Friday, October 19, 2012

Under Inspection: Flower Looms

Using time wisely can be the key to a good creative habit. Finding balance is also key. I like to spend time with my family but I also have to balance time spent for myself. On Sundays, my husband likes to watch football. He enjoys having me watch the game with him. However, I am not a football fan. I hate leaving him to go sit in my craft space, so I am in search of activities I can do that bring my crafting to the living room. I came across these flower knitting looms as I walked the aisles of my local craft store. They looked like something I could easily use to make flowers for my scrapbook layouts while I relaxed on the couch next to my husband.

The cost of the loom and the yarn was under $10. With the large ball of yarn, I could make quite a few flowers. I chose a white yarn with the intent that I could dye it with my spray ink to match my layouts. Overall, the kit was very easy to use. The packaging led me to the product website where I learned there are a variety of looms available for knitting and flower making. The size loom I purchased makes one size flower. I learned I could use a spool loom for two smaller size flowers. Looking at the product website, I decided I would do a web search to see how many different flowers I could make. After all, I don't knit, so  knew very little about this product or it's possibilities.

Flower looms have been around for quite some time. There are evidently quite a few available on the market. It's also easy to make one yourself. Knitting-and.com is a website which reviews looms and has tutorials to create your own. You can make an inexpensive loom with plastic canvas. There are tutorials for different ways to sew the flower centers as well as ideas for finishing the flower edges. You can also use ribbon or cloth strips to create flowers with the looms.

Overall, I am very happy with my loom purchase, though I do want to try making the plastic canvas looms rather than purchasing more of the ready made ones. Making a flower was easy and could be done quickly. So if I need a custom flower in a flash, this is the route I would take. I think though, that in the future, I will use less yarn than recommended. I wound the yarn through the loom 3 times. The resulting flower is a tad bit thicker than I prefer for fitting in my albums.






I probably won't spend every Sunday making these flowers. I plan to peruse Pinterest in search of more embellishment ideas. Stay tuned for more segments of Under Inspection as I find new and interesting ways to create scrapbook embellishments while I relax with my family in the living room.


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