#fibercrafts

[legendarycollectionjellyfish3]

Crochet Resources Masterlist

So, when I first started crocheting, I would have killed to have a masterlist of resources, so I’m gonna make one. Hopefully there will be some helpful links in here for people. This is by no means a complete list, but hopefully it’ll help get y’all started.

For Beginners

Crochetpedia

Gathered

How to crochet (YouTube)

Magic loop

Crochet in a round

The Crochet Crowd

Crochet Knitting Sort

General Patterns

Ravelry

Etsy

Hobbii

Yarninsparation

Natazia

HanJan Crochet

Amigurumi

Amigurumi.com

Skein Spider

Crafty Intentions

Clothes

Morale Crochet

Anno Crochet Designs

TCDDIY

Chenda DIY

Yarn Cakes, LLC

Adomah the Crocheter

Cherilyn Q

Vintage Crochet

Just Vintage Crochet

Free Vintage Crochet

Antique Crochet Patterns

Alternative Forms of Crochet

Tunisian Crochet

Mosaic Crochet

Tapestry Crochet

#crochet #crochetblr #crocheting #fibercrafts #handmade #reference #art #yarn art #crocheters of tumblr #mosaic crochet #tunisian crochet #diy #resources #tapestry crochet #how to crochet

[a-treatise-on-velociraptors]

Crocheters when the hook slips off the yarn: "Whoops! Better redo those like 2 stitches I dropped :D"

Knitters when the needle slips off the yarn:

#crochet #knitting #fibercrafts #crocheting

[trashpandacraft]

I found fibrecraft tumblr after searching drop spindles because my dad *didn’t even know what that was.* And despite having been firmly of the opinion that I didn’t intend to learn it, y’all have me getting ever closer to giving in. However, I’m also growing ever more enamored with the idea of weaving - and despite recently deciding to give knitting and crochet another go - I think it looks the most fun of the fiber crafts. My issue is that I have absolutely no space.

But I’m beginning to realize there’s a lot of different looms and types of weaving. So I was wondering if you have any resources or tips for small space methods and storage?

welcome to fibrecraft tumblr! it's fun here, we have enablers.

i will admit that while i love knitting, weaving is amazing, and is much better with regards to instant gratification—weaving for an hour gets you a lot more fabric than knitting for an hour.

so let's talk about weaving, because i have great news for you: you can 100% totally weave in a small space if you want to, and you even have options for how you do it. i'm going to go through basically all the small space weaving options that i'm aware of in roughly size order, and if you make it to the bottom of this you'll have a pretty good overview of space-saving weaving methods.

the first question to ask yourself is what you want to weave. maybe you're not sure yet, which is totally fine. if you don't immediately have strong feelings about it, though, maybe consider if band weaving strikes your fancy. this is pretty limited in size, but lets you weave belts, straps (like camera or bag straps), lanyards, etc.

if you think that sounds neat, it's worth looking into tablet weaving, an inkle loom, or a band/tape loom. tablet weaving takes up no space at all—if you can fit a stack of index cards into your life, you can fit tablet weaving. the tablets are small square cards, often made out of heavy cardstock, and even with a project on them, you can probably fit them into an index card holder.

inkle looms are larger, and to be honest i've never used one and don't know a ton about them, but they're also used for making woven bands. the looms can also be very aesthetically pleasing, if that's something you're into. they can be very big, but the ashford inklette, for example, is only 36 cm long and maybe 12 cm wide.

tape looms are—in my experience, anyhow—larger than tablet weaving but smaller than inkle looms, and even the larger ones are only about shoebox size. they vary widely, from gorgeous, complicated little looms to a handheld paddle that you use to create a shed, which is what you put your yarn through when you're weaving.

if that doesn't sound like good times, consider a frame loom. these are pretty simple—if you ever wove potholders out of stretchy cloth strips as a kid, you probably used a frame loom to do it on. frame looms are generally inexpensive and readily available, and can be used for small woven objects like potholders, coasters, placemats, etc. they can also be used to make some truly stunning tapestries. while you can buy a huge frame loom, you're still only talking about huge in two directions—it might be as wide as your armspan, but it's still only a couple inches thick.

