Falling Petals and Butterfly Loom

I started curly whirly no. 5 which was meant to be crocheted in Rowan Calmer and Sirdar Boa but with no definite plan in mind. In the end, though, I felt that the Boa and the Rowan Calmer didn't look quite right together so I decided, instead, to have Rowan Calmer with an edging of some Kid Silk Spray that I'd bought to make another Ruffles with. I cobbled together something along the lines of what I thought would pass muster for a petal trim and it looks like this. I've decided to call it "Falling Petals". I've still got about half of the trim to do before it's finished.


The trim is composed of groups of three petals in a cluster with five double crochet in between to separate them. A close up of one of the petal trios is below.


The now unused Sirdar Boa will be ideal to use for a scarf or bag on the Butterfly Loom that I bought recently.

I bought the medium sized one (pictured right) but they do come in different sizes depending upon what one wants to make with them. I had a practice with some old acrylic yarn (photo below). Different effects are created according to the different yarns used, how many yarns one wraps together, how many times one wraps them around the loom (thickness) and the way they are wrapped. For instance, with an eyelash yarn and a contrasting non-eyelash yarn wrapped together, you wouldn't see the flower type pattern that you can see with the sample I did because the fuzziness of the eyelash yarn would obscure it. What you would get though is a very interesting contrast between the yarns with loops of the contrasting yarn being visible through the eyelash. You can use any amount and type of yarns together and wrap as many times as you like to create different effects. With a large loom, a cushion cover can be made with ribbons woven through the base pattern which looks quite effective.


With scarves, one makes squares and then joins them together (the joins don't show). I thought it might be an idea to make some Xmas coasters and table mats using some red or green yarn together with something with a bit of sparkle in it but I've decided to make at least one of the Simply Knitting yuletide gnomes, and preferably two or three, so it's dependent on how much time I have to spare!

After one has wrapped the yarn to gain the desired effect, the yarn has to be fastened off at the back by knotting. The wrapping and the knotting both have to be done in a certain sequence. I'm looking forward to having a little play with it using non-practice yarn to see how it turns out.