…is the title of my most recent book purchase. I saw it in the grocery store and I just couldn’t resist. I have been ooing and aahing over http://needlenoodles.com/home/ for a while, her stuff is so cute and clever.
I’m not sure where to start…probably with little cthulhu. I anticipate that there will soon be balls of yarn all over the house.
I’ve been on a necklace streak lately. I made a few long stranded necklaces on silver chain. One is mixed silver beads, one is glass pearls, and the third is crazy beads made of seed beads on wire tangled into a ball.
chain necklaces
When my stepfather’s mom died, I inherited a lot of patterns and other craft items. In amongst it all was a half-done afghan with all the wool and instructions to finish it. I finally got around to completing it and am going to give it back to my stepdad as a keepsake.
Here it is (Loki really liked it):
Crocheted Afghan
I’ve also been working on lots of necklaces which I will have pics of soon.
I liked how this DIY project turned out. It was very easy to do. The stencil work is really quick, but the ribbon is a bit time consuming. You could paint on the line-work, or use machine embroidery to make the project a bit quicker.
I had a t-shirt that I wanted to customize, and thought a while about what to do. I like the look of argyle, and thought it might be easy to do with fabric paint.
I started by picking my colour scheme. I already had the blue t-shirt, so I did a Google image search for “argyle” for inspiration, and chose brown and blue.
I wanted a fairly big pattern. I cut a diamond stencil out of card….mine diamond is 5” tall by 3” wide. You could scale it depending on how big or small you want the pattern.
I started with the middle row of brown squares, working from the neckline down. When using fabric paint, put some cardboard inside the shirt to keep the paint from seeping through. I used a makeup sponge to apply the paint. They work well for stencilling, and are a lot cheaper than disposable paint brushes. If you want a very strong, solid block of colour, you’ll need to apply more than one coat of fabric paint. I liked the slightly faded look of one coat, so I left it that way.
After the brown row, I did the yellow rows. Make sure to line your stencil straight each time. Once I have the stencil in place, I tape it on one or two corners to keep it there.
I left the paint to dry 24 hours before starting on the ribbon. I pinned on all of the ribbon and then hand stitched it on. This was pretty time-consuming, but not hard.
Here’s the finished product:
I’ve been seeing a lot of recycled magazine beads on Etsy and other places on the internet, and thought I’d give them a try.
There’s a lot of instructions on the internet, I used http://www.craftcritique.com/2007/05/paper-beads.html It’s a pretty simple project, easy enough for kids to make. I think I might try it when my little niece visits sometime.
I have a compact paper cutter, which made cutting the strips really fast. Using scissors would probably make this project a lot more time consuming. Most sites recommend using decoupage glue (which has built in varnish). I didn’t have any, so I just used regular white glue when rolling up the beads, and then some spray varnish to seal them.
I was able to turn out a big amount of beads in a short time, and I’m pretty happy with the results. Now I just have to figure out what to make with them!
OK, I don’t want to be one of those bloggers who promises to post pics later, and never does. For mother’s day, I crocheted some pussy willows for mom. They really did not come out in a realistic way, but they were cute so I still gave them to her. I promised to post pictures, and after a combination of forgetfulness and procrastination, here’s the pic! (Click it to embiggen).
As you can see, the are quite a bit fatter than genuine pussy willows, but they still have some charm. Your mom is morally obligated to like anything you made yourself, right?
For those of us who cannot afford to drop a few grand on a handbag, Hermes is offering free printable patterns to make your own Kelly bag. The blank version is here. You can find more patterns by navigating their annoying flash site: http://lesailes.hermes.com/us/en/ Click on the square with the white Kelly bag and orange scissors. Don’t you hate those types of websites?
While browsing around Etsy, I saw these beautiful handspun pussy willows made of merino wool and cashmere. I remembered that my mom used to always pick pussy willows when we were younger, and I thought they would make a great mother’s day gift.
The Etsy ones are $20 a branch, which is insane. And as you may know, if I think I can make something myself, I will. After some searching, I found this free pattern on Berroco’s site: http://www.berroco.com/exclusives/centerpiece/centerpiece.html.
I’ve been working on it using heavy worsted yarn that I had in my stash. The buds are coming out much larger than intended, and the wire I’m using is bending under the weight. I haven’t figured out how to compensate yet. I’ll post some pics soon.