another option is a pin loom. these don't get mentioned a lot, and i'm not totally sure why. pin looms are shapes with a bunch of pins (metal points, usually) coming out of them. on one hand, you're limited to making things that are the shape of the loom, but on the other hand, if you've been hanging around fibrecraft tumblr, you've seen all the things crocheters get up to with granny squares, right? there's no reason in the world that you can't do all those things with the squares made on a pin loom. or the hexagons! or the triangles! i've been kinda thinking about getting a little hexagon or triangle pin loom and using it to sample my handspun, then turning the shapes into a blanket.

if you hate all of that, that's ok! we have more options.

you could consider a backstrap loom, which is an ancient way of weaving that's still practiced today in many places. backstrap looms are cool because you can weave probably 24 inches wide on them, but even with a project on it, they take almost no room at all. backstrap looms are fairly easy to diy, because they're basically a bunch of dowels, so they can be a good low-cost way to try out weaving. backstrap looms will let you make longer, wider fabric than anything else we've mentioned so far!

another option—stay with me—is a toy loom. there are a number of cheap looms for sale on amazon/ali express/some local places that are actually fully functional looms. recently i've seen a number of people (like sally pointer, though i'm sure i've seen someone using one of the brightly coloured harness looms, as well) who've used them and report that they're functional, if basic, looms. you're fairly constrained in terms of project size, since there's not a lot of space for the finished fabric to wind on, and there's a very limited width, but the looms are quite small and tuck away easily.

ok, but so what if you hate all of those options? don't worry—there are more options! this is the part where things get expensive, though.

as looms go, rigid heddle looms are actually quite reasonably sized. i think the smallest one i've seen is a 40cm (~16") weaving width, which is about 50x60 (20x24") in length/width, and 13cm (5") high. so that's more space than anything else we've talked about, but it's still not a ton of space, you know? a 40cm rigid heddle will let you weave lovely scarves and things of that nature—table runners, placemats, strips of woven fabric to whipstitch together into a blanket, etc.

but maybe that's enough. so let's talk about table looms. some of them are quite large—mine, for example, is about a metre square and sits on a frame that it came with. it is not what you would call space efficient. but many of them, especially modern ones, are very compact, and can even be folded up into something more or less briefcase sized. (weird way to consider it, since the last time i saw a briefcase was probably the 80s, but you know what i mean, i bet.) the cool part here is that you can weave damn near anything you want on a table loom. the less cool part is that for the compact ones that fold up, you're looking at hundreds if not thousands of dollars. the smallest one i'm aware of is the louët erica, which folds down to 42x62x42cm (16.5x24.5x16.5") and gives you 40cm (16") of weaving width. i feel like that's impressively small. you'd have to decide for yourself if that's enough to justify the $500 usd/$800 aud price tag, though.

finally, we've come to folding floor looms. i don't think someone who's never woven before should run out and buy one of these unless money is just literally not at all a concern for you, but they are basically the dream for those of us trapped in crappy rentals, and it seemed weird to leave them out when i'd come this far.

some floor looms are various levels of collapsible. to be clear, this does you absolutely no good at all when you're actively weaving, because you have to unfold them to weave, but it does you a lot of good if you'd like to have a floor loom and still have the ability to, say, walk through the living room when you're not actively using the loom.

most relevant to our discussion about small weaving footprints, some looms fold up entirely. they are incredibly fucking expensive and incredibly fucking cool. the two that i'm most aware of are the leclerc compact and the schacht wolf line, both of which fold up to about half of their unfolded depth. they're still not small—i think that they're both the better part of 75cm (30") wide and tall, so even if they fold down to 40cm (16") deep, they're still 75cm wide and tall. which is Fairly Large, though much better than having something 80cm deep sitting in the middle of the floor.

this was a very, very long post, but hopefully makes it clear that there's a surprisingly wide range of options, and they all have advantages and trade offs. if you're asking my opinion, my suggestion would be to try something—anything—with a backstrap setup and see how you feel about it. maybe you love it and keep at it forever, in which case you're in good company: there are entire cultures that weave exclusively on backstrap looms.

if you like producing cloth but don't love the backstrap setup, or don't like using your body to tension the warp, you have a lot of other options, and you're out maybe ten dollars of dowels.

personally, my next loom is probably going to be a pin loom. unless i win lotto, in which case it's going to be a house that has a weaving studio and like four floor looms in it. but probably a pin loom.

