Welcome Little Looms Summer 2023

Posted on by texasgabi

By now we have to say that “as usual” the new Easy Weaving with Little Looms Summer 2023 issue is filled with top quality project ideas and informative articles. It is my honor to have contributed two projects, the Queen Bee Table Topper and the Lemon Drop Kitchen Towel.

Working with small hexagons opens the doors to play with colors and create artful drawing-like designs, almost like in ancient mosaics. The Queen Bee Table Topper features a bee on a honeycomb background, all in natural hexagon shapes. Weaving the hexagons on the PennyTURTLE™ loom is relaxing and fun. The tried and tested Scheepjes Catona cotton yarn provides the perfect colors and fabric character for the project.

Inspired by Vintage fabric patterns, the Lemon Drop Kitchen Towel features an “all over” display of lemons with leaves.

The pattern consists of regular hexagons and half hexagons that are all woven on the Original TURTLE Loom™ R – Regular sett using Universal Yarn’s Clean Cotton, a soft and squishy, 100% reclaimed cotton yarn. Our article “Six Ways to Make Half Hexagons” will help with making the half hexagons.

The pattern repeat invites to adjust the size of the towel if desired, and you can even make just one lemon with its leaf and a border for a nice hot pad or dish cloth. The Lemon Drop kitchen towel can also be worked on the Original TURTLE Loom F-fine sett, using a thinner cotton yarn … like the Scheepjes Catona!

Stay tuned for one more story that we will share with you in just a few days: We will launch a rewards program where our customers can earn an honorary Weaving Buddy badge for completing TURTLE projects! More information will become available here on the blog … sign up to be notified about new blog posts (in the right column) so that you don’t miss it!

For your convenience, we offer the printed edition of Little Looms Summer 2023 in our Etsy shop. The publisher Long Thread Media offers a digital copy, and we can highly recommend a subscription.

Customer Projects Showcase – March 2023

Posted on by texasgabi

On the verge of spring in the northern hemisphere, there is still need for warming accessories, but also time to get some happy colors out!

Pin-loom veteran Jane Grogan, designer of the “Lilas au Printemps” wedding shawl in the Little Looms Spring 2022 magazine, uses small amounts of pretty yarn to weave single hexagons for greeting cards. A great way to showcase precious (handwoven) yarns or some pretty leftovers. Any of the Original TURTLE looms will create the perfect size hexie for a standard greeting card.

TURTLE loom customer Lisa Robinson recently finished this awesome scarf, where the beautiful yarn provides instant eye candy. Lisa wove the light worsted yarn on her Original TURTLE F-fine sett in plain weave to achieve a dense fabric. She worked half hexagons and triangles (method adopted) to accomplish the smooth edgings along the sides and the pleasant curving of the scarf ends.

Today, March 9th, is the third anniversary of the first Covid shutdown in the United States. Data analyst Kristin Briney (Instagram, Ravelry) used the TinyTURTLE F-fine sett to capture the Covid experience with visual representations of Covid fatalities in the United States in 2020 and 2021 … Impressive pieces that make you stop and think.

Let pin-loom weaving carry you through good and bad times!

I hope you find these projects and activities inspiring. Feel free to add your thoughts in the comments section below, and if you have a project that you’d like to see featured in a future customer story post, please contact us!

(Photo credits: All photos are by their respective project owners. Used with permission. All rights reserved.)

Customer Projects Showcase – February 2023

Posted on by texasgabi

There’s just not enough time in the day, in the month … to write everything I want to write about, but here are some new and awesome customer projects for you to enjoy …

New TURTLE loom enthusiast Shereen decided to make a pin-loom temperature blanket and joined us in the Pin-Loom Temperature Blanket Weave-Along Facebook group! She is using the TinyTURTLE™ loom (R-regular sett) and tracks high and low temperatures for each day. You can follow her and other weavers’ progress in the Facebook group – and also join any time to make your own temperature blanket!

Long-time customer Suzanne E. is a true yarn gourmet. Look at her beautiful heart, worked on the TinyTURTLE™ loom (F-fine sett) and appreciate the delicate combination of unusual color shades … Use such a heart as wall hanging, pillow cover, or table topper year round to decorate for a home.

Kathryn O. has been a TURTLE customer since the first loom release. Kathryn always surprises me with her new ideas tinkering around … her Tinker Shawl (as I call it), woven on the TinyTURTLE™ loom (F-fine sett), is a great project to study! Be inspired not only by the shape of the shawl, but also by the colors that she is using, and her playful placements of hearts and flowers.

