Fiber Arts – CraftilyKori

Knitted Herringbone Pillow for the Living Room

July 31, 2018 No Comments

Over the last two years, my husband and I have been renovating our house and have kept the color scheme to grays and whites for the majority of the rooms. Calm and cool, yes, but I live for a pop of color. I found some electric blue barstools on Amazon and inspiration hit. Project: Knitted Throw Pillows was underway.

I really like the shape of our current pillows and my husband has settled into a nightly routine of arranging them a specific way (read: manly-pillow fort), so I decided to base the pattern around the same pillow forms and just reuse them (upcycle?). As most of my projects begin, I headed to the local JoAnn store to gather up the fixin’s.

My trip to the store was a success:
Blue chunky yarn – Check
Matching blue zippers – Check
Snazzy fabric for the backside – Check
Used a coupon – Check!

Now, for the most important question…what stitch should this pillow be?

I discovered a herringbone stitch technique while working on another project and just fell in love. I’ve been really wanting to use it again and thought of it for this pillow. Also, this type of knit stitch comes highly recommended for cushions and pillows since it creates such a tight fabric. Sounds like a winner.

Admittedly, it took a few times to figure out the gauge and how many stitches to cast on. I first used size US 15 straight needles (14 inches long) and came up short. I switched over to circular needs and had a better result with 58 CO. Even then, I made the fabric a little bigger than needed so the pattern could use even more adjusting.

Now, the fun part! Sewing the pillow.

So fun, in fact, that eight months went by before I got to this step. Eh, life happens, right?

I washed and finished the edges of the many, many yards of fabric using a serger (I have no idea why I bought that much, remember it had been eight months…) and then ironed it all. To fit the existing pillow form, I needed two pieces of fabric – one 15″ tall x 19″ long and one 15″ x 20″ (extra for the zipper). I always forget how to do zippers, so I dusted off my trusty Stitch by Stitch book by Deborah Moebes for a quick refresh. Then, pinned both fabric sides to the knitted fabric. Even though I had extra yarn hanging out, I was happy that the addition of a garter stitch border seemed, in concept, to work out well.

Okay, okay, this part really was the exciting step. I was finally able to use my Juki industrial sewing machine! I had bought this off of a woman who owned a leather saddle business almost eight years ago to make seat belt purses. I still haven’t finished those WIP, but I will get there…(are you catching on to my too-many-projects-at-one-time problem).

What! Scissors…cutting….knitted yarn….??? Yes!

It’s a technique that I had stumbled upon a while back, known as steeking. It is traditionally used as a shortcut for knitting garments in the round and then adding an opening afterwards (think cardigan sweater). I’m still a little nervous when I go to actually wash the pillow cover, but I made sure to use two passes of the Juki and think it will stay for quite a while.

And there you have it. Or, well, I have it actually. A blue knitted throw pillow to match the barstools! I almost gave up a few months ago and bought store pillows, but I am really happy I finally finished it.

What’s next? Three more pillows, of course. I am going to use a different stitch for each pillow just to add some variety but will keep the same yarn and fabric.

I’m thinking the cluster stitch will be my next pillow attempted, stay tuned!

Happy Crafting!

~Kori

Cross Stitch, Fiber Arts

A Quick Project – Cross Stitch Hoop Ring

April 11, 2018 No Comments

It seems that lately, taxes, home renovation, and a new job have gotten the better of my mental energy. I was jonesing for an easy project that would fulfill a sense of accomplishment…but wouldn’t create yet another learning curve to maneuver through.

Time to hit the craft room and look through my aptly named, “Random Project Box.” Yes, it is true. I keep a stash of pre-packaged kits that come complete with everything one could need – materials to work the project and instructions to guide you through each step. It is the perfect go-to for when I want to work on something creative… but don’t feel very creative.

This go-round, I landed on a pretty simple project – A cross-stitched ring kit I had picked up at Joann’s a few weeks ago. It even included a little embroidery hoop to add some extra, authentic pizzazz.

The instruction booklet had a few ideas for artwork, but none of them seemed to call to me. I googled “small cross stitch patterns” and found a really simple skull pattern. Perfect! Nothing says bad-ass like a cross stitch skull, amiright?

The project went pretty quickly after that. I transferred the skull pattern to the Aida cloth and then chose light and dark grey embroidery thread.

Next, was to assemble the ring. I used super glue and then folded each Aida cloth section by section to have it form into the circle. The last step was to glue the wood piece and then the ring backing – And wah-lah! The ring is done.

