photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

With the upcycled paper yarn,

I wove a Unicorn.

crocheted a fairy

and crocheted a basket.

I am down to the

last of the Blue Man

streamer paper yarn,

so I feel like I want to

make something

that is a ’statement’ piece…..

I have been mulling and mulling it over… after all, this is quite special yarn, so I want to design and make something that is worthy of the yarn. I also want it to be fun, and quirky and funky and tongue in cheek.

A couple of people sent me some suggestions about what to make, and I appreciate that so much!

I got all inspired, which of course meant that I had to get out my sketchbook and start sketching.

Well! as I flipped through my sketchbook, I found a sketch with some notes that made me go- Bing! YES!

And, I KNEW that I had found exactly what I needed to work on.

I got out paper, pens, scissors and started drawing and cutting a template.

The first three versions ended up tossed into the fire.  We heat the studio with a wood burning stove. It often eats up rejected templates, sketches and drawings!

I finally got the template to the place that I am now happy with it, and have started crocheting the last project with the Blue Man streamer upcycled paper yarn.

Am I going to show it to you yet? Nope. Not yet.  I’ll keep working on it, and hopefully, it’ll be worthwhile showing off!

So, stay tuned…. more will follow!

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Photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright.

Poor little thing… she’s very stained, and rather frayed around the edges.

Even so, she stole my heart, and I knew that I just had to see if I could rescue and re-create her.

If you are wondering what a needle book is, it’s a rather sweet bit of stitchery history.

Needlebooks are small ‘books’ with cloth pages that are alternatives to pin cushions.

Needles are stored in the inner pages of the needlebook.

Her front and back are way out of kilter with each other, and the middle section is oh so frazzled.

I sketched and worked on the pattern and made some adjustments and arrived at my version of the Sunbonnet Sue Needlebook:

Photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright.

I cut out 2 outside pages from cream colored felt, and one inner page of white felt. I cut the feet off the inner page:

Photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright.

Then, I crocheted 5 tiny flowers, using a .6 mm hook and size 50 crochet cotton, and my pattern from Crocheted Flowers:

Photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright.

I stitched tatted lace edging  to her hat, and to the  hem of the skirt in the inner pages.

I stitched the flowers to her muff, as well as tiny felt leaves.  I stitched a bead to the center of each flower.

Photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright.

I made a  bow from a narrow strip of felt, and stitched that to her hat.

I also stitched leaves and a flower and beads to the inside of the front cover,

and covered the stitching along the hat with another strip of felt.

The original needlebook just left the inside cover with the raw stitching showing, but I prefer the way it looks when it’s ‘cleaned up’ :

Photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright.

Then, I sewed the 3 layers together at the 2 ‘X’s -

the original was only stitched at the nape of the neck, but I prefer the stability that the exra stitching gives.

Photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright.

I just love her to pieces….

Here she is with her much older sister:

Photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright.

I think that she’d make a lovely gift…. I can see that I am going to have to make more Sunbonnet Sue Needlebooks!

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Wherever you go

photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

whatever you do

be happy

and know

that

I love you…..

Guess you can tell that I adore her….. LOL!

I took pics of the process of carving the one of a kind crochet hook, and have  just put them together as a video tutorial.

Remember: Always wear safety equipment and work carefully!

Carving a handmade crochet hook is a slow and meticulous process.

You will need to work carefully, using close grain hardwood that can sustain the pressure of the carving, and even more important: To be able to stand up to the rigours of crocheting later!

By the way: Be gentle when crocheting with wooden hooks! Lighten up on your tension, as you don’t want to break the hook after all that work!

When shaping the hook section, sand after every little nip of the knife, and test crochet with it frequently to make sure it is a ‘happy hook’.  If it catches or splits the yarn, it’ll make you crazy, so keep working at it until the hook flows and floats through the yarn.

And, sad to say…. prepare for some ‘fail’ …… sometimes, you’ll invest hours and hours into making a handmade hook, and the stinker will break in your hands.  Sigh…. back to the drawing board.

