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Weavagarumi

Plushie Creatures to Weave on the Potholder Loom
by Noreen Crone-Findlay
23 pages

Noreen Crone-Findlay is an aficionado of the potholder loom.  Her website is filled with tutorials and information about weaving  interesting things on this simple hand-held loom.  Her latest offering, Weavagarumi, is a self-published eBook (in Adobe PDF format) that contains patterns and instructions for weaving 15 different small stuffed toys.

The title is a nod to Amigurumi, the Japanese art of crocheting or knitting small stuffed animals.

When you order the book, it arrives in two separate emails.

The first email (3 MB) contains Weavagarumi: How to Weave the Shapes, a six-page booklet that details how to weave the components that will be assembled to create the Weavagarumi plush toys.  It covers the basics of warping and weaving, and then goes on to illustrate—through the clever use of a chopstick—how to use a potholder loom to weave different shapes and sizes.  The pictures are clear and easy to follow, though I did find the copyright notice across the center of each one a bit distracting.

The second email (4 MB) gets into the pattern specifics for each stuffed toy.  The toys are attractive and varied, including anthropomorphisized apples and oranges, the usual teddy bears and bunnies, as well as more unusual creatures like robots, aliens, and my personal favorite: an octopus.

The creatures are adorable, woven in a basket-weave that gives you much finer detail than you'd normally expect from a potholder loom.   Embroidered flourishes and expressive eyes make these projects rise above their humble potholder-loom origins.  Nearly all of the finished creatures (except the robot) are made of materials that are safe for small children.

The pictures in the second PDF are clear and attractive, clearly showing the completed projects.  Unlike the first PDF, there are no copyright notices obscuring the images.

The directions for each project were clear and concise, though—as a visual learner—I would have appreciated step-by-step images illustrating the construction process.

Overall, I was impressed by the creativity and versatility of these projects.  They are cute and attractive, and it amazes me that they can be woven on such a simple loom.

I would recommend this eBook to anyone who loves creating small dolls, or who is looking to take their potholder-loom weaving to new heights.