Pizza weaving

Hello! Ok, so, this project is totally awesome and totally difficult to photograph. If you have a house that isn't 90% brown brick (mmmmm, so seventies!) it may be easier to take photographs that look pretty. BUT - pizza weaving! Yum!

I used my 6.5 x 9.5 inch loom and although when I started I wanted to make it bigger, after weaving all the pizza toppings I think this size was just right ~___^ I also took the rest of these photos with the pizza weaving laying on my coffee table which I have only just realised is really quite an orange coloured wood. Perhaps a darker stain is in order?

Anyway, back to the pizza. Before I started, I drew a pizza slice on a sheet of A4 paper which I kept under my loom as I wove. I didn't follow it exactly, but it was good to have a guideline regarding where I should be putting toppings and how much to angle in the actual pizza slice.

 

All of the yarn that I used for the actual pizza is random acrylics that my Nanna Tess left to me, and I think the white yarn is Shiver, which is a chunky acrylic. I find that the fluffy yarns are best for filling in large spaces because they don't leave as many little gaps between the rows.

 

 Shiver is also fantastic for making tassels - look at those fluffy babies! 

I didn't make a tutorial for this project as I was really just making it up as I went along, but here are some tips if you want to make your own. 1. Start from the crust and work down; I found it easier to judge how much to angle in my pizza when I was working from the top. 2. Weave a couple of rows of toppings, then fill in the rest of the pizza slice. Repeat, repeat, repeat. 3. Add in the background last and draw your yarn under the weaving you've already done if you don't want a border of empty space around your pizza.

 

I'm really happy with how my pizza weaving came out and I'm kinda tossing up on deciding if I want a larger loom now; although I do love my little loom, I feel like maybe it's time to expand. What do you think? Have you tried weaving before? Should I weave a donut next? ~___^

- Lisa xx

My first weaving, and three cakes

Hello! How are you? This week I am NOT SICK! This is very exciting for me, as it means I can do things other than coughing and feeling sorry for myself. Case in point, I decided I need to start a new hobby (because I obviously don't have enough at this point ....) and so I got myself a loom and made a little weaving. Huzzah!

Now, let's be honest, it's pretty ugly. I started this project with no idea what the finished product would look like and since I was more interested in learning how to do different things rather than making a coherent design it's kinda ... odd.

I did have a lot of fun making it however, and even though it's not the prettiest thing I've ever made I'm still pleased with it!

 

I followed the weaving tutorials on A Beautiful Mess while making this, which was really helpful. In general I feel like that the actual weaving and tension is pretty good, but I need to improve on filling the gaps around shapes. 

 

I think my favourite part is the tassels; the yarn I used looks like it is finger knitted and it's really soft and fun to use. 

 

I used a vintage double pointed needle for the hanger since I had it on hand (it was passed down to me from my Nanna Tess) and I still don't know how to use DPNs.

 

One thing that I learnt was that when making shapes, filling in the gaps with a thin yarn is quite tricky, so going for a puffier, thicker yarn will save you some frustration in that area!

 

Taking photos of things on the walls in my house is quite difficult as the lighting is terrible, but I wanted to show you that it can actually hang. As you can see, it's ugliness sets off the ugliness of the brown bricks throughout our house quite well! ~____^

In other, more delicious news, I have been making cakes recently. You would have seen these if you follow me on Instagram but hopefully you won't mind a bit more cake convo ^____^

I made this Anzac cake for WARD's Skate Cleaning Fundraiser, which was such a great day! The icing is coconut, and has dinosaur sprinkles on it because, dinosaurs. They make everything better!

 

I made this overly pink cake simply because I was bored and I wanted to. It's another pink coconut cake, with pink coconut icing, and sour peach hearts as decorations. It was delicious, but didn't really taste anything like coconut ice which was what I was kinda going for. I'll have to work on that!

 

Lastly, I made a cake that wasn't pink - omg, right? I made this cake for the bake sale at a roller derby double header between WARD and PRD. I was a non-skating official, so I couldn't wear WARD colours, but no one said my cake couldn't! WARD's colours are green and black so I made a chocolate and peppermint marble cake. I used to love making marble cakes when I was a kid but I hadn't made one in years, so I was super pleased with how it turned out. They really are so fun and easy to make. I added peppermint icing to the top of the cake, and finished it off with those little edible silver balls. They remind me of ball bearings, which I figured was perfect for a skating cake ^____^

Well, this post has succeeded in making me totally crave cake! Next week my post will be all about The Addams Family - huzzah! I've set myself a challenge to make three crafts inspired by those wonderful creeps and I can't wait to show you what I come up with!

Until then,

- Lisa xx