In all, the project only took one night to complete. It was exactly the type of creative outlet I was looking for.

Now, on to the next project.

Happy Crafting!

~

Kori

Fiber Arts, Weaving

A Scarf for my Dad – Using a Rigid Heddle Loom

March 9, 2018 1 Comment

The Inspiration

For more than 35 years, my parents have owned their own business specializing in designing and fabricating exterior signage for local businesses. Their business, Morgan Sign, is located in the town I grew up in. When I was younger, it was neat to drive around and point out their work to my school friends. As I grew older, I even had a chance to work on some of the projects myself and was excited to see my own creativity displayed around town.

Since my husband and I moved to the big city, I’m not always up to date on what projects they are working on and often rely on posts from my brother’s Facebook to see the latest and greatest.

One day, late last year, I’m relaxing on the couch, mindlessly scrolling through my Facebook feed after a long day of work and I couldn’t believe it. My brother posted a new sign for one of my favorite local yarn stores, Fiber Creek! I’m not sure which project my parents or brother would rank as their favorite, but this one is definitely at the top of my list. My excitement must have been more than obvious because for my birthday, I received a gift card to the very same local yarn store. #BestBirthdayEver

Giftcard in tow, I took my time and thought about what should I treat myself to. More yarn? My stash could use always use more. More roving? You can never have too much roving.

And then, I knew. What better way to treat myself then picking up a brand new hobby! And thus, began my newest creative adventure – learning to use a rigid heddle loom and begin to weave. What better way to bring it full circle, then use my new loom to make something for my dad.

Making the Scarf

My dad’s favorite color is red. We are not talking, sort of likes red. I mean, loves red. He also really likes carbon fiber and the look of woven dark gray colors. I found the perfect yarn at Tempe Yarn and Fiber. The colors contained in the Heritage Wave – Checkers colorway were exactly what I was looking for. Red, with a gradient of light and dark grey. I decided to contrast it with black to tend towards my dad’s style of always wearing black.

Alright, colors picked. Hard part is over…I balled one of each skein to get the project started.

Not quite so fast. Pattern – I needed to decided on the pattern.

I had browsed online for different ideas by hitting the usual places – Pinterest, Ravelry, and just plain Google search. With the large commitment of yarn to warp the loom, I wanted to be sure it would turn out how I expected. Also, since this was only my second time using my rigid heddle table loom, I took to the mantra – “When in doubt, swatch it out.”

I looked through my craft supplies and busted out my Purl and Loop swatch maker. I tried a hounds-tooth pattern first but was pretty disappointed after only a few rows. It was causing the two colors to blend together, and look a bit messy. I really wanted to showcase the red, so then I tried large blocks of colors, but finally decided a 9 x 9 square pattern. Nine rows of warp threads, followed by nine rows of weft threads.

Now, to warp the loom. The articles online said to make the length of the scarf as long as the person is tall. I landed on about 72″ to add a little bit of length just in case. I secured my loom on one side of the cutting table and wheeled it out to the center of the room. Next, secured the peg on my craft room counter. Then… I just walked back and forth a few (okay, many) times. Nine times red, nine times black, nine times red, nine times black, and so on.

It’s hard to get a good idea of the scarf at this point, but once I started rolling it onto the back beam, I got pretty excited. The gradient was showing really well throughout the length and width of the scarf. Once all the yarn was rolled taut, I cut the threads and threaded it through each tooth of the rigid heddle. One piece in the eye, the next piece to the right. Lastly, I tied each of the color sections to the front warping rod. Now, we were in action!

Over the next few months, I would spend about an hour working on the scarf each night. My husband and I have decided to turn off the TV from 7pm – 8pm, and head over to the craft room. He usually reads while I work on my projects. Ever the multi-tasker, I also listened to an audio book (Eleanor & Park) and even snuck in a few episodes of Fuller House.

About a few weeks before Christmas, I was getting pretty close to the end of my warped threads and realized I didn’t have a way to finish the scarf. I knew I wanted to keep it to a men’s style and didn’t want long or frilly loose ends. I googled men’s scarfs and found that they typically had short, twisted fringes.

I found a fringe twister online, but was pretty surprised about the price. Luckily, my husband is pretty handy and likes to tinker, so he made me my own by using peg board accessories and alligator clips. We saved about $60 and it was fun to have him involved.

The best thing about weaving, is not having to go back and weave all the loose ends in afterwards, because you do it while you are weaving! I can’t recall how many different color changes there were, but let’s just say it was a lot more than you would want to hand sew back in and still be in a good mood about it. Once the scarf was blocked and dry, all I had to do was cut the ends close to the scarf.

