photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

The other day,

on one of my fave lists,

someone posted a link

to Bog Coats.

Bog Coats are an

ancient style of

woven coat that

are rather like

a kimono.

They are made from a

rectangular or square

woven piece of fabric

and are simple to make

but offer endless opportunities for embellishment and exploration.

Because I have been playing with tiny vintage Magic Looms that a friend sent to me, I immediately thought-

Woohoo! I could use the Magic Loom to make a tiny bog coat that would work as a Christmas ornament…….

sketch and photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

I knew that I wouldn’t be

able to cut into the fabric

made on the Magic Loom,

so I decided to make 4 squares

and stitch them together

as shown in the sketch.

photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

I used the 2 inch

square Magic Loom

to weave these 4 squares,

but you could use

any size or style

of loom that would give you

squares.

photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

The 2 lower squares are

for the body.

The 2 upper squares

will become the sleeves.

Body: The center back is stitched

together by joining 2 squares.

Then, the shoulder section

of the back is stitched together

(also at the center back),

by joining 2 more squares,

but only stitching half way,

so that there is an opening for the front neck.

photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

In this photo,

the sections between the

2 needles have been

stitched together,

and from the ‘x’ down to the

center ‘x’.

The other seams aren’t stitched

until the fronts

and sleeves  are

folded into place.

photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

The lower 2 squares

are folded to the front,

to complete the body shaping

and the upper 2 squares

are folded down

to complete the sleeves.

The sleeve seams are

stitched, and then the

remaining seam across

the fronts, and the  bog coat is done!

When I went searching through the studio to see who wanted to model this tiny Bog Coat ( It’s about 3 inches tall and 4 inches from sleeve cuff to sleeve cuff),  Albert Einstein volunteered!

Well, okay…. my Albert Einstein Action Figure volunteered…  and immediately invited a friend over for a cuppa tea to admire the new addition to his wardrobe, and to discuss the nature of the Universe……. If you listen carefully, you might hear them chatting…..

photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

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photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

The flowers from

flower looms work

beautifully  in combination

with crochet.

I quite like using

unusual yarns with

the flower looms.

This is slubbly quite

hefty silk handspun

in a shawl.

photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

Here are a

bunch of flower loom

flowers in another

shawl- also all

made in handspun yarns.

photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

The rainbow  flower

was made with

spool knitted cord

on a flower loom.

The white flower

was made with chained

yarn…..

so you can really play with

your yarn before you use it

with a flower loom.

photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

What are those flowers part of?

Well…

a wild and wonderful

freeform crocheted, spool knitted,

tatted, woven, sewn, sculpted

doll made with all manner of

found objects.

Yes…. her

head REALLY is a vintage

shaving brush.

Aren’t her shoes cute?

The red square was made with a

magic loom and soft ribbon.

flower looms and freeform crochet photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

Here’s the back of the doll.

I used black  ribbon with

the flower loom,

and with the magic loom,

and a fair amount of spool knitting,

and crochet, with lots

of vintage buttons, a little lego,

beads, and found objects.

Putting together

all the diverse elements

in a cohesive way

can be challenging.

flower looms and freeform crochet photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

But, seeing the possibilities

for creative adaptive re-use,

aka: Upcycling found and

discarded objects and

using them to create

wild and funky dolls

that are an expression

of human experience

is one of the great joys of

my life….

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Yesterday, I posted about a wonderful box of goodies that one of my friends (who is also a fiber artist) sent me- with a set of Magic Looms in it.

photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

As well as the Magic Looms,

she sent me a set of

flower looms,

which made me

so happy.

I know, I am easily

amused…. but these

are such charming

little looms-

The booklets say

that they were sold in 1970.

They feel a touch brittle, and, given that I broke a vintage flower loom recently, I want to be very very careful and gentle with these ones.

One of the things that I love about finding different versions of vintage tools and gadgets is that, when you are lucky enough to find ones that still have the instructions with them, you will often learn new ways of working with the tool…. Today, I learned a new way of stitching the center of the flower….I think I am going to have to do a video tute to show the different ways to stitch the centers….

