Inkle Origami Mobile

26 Thursday Apr 2012

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My thought after I made my inkle origami fish last week was, “Great, that worked, and they’re cute, now what do I do with these fish?”

Then it hit me: an inkle origami mobile!

Inkle Origami Mobile

Inkle Origami Mobile

Fish out of water!

I’ve wanted to make a mobile forever. The fish gave me the perfect opportunity. This project made me very thankful that I have tried so many crafts and am a collector of crafty supplies.

From my stash I grabbed:

To make the mobile, I:

1) Hung the fish from the beading nylon cord and tied them to the inner ring of the embroidery hoop, spaced evenly.

2). Put the hoop back together, catching the tied nylon between the inner and outer hoops, and wrapped the whole hoop with embroidery floss.Inkle Origami Embroidery Hoop

3) Tied the shells to the fish cords with the invisible thread, randomly spaced.

Inkle Origami Mobile Shell Beads

4) Tied 4 lengths of floss to the hoop at the top, spaced evenly, gathered them together so it was level and tied a loop to hang it from.Inkle Mobile Embroidery Hoop Close-up

This can be customized so many ways: with more fish, more beads, tassels, hanging the fish evenly or unevenly, or even using a bigger or smaller hoop. Sky’s the limit!

Now where to put it? Should it be new décor for our son’s room, or for my creative room? Hmmm.

warp, weave, be happy! ~Jennifer

Inkle + Origami

22 Sunday Apr 2012

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One of the first crafts I learned as a child was origami. I have enjoyed it for many years and thought it would be interesting to pair origami and inkle weaving. Yup, inkle origami. Probably two words not often said together, let alone done together. To commemorate Earth Day, I decided to try my hand at making origami goldfish.

Inkle Origami Goldfish

I have a few origami books, but the best and easiest instructions I found were in a wonderful post on the blog Nan: Now and Next. I folded these paper goldfish using her directions.

Even if you don’t want to make origami goldfish, her post is more than worth reading. It is also a touching post in honor of her Grammy. I’m going to try that Dr. Pepper float, and I don’t even like Dr. Pepper!

Inkle Goldfish meet Paper Goldfish

To make the goldfish I sewed together 4 pieces of a 1″ wide band cut 4″ long to make a 4”x4” square; using a zigzag stitch to join the selvedges, then sewed a straight stitch across the fringe edges (very short stitch length to catch the all the ends).

Next, I saturated the square with spray starch and ironed it to make it stiff, but still foldable. Each time I made another fold I added spray starch then ironed. Tip: If you spary over wax or parchment paper, you can dip the folds in the overspary caught by the paper so you don’t waste your starch.

The eyes are french knots stitched with needlepoint floss. Fish have blue eyes, right?

The only modification I made to Nan’s pattern was to the tail. Instead of cutting the tail I just folded it up and pulled it back a little to make it stand. I didn’t want to cut the bands and have fraying.

Do they look like origami fish or am I just wanting them to? I’ve been looking at them way too long.

warp, weave, be happy!

~Jennifer

An Earth Bit:

To quote my son’s book, Little Helpers, “When I turn off the faucet while brushing my teeth there is more water for the fish in the rivers.” My inkle goldfish are not suiting up to go for a swim in the river, but we are teaching our son to conserve water for the fish that do and for all of us who depend on accessible clean water. Here is a list of 100 Ways to Conserve Water.

The Gift That Inkle Saved

16 Monday Apr 2012

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What gift should I give to dear friends celebrating their 7th wedding anniversary? Hmmm… Oh, wait, I know, how about the gift I started making for them 7 years ago for their wedding and never finished!

Here it is ready to be wrapped.

The back.

Why did this pillow take me so long to complete? Because I can embroider, sew basic straight seams, but I can’t sew piping! Sometimes my ideas are bigger than my abilities and I can fake it ’til I make. Not this time.

I had such high hopes for this gift. My friends are bird watchers, so embroidering birds was an obvious theme. The pillow is made of the same color dupioni silk as the dresses that the bridesmaids wore. Perfect, right?

Nope. This project went so wrong.

I ripped it apart, sewed it again, apart, sew, apart, sew, until, out of frustration, I put it in a box and there it stayed. For seven years. I thought of it every year around their anniversary, but my skills had not changed and neither did the state of the pillow.

What the pillow was waiting for was for me to learn how to inkle weave. An inkle band added the perfect finish to what I couldn’t achieve before.

I wove the band with DMC embroidery floss, which gave the band a pretty sheen that matches the silk, then sewed it to the front piece. The design of the pillow is a little different than I initially planned; it was supposed to be a removeable pillow case, but I lost some material taking the piping off again, so it is stitched closed on all sides.

I’m very happy with how it turned out and that it is FINALLY finished. I hope they like it.

Happy anniversary you guys! May you have 7 years times infinity more.

warp, weave, be happy!

