Project Ideas

Fellow pin-loom weaver Pamela shared a post, showing a most adorable crocheted mouse by Stephanie of CrochetVerse, which is an adaptation of a free pattern by Pops De Milk. Pam prompted to continue the inspirational crafting chain with “Someone design a woven version of this.” … and I felt called.

So that more people can weave such a mouse, I decided to use only one loom. I used the Square 2″ R and some Sugar’n Cream cotton yarn that I had at hand in the desired colors, but any square loom and matching yarn will be just fine. Using the bias weaving method (as shown) may stretch slightly differently, but traditionally woven squares will work, too.

Weave:

(2) orange squares
(1) white square
(3) yellow squares

Sew the two orange squares to the white squares (simple whip stitch will do, no matter which weaving method you used).

Then sew the two orange squares together as indicated.

Sew the three yellow squares together as indicated.

Next, attach the yellow strip to the long orange edge … you will need to hold in the yellow a little bit.

This is what your piece looks like when all square are sewn together.

Using a yarn tail or separate piece of yarn, work a running stitch along the long yellow edge. This will be used to gather the back end of the mouse (see below).

Now fold the piece in half, wrong side out, and sew along the bottom edge.

Turn the piece right side out, stuff …

… then pull the ends of the running stitch yarn to completely close the back. Make a knot, then hide the ends inside the mouse.

Accessorize your mouse with tail, ears, feet, and a face as you like.

I provide a brief description of what I did below.

In a nutshell … I embroidered the eyes with black embroidery thread in a star stitch. The nose and mouth are straight stitch.

The tail is made of yellow yarn held double. Join the back of the mouse with a slip stitch, then chain 12 or desired length, fasten off.

Ears: Using a long tail, working with the white yarn, make a magic loop, slip stitch and chain 1 into loop. Work 4 single crochet, then pull the magic loop close to shape a half round. Use the same long tail to make another magic loop and work the second ear the same way. Fasten off, sew ears to head.

Back feet (make 2): Using yellow, chain 4, work a triple picot (chain 2, slip stitch into the 4th chain; repeat twice). Work 4 single crochet stitches into the back loops of the chain, back to the beginning. Fasten off. Sew feet to the yellow part of the body.

Front feet (make 2): Using orange, chain 3, work two picots (chain 2, slip stitch into the 4th chain; repeat once more). Work 3 single crochet stitches into the back loops of the chain, back to the beginning. Fasten off. Sew feet to the orange part of the body.

Happy fall, all y'all!

Yes, I’m one of those people to whom yarn occasionally “speaks” as to what it wants to become … Cleaning up some yarn remnants this morning, a small amount of pink, ugly yarn crossed my path and went straight into the cat pad bin. “No, no, no!” it called out. “Pig me, pig me!” With a chuckle, and remembering the mention of pocket pals in the most recent post, I picked up that yarn and went to work.

15yds of any worsted weight yarn is all you need, and some black for the eyes and the nostrils. And if you don’t have all looms that I used, just substitute … you could even use all squares for a “square pig”!

Here is what to make:

• Weave two hexagons on the Original TURTLE Loom™ for the front and back of the head.
• Weave one hexagon on the BabyTURTLE™ loom for the nose.
• Weave two triangles on the Original Jewel loom for the ears.

Assembly:

• Sew the two hexagons together along four sides to prepare the head.
• Attach the two ears along the top as shown.
• Weave in the ends of the Baby hexagon. With black yarn, attach it as the nose with two cross stitches.
• Embroider eyes.
• Gently stuff the head and close the remaining two sides.

Have another coffee and enjoy your pocket pig!