Designer Greta Holmstrom released a new pattern for a Team Spirit Skirt, woven on the TexaTURTLE™ R loom. The pattern is very versatile and can be easily adjusted to accommodate different sizes and lengths.

This is also a great pattern idea for our Pin-Loom Garment Challenge 2023! You can follow and participate in the Pin-loom Garment Challenge on the TexasGabi blog.

Bee inspired!

I hope you find these projects and activities inspiring. Feel free to add your thoughts in the comments section below, and if you have a project that you’d like to see featured in a future customer story post, please contact us!

(Photo credits: All photos are by their respective project owners. Used with permission. All rights reserved.)

Hexie Love Blanket

Posted on by texasgabi

Happy Valentine’s Day to all! My gift to all of you is this pattern for a heart-shaped heart blanket that I call “Hexie Love Blanket”. And it’s not just for Valentine’s! Make it to welcome a new baby, as a wedding shower gift, or a “Thank you, Mom” blanket for Mother’s Day. The centers of the flowers offer a great space to embroider a name, a date, or a little message!

A reason why I designed this blanket is that I want to show how using hexagons in different directions can effect shapes: Depending on how you turn the hexagons, you’ll get a “slim” or a “wide” heart. I wrote about this in the article “Designing with Hexagons: Basic Concepts” … and now you have a project to try it out!

Yarn: I used Hobby Lobby “I Love this Yarn” in colors 466 Drizzle Me This (2 balls) and 950 Pink Neon (1 ball). Of course you can use any colors of your choice … the design would also be great in patchwork colors or colors of the 1960ties or 70ties!

You will need about 500 yds of the background/border color and 250 yds for the hearts and flowers.

Loom: The blanket weaves up quickly on the Original TURTLE Loom™ in R-regular sett for worsted weight yarns. The finished blanket will measure about 42″ wide and 39″ tip-to-top. If you want to make a larger blanket, you could use the same pattern with the TexaTURTLE™ in R-regular sett.

Ready to Weave?

Weave:
(55) white hexagons
(38) red hexagons
(4) white half hexagons (Half A, click here for instructions)
(2) red half hexagons (Half A)

Use the chart to assemble the blanket. I recommend that you turn the chart and begin at the right side. Sew the hexagons into rows first, then rows to rows. A simple whip stitch will be fine. You can see how I sew hexagons together in the Elf Basket video on YouTube.

Sew in any remaining ends and clip to about 1/4″ (the ends will settle during blocking, after which you can do a final clip if needed).

You can add the half hexagons right away, or insert them into their spaces when the rest of the blanket is assembled, as shown here:

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is 20230213_210628_resized_1.jpg

Optionally, add a nice touch with a crocheted border. I used the same yarn and a crochet hook G-6/4mm.

The first round is single crochet (sc) stitches. Start anywhere, joining the yarn with a slip stitch. The next picture shows how many stitches to work … along the sides where the yarn makes complete turns, work one stitch in each turn. Along the sides where the yarn makes wavy turns, work 2 sc, skip the next yarn turn, work 3 sc, skip the next yarn turn, work 2 sc. Work 2 sc into each corner, work sc2tog into each bend.

At the end of the row, join with a slip stitch into the first sc.

For the second round, work scallops as follows: Skip 2, then work 5 double crochet (dc) into the next stitch. Skip 2, work 1 sc into the next stitch. Repeat all around the blanket (adjust with sc at the end if there’s not enough space for another scallop).

Join with a slip stitch into the top of the first dc. Break the yarn, weave in remaining ends.

Block as desired. Clip yarn ends if needed.

Enjoy your blanket, and share pictures!

Pin-Loom Garment Challenge 2023

Posted on by texasgabi

Announcement!

We’re kicking off a weaving challenge today … Weave a pin-loom garment by Thanksgiving this year for a chance to win a professional photoshoot by Gale Zucker!

This challenge is open to all pin looms, that’s why it will be moderated on the TexasGabi blog. Hop over and check out the Kickoff post for more information and cool tools like guides for Pattern Resources and a Project Planning.

Come weave with us!

The Ditta Vest

Posted on by texasgabi

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.

Customer Projects Showcase – January 2023

Posted on by texasgabi

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!

(Photo credits: All photos are by their respective project owners. Used with permission. All rights reserved.)

TO A GRAND 2023!

Merry Christmas, All Y’All!

Posted on by texasgabi

TT22 and Linda are sending their warmest holiday wishes from Iowa!

