Tweaked my finger-knitted wall hanging. Status -- much better!

I'm sure that you know the old saying about "from the mouths of babes"?  Well, the one thing I was really not happy about, when I wove my finger-knitting from excess yarn into a wall hanging using the talented Anne Weil's blog instructions on Flax & Twine, was the thick piece of bulky black yarn that I had added to the mix simply because it was part of my leftover yarn.  I couldn't get the yarn pushed up far enough on the warp strands to cover the actual strands where the black bulky yarn was used.  I had (sort of) convinced myself to just live with it since it's just in my home office and it was my first time, yadda, yadda, yadda.  Yesterday was the first day of the week-long visit of my sister and her little daughters.  My nieces are now 7 and 5 and the 7 year old loves to finger-knit.  Well, the first words out of her mouth when I showed her and her sister my wall-hanging was, "the black looks kind of funny."  Egads.  Children can be so cruel!  (Heh, heh, heh.)  So I explained what happened but when I was thinking about it late last night I decided to see if I could 'fix' it today.  I snipped out the thick black yarn and finger-knitted some hot pink that I had in my left-over stash.  I'm so glad I did this and I can't wait for my niece to see it tomorrow!  I'm much happier with the result and I no longer have those white bits of the warp showing up in one section of wall hanging.  Here's my before and after pics:

Before -- with the thick black yarn.

 

After -- no more white warp showing!

 
Here are before and after close-ups:

Before removing the black yarn.

After replacing the thick black with hot pink.

I learned a lot from this project about finger-knitting and weaving and I'm hoping to make a more serious wall hanging for my guest room using specific colors.  Now my nieces, particularly the 7 year old, wanted to get started right away on a wall hanging using the hula hoops she immediately spotted in my office.  I promised her that if she continues to finger-knit sections, the next time I visit her in Virginia, we'll see what we can do!  

Finger-knitting project update

Larger hula hoop with warp.

Yesterday, I began actually working on the finger-knitting project I talked about in my previous post here.  The first thing I discovered was that I needed to use the larger of the two hula hoops I bought.  Instead of the one pictured in the previous post, the tee shirt I cut into strips for the warp fit the larger hoop better.
(Pic on right.)  If I want to use the smaller hula hoop, I'll just need to cut up a smaller tee shirt.  I used a man's size XL -- too big for the 28 inch hoop but great for this 34 inch one.

Then, following Anne Weil's instruction on her site, Flax & Twine here, I was able to get my ball of finger-knitting started.  Since I've only been working on this project when I take a break from prepping for my next recording, I haven't gotten very far but it does go pretty fast.  I'm at the point now where I need to follow Anne's instructions for weaving through both sides of the tee shirt strips (warp) after having done the first 7-9 inches around the entire strip.  Here's what my future wall hanging of left-over yarn that I finger-knitted looks like right now.  It's approx. 8 inches wide at this point.

 
A close-up of the weaving:

Weave it taut but not tight.

I'll post again when I have more to look at.  I think it'll be fun weaving through all of the single strands as opposed to the double like you do for the first part of the project. 

A Finger-Knitting Project

My beginning ball...

After teaching my niece to finger-knit, using Anne Weil's wonderful instructions on her blog Flax & Twine, and being so surprised when she made herself a scarf when I visited her last month (really sorry I didn't take a picture), I decided to find a use for my extra bits of leftover yarn.  What better way to use them than to take Anne's lead and make a loom from a hula hoop and weave the finger-knitted leftover yarn into a rug or wall hanging!  You can see Anne's instructions for making the loom along with how to weave the yarn and finish off the rug/wall hanging here.

 

Small hula hoop for loom.

I didn't realize how much leftover yarn bits and bobs that I had accumulated.  The ball pictured measures approx. 6 inches in diameter although the yarns are of varying degrees of thickness.  I picked up a small and large (adult) size hula hoop at a K-Mart.  I'm going to use the small one to make what will probably be a wall hanging and may use the larger one later to make an actual rug.  I just need to cut up an old tee shirt to stretch across the hula hoop for the warp.

I plan to work on this as I get the chance and will post more pics here as I progress.  This is a great way to relax after a day of recording and editing voice files.  Thanks again to Anne for this great idea and for sharing it! 

A Finger-knitted Christmas Wreath

I was inspired (not for the first time) by blogger Anne Weil on her site Flax & Twine to try finger-knitting.  I practiced a bit and even taught my young nieces how to do it.  Anne has a wonderful tutorial here and also offers free patterns along with pics of items she has made.  Last year she posted about a finger-knitted wreath she made for her front door.  Actually, in Anne's case, it's two wreaths (12 inches each) because she has double front doors.  I decided I wanted to make one for this Christmas.  I had to purchase a larger styrofoam wreath (16 inch) because I have one regular size front door.  See Anne's wreath post here.

The finger-knitting part was a cinch.  I used Lion Brand Wool-Ease Thick & Quick yarn in the same color that Anne used -- cream.  I ended up finger-knitting the yarn in sections which probably worked out better for me because you need to thread very thin wire (24 gauge floral wire) through the knitted yarn in order to give the yarn more body and assist in wrapping around the styrofoam.  I found it easier to work with in smaller sections.  Then when I finished, I had to decide on what color ribbon to use.  I had originally planned to use red ribbon since our front door is a dark green.   However, we have quite a bit of brass on the door and on the lights around it so I ended up going with gold.  I can always switch to red next year.  Since I'm terrible at tying bows, I wasn't able to make nice simple ones as Anne did.  I realized I needed thicker ribbon to get the same look on a larger wreath.  So I made do with what I had and doubled up on the gold for the bow.  I'm pretty pleased with the way it turned out.  It's not as smooth as Anne's work but she's a professional.  She gives classes on various types of crafts and is one artsy lady!  Below are my results.

My finished wreath.

Bow close-up.

Full view with brass lights.

My next project is knitting little Christmas tree ornaments for my three nieces.  I'll post here when I've finished at least one of them.  Many thanks to Anne Weil at flax & twine for 'dressing up' our front door this year!