Jennifer

Try Your Hand at Inkle Gardening

06 Friday Apr 2012

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How cute are these little carrots?!

With my non-green thumb, these are the only carrots I can grow – besides, I’m not all that crazy about digging in the dirt. I had a blast designing them. Quick and easy, they are a great stash buster, ok, really they didn’t even make a dent in my stash but, I did use yarn that I had on hand. Carrots come in a rainbow of colors, so use the yarn you have!

If you “grow” your own carrots do let me know how they turn out. I’d love to see pictures and if I get enough I will do a garden post!

You will need:

Materials

  • 1”wide inkle band at least 18” long

*(a little wider or narrower is okay) with two shades of orange 10/2 or 8/2 perle cotton, tatting yarn, or needlepoint yarn. 8/2 perle cotton and needlepoint yarn are a bit thick but will work.

*The carrot in the rabbit’s arms is woven using needlepoint yarn and the other two are woven with both 10/2 perle cotton and tatting yarn.

  • green worsted or sport weight yarn
  • cotton or poly stuffing batting
  • woven fusible interfacing
  • straight pins
  • needle and matching thread (forgot to put in picture –oops!)
  • scissors
  • glue (Alene’s tacky)
  • ruler
  • fine felt-tip marker

Equipment

  • sewing machine (very helpful but optional – can be sewn completely by hand)
  • iron
  • ironing board

Have fun!

I hope you enjoyed the first Inkled Pink tutorial! Don’t forget: show me what you come up with – I’d love to see!

warp, weave, be happy!

Yay! The Check Is in the Mail!

30 Friday Mar 2012

Posted by in Design, Teaching, Travel

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I have never been so happy to mail a check. Ok, that is a bit of an exaggeration, but I had a smile on my face when I dropped it in the box.

Not long after I learned how to inkle weave I ran across this picture.

Anne Dixon inkle woven bands. The Braid Society

The orange and white band stumped my limited knowledge of inkle design, as did the others actually, but that orange one… How was that done?! I did a little internet slouthing and found it was woven by the gifted weaver Anne Dixon. So, I emailed Ms. Dixon – and she replied with a great email outlining the process. I was ecstatic. But the funny thing is, I had no idea she was the Anne Dixon, author of “The Handweaver’s Pattern Directory: Over 600 Weaves for 4-Shaft Looms”. And now the author of the soon to be released “The Weaver’s Inkle Pattern Directory: 400 Warp-Faced Weaves”. Woohoo, I’ve already preordered mine!

So where did I send the check? To the Western North Carolina Fibers/Handweavers Guild to become a member of the guild and to attend an Anne Dixon inkle 3-day workshop in July in beautiful Hendersonville, NC! I met a lovely bunch of ladies from the guild last weekend and I am so glad to join their group.

Is it July yet? This is going to be an amazing birthday present to me and if all works out we will be able to make it a family trip. Does it get any better than that? Yeah, I don’t think so either.

warp, weave, be happy!

Shuttles Fly Again

23 Friday Mar 2012

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Weaving shuttles that is, and spinning wheels, knitting needles, crochet hooks, and kumihimo bobbins, too. Last weekend was the Florida Tropical Weaver’s Guild Annual Conference; a three and a half day unbelievably fun weekend filled with over 45 mini-workshops, laughing, chatting, eating, learning, and creating, not necessarily in that order. This was my first time attending the FTWG conference and boy will I be there next year. Are the registration forms ready yet?

I taught my first inkle project class this weekend! “Beyond Belts and Bookmarks” was my inaugural class. What do you do with an inkle band after you weave it other than turn it into a belt or a bookmark? Well, eight lovely ladies allowed me to show them how to make a necklace, wristlet keyfob, and a coaster out of inkle bands. Inkle project samples

Some brought their own bands and others used bands I provided.

Inkle coaster Inkle Necklace

Everyone said they enjoyed the class, and I am so glad, because I had such a great time!  Busy prepping for the class, I only got five hours of sleep in two nights. I was sooo tired, but the excitement and friendly students kept me awake – and lots of coffee.

I also took a kumihimo class from the talented Jennifer Wiles . We learned how to make a kumihimo lariat with beaded tassels.

Inkled Pink Kumihimo Super fun!

The conference was held at the beautiful Lake Yale Baptist Center, in Leesburg, FL. It is such an aesthetically inspiring place. Spanish moss covered trees provide shady viewing spots to take in the lake.

Florida Tropical Weavers Guild Conference Florida Tropical Weavers Guild Conference

Florida Tropical Weavers Guild Conference

I met such wonderful people this weekend and got to spend more time with the ladies from my own guild; I was reminded again what a special community the weaving community is. I can’t wait until next year’s conference!

warp, weave, be happy!

Inkle Nothing into Something

15 Thursday Mar 2012

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“Jennifer, what is that going to be?”

