January 2023 – TURTLE Looms – Hexagon Pin Loom Weaving

From the early beginnings of my pin-loom journey I have been dreaming of make clothing items. Decades ago it was quite the standard for pin-loom weavers to think of making wearables. While there is much less the “need” to make clothing today, it can be fun and useful.

Ditta is a one-size-fits-many vest that will keep your back warm while gradually evolving into a flattering bolero-style front.

It can be worn open, or closed with a shawl pin.

The vest is woven on the Original TURTLE Loom™ R-regular sett for worsted weight yarn.

I used Purl Soho Linen Quill Worsted yarn, a beautiful natural and soft fiber blend that is fun to weave and awesome to wear.

You can use the same pattern with the F-fine sett and the XF- extra fine sett Original TURTLEs as well (and even a mix!) and use different yarns.

The pattern includes a blank chart so that you can create your own designs: Make the vest in a single, pretty yarn, use up scraps to make a patchwork vest, or plan yarns and colors in detail to make it “your” design!

Get the pattern at the Bluebonnet Crafters Etsy shop. We decided to ring in garment weaving with a 50% off sale until February 15th. No code necessary, the discount is automatically applied when you purchase the pattern.

Here is a 360-degree view of the Ditta Vest that also shows a little bit more the one-size-fits-many. I’m 5’5″ and wear size XL/14 clothing, for reference.

Suggestions on how to modify the size are in the pattern, and I’m happy to help with any questions that you may have.

If you decide to make the Ditta Vest, please share pictures! We will be tracking the Ditta Vest on social media with the hashtag #DittaVest.

There’s more to come!

Our ad in Little Looms Spring 2023 also announces that we will conduct a year-long pin-loom garment challenge this year: Weave any garment, on any loom, by Thanksgiving this year, to win an opportunity to have your garment photographed by professional photographer Gale Zucker! The details will be on the TexasGabi blog soon.

Special thanks …

go to Gale Zucker, www.gzucker.com, on Instagram @galezucker, for her amazing ability to bring out the best of a hand-crafted item in photography, and to Josephine Ankrah, Instagram @sweetjsphn, who added so much character to the Ditta vest by the way she models it.

New year, new ideas! Frequently, customers share pictures of their projects on social media or contact me directly, and this year we would like to start showcasing some of them here on the turtleloom blog. The goal is to post 3-5 projects in a blog on the first of each month. Sounds like a New Year’s resolution? Here’s the start!

Ravelry pin-loom fellow Lynne just finished her Cathedral Window blanket from Little Looms Fall 2022 (project on Ravelry). It was exiting to follow her row-by-row progress in the “Looms to Go” group, and the result is second-to-none! Lynne plans to make another Cathedral Windows blanket in natural tones … we can hardly wait to see it. You can find more information about the Cathedral Windows blanket in this post.

Taking a break from blanket weaving, Lynne also made this Firth of Clyde cowl (project on Ravelry). We introduced the pattern for this cowl as a welcome project for our new retailer Weft Blown in Scotland. You can find the free instructions for this cowl in this post.

One of our Australian customers, Kaye, was inspired by our owl blanket. But she took the idea and some further online inspiration to a whole new level … this is her owl blanket, woven on the PennyTURTLE™ !!!

Greta has been a TURTLE loom customer from the beginning. By now she has not only published her designs in multiple Little Looms and Handwoven magazines, but she also offers amazing patterns in her Etsy store. Here is her “Forest Fairy Capelet”, for example. Add her store to your Etsy favorites for a growing resource of hexagon patterns that are out of the ordinary!

Did you enjoy seeing these customer projects? Leave a comment below and tell us what you think!

And if you have a project that you would like to see shared in an upcoming Customer Project Showcase, please contact us.

How it works:

All we need is a picture of your project and a brief description.
The project can be after a pattern or your own.
You grant us permission to use your photo in our blog; you will be credited by name and you will keep the photo copyrights.
Selecting projects for posting will be at our discretion.
We will not be able to reimburse you in any way, but there’s a good chance that you will have a lot of fun sharing your work this way!