And there we have it, the finished scarf! I took it up to Prescott and gave it to my dad for Christmas. My mom has sent me a few pictures this winter of him wearing it. Glad he likes it 🙂

Happy crafting!

Kori

Fiber Arts, Tools and Techniques, Weaving, Yarn

Prima Fiber Arts – Loom Weaving Kit

October 10, 2016 No Comments

I’ve been working on the same crochet project for a few months now and was itching for a little variety. While running errands, I talked the hubby into a quick pit stop to Hobby Lobby. I walked up and down the aisles, scoping out what would become my next crafting venture. I was hoping for something that wouldn’t be a huge learning curve and could be completed in a weekend, but still enough to satisfy my itch for something different.

I turned down the aisle and there it was, calling to me. The Prima Fiber Arts Loom Weaving Kit. Whispering “Buy me…. Buy meeeee.” Ever the sucker for a kit containing all you need to get started, I quickly loaded a mobile coupon and headed to the checkout.

I’ve been wanting to get into weaving for a while, and this kit was perfect! It included an adjustable loom, weaving comb, shuttle, shed stick, tapestry needle, yarn, warp thread, and even some accent pieces to really make your project have some pizzazz. With my 40% off coupon, I ended up paying just about $26 which is a steal for what you get. Everything seemed very well made and the pretty design on the loom and tools added a nice touch.

The “starter guide” instruction included in the kit was okay, but I would recommend watching the videos before really getting your hands dirty. The YouTube videos made by Prima were great because they used all the same items included in the kit. You can basically just follow along with the host.

Here are the videos I recommend watching:

Prima Fiber Arts Loom Kit Intro – (3 mins) What’s included in the kit

Prima Fiber Arts Techniques Part 1 – (18 mins) Basic weaving stitch

Prima Fiber Arts Techniques Part 2 (12 mins) More advanced weaving including angles and roving.

Prima Fiber Arts Techniques Part 3 – (14 mins) Finishing steps

Alright, instructions read and videos watched – now it’s time to get weaving!

The first step is to put the loom together. This was four quick screws, no heavy machinery or curse words involved.

I got hung up right from the get go for not understanding how to wind the shuttle. The still pictures in the instructions weren’t really helping, so I recommend another video: Winding a Stick Shuttle. The trick was to do the figure eight on one side, then change to the other side.

Next, you set the weave pattern by adding the shed stick, flip it up, and then start weaving. Changing colors is pretty easy, you just wrap the new color of the yarn around the shuttle and start a new row. I was a little overzealous on how much yarn I was adding in the beginning, which made if difficult to fit under the threads so lesson learned on that one. Once you have a handle on the basics, using roving and thicker yarn adds some dimension to the project and if you are feeling really sassy, you can start experimenting with angles and shapes!

I followed the design from the kit almost exactly but differed on the angle part a little bit. Full disclosure – this wasn’t on purpose, I got distracted by something on TV. But, I just kept going and think it turned out well. After getting the woven canvas mostly laid out the fun continues with accents. Making tassels is pretty easy. Here, I’ve just wrapped yarn around our tablet case and cut one end so they were all uniform lengths. Once on the loom, it’s pretty easy to just cut and shape them how you want it to lay. The kit also came with metal flowers, metal tubes, and silk flowers to add in where you think looks good.

With everything set, it’s time to weave in all the loose ends and take the project off the loom. This was the only time I had to use items from my own craft room – a needle and crochet hook. Similar to other yarn projects, the idea is just to weave in the ends and tidy everything up. Then, you cut two strands of the warp thread off and begin to tie them together. For the bottom, it was easier to just flip the tassels over so they were out of the way. To finish the weave, I found a stick and sewed yarn around to hold everything together.

Here’s a look at the finished project!

First weaving project down, and now the gears are turning with ideas for future projects. From my spinning stash, I have tons of roving that can be used and hand spun yarn would add in lots of texture. Using the shaping technique, it would be cool to experiment with more colors and use the loom as a base to create a woven canvas for a landscape or picture.

I’m pretty excited to learn more about weaving and happy to have found another use for all the yarn I’ve stored away 🙂

~

Kori

Fiber Arts, Tools and Techniques

Lumi Shadow Print – Take Two

July 6, 2016 No Comments

Whoo-hoo! The second time around seems to be the charm. In Lumi Shadow Print – Take One, I mentioned a few sad faces when my first attempt at the project did not turn out the way I had expected.

