Weaving Sticks

About 3 weeks ago, I bought some weaving sticks after seeing a little video on how they worked on one of the crochet websites. I love yarn, and have been feeling that my crochet “mo jo” as it’s nicknamed has been kind of going to the wayside. No patterns inspired me, no stitches were kicking up my interest. And oh so many Works in Progress (WIPs) that just weren’t taking my fancy.

My first attempt at using weaving sticks. It is an ear warmer that ties at the back of the head in chunky actylic yarn. I like how fast it went - about an hour - and am liking the difference in texture and feel. It looks a bit rustic I think. #PhotoGrid #

I thought a change of technique might be just the thing, and it turns out, it was. What are weaving sticks? Well, they’re basically a series of dowels which have a hole in one end. You put a weft string through the hole, and then you weave in and out and out and in around the dowels. You push down the weaving as you go, and eventually, it ends up on the weft string you had put through the hole. Maybe this will help tutorial wise?

Anyhow, after getting the sticks, I decided to try my hand at it and experiment. My first attempt was with some chunky yarn in red and grey. I wasn’t sure how long the actual “weft” needed to be, so I started out with 5 strands at arm length. From there, the chunky yarn was added. I learned that the weft strands could have been a bit longer, but this made an ear warmer that ties at the back of the head in chunky acrylic yarn.

Stick woven ear warmer 2015

I like how fast it went – about an hour – and am liking the difference in texture and feel. It looks a bit rustic I think.

Stick woven ear warmer 2015
Close up on the texture and the end. I’m not exactly happy with the “end” on this first attempt, but I’ll keep trying – because I think this is more down to me and how I did it, rather than the sticks themselves. I think it will be neater on a second attempt.

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Packing Care Boxes for Serve the City

Happy Valentine’s Day! This week has been another busy one. One of the best things about where I work is that we always try to do our best to help the community via charity.

Serve the City Care boxes

On Thursday night, I and 16 other people from eBay Dublin got together in partnership with Serve the City Ireland and we put together 200 boxes for the under privileged.

Serve the City Care boxes

Serve the City Care boxes

We glued together the boxes, added tissue paper, put in the items, and then closed them up with a bow and a card for each one.

Serve the City Care boxes

Serve the City Care boxes

What’s amusing is that I originally volunteered to write half (100) of the Valentine cards. Jose drew the outside of the card –

Serve the City Care boxes

and Once they saw my penmanship, creativity, and artistry, however, I ended up composing the inside of all 200 cards! My hand was sore at the end – and so was my shoulder (seriously – who writes ANYTHING anymore – let alone 200 cards!) but it was well worth it.

Serve the City Volunteering

Serve the City Volunteering

Serve the City Care boxes

Ever wonder what 200 care boxes look like? Well, now you know:

Serve the City Care boxes

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