I am really enjoying working with yarn that I spun from paper (here’s a tutorial on how to do that ) and I particularly like the way paper yarn works on the flower looms.

The two flowers with faces are pins that I made a week or so ago.  The other 2 flowers are ones I made today, when I was experimenting with the new flower looms.

I have a  fun idea for a cute gift to make with them……. so stay tuned!

By the way, I was sure that I had seen a current version of these nifty flower looms, and so I did a websearch.  I was really pleased to discover that  they are still being made. They are called Knit Wits nowadays. (no profit or connection or affiliation in my posting the link, just the fruit of a happy websearch)

I

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We find treasures that we send to our friends- so the friends are happy, and the post office is sooooooo happy because Friend B then mails a treasure on to Friend C, to keep the de-cluttering going.

And, oh yes,Friend B has to send a little thank you back to Friend A.  Yes… the post office loves it when we de-clutter.

photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

One of my friends(Friend A)

started a cycle of

making the Post Office

and me (Friend B)

very happy.

We were talking about

small looms and

flower looms.

She had noticed that I blogged about my broken  much loved flower loom . She mentioned that she had an extra flower loom or two and would I like to have them?

Are you kidding? I went wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee oh yes oh yes oh yes oh yes puhleeeeeeeeeeeze……..

photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

I was thrilled to bits

when I opened

the box and

whoo whoo!

Not only had my

friend sent me

some flower looms

(I’ll take pics)

she sent me

a set of Magic Looms, too..

And, I just  cracked up when I saw that the big box of new loomies has EXACTLY the same photo, (only upside down), as the little box that I already have.

photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

Magic Looms are

really quite

wonderful.

They make neat little

squares of all descriptions….

and it struck me

today, that you could

use them as flower looms, too….

(That’s on my ‘give it a try’ list.)

photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

I have been

experimenting with

using the Magic Loom

for making needle lace .

I love using the motifs

from the Magic Looms

in dollmaking  and

freeform crocheted

pieces, too.

There are a lot of ways of

working with the

rather appropriately

named little loomies.

(I don’t think they’re made anymore, so you’ll have to watch for them in garage sales and at thrift stores and places like that).

The one thing that the Magic Looms ABSOLUTELY DO NOT make would be anything remotely resembling a crocheted Granny Square.

So, tell me….. why, oh why, would the manufacturers show a photo (repeatedly and then upside down) of something that their product is totally incapable of making?

Why would they do that?

Don’t they understand how ticked off some poor person was going to feel about it, if the only reason why she bought it was because she thought that she could make a granny square on it?

Ah well, customer relations were obviously not part of their picture.

That’s okay, because The Post Office is pleased.

And,  Friend A is hopefully going to be pleased, because, of course, I will have to send her a little something to say thank you, and then there’s Friend C that will be receiving a little something from my stash. (In the interests of de-cluttering).

Yep…. the Post Office loves de-cluttering…. don’t we all?

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photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

Finally, I have finished

doing all the

photo editing

and writing

and pattern

formulating and

text editing

for the pattern.

Some designs

take a lot of work

to develop and refine,

and this is one of those ones.

But it’s worth it. I am pleased!

The Celtic Interlace Spool Knitted Necklace.

If you’re a regular visitor on Hankering for Yarn, you’ll know that  I’ve done a lot of designs for spool knitted bracelets and other jewelry.

photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

Spool knitted cords

make great simple necklaces as well.

You can spool knit a cord,

join the ends

to make a loop, and

hang a bead, charm,

found object

(or in the photo

a tatting shuttle)

on it, and Voila!

a necklace!

When making a spool knitted necklace, feel free to be experimental about combining yarns and threads to create unusual effects.

Dressing the yarn up by making interesting color combinations and textures will go a long way in making the necklace more unique and special.

Spool knitting is a natural for jewelry making and  it can be used to create some absolutely gorgeous accessories and other treasures!

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photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

Well, okay,

for me,

the gift making

has already started.

I’ve been having

a lovely time

working on

Sunbonnet Sue Needlebooks.

I just love making them, and I hope that the friends and family that are receiving them will love them, too!

