We had some really good weaving ideas this week. Top is the woven phone pouch Peter made and his wife, Marina, sewed it all together. He also has a matching one for his glasses. In was done on an inkle loom. Bottom left is the dog collar Marina made on her inkle loom and it looks so good and is such a good idea. She has to make another one for the other family dog! So good to be able to make the things you actually need. The dog collar is on top of a lovely woven pillow made from upcycled tablecloths and sheets. In real life it looks really nice and would be a great addition to any chair. Upcycling old clothing and manchester is a great way to get bags , cushions and mats and they are stylish items. Woven fabric has a cool look about it. It is strong and durable too. Bottom right is the tabletop sprang loom John made for Christine out of upcycled wood. We like to make use of everything and we all have stashes of bits which can be upcycled into something we need. The tabletop loom means Christine can sit comfortably to do her sprang weaving. The bonus is we can see better what she is doing and so it raises our level of interest and involvement in what Christine is doing. Living proof you can just use what is around you to make lovely things.
We waste nothing. Alexis had spun the wool for a jumper she knitted for herself and then didn’t like how the jumper looked. It just wasn’t for her. We have all been there. She loved the colours, though. She unpicked the jumper and then cut and handstitched the new pieces with wool and upcycled it into this beautiful bag. The bag is strong and roomy. It is well designed because it doesn’t look as big as it actually is. It does the job without taking over all the space. It’s a deep bag with a round bottom. Once she had hand sewn the pieces she felted it in her washing machine keeping a keen eye on it so that it felted to her wishes. It’s something which requires concentration and so Alexis doesn’t allow herself to be interrupted during that washing machine phase. She doesn’t leave anything to chance. Alexis takes control of the processes she uses to create something.
Maria made Margaret a pair of fingerless gloves from dark blue homespun wool. She has then used colourful scraps of other wool to make a pattern. Maria , though, has a refined sense of visual appeal and a good sense of humour. When you roll the gloves together the little ends she has left on the inside stick out and make the gloves look like sea creatures. It’s a great visual effect from someone who thinks of the visual details in anything she creates.
Margaret is knitting some lovely blue double rib gloves from a graph pattern and the slant on the rib gives them a snug and very stylish fit. She is using acrylic to practice the pattern to see how it all looks but it makes these gloves easy care and machine washable.
Margaret is also upcycling some yarn she had used to make something else but the moths had got to it and so she has unpicked that project and is reusing the good yarn to make some lovely, colourful knitted fingerless gloves. Fine yarn makes fingerless gloves have a different look from the thicker yarns. They also fit more closely on your hand and provide the warmth without any encumbrance.