Shortly after TT22 arrived in the Driftless Area, the snow set in … time for Linda to take TT22 on a test run …

Linda is experimenting … for the cute Christmas basket she put 8 random hexagons of her pretty wool together (2 rows of 4 hexagons sewn together, then closed along the short sides to form a tube. Sew the tips on one end of the tube together to shape the bottom … it’s a 4-hexagons-in-the-round basket). Then, full the basket and let it dry over a small wooden square. Santa surely seems to be pleased!

Best wishes from all of us for a joyous, peaceful holiday weekend.

(Photo credits: All photos by Linda Canton. Used with permission. All rights reserved.)

Welcome, Weft Blown!

Posted on by texasgabi

Howdy! I would like to share the exciting news that our TURTLE looms are now available at Weft Blown, a weaving and spinning supplier in West Kilbride, Scotland, which is also known as Craft Town Scotland.

Photo credit: Weft Blown. Used with permission.

Some of you know store owner Ange Sewell and her team, who for years have welcomed pin-loom weavers in person at their store near the beautiful North Ayrshire Coast, as well as online. Ange plans to relocate in 2023 , but will still be in West Kilbride.

To celebrate Weft Blown as a new stockist, I designed a quick and easy cowl, inspired by the Firth of Clyde and the impressive island scenery, like the Isle of Arran, right off the shore near West Kilbride.

When Ange and I were chatting about yarns that have something to do with Scotland (but are also available in the United States), The Croft yarns from West Yorkshire Spinners came up. I had sampled those yarns a few years ago and fallen in love with them, and using them in a welcome project seemed a delightful choice.

Whether you use Shetland wool (I used The Croft Shetland Tweed Aran and Wild Shetland Aran Roving), a handspun yarn that you made, or any worsted weight yarn of your liking, the Firth of Clyde Cowl works up quickly on the Original TURTLE Loom R – regular sett, even in time for the upcoming holidays!

Ready to celebrate? Download the free cowl pattern now!

Firth-of-Clyde-Cowl-FinalDownload

And here are a few suggestions for how to wear your cowl

  • The cowl measures about 27″ in the round and about 11″ tall, without measuring the hexagons tips (with tips it measures about 13″).
  • Just slide it over your head and tug it into a comfy position, or …
  • … wear it over your head.
  • If you do that, it’s almost like a hoodie …
  • … or a kerchief.
  • You can also fold it in half, like a turtle neck (no pun intended).
  • That way you have a smooth edging at the top, and playful tips at the bottom.
  • Or you can use the cowl as garden decoration … well, we hope you don’t!

Thank you for celebrating with us! Maybe some of you will get a chance to visit Weft Blown.
And to those who will make a Firth of Clyde cowl, make sure to share some pictures!

TT22 Is Going Back to Iowa!

Posted on by texasgabi

Congratulations!
Linda Canton in Iowa
will be our last TT22 host this year, for December.

Linda and her husband Dan live in the very unique Driftless Area of north-east Iowa. She writes about herself “We are an off-grid family, living in a fixed up timber-frame barn (well, still working on it). We are both recently retired (mostly … I substitute as a bus driver), and loving it.”

They share their home with “pandemic puppy” Tex (he just turned 2), a Texas Heeler who keeps them on their toes and outside, hiking their woods and trails. Linda’s comment on the photo: “He barely tolerated the photo session…can’t you hear him thinking – you gotta be kidding, Mom …”

Linda on the topic of hobbies: “How long do you have? Fixing up old places (a turn of the century Norwegian log cabin, our barn/home), cutting wood, stacking wood, hauling wood, burning wood (just kidding … we heat with wood), spinning fiber, knitting (see my favorite felted mittens from last year), making braided rugs, sewing … learner of much, master of none. But it sure is fun to try!

  • Some of Linda’s handspun yarn.
  • Linda’s favorite knitted, felted mittens.
  • Linda and her husband love fixing old places, including this Norwegian cabin.

About her pin-loom experience and plans Linda writes “Never used a hexagon loom, have tried to buy one, but they are (always) out of stock! Popular buggers. I do have an old 2 inch and 4 inch Weavette, along with a pile of squares. After reading a Little Looms magazine, I have set my sights a bit higher than acrylic squares … What would I like to make with the TURTLE? Don’t know yet … make some hexagons and see what shapes I can put together … a hat? Mittens? A sweater? I’m excited to see what I may make! I certainly have lots of yarn …”

TT22’s adventures of living off-the-grid with Linda, Dan, and Tex this December will be shared here on the blog … stay tuned!

(Photo credits: All photos except title are by Linda Canton. Used with permission. All rights reserved.)