Here’s the link: Sunbonnet Sue

Photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

If  needle books

aren’t your cup of tea,

maybe making

a bracelet or two

might appeal?

Here’s a tutorial

for how to spool

knit with wire.

Spool knitted wire bracelet

Spool knitting wire

is a great way to

showcase a favorite bead,

button, stone or found object and turn it into a one of a kind bracelet.

Photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

One of my favorite

tiny gifts to make

and to receive

is a bookmark.

This bookmark

combines  little

squares woven on

a vintage Weave it

loom, trimmed with

tatting.

Here’s the link for the how to:

Bookmark

Hope you’ll enjoy making some small, but precious gifts for the people that you love… I’ll be posting more tutorials and lots of links for great ideas for yarncentric gifts!

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photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

She gave it to me, and I had an idea….

For years,

my sisters in law

had been giving each

other the same

cardboard box

back and forth

back and forth

at Christmas time.

That little box

held many gifts

and many memories.

It got shabbier and shabbier as the years went by, but, it became more precious even, than the gifts it contained.

We all would look for ‘the box’ to see how it was holding up.

Well, when the polka dot bear came in the door, I thought… ‘Hmmmm, what if I make an addition to this bear, and give it back to her?’

I asked Sis if she’d like to designate  Blue Polka Dot as a ‘Sister Bear’.

She agreed enthusiastically.

So, for several years, Sister Bear would travel back and forth from her house to mine, whenever she came back to Canada for a visit home.   Sister Bear lived with Sis  for about 6 months, and then me for about 6 months. Although, sometimes, if visits were more frequent, Sister Bear might pass back and forth more frequently.

Sister Bear became more and more elaborate, as each of us added more embellishments.

Sister Bear made a sad journey back to me 3 Christmases ago, after the death of beloved Sis……

Sister Bear  has lived with me since then, and has been the recipient of many hugs, and a fair few tears.

She has begun another chapter of Sister Bearhood, as Jim’s Big Sis has taken Sister Bear home with her.

And now, Sister Bear will pass back and forth between us, and each of us will be adding new touches to Sister Bear while we have her.

Perhaps this is an idea that you and your sister or dear friend would like to adopt…… it’s amazing how precious Sister Bear has become to us.

If you decide to create a Sister Bear, please let me know! I’d love to see pictures.

I’ll take pics of Sister Bear next time I see her.  That will probably be next summer…. I wonder what Big Sis will have added.  I have plans for my next addition….

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My day went sideways when I found out that I had a big whalloping error in my  crocheted Shadow pattern. ERG!

I re-did the chart and fixed the error in the text and sent out the corrections to all the people who had ordered the pattern.

Then…. I noticed….. that….. AGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH……. there was another typo!

I ran, screaming from the room….. and then came back and fixed it, and sent the correction off agaaaaaaaaaaaain!

photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

Through all the ‘ruptions’

Ms Kitty was keeping me company,

purring away,

and looking all squidgie eyed at me,

telling me that she still loves me,

even though

I was having a horrible

terrible, no good  awful day….

It’s so nice to know that

even when the day falls

off the charts, that

Ms Kitty still nobly

loves me through it all.

My husband also loves me and ‘there, there’d'  me and consoled me.

I wanted to pay crochet tribute to them both,  but I couldn’t find any patterns for crocheted husbands.

It’s so much easier to find crocheted cats….. soooooo…..

I am hereby having a mini  Carnival of Crocheted Cats.

Starting off with my own tribute to the crocheted cat: I love crocheting cats, and designed a book of them several years ago:  Noreen’s crocheted cats That book’s not free, so I needed to find a few free cat patterns for you.

Here’s a whole bunch of free kitty patterns:

A whole page of  many many many Cat_Theme_Free_Patterns

And more free-crochet-stuffed-cats

Amigarumi crochetedCat

As we all know, cats love toys, so here are a few links of some crocheted Cat toy patterns:

Cute cat-toys-free-crochet-pattern

another-cat-toy-pattern-crocheted

Cats and yarn and crochet hooks- what a natural combination!

