon, and while the lavender sachets are extremely popular and the idea for a soap sachet invites itself because of the cotton yarn, I wanted to do something different.

I decided to make a little sponge puff: Sew the two hexagons together along five sides with simple whip stitch. Get a sponge pouf made of netting (or any other type of netting, even some plastic produce netting will do). Clip the thread that holds the netting puff together, then stuff the hexagon pouch as desired. Cut the netting (depending on the pouf, you will be able to make 2-4 sponge puffs). Close the remaining side of the sponge puff.


It feels soft to the skin, will lather soap nicely, and it will dry out reasonably well after each use.

Happy fall weaving!

Leaf Pile Hand Towel

Posted on by texasgabi

I had some “yarn research” to do at Hobby Lobby last week, and I discovered a new color of “I Love This Cotton” named Harvest Hues (362) … what an inspiration to ring in fall crafting!

This cotton yarn works perfectly on all “regular” TURTLE hexagon looms, and the Original R was at hand, so I started weaving right away.

As with all variegated yarns, each hexagon will look differently so that you always want to know what the next one will look like. The smooth and soft yarn is therapy to the hands as you work with it. No surprise, the one ball that I bought wove up quickly.

The stack of hexagons started to look like a pile of leaves.

Laying them out randomly, it turned out that 24 hexagons make a great hand towel for kitchen or bath. Just about one ball of yarn!

The towel is worked sideways. Use this chart to randomly layout your “leaves”.

Use mattress or whip stitch to join hexagons into rows.

Use whip stitch to connect the rows with each other.

The finished towel measures about 21″ x 16″ before washing.

Crochet a hanger at the top of the towel as follows:

  • Join the yarn with a slip stitch in the corner of the top hexagon.
  • Work a single crochet stitch into each yarn turn along the edge (7 sts).
  • Chain 10.
  • Turn, and close the loop with a slip stitch into the first sc. Cut yarn. Weave in all ends.

Are you ready for fall? Happy fall, all y’all and a GIVEAWAY!

Let’s have a little fun: To celebrate fall crafting, we’re giving away one ball of “I Love This Yarn” in 362 Harvest Hues (Just the yarn, no loom), enough to weave one hand towel, three dishcloths, or make anything else your heart desires. To enter for a chance to win, leave a comment on this post … what do you think is the project shown in the top left corner of the following picture? Post by Wednesday, September 8, 2021, midnight CDT! Mr. Random will determine a winner, which will be announced Thursday morning after 10 am CDT.