As we talked about in the first two parts of this shrinking your warp series, some warps are straight forward: the repeat is regular and not too big, plus the stripes or colors are regular or nonexistent. Easy-peasy to shrink them down. Some drafts are more complicated, but the same tools are all it takes […]
READ MORE
Michele, the Traveling Lunatic, is spending much of her time in Southern California and getting to know the weaving communities there. This blog post and Mug Rug pattern comes from her: I am enjoying being part of the Southern California Handweavers Guild. The energy and creativity of the members is amazing, and mentors and eager […]
READ MORE
April the Bunny has multiplied. Her creation “hatched” a whole family of Lunatic Bunnies. Because we are Lunatics and do crazy things, and we wanted to check how our pattern instructions worked, we have been making bunnies using commercial fabric. We found that 2 yards of 42” wide flannel fabric is enough to make 3 […]
READ MORE
Which of our yarns can you use for knitting, and how do the yarns compare with the standard knitting terms such as Sport Weight or DK weight? You certainly can knit with weaving yarn, and weave with knitting yarns, but a little knowledge about the yarns and their purpose will help your knitting and weaving […]
READ MORE
Now that you have woven a color gamp, what do you do with it? It is a pretty piece of fabric…it looks great as a wall hanging, or as a throw in your favorite chair, and your grandbaby thinks it is to “drool” for. But what else can you do with it? Our favorite reason for […]
READ MORE
The holiday decorations are put away and the days are finally beginning to get longer. The winter storms are heading out and our looms await. And as this new year begins, we Lunatics like to look back to our beginnings. Back to the project that launched Lunatic Fringe Yarns, lo those many moons ago: the Tubular […]
READ MORE
As we were working on the gray Chameleon scarves, using 3 strands of 10/2 mercerized cotton yarn, it suddenly occurred to us that we already had the perfect yarn for a gray scale scarf. It was even foolishly apparent: we could use 5/2 yarn from our gray matter kit! Those yarns already have 5 shades of […]
READ MORE
Weaving a project always leads to plenty of “what if” questions. After weaving the blue-green Chameleon scarf, we started thinking about what other colorways we could use. 3 strands of 10/2 mercerized cotton yarn holds lots of potential for color combinations. Grays came immediately to mind…gray scarves are classic, and we have some lovely shades of gray. We warped the […]
READ MORE
How could we weave scarves that change color from the beginning to the end, top to bottom, just like a Chameleon, on a Rigid Heddle Loom and not have to dye the warp to do it? Tubular Spectrum™ mercerized yarns to the rescue! Using a favorite tapestry technique of combining thin yarns to make […]
READ MORE
American Maid™ Yarns, which we use for our American Maid Sampler Kit, get their color from the cotton plant’s genes rather than from the dyepot. The yarns made from this lint are unique because the colors get darker over time rather than fading. Additionally, with a couple tablespoons of baking soda in a sink full of […]
READ MORE