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copyright Noreen Crone-Findlay

Oops…

this yarn isn’t

crocheted, it’s

spool knitted.

I spun it from

a variegated roving,

but found the color breaks

to be too sharp.

So, I plied it with a thin

slubby strand of brown silk thread.

This toned down the color breaks and made the yarn more visually cohesive.

copyright Noreen Crone-Findlay

This golden

yarn was just a little

bit flat looking.

Combining it with a

strand of very thin

variegated thread gives

it depth and more

life- it’s a far more interesting

fabric than when the gold

yarn is used on it’s own.

copyright Noreen Crone-Findlay

I crocheted these two

Shadow Scarves

using  red merino/possum

lace weight yarn from New Zealand.

The shadow scarf on the left

was crocheted with just the red yarn

and a size ‘H’ (5 mm) hook and is

delightful.

I wanted to see what would happen if

I combined a strand of the variegated thread

with the red yarn. I also wanted to try taking

the laciness factor up a notch, so I went up

one size of hook, to an ‘I’ (5.5 mm).

copyright Noreen Crone-Findlay

The variegated thread

really punches up the

impact of the plain red yarn.

Even though the variegated thread

is very thin, it has tiny slubs,

so it dramatically increases the

texture of the finished fabric.

Wonderful!

Oh…. I just realized that the one

thing that I haven’t done (doh) is

to crochet or knit the variegated thread completely on it’s own.

I’ve been so caught up in combining it with other yarns, that I forgot to try it on it’s own.

This particular thread came from Salt Spring Saori, and is kind of one of a kind, I think, as Terri brings in unique yarns from Japan.

Watch second hand stores for interesting threads and yarns- and garage and yard sales, too! Also, don’t be afraid to combine serger threads and sewing threads with your yarns to create interesting crocheted, knitted, spool knitted or woven fabrics.

You never know where you’ll find fun threads and yarns. And, when you put them together with other yarns, you might just be surprised by the fascinating textiles that you can create!

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photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

They are useful,

and can be embellished

in endless ways

to make them one of a kind.

There are a million ways to make a basket.

One of the most fun

ways of making

baskets is to spool knit them.

photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

To make a

spool knitted

basket,

you’ll need to

spool knit a heap

of cord.

Luckily, this is a

very pleasant and

contemplative task.

Make a couple

of yards each of

2 contrasting colors.

I like to use my 2 peg

Cordelia spool knitters

photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

as they are so speedy

when I’m spooling up lots of cord.

Making a basket

is much easier if

you have a mold

to shape it over.

So, for this basket,

I used an empty

olive oil tin.

Trace the bottom of

the tin onto graph paper

and draw lines at the center.

Find a chunk of foam or

use several pieces of

photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

cardboard so

you can stick pins in it.

Pin the 2 cords to the center

of the pattern.

Bring one of the cords around

the other,

and then,

coil them

in a spiral,

until you fill

photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

in all the lines.

It’s a good idea

to pin the cords to

the pattern,

but you might

prefer to not

pin….

you’ll begin

the stitching

photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

process at the

center of the

coils.

Stitch through 3 cords

at a time, working

your way around

the coils.

Place the stitches fairly

close together for

sturdiness.  As you stitch,

the shape of  the base of

photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

the basket

is being established,

so squinch and

squeeze to make

the base fit the pattern.

When the base is

complete,

lift it off the foam

and continue wrapping

2 cords around the tin.

Stitch through both of them, and through the last cord of the previous round. (Remember, you always stitch through 3 cords at a time).

What do you do if you run out of cord?  Grab your spool knitter and spool knit some more!

You can weave in the ends later, so don’t worry!

Finish the basket by cutting the last round of spool knitting, taking the end through the stitches at the end of the cord, and weaving them into the basket.

photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

And, before

you know it-

Voila!

Or as some people

say it: Wallah! LOL!

you have made

yourself the

most wonderful

little basket…

perfect for holding

your spool knitters

and spool knitting or

other fab yarnie projects!

I made a little video about basket making , for those who like to see things in motion:

Happy Spool knitting! and Happy Basket Making!

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