#weaving #i really hope that this was helpful #i get so excited about solving problems that i sometimes go way too hard #but i love thinking about this kind of thing #sorry for infodumping #also weaveblr i didn't forget about warp weighted looms i just don't think that they're super practical #admittedly i am biased by sharing my house with three cats #but also all the learning to weave content is...not on those #if it weren't for the cats my next loom would be warp weighted tho #fibercrafts #fiber art #textiles #smartest raccoon i know #(it's an ironic tag)

[saltpixiefibercraft]

#throwback to these towels #which i still need to wash #wheeeeeeeee #fibercraft #weaving #handcraft #handweaving #handwoven #loom weaving #fiber art #floor loom #fibercrafts

[stupidbeecandle]

i finally finished my lavender socks :3

Someone posted a picture of Charlotte Stone’s lavender sock pattern here on tumblr a few years ago, and I remember thinking they were so so pretty that I wanted to learn how to knit too! 

so i got the pattern, picked out three colors of yarn, some needles, and sat down to make these and I ended up making an impressive MESS.  Its taken a few years but my skills finally felt up to snuff enough to try the socks and I am SO happy with how they came out :3 

#knitting #socks #lavender #fibercrafts #knit #knits #yarn #purple #myart

[hibernation-fibres]

Put the finishing touches on my shawl!! 😊 There'll be a proper post with links and photos soon

I'm so happy with how it turned out and I can't wait to wear it everywhere :D

Part 1

Part 2

#crochet shawl #hand crocheted #crocheting #crochet #crochet timelapse #fiber crafts #fibercrafts #handmade shawl #fibrecrafts #crochetblr #crocheters on tumblr #crocheters of tumblr

[fibrousearth]

I just can't stop knitting sock weight hats- I've made about two dozen now, I'm obsessed. It helps that my head's buzzed and I hate going outside without a hat, so some variety is nice, but I'm gonna need to empty a dresser drawer for them soon. This one's four strands of vintage cone nylon held together, which is surprisingly soft and slinky

#handmade #hand knit #knitted #knitting #hand knitted #knitblr #fiber craft #fibercrafts #fiber artist #fiber art #fiber work #yarn #yarnblr

[dr-ladybird]

i make hat

#Knitting #fibrecrafts #fibercrafts #pride flag #asexual

[sweaterkittensahoy]

Me: okay! Hat done! Think that finishes off my final finished project for 2023!

My ravelry yardage: oh, look! You're at 39,480 yards!

Me: am I a fucking joke to you

#crochet #fibercrafts #crochetblr #before you say anything #yes that is a very large number #it is my second largest

[bismutharts]

i've been knitting again!

i learnt how to double knit (kind of already knew how to do it, i could make double stockinette, but double knitting with two colours is new. and very different)

this is my first test swatch!

it's got a really simple chart because i didn't want to do something too complex for my first time

the sides are a MESS because that selvedge Norman NimbleNeedles recommended is Not It for me, i can hardly knit through the back loop

then for my second attempt i DID want to do a Picture, and i choose fishes

i made the chart in inkscape because it allowed me to make a grid of 1 pixel by 0.7 pixel, closer to my gauge, and therefore my chart looked more like my result

(i'll probably give i've given these fishies their own post that's basically just the pictures)

i was about halfway along, when i posted some pictures of the neater selvedge in my server and someone went "is it me or does the edge look kinda.. loose? are you crossing your yarns at the starts?"

i was Not. so the lower half of these fishies is a bit unattached at the sides

also! spot the differences! there's 2 spots where the stitch colours aren't exactly a reverse. this is here because of a mistake, but in my traversing the double knitting tag on ravelry i found out that it's possible to make an irregular double knitting pattern by doing this on purpose.

so that's what i'm doing now!

the following is currently only comprehensible to people who know about double knitting, and even then it's dicey, i can attempt to explain more for people with less prior knowledge but curiosity in a reblog

i've got 2 charts overlaid basically (one would have to be mirrored if it wasn't symmetrical), and where they overlap it's business as usual, and where i need a foreground stitch on the side with the green background, but also a background stitch on the side with the purple background, i need to stitch the whole stitch pair in purple

so my chart looks like this!

i've got a project i'm pretty excited about planned with this irregular double knitting technique, but I figured an easy chart is good to get a feel for it

#knitting #artists on tumblr #art #my art #bis arts #bis speaks #traditional art #double knitting #blogging #bis blogs #yarn arts #yarn #fiber arts #fibercrafts #fibre crafts

[redteeth-fr]

[Image ID: A picture of a half finished work in progress scarf. The scarf is red, green, and yellow. /.End ID]

About halfway done with this scarf. Just something super easy for when it gets colder.