Time to brush off the fail and try again.

I searched around for a blank canvas but decided to just buy the kit again. Yep, my 60% coupon was basically null at this point because I bought the item twice…moving on…

For it to work this go-round, I believe the sun had to be at high noon, well 11:47am (thank you Weather Channel). Saturday morning rolled around and I peered out the window – CLOUDS!! Okay, okay, no need to buy a third kit, I can wait.

Next Saturday finally came and there it is – a bright sunny day. Perfect! Following the same steps as before, I spread the dye, placed the items on the pouch and headed outside. Within moments the color began to change. Yippee!

Also, surprise! I changed to magenta. Gotta live a little, folks. 🙂

I got distracted with a show (binging on Making a Murderer) and went to check on the pouch about 30 minutes later.

Things are looking really great! Time to bring in my new precious…

Yeah! It worked. Better than I imagined, actually. The cable needle looks three dimensional. The stitch markers seem as though you could just lift them off the pouch! Guess the placement of the sun is the main player here.

There’s tons of other stuff you can do with this dye beyond just placing random objects on a surface. Some projects on Pinterest include transferring drawings or photos and making your own T-shirts. You can never have too many fur-baby pictures on things. Time to get creative!

So, when life hands you a lemon of a project, buy another one, and try again 🙂

Fiber Arts, Tools and Techniques

Making Art Yarn

June 2, 2016 No Comments

When I first came across art yarn, I’ll admit – I didn’t like it. I wasn’t quite sure why or how it would be used. A few days later, I found myself thinking maybe I hadn’t given it a proper chance and decided, I’d give it a try.

I set off to my local fiber store and picked up some pink and blue combed top mohair fiber. They had a few other colors but I was really feeling pink for this project. I thought the blue would create nice shades of lavender and complement the lighter pink well. One of the things that really excited me about art yarn was the understanding that blending fiber is similar to blending paint. Blue and red make purple, yellow and red make orange and so on. A bit of a brush up (see what I did there?) on the color wheel and color theory and I was feeling good about my color choice.

And then off to the next store! What makes art yarn so unique is the texture. Some spinners add texture by spinning in beehives or coiling the fiber around crochet thread. I thought — Go-big-or-go-home (maybe I’m watching too much MTV’s the Real World lately) and decided to pick out bits of ribbon and lace to add into my art yarn.

I found the items below at JoAnn and only needed them to cut half a yard of each. Felting and weaving seems to be trending right now because the store even had some curlywool fiber. I chose some lighter lavender, purple, and white elements to draw out the color I was hoping to get once the mohair fiber was blended. The fiber and ribbon and lace elements brought me up to about $50 for this project so far.

The next step was creating a blending board and a Navajo spindle – yep, I had to basically start from scratch for this project but I’m never one to think a challenge is too big to take on. More to come on how to make a Navajo spindle. Now, I was up to about $70 for the tools but I can use those over and over. Plus, making them myself saved a lot. And by myself, I really mean my husband.

Now, the fun part. I blended away on my carders to mix the mohair to various shades of lavender. I did try to use dog hair brushes (brand new of course!) but found it wasn’t as good as the real fiber carders. Size does matter here, folks.

The ribbon wasn’t going to work on the blending board, so I saved that for when I was using the Navajo spindle. Once the blending board is full, you are supposed to remove it with dowels to create rolags or a diz to create long bits of roving. Well, the only dizes I could find were brass and over $30, so I set out to find something a little bit more in my budget. A button! I actually got this one at Walmart for around $4 and let me tell you, it worked perfectly. The secret was finding one with a large enough hole.

Next, it was time to spin everything together. The first round involved spinning the fiber on the Navajo spindle and mixing in the pieces of ribbon as I spun. The Navajo spindle is a ton of fun to use. You sit cross legged on the floor and just spin away! It took about three rounds of filling the blending board to get an amount that seemed large enough to make a project with.

The next part was adding in the crochet thread and spinning the same direction. Normally, you’d want to spin the opposite direction, called plying. But with this technique, you do it the same direction and it’s known as the second spin. After that was completed, my new yarn was transferred to the homemade niddy-noddy and wah-laah! My first art yarn.

I’ve found a cool knitting pattern to make a purse and picked up some great fabric to make a liner. That will be art yarn post, part 2.

Hope everyone has a chance to make their own art yarn. I’m excited to hear other project inspirations you come up with.

Happy Crafting!

~Kori