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!

Travel Project: Easter Bunny

Posted on by texasgabi

One loom and one skein of yarn is all you need to make this Easter bunny, a travel-friendly, fun and quick last-minute project.

To make the bunny …

The bunny is worked on the Original TURTLE loom R-regular sett and I used Hobby Lobby’s I Love This Cotton (about 42 yards).

You will need 3 plastic eyes for the eyes and nose. You can also embroider or use small pieces of felt to add the face.

Use a small amount of stuffing of your choice for the bunny’s body and tail.

Weave 7 hexagons (4 for the body, 2 for the ears, 1 for the tail).

Using whipstitch, sew two hexagons together as shown for the Front. Repeat for Back.

Assembling the Body

Put Front and Back on top of each other, right sides facing towards each other.

Sew all but the bottom side.

Turn.

Install the eyes and the nose.

I put the nose button into the center of the hexagon and each eye four rows up and four rows over. Adjust to your liking.

Stuff and close.

To make the Ears …

  • Thread the end tail of one hexagon. You will gather the two sides that are marked in red.
  • Start with “securing the thread” … guide the yarn around the outermost warp thread and pierce the yarn. This will ensure that the yarn does not pull the weaving.
  • To gather, go through every other edging turn of the weaving as shown.
  • After gathering the stitches on both sides, pull the thread and secure with a stitch.
  • This is what the ear will look like. If you prefer a less floppy ear, close the side seam and gather the two remaining sides at the top the same way you did the bottom.

Sew the ears onto the head, right behind the upper two corners of the head hexagons.

To make the tail …

  • Use a secured yarn tail or a separate piece of yarn to gather all sides of a hexagon.
  • Add a little bit of stuffing.
  • Pull close the Tail as shown and secure the thread.
  • Mount the Tail to the back of the bunny … if you position it as shown (right under the center of the lower back hexagon), the bunny will be able to “sit”.

Enjoy your bunny!

Be creative …

  • Weave the tail in a different color, or make a pompom.
  • Make a patchwork bunny where each hexagon is different.
  • Add some embroidery like eye glasses or flowers.
  • Add a bow tie.

The bunny can be worked on any hexagon loom. The yarn requirements will vary if you use a different loom. Make bunnies on different loom sizes for a bunny family!

Mardy and Grady – Your Summer Travel Companions

Posted on by texasgabi

Smooth, cooling yarn and just one, small hexagon loom is all you need to make Mardy, the alligator, who is the star of our ad in Little Looms Summer 2025.

Mardy makes an exquisite headrest for your summer travels.

Mardy’s friend, Grady, is fast to weave and will serve as a cuddle companion for all ages.

Whether you weave before or while you travel, either alligator will be enjoyable to make and fun to use (and maybe to give).

We used Universal Yarn’s Bamboo Pop, perfectly smooth for weaving, and we love the cooling effect of this bamboo and cotton blend.

You just need two balls of yarn (one for the top color, and one for the underside) to make Mardy and Grady … or two Mardys … or a few Gradys.

Mardy is woven on our PennyTURLTE™, F fine sett hexagon pin loom, and Grady on the TinyTURLTE™, F-fine sett. But because for this pattern we used the “one loom only” policy, you can weave the pattern on any hexagon loom, in any size.

FIND THE PATTERN in the Bluebonnet Crafters Etsy store, click HERE.

We hope that you will enjoy making and using the alligators and – whether you travel or not – have a happy summer!

Two Weeks Later …

Posted on by texasgabi

Two weeks ago today we had fun with a giveaway alongside the ongoing Weave Together retreat. It was dream worthy to read all your comments about traveling goals, from stay-cation to cruises to camping and visiting far away places and foreign countries … I hope that you enjoyed it as much as I did.

The luck winner of the giveaway was Gwen H., and she picked the Original Jewel in R as the loom of her choice, to go together with the muud travel case.

It was nice of her to let me know that the prize arrived safely, but you can only imagine my surprise when she also sent a photo of her first finished project!

Gwen made the new Countryside Brunch Table Topper project, using her new loom. When I asked her if she finished her perfect project in the short time since she received her prize, her reply was: “I did. Loved doing it, couldn’t put it down. Thank you for your inspiration.”

Well, thank you, Gwen, for allowing me to share your awesome story here on the blog!

I love it when everything comes together like this … stay tuned for more projects, more fun, and maybe an occasionally giveaway!

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Photos courtesy of Gwen Hernley, used with permission.

A Color Gamp Bandana

Posted on by texasgabi

As a weaver, at some point during your weaving journey you most likely have encountered color gamps, the systematic use of color combinations within a project.

It has been a great privilege for me to write about special aspects of color gamp weaving on pin looms for the Little Looms magazine, and you can read about it in the new Little Looms Summer 2025 issue that has been released today.

For the Weave Together 2025 retreat, I designed a sample project that allows pin-loom weavers to explore color-gamp weaving in a practical project: A Color Gamp Bandana.

Louët’s Venne Eco Jeans (available at Louët dealers like the Lone Star Loom Room) proved to be an excellent yarn choice for such a project. I used it double-stranded on our TinyTURTLE F-fine sett hexagon pin loom .

Colors from left to right:

  • 19-5056 Olive
  • 19-3005 Deep Red
  • 19-4038 Slate Blue
  • 19-1021 Cornsilk
  • 19-4060 Steam
  • 19-3034 Pelican Pink
  • 19-6005 Sahara.

For the gamp, I combined these colors with themselves (see diagonal) and then with each other, and arranged them in a gamp with slanted columns (read about that construction in the Little Looms article).

Using seven colors and the TinyTURTLE loom makes a project large enough for a bandana that can be worn with a bandana clasp clip or ring (I used a faux leather clip).

If you would like to make a larger bandana, consider adding more colors or use the same colors on a larger loom!

While this project concludes our Weave Together 2025 miniseries I hope that you enjoyed it and will stick around, because there’s always more … alligator Mardy is right around the corner, and I saw a bunny hopping across the lawn recently, and then there is a long list of pin-loom tips and tricks that want to be shared …

Simply sign up to the turtleloom blog to be notified so that you don’t miss anything:

Take a moment and share what you thought about this miniseries
in the comments below!