Stockton Crafts Blog

New camera!

We have a new camera, so a walk round Oxford, even on a cold, dull Saturday, gave us some lovely photos.  I am born and bred in Oxford, but my husband isn't - showing him round has given me a whole new view on the city....

 

 

Rugs!

I thought I would show you a few things I have made with 'Hoopla Yarn'. .. Hoopla is a salvaged product making it very eco-friendly. When huge rolls of jersey or T-shirt type fabric are made, the edges are trimmed at the end of manufacture.  These edges are called the 'selvedges', so Hoopla is salvaged selvedges!

I made this rug in about 4 hours on a handweaving loom (once I had threaded up the sticks ), using 2 cones of blue and 1 of each of red and green.  The ends are simply knotted and I have sewn in the loose ends.

 

This stripey rug used up lots of little strips of Hoopla, but with all the colour changes, there are lots of tied ends showing.  I could hide these by 'hooking them in' with a crochet hook.

I quite like the 'shabby chic' look! This rug isn't finished yet....

One small project - my first hand weaving loom attempt!  This is smaller and makes a great placemat or pad for putting hot dishes on the table.  I used about 3/4 cone of a pink Hoopla Yarn.

The principle of rug making on a hand weaving loom is the same as working with hand weaving sticks...you just take the yarn in and out of the sticks.

If you want to know more about Hoopla Yarn click HERE

For more information on Hand Weaving Looms and Weaving Sticks click HERE

A bit of a craft butterfly!

Having spent a few days working with different kinds of denim I needed a change - I can never work on one project for long - I always have a few on the go, and sometimes none of them appeal so I start a new one!  My family call this impulsive, I call it a lively mind!   I also use the excuse that I am experimenting with yarns and different crafts for my craft website.....so if I am up to my elbows in bags of unfinished projects, I am merely 'working hard'....

A few weeks ago, before Christmas interrupted, I started this table runner but ran out of the ribbon yarn I was using... so I finished it today and I'm delighted with the effect!  The yarn is Louisa Harding's Sari Ribbon, made of polyamide and nylon.  This shade is a lovely sagey green with gold metal threads down the centre.  The finished fabric is squashy and sparkles! I used 4 skeins of Sari Yarn to make this runner - which turned out shorter than I hoped, but I'll use it for a small table....

I made the runner on a hand weaving loom -
it grows really fast, and is really easy and fast to  do.        
 

Hmmm... a finished project... that means I can start another one! 

More on denim....

Finished the denim yarn hand weaving - it would make a great belt, can't wait to do a bigger piece!



The same yarn made this little crochet bowl. 

This is a scarf I made from Shilasdair organic cotton in denim blue.

Freddie looks great in denim blue too!

As I'm working on handweaving

As I'm working on handweaving with denim yarn today, I thought I would take a look at what other people are doing with denim on Folksy:



(Click on the images to be taken to Folksy.com and the items shown)