Tutorials

Friday, November 26, 2010

This morning I have been procrastinating..so you get a tutorial

So remember the weaving we did at craft last week?  This morning I've been weaving a bit more and made this ~
It is quite small and there is a tiny baby asleep inside... maybe he might be a Christmas child, tho he would need a mother, and a father and a whole bunch of animals plus those wise men...hmmm
The wee girl quite likes it, I could just give him to her.

If you would like to make a little basket or something similar it is quite simple:

You will need something to weave; this one is made using seagrass but you could use rope or thick twine too. For the stitching I used 8 ply mohair wool but again whatever you have that is strong and flexible will work.
This little basket above used about a metre of seagrass (i think..)

So, last week Sonia showed us the lazy squaw stitch and I asked her permission to take a few pictures to put here but they are not very clear, sorry.

For a round basket, thread a length of yarn onto a blunt wool needle then hold your yarn and seagrass together with their blunt ends opposite and overlapping an inch or so.
Start wrapping the yarn around the seagrass so it covers the yarn that you lay down to begin...
It will be around 16-18 wraps (depending on your yarn) then you will need to coil the wrapped seagrass really tightly and hold it (this sounds a bit easier than it actually is)
Ok, loop your yarn up over the coil, take the needle and thread it through the centre hole, do it again - you are aiming to secure the centre of your basket with these stitches.
Now you can start weaving ~ The lazy squaw stitch is worked at a couple of short wraps and a long stitch.Wrap the thread over and around the loose seagrass twice, then wrap over once more putting your needle between the centre of the coil and back out on the inside. Work around the circle in this fashion except on the second and subsequent rounds your long stitch goes into the row beside/below the one you are wrapping.

These are not very clear instructions.. but it will start to look like this
  
When you get to the end of your length of yarn or you want to change colours weave the yarn between the twisted seagrass strands (you can just see it in this picture) to add a new length weave from the long end of seagrass back toward where you left off. Both the ends will be wrapped and woven into the basket with the stitching.

To make little handles, bend up a section and wrap as many times as you need to, then bend it back to the basket edge and make a long stitch on either side.

To finish off your basket split and unwind the sea grass. Trim off the strands on a diagonal then wrap and stitch weaving it in gradually overlapping the row below.

I did a quick google search and found this site which has lots of interesting bits of information and possibly clearer instructions ~ the lazy squaw stitch is toward the bottom.

14 comments:

Amanda Pedro said...

nice idea. Just might give it a try for the wee one. You didn't add a link to the site you mentioned in the last paragraph.
thanks fro sharing

S said...

I have now tho! thanks

eidolons said...

That is awesome! Not sure I'd have the patience for such small work, though. Wish I did - I know two boys who love to put things to bed. (:

Seaside Siblings said...

Oh my, it is stunning! Thank you so much for sharing. Have just discovered your blog via natural suburbia and am now a follower :-)

WonderWhyGal said...

Amazing...I didn't see patience as one of the instructions but I assume when you are weaving that small, it's required.

Thanks for sharing.
Happy Fiber Arts Friday!

Unknown said...

Shannon, what a beautiful craft blog you have. I am so glad to have found it and now I have more delightful ideas for crafting. I've always wanted to know how to make those little baskets. How lovely, thank you.

Gramerly said...

How adorable. I may even work up the nerve to try it.

Nadja said...

Adorable! I am going to bookmark this so that I don't forget to try it. Thanks!

Linda said...

Oh my goodness Shannon! This is so wonderful! We will definately be trying this soon:)
Thanks for sharing
Linda

karen said...

what a gorgeously tiny basket!

gardenmama said...

this is absolutely wonderful shannon!
thank you for sharing this beautiful work of your hands!

Anonymous said...

this is so lovely. i have to try it, too.

W-S Wanderings said...

I thought you were going to do a tutorial on how to procrastinate ;-)
Just kidding. The basket is just dreamy. I love baskets. And I love little things. So you can see why I'm smitten.

S said...

Wasabi you crack me up! I could do a tutoral on procrastinating, I'd be good at that!

Thank you all for the lovely comments