My mother-in-law asked me this yesterday while I was weaving an inkle band in preparation to teach my first class on inkle band projects at Florida Tropical Weavers Guild Mini-Extravaganza this weekend. How timely!

The potential of what it is going to be is exactly what I love about inkle weaving. I’ve always been amazed at the idea of taking “nothing” and turning it into something like sewing fabric into a dress or crocheting or knitting a ball of yarn into a sweater.

With inkle, weaving the band is just the first step of the creative process. Once it is woven, you get to turn nothing into something again. How about bangle bracelets, a handle for a handbag, a belt, or roses (the header for this blog!)? Truly you are only limited by your imagination. Fellow blogger and highly talented weaver A Spinner Weaver shares a great idea list of uses for inkle bands.

So, a bit about what I was weaving. The band really was woven to make samples of the projects I’m going to teach. I used a varigate cotton yarn that is out of my color comfort zone, but something I bought trying to stretch my color horizons. The new heddles I made for the loom are made out of a rainbow variegated nylon crochet yarn, also out of my color comfort zone.

Oh how fun it was to look down and see those little dots of color! Feeling the comfort zone stretching . . . inkle rainbow heddlesDon’t they look like rainbow sprinkles?Inkle heddles rainbow sprinkles on pinkEye-candy for sure!Inkle heddleswarp, weave, be happy!

Inspiration at My Fingertips

06 Tuesday Mar 2012

Posted by in Design, Inspiration

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While having a cup of tea the other day I glanced down at my nails and thought, “It is time to take this polish off.” Then I thought, “I wonder what this color would look like in an inkle band.” Inspiration at my finger tips.

It may be hard to see in the picture, but the color is an iredescent deep purple created by blending charcoal gray and pinkish iridescent pearl. I enjoyed that manicure. . .

I’d never worked with metallic yarn so I was really intrigued by this bit of inspiration. As soon as my son was up from his nap, I packed him in the car and off to Jo Ann Fabrics we went.

I bought purple, lavender, and pearl DMC metallic embroidery thread, without a coupon (sigh). Curious what the metallic yarn would look like next to a cotton yarn, I chose 3 perle cotton yarns from my stash that were very close in color to the metallic yarns.

Then I designed a simple pattern with stripes, horizontal bars, and dots to see what the effect was in different pattens. I used all 6 strands of the embroidery thread so it would match the weight of the perle cotton yarn. And ended up with . . .

Inkle Band Metallic

  1. Bars
  2. Dots
  3. Metallic dots next to a metallic line
  4. Line

Lesson learned: the closer in color the metallic yarn is to the the cotton yarn the harder it is to achieve a patterned effect. Instead, the metallic acts as a highlight, not a standalone element.

It’s going to be fun to incorporate this into future projects now that I know what I know. And knowing is half the battle. Isn’t it?

What inspires your craft?

warp, weave, be happy.

Have Mini Inkle Loom Will Travel

28 Tuesday Feb 2012

Posted by in Inkle Looms, Travel

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When I first planned this post it was going to be about the gorgeous inkle bands I wove on my wonderful mini inkle loom while traveling to the Blissdom conference at the Gaylord Opryland in Nashville, TN.mini inkle loom

Really, I had every intention of weaving while I was away. Yeah, well, that did NOT happen. The conference was jam packed with sessions and way too much fun! I did take it out of the bag though, look at it a few times, move it to reach something behind it, and then pack it again for the return trip home without weaving anything. Oh, the intentions.

I even bought this cute handbag to carry it in. It’s as though it was made just for this loom. mini inkle loom handbagNotice the tweed plaid pattern; it is woven and not just a print. Too perfect for carrying an inkle loom on the plane!

Hopefully, the next time I pack it up and take it with me I will actually weave on it. But even if I don’t it is comforting to know I can easily weave on the go in style if I want to . . .

An Inkle Dance of Joy

17 Friday Feb 2012

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Ta-Da! Introducing the project I made with all those inkle bands:

Inkle Bangles!

I am doing my version of the dance of joy right now. If this was a football game my team would definitely be charged with an excessive celebration penalty.

This inkle project has been an idea in my head since October. I could see what I wanted, but wasn’t sure how to create it. I made a few samples that were unsuccessful, but close, then I finally came up with the right process. Yay!

My studio (a.k.a the room where crazy happens) is such a mess right now. The past two weeks have been a crazy dash of conceptualize, weave, create, tweek, repeat. Nothing I used in the create/tweek stages has been put away. I can’t pause the creative process and clean up when I am in the zone. Actually, I don’t ever like to clean, but that’s not the point. Crazy was happening.

The bangles take about 3 hours to make, including weaving time. Not a bad time investment considering what I end up with.

I am SO SO jazzed about how they turned out! It always feels great when something I have envisioned in my mind turns out even better than I hoped. And it is just an added bonus if I can wear it too.

warp, weave, be happy.