Best wishes to all and happy holidays!
Kristin

Weaving is one of the best ways to use up buckets of yarn scraps. And, it turns out, cardboard boxes too! This is a great project to take up a few hours and end up with a mountable little tapestry at the end of the day. You can make it with your kids and have them take turns weaving. For us, we are setting up a load of these at the Ames C.art art festival booth to have the passer-by’s take turns on them. We love exposing everyone to new ways to be creative, and to make it accessible as possible. What’s more accessible than a card board box and a pile of yarn? Don’t answer that, on to weaving!

{I ended up not needing the packaging tape, but it just seemed like a good thing to have around no matter what}

::Materials Needed::

• Sharpie Marker
• X-ACTO Knife and Cutting Mat
• Pencil
• Packaging Tape
• Yarn for the Warp (at least 5 yards, more if your box is bigger)
• Sturdy small box, like this Ziploc Bags box

I wanted to make two little looms from one box, so I cut this one exactly in half. It ended up being at the 4″ mark. Unfortunately, I only had the idea to measure, then mark, after I attempted to just freehand a line – it was off and squiggly. Good thing for rulers.

Now, it’s time to measure out the notches on each short edge of the box to hold the “warp”

Note: Warp is the yarn that runs vertically on your loom, weft is what you weave over and under the warps horizontally.

I measured out every 1/4″ and made a little 3/8″ notch, then I set the box aside for the time being.

I cut a rectangle from a scrap piece of cardboard so it was about 1/2″ smaller than my box is wide. The rectangle is about 3 1/4″ X 6 1/4″.

I measured out 1/8″ and 3/8″ along the top and bottom of the cardboard and then drew out the 1/8″ wide gaps to be cut out. Then I eyeballed little squares at the center point of each spacer.

Don’t worry about trying to cut through the cardboard in one go, make you initial cut, then cut again. Be patient. Use really sharp blades, I had to change mine out once with all the cardboard cutting I did.

Now you can warp your box loom a couple of different ways. I think the more standard way is to cut lengths of yarn about 6″ longer than the box, thread them through one at a time, put them into the notches, and tie bundles of say 4 on each side. But, my brain doesn’t always work, it works in a “how can I get the most out of a minimal amount of yarn” way. I just really didn’t like the idea of having to tie off all that yarn either. I know myself and I know I would manage to make it into a huge tangled mess. But that being said, if you have a bunch of shorter lengths of yarn vs 5 yards of just one, the first option would be the way to go.

First I simply threaded the yarn through the spaces and the holes. Then I teased out enough yarn to tie a slip not and secure it into the first notch.

Then I continued to tease more yarn off the larger spool and loop it around the notch at the other end. I kept teasing out the yarn and looping it around the notches.

Here’s a better picture showing how I would pull out the next loop of yarn so I can place it into the next notches.

And here it is when I’m on the last two loops of yarn and the last two sets of notches.

And placing it into a notch.

I cut the yarn so there was enough to tie off. Then I realized that instead of tying it off, it would actually hold the tension better if I woven it around the notches, so that’s what I did.

And now it’s time for the fun part: weaving!!!

Placing two pieces of cardboard into your warp as your first two “passes” helps to keep you from having to work right against the edge of the box. Plus it gives you a little ease so you can easily tie off the ends when you take it off the loom.

By twining the next two passes, you set your weaving up to have a nice evenly spaced set of warps.

Arching the weft and then beating it with a fork after you’ve closed the shed (the gap that’s created by pushing the card board harness down or lifting it up) helps it not pull at the sides (salvage) so much and have a more even tension.

Operate the harness (piece of cardboard with the yarn going through it) by pushing it down or pulling it up.

Have fun & happy weaving!

Kristin Roach

For more free tutorials and patterns on resourceful crafting, visit Kristin’s blog Craft Leftovers.

It seems like forever ago that we were dreaming up our ArtVend project that cold board meeting back in January 2010, we were just putting pen to paper designing the mural. It’s with great joy that ran the first test vend of the machine last week using our own board member’s ceramic work. And to answer your first question, no it didn’t break! While the packaging is rough, it was a proto-type to see if we could successful vend ceramics without breaking them or jamming the machine.

That’s what of the things I love about this project, we can vend just about anything local makers dream up.

While you may have seen the project outline on the ArtVend project page to download, we wanted to make sure it got to everyone possible. We’ve also put together a pdf outlining how to prepare your work to be vending. While there are few hard fast rules:

• - can handle the drop and won’t jam the machine.
• - made within a 50 mile radius of ames
• - is priced 25 cents to $12.25
• - leave a little room on the back for our tag so we can keep track of inventory

There are some general guidelines to make sure your items are accepted the first time around without a need for packaging adjustments.

When you send in your items, make sure to include a signed copy of the consignment agreement and a filled out inventory sheet.

Project overview
Preparing your work for Vending
Consignment Agreement
Inventory Form

If you would like your work to be included in the machine when it’s placed in Wheatsfield in early September, please contact kristin [at] amescart [dot] org to arrange for drop off or shipment by Tuesday, August 30th.

Stickers (6 per page) – download the pdf by clicking here.

Fliers (4 per page) – download the pdf by clicking here.

Poster (1 per page) – download the pdf by clicking here.

To download, just click the links above and you’ll be prompted to accept the pdf download. And that’s it you are all set.

Oh, and have you pledged yet? Go to kickstarter and pledge today. Whether it’s a $1 or $10, every little bit helps.