#redteethchatter #im still pretty new to knitting but i think it's going pretty good #knitting #knitblr #scarf #wip #fibercrafts

[walkawaytall]

Okay, I feel like this is my last-ditch effort and it is bonkers that I’m posting about this on my fanfiction blog, but, whatever. People on this site know things and are creative.

Okay, last year I found an XXL Madewell Ridgeton sweater in cream/ivory (note: not the Ridgeton tipped with the green on the bottom; this sweater is all one color) and bought it and it made me feel like the prettiest lady in all the land. It quickly became my favorite article of clothing. I wore it as part of my Confidence Outfit when I was in a Toastmaster’s competition because public speaking still makes me want to throw up. It was just my favorite.

Here’s one of the official photos of the sweater:

Okay and then something happened. I don’t know if a piece of clothing that was dark blue/black sat on the sweater in the wash or if I let the wash sit too long and something got mildewy (honestly, both are very possible. I was not in a great place when all of this happened), but the sweater got stained in a way that is just not treatable. I did everything in my power to get the stains out and some of them did come out, but there is one rather large one that just won’t budge. I’ve done so much to treat this sweater, I honestly wouldn’t be shocked if it warped in some way.

I have looked for another one of these sweaters in my size everywhere I know to look. Poshmark, eBay, ThredUP. I just got approved for a Madewell BST group on Facebook and made an ISO post but I’m not holding my breath. So now I’m wondering…like, I have the sweater so someone could look at it and pull it apart, right? I know it’s likely machine knit so hand knit wouldn’t be the exact same, but could commissioning a dupe work? Is it even okay to ask someone to do that? I can’t get the sweater in my size from any normal channel that I’ve been able to find, but I also know that trademarking and stuff in clothing is a really complicated issue and I don’t want to like…cause problems. I don’t even know how I would go about commissioning something like this, but it’s kind of the only route I can think of at this point? (And I know that commissioning knitwear from an individual is going to cost way more than I paid for this sweater at Nordstrom Rack. I am very aware. That is how much I love this sweater.)

Anyway…uh…any input or ideas welcome.

#it me #Madewell #ridgeton sweater #sweater #knitwear #knitting #fibercrafts #fiber art #fiber crafts

[a-treatise-on-velociraptors]

Not knitting nor crochet but a secret third thing

(Finally got the hang of nalbinding--here im working with some merino i spun up with a drop spindle)

#nalbinding #fibercrafts #handspinning #handspun #yarn spinning #drop spindle

[trashpandacraft]

finally got around to plying and finishing the merino i started spinning at, uh, halloween.

it came out pretty good, i think. the objective was to spin something thicker than i usually do, and i succeeded at that--this is 183g and 275m, so about 150m/100g, and 10 wpi. comfortably worsted weight, nice loft, very squishy.

no idea what i'll use it for, as i almost never use yarn this heavy, but i'm sure someone needs a hat or something.

#handspinning #hand spinning #spinning #yarnblr #fibercrafts #smartest raccoon i know

[saltpixiefibercraft]

An older weaving I did, my first attempt at overshot! The white weft is my own handspun as well, I’m really happy with how it came out!

#handcraft #handspinning #handwoven #handweaving #floor loom #loom weaving #floor loom weaving #fibercrafts #fiber craft #4 shaft weaving #weaving

[chthonion]

hello i absolutely neeeeed to tell you that it’s primarily because of your anastasia + the harrowing that i got into embroidery and aaaaaaaaa it’s so fun. frodo was so correct about it being calming 😌

(sorry if this is weird btw 😅 i just. had to say it)

I'm delighted to hear it, that's awesome, I hope your projects are soothing and your hands are happy! It's such a nice feeling to do a soothing repetitive task with beautiful results!

And, incredibly...you're not even the first to tell me this??? I think there is at least one and possibly two more people who have taken up embroidery after reading Anastasis, and two more who have done embroidery about Anastasis.

My "cozy crafts and tea" agenda is clearly succeeding.

#Fibercrafts are so good for your mental health #When I sit down with my crochet or my embroidery I can feel all the stress draining out with every stitch #And THEN I have something pretty that didn't exist before #fibercrafts #Anastasis #Chthonion's self-care agenda #chthonion answers questions