Happy World Turtle Day 2025 GIVEAWAY!

Posted on by texasgabi

May 23, 2025 is World Turtle Day. Quoting the World Turtle Day website, “The day was created as a yearly observance to help people celebrate and protect turtles and tortoises and their disappearing habitats around the world.”

CONGRATULATIONS to “andrea”, who won the turtle project bag!
The giveaway is now closed and the winner has been notified.
Thank you for all your awesome comments!
I think this will be a summer buzzing with crafting … enjoy and be safe.

To “shellabrate” I made a stuffed turtle, using our free turtle pattern and leftover variegated and tonal fingering weight yarns from ChaosFiber Co.

I used two strands of yarn for the weaving, which creates a beautiful basket weave.

I made the larger turtle, using the TexaTURTLE™ and the Original TURTLE Loom™, both in R – regular sett.

As a modification to the pattern I made the head out of two hexagons instead of three:

  • Weave two hexagons, sew together along five sides.
  • Place eyes near the center of each hexagon side.
  • Stuff.
  • Sew head to the neck area.

GIVEAWAY!!!

CONGRATULATIONS to “andrea”, who won the turtle project bag!
The giveaway is now closed and the winner has been notified.
Thank you for all your awesome comments!
I think this will be a summer buzzing with crafting … enjoy and be safe.

My friend Becky from ChaosFiber Co not only dyes beautiful yarns, but she also makes amazing project bags. These bags make perfect “habitats” for pin-loom projects. They comfortably hold a pin loom, yarn, and instructions.

When Becky and I visited recently, I detected a turtle themed project bag. I decided that this bag will make a great giveaway for this World Turtle Day.

TO ENTER FOR A CHANCE TO WIN, leave a comment on this post and tell us what you will be crafting this summer.

This giveaway is open to all crafters. It starts now and will end Sunday, May 25, 2025, midnight US CDT. The winner will be chosen randomly, and the name will be announced here on this blog on Monday, May 26th.

Good luck, and happy weaving!

The Rhinebeck Headscarf

Posted on by texasgabi

Pin-loom weaving is a great way to use leftover yarns, even more so when those leftovers are precious, like hand-spun, or uniquely sourced or dyed fibers.

I recently had the opportunity to sample the first shipment of Handspun Hope’s Madagascar grown, hand-spun, and now also Madagascan hand-dyed wild Borocera silk. The five natural Madagascan colors are (clockwise starting at the top left): Black Mud, Psiadia Leaves, Tumeric, Passion Fruit, and Nato Bark, some of them unique in this world.

I knitted Martha Wissing’s Holtin sweater and was delighted to have some leftovers that I could try on my pin looms. This yarn weaves up beautifully on any TURTLE F-fine sett looms. It creates a nice solid fabric, is soft and therefore suitable to be worn next to skin. It has a beautiful drape (well … it’s silk), and the vibrant colors are second-to-none.

For the headscarf I used Tumeric, Nato Bark, Psiadia Leaves, and added some undyed silk for the remaining pieces and the ties.

I wove jewel shapes, hexagons, and half hexagons.

The ties are knitted but you can also crochet them.

The Tools

To make the scarf I used the Original TURTLE Loom™ in F-Fine sett and the Original Jewel loom in F-Fine sett.

The half hexagons can be woven on the hexagon loom, instructions are provided in this blog post. Optionally you can now pre-order the new Original Trapezoid (available in R-regular and F-fine sett) which will be released shortly.

The Yarn

You will need a total of about 158 yards.

I used about 42 yds in Tumeric (yellow), 41 yds in Nato Bark (brown), 25 yds in Psiadia Leaves (green), and 50 yds in natural, which includes the knitted tie.

The Pattern includes the instructions to make the headscarf as shown. In addition, blank layout charts are provided so that you can design your own headscarf based on the yarns that you have at hand.

You could also make the headscarf with hexagon and half-hexagons only, on just one loom. Instructions are provided in the pattern.

Get the pattern now in our Etsy store.

Not sure if your own precious leftovers are enough or right to make a Rhinebeck? Contact me with a brief description of the yarns that you have in mind and I will make a suggestion.

The Rhinebeck headscarf (and Martha’s Holtin sweater) will be on display at the 2024 NY Sheep & Wool Festival in Rhinebeck at the Handspun Hope booth, Barn 30, Booths 17 and 18.

Special thanks go to Gale Zucker, www.gzucker.com, on Instagram @galezucker, who went the extra mile to beautifully photograph the Rhinebeck headscarf in time, and to Gobrielle DeNinno, on Instagram @javagypsy, for stunningly modeling the piece.

Photo credits: I want to thank Diana Wiley from Handspun Hope, www.handspunhope.org, for allowing me to use her Madagascan silk photo for this post.

Accessorize!

Posted on by texasgabi

I released a knit-and-crochet pattern for a poncho that I call “The Best of Two Worlds”. It combines beginner-friendly approaches in either craft and encourages fiber crafters to use both methods, even if one (or both) of them is new.

Of course I could not design such a project without adding some pin-loom weaving: Let’s make it “The Best of Three Worlds” and use the leftover yarns from that poncho to add an easy-to-make pin-loom cowl!

For the poncho cowl I modified the Super-Easy Sock Yarn Cowl pattern, which also shows how easy it is to use different yarn weights and modify the width and height of a cowl.

The finished cowl measures about 26″ in the round and is 13″ tall.

Materials

Deluxe Stripes by Universal Yarn, 75% Superwash Wool, 25% Nylon, 218 yds/100g, color 311 Tie Dye, 1 ball (the cowl requires 192 yds).

Original TURTLE Loom™, R-regular sett for worsted weight yarn.

Make the Cowl

Weave 32 hexagons in plain weave. Because of the variegated character of the yarn, each hexagon will look unique.

To assemble the cowl, layout the hexagons in any way that you find pleasing into 4 rows with 8 hexagons each (see chart).

With whipstitch and using the yarn tails or a separate piece of yarn, sew the hexagons together. Join hexagons into rows first, then sew the rows together.

The piece will look like a wavy rectangle. Fold the rectangle along the short sides, wrong side out (the “wrong” side is where you did the sewing), and close the seam (join A to B according to the chart).

Weave in all ends, clip tails to about ¼”. Block as desired.

It is my hope that you will consider to ACCESSORIZE WITH PIN-LOOM WEAVING TO COMPLEMENT YOUR OUTFIT.

And as always, I will be here to cheer you on and assist you as needed!

Photo credits except for the yarn ball picture: Special thanks goes to Gale Zucker, www.gzucker.com, on Instagram @galezucker, for her amazing ability to bring out the best of hand-crafted items in photography, and to Tina Colon who perfectly modeled the poncho and cowl with her beautiful smile.