Best wishes,

Kristin

Being that it was the local coop, it seemed most appropriate to share market bag patterns. If you were curious about one of the patterns, but weren’t able to grab a copy, you can get them here:

+ How to Sew Your Own Produce Bags

+ Everyday Crochet Market Bag

+ Knit Strawberry Market Bag

If none of these catch your fancy, check out TipNuts’ round up for 45 market bag patterns!

See you all next month! Stay warm out there!

xoxo

:: Ames C.art ::

Here’s how it works:

+ Each month we choose a charity to make for.
+ Here on the blog we’ll post a nice round up of project ideas and all the details.
+ Make your projects (as many as you are able) and attach the donation tag with all the info filled out.
+ Bring them to the next Creative Collision.
+ We will drop off all the projects as one big drop – if you would like to volunteer to come with that would be great – it’s very rewarding meeting the people who will benefit from the making.

February Handmade Charity Project

For the month of February we are going to make hats, scarves, mittens and gloves for all the fine folks over at the Ames Emergency Residency Program.

If you’ve never heard of the Emergency Residence Project, let me share with you a bit about this great program.

The Emergency Residence Project (often referred to as the ERP) provides shelter with meals, referrals and intervention to prevent homelessness.

According to their website:

“This year marked our 25th anniversary of providing shelter.  It was also our busiest year.  Through our Emergency Shelter, Transitional Housing, and Homeless Prevention programs we helped 2,372 people. We housed an average of 45 individuals a night, about ½ of whom were children.  Our closeness to them and our ability to make a difference, every day, in their lives gives us more than enough motivation to continue this work.”

Definitely a project worth of our handmade efforts. They need a lot of support, with all the cuts to budgets and the freeze on housing vouchers, not to mention the crap economy.  There are a lot of people in need of shelter. If you have some extra resources, check out their Offer Help page, there are a lot of non handmade ways you can give that will make an impact too!

This time of year, all the people they are helping – adults and kids alike, could really use some extra warmth and comfort, so we are making them some!

Over on p2designs there is a great round up of patterns for charity making, all free. Just download them and get cracking.

For Knitting: KnittingPatternCentral has a huge load of patterns

For Crocheting: CrochetPatternCentral also has a huge load of patterns

For Sewing: Check out Burda Style

Remember, Men usually get the short end of the stick when it comes to handmade goods, so try and make a men’s hat as well. I particularly like this Turn a Square knit men’s hat.

Drop off will be at the next Creative Collision: Wednesday, March 9th, 2011.

Do you have an idea for a local charity to make things for? Leave a comment and we will try to get it set up!

Already know what pattern you’ll be making for this month’s charity? Let everyone else know so we can all swap ideas around.

See you all in March!

xoxo – Ames C.art

The above quote is one of the things I will remember from last night’s Writer’s Group. We were having a discussion on what tips and tricks the attendees used to keep up their writing process. It was in response to a comment about writer’s block and how there is no such thing. After all, if you write a single word, you have written something.

The group that gathered at the Ames Progressive last night was a great one. Mostly made up of new members, we had a wide range of writing styles. We shared poetry, children’s writing, memoirs, and talked about a WWII novel that a member has written. Although we had such wide variety in writing, there was a common thread discovered when half of the attendees realized that they had either lived or had relatives living in Germany.

I came away with some great ideas, like the one above, to apply to my writing. The question of ‘good vs. bad’ writing came up as we discussed whether writing just to have written something is worth it if it is ‘bad’ writing. The general consensus among the group was that to just get it out there onto the paper was the best thing. Maybe the three paragraphs you wrote won’t be going into a story anytime soon, but there may be a few lines in there worth the effort. And then again, when you look back on those three paragraphs in a few days, they might be very good writing that you didn’t notice.

The feedback from our sharing period was great. When I wrote up my poems to share, I felt they were disjointed and needed a lot more work. But yet when I read them aloud, they felt a lot better. The ideas the group gave me will really make a difference in how I edit them. I’m very glad that some of our new members shared their own work and I can’t wait to read the final products.

We had a very talented group last night, and I hope to see them all again next month.

Kristin

The Ames Collaborative Art Annual Project strives to mobilize artistically inclined youth, adult, and elder residents of out community to create large scale collaborative art projects within Ames, Iowa. Help support the 2012 Ames C.art Annual Project by sending donations to: Ames C.art, 2321 N. Loop Drive #102, Ames, IA 50010

{2010 mural, Thinking of Ames, located at the corner of Chamberlain and Welch in Ames, IA}

What is the 2010 Campustown Mural Project?

The Ames C.art Mural Project began as an initiative by the Campustown Student Association in the Spring of 2009. The owner of T-Galaxy agreed to the mural’s proposed location on the T-Galaxy building’s north wall. In October of 2009, Ames Collaborative Art (Ames C.art) accepted the invitation by the Campustown Student Association to coordinate and actualize the Campustown Mural Project as the initiation of the Ames C.art Mural Program.

This collaborative mural project was an entirely volunteer-driven effort intended to bring different populations of the Ames community together: school age children, college students, university staff, city residents, and local artists. We joined together of different aspects of the community to create a piece of public art which everyone can enjoy and encourages pride in and celebration of the Ames community.

Order your copy of “Thinking of Ames” on Lulu today!Get your own mural mug, postcard, or shirt on Zazzle!

The Making of the Mural

Special Thanks to all the community members that made this project possible: Griffle Inc, Sherwin Williams, Lowe’s, T-Galaxy, The Campustown Student Association, Craft Leftovers, the Ames Progressive, the Campustown Fire Station, The City of Ames, The Paint Iowa Beautiful Grant Program, Ames Community Art Council, Ames Public Art Commission, and all the wonderful volunteers who took the time to paint this mural – without you, this project would have never become the reality it is today.