Little by Little

 For several months now, I've been making squares on my pin loom. Not every day, but when the mood struck. I was using up scraps of acrylic and novelty yarns that people have given me through the years. I had fun playing with colour and texture as I made square after square. It's a 4-inch loom, so I knew I'd need a lot of squares to make a blanket. Earlier in the year, I took 70 of them from my accumulated pile to use for a different project, so the blanket had to wait a bit longer to be finished. But the other night, I wove in the last yarn end and it was done!

photo by bill burke

Here are a few pictures that show some more detail of some squares as the blanket is in use on the bed.

I am in love with this blanket. When it comes to making things, there is nothing I like more than playing with scraps. It makes me think of my grandmother, who was a sewist. She would take scraps and odd bits of fabric and make really scrappy quilts--not pattern, just squares sewn together. I loved mine and I remember sitting under it when I was small and looking at all the different colours and patterns in the small pieces of fabric. I do not get on well with sewing machines, so I end up making bits of fabric with yarn instead and get my scrappy fix that way.

When Bill first got me this pin loom and I was learning how to use it, I quickly realized that I didn't care for leaving the edges plain once they came off the loom, so played around until I had a crochet edge I liked. when I'm setting up the loom, I wind more yarn than the instructions call for and do a slip stitch border around each square using that. There is also a long enough tail left to sew squares together. I like the way the crochet frames each square and the way it looks when the squares are sewn together. It's a neater finish and easier to do. It's also sturdier. Unlike some of the mass-produced pin looms, like the Zoom Loom, this one is handmade and is meant to accommodate bulkier yarn--the pins are farther apart. This means I have fewer curves on the edges to use to connect the plain squares, which is why I decided on the crochet border. I wasn't happy with the end result when I tried to sew my first squares together without it, so I adapted. Years ago I had a vintage Weave-It pin loom, but I broke it, probably trying to use yarn that was too thick for the pins. I love having this one because I can use bulky yarn or two or more strands of thinner yarn held together. So many possibilities!

I have not yet used up my odd balls and scraps, and there is another scrappy project in progress. I guess I'll turn my attention to that now, along with some other things. 

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