Snowflake Wall Hanging

This is a sort of unfulfilled post. I have been making lots of decorations and also wanted to make a snowflake wall hanging. So I crocheted lots of different snowflakes; different sizes and different designs.

 

And I sewed them to hessian backing. My intention is to iron some bondaweb to the back, cut out each individual snowflake and attach them all to a piece of linen.

Unfortunately this is as far as I've got and it's beginning to look like the wall hanging won't be finished on time!

Never mind. It will be done for next year. Are you excited? Or totally frazzled? Not long to go now.

The Peg Loom Scarf

This is it - the peg loom scarf. Made to be given as a gift along with a crocheted washcloth and Skye soap (see here).

The scarf is woven using a 200g ball of James C Brett Marble Chunky, a lovely soft acrylic yarn. I kept the ball band in a safe place so I could tell you the colour but it's so safe that I can't find it now! Anyway, I'm pretty sure the colour is MC27. A code for the colour doesn't really convey anything. I love it when they actually give the colours a proper name. Names like Loganberry and Ice and Orchid. Of course, the name doesn't always convey the exact colour but I think it helps.

In my opinion the scarf looks really lovely. What you can't tell from the photo is that it is very thick (not a terrible fault, if you want a warm scarf) and also very stiff. No matter how much I try to like it, I just can't.

Now I have two problems. What to do with the peg loom scarf and what to make as another gift.

The first problem shall be solved some day in the future when I think of some other use for this scarf. At the minute I'm considering how to make it into a wall hanging - after some adjusting.

The second has already been solved simply by crocheting another Queen Anne lace scarf using the Stylecraft Alpaca in the beautiful Orchid colour that I had left over from making other gifts (see the link at the start of this post).

My conclusion is that either I still don't know how to weave a scarf that I'm happy with or that a scarf is better knitted or crocheted. Does that mean I've given up on my peg loom? Definitely not. I have plans to make a small rug just as soon as I can get the time.

Have you ever made a scarf on a peg loom? What did you think of it? All comments gratefully received!

It's great to have some new followers. I'm sorry I haven't been able to do much blog reading and commenting this past week or so. Hopefully I'll get more time soon!

All the best for now.



Edited to add: If you want to see details about the peg loom I have then look at this post; near the bottom.

The Big Weave in the Mournes

On Friday the Big Weave in the Mournes came to Rathfriland. The exhibition and demonstration was held in what used to be the Bank of Ireland building in the Town Square. This lovely old building has recently been refurbished and renamed Chandler's House. This isn't just a random name for the building; before being used as a bank there was a candle-making business located here.

Anyway, back to the Big Weave. Basically there is a group of weavers making their round various small towns so that local people can see how the Mourne Tapestry is being constructed and also so local people can actually take part in the weaving.

Of course, I had to have a go at the weaving. There were pictures to show us what we were trying to achieve. By the way, that stunning crocheted table cloth was just draped there as something to set other bits and pieces on!

Here is the picture of the section that I worked on.

I worked on the sea part to the bottom left hand side. It was great fun weaving the mix of blue and green wool around the warp threads. Two people can work together on each section of the tapestry, one from the front and one from the back. I only had time to do this little bit.

There were some small hand looms to try out your weaving skills if you didn't want to do any on the main tapestry.

What really got me excited were these little peg looms. They are so incredibly easy to use and also incredibly fast. It would be possible to make a bag or table mat in a very short time compared to crocheting the same thing.

There were some examples of items made on the peg looms. Aren't the colours gorgeous? You can weave with strips of fabric as well, as I learnt when I was trying it out. The looms come in different widths so it is possible to make something much wider than these examples.

This is something I think I will have to take up. So many ideas just rushed into my head all at once! A rag rug is something I'd really love to make. I was so excited by it that I went home and brought the husband to see too! The looms are available to buy online but they would also be very easy to make. So that's a wee job for the husband now that the gardening chores will be taking up a lot less time.

There were also some landscape applique type wall hangings in progress. Have a look at what I mean.

Those are lazy beds running in rows in front of the cottages. This is another craft I'd love to get involved in but the class is held on a weekday afternoon which, unfortunately, doesn't suit me.

So, will you be reading about my finished weaving projects soon? I think you just might!

Bye for now.