But! when you do achieve a perfect hook, it is just a treasure!

Here’s the video:

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I was weaving away on my potholder loom, so there’s even a little fiber content in the video!

Jim wrote ‘Gypsy Girl’ for me…. sigh……  having him write music for me is one of the most incredible gifts I have ever received!

photo and video by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

I was sitting quite far away from the bass player, so, sadly, you don’t hear much of the bass.

I was sitting with one of my closest friends, who hadn’t heard ‘Gypsy Girl’ yet.

You’ll hear her say: Wow….. and me laughing in delight

at the end of the video.

That’s my ubiquitous cup of green tea next to my potholder loom.

The little wooden notebook in the pic is one that I made my friend for Christmas, and the white crochet is the bag I crocheted for her for her birthday.

It’s the prototype for the bag in Book 1 of the Strapped for Bags series.

Anyhow… I hope that you’ll enjoy ‘Gypsy Girl’ (even though it’s a YouTube video and NOT recording standard by any means….)

That’s my Beloved in the red shirt, playing the guitar…..

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is a lovely book, that is indeed true to it’s title: It is deeply contemplative.

photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

Cindy Crandall-Frazier has written meditations that are linked to key issues in the life of anyone who is looking for ways of deepening their spiritual path.

Ms Crandall-Frazier writes from the perspective of being a Quaker, and her book reflects the gentleness and respectful approach to life of the Quaker’s path.

The book has 10 chapters. In each one there is an exploration of a spiritual concept, and musings about artists who are embodying those themes in their lives and work.

In each chapter, there is also a simple project that is meant to be created in a spirit of connection to the Divine Presence. As a finished object, it acts as a reminder of that spiritual process.

I highly recommend this book – in fact, I am one of the people on the back of the book who wrote endorsements for it before it was published.

My one disappointment with the book? That the publishers chose to print it in black and white and not in color.

One of the main strengths of crochet is that it is painterly, and by loosing the ability to see the works in the book in color, we loose a great deal of the impact that they should be conveying.

Lovely book, though…. so full hooks up to Cindy Crandall-Frazier!

If you have felt that the work of your hands is connected to your heart and spirit, you will definitely resonate with Contemplative Crochet.

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and yet….

doll and photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

somehow….

it filled you with delight….. just to be alive?

A few years ago, I was working away in my studio, and was in a state of pure enjoyment,

as ideas were flowing and projects were just chugging along and everything felt

wonderful!

I grabbed my sketchbook and made some quick drawings of how I felt about the lusciousness of a day of happy work and feeling blessed.  Then, I made a doll-

that was the first of many, many variations on the drawings. The photo to the right is a pic of the first ‘joy’ doll…..

Those drawings have become the basis of a whole series of  joy based cloth dolls,

paper dolls, wooden dolls, spool knitters,crochet hooks and all manner of other things.

Ah, joy……

Which brings me to today’s pictures for the Faces of Joy pictures…..

Chrissy left a comment in one of the previous entries in the Face of Joy Challenge, leaving a link to her entry in the Challenge.

Chrissy’s face of joy is made in socks!  Fun!

Nancy sent me a pic of her husband looking quite bemused in a rather grumpy looking hat….. since she didn’t tell her hubby that his pic had been sent off to a blog…. I cropped to just the hat:

Nancy's hat copyright

and, then I turned the grumpy little mouth upside down to make it somewhat more joyful…..

Nancy's hat smiling

And Caroline has joined in with  her Face of Joy, which has taken wing!

Caroline's yellow bird (copyright)

There are an infinite number of ways of expressing the face of joy….. Thanks Chrissy, Nancy and Caroline for sharing your faces of Joy!

I look forward to seeing more faces of joy……

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One of the contests was the Compassionate Crochet contest.

compassion caps crocheted by Barbara Pretzsch copyright

The winner of that contest, Barbara Pretzsch, has proved herself

to be a winner in more ways than one!

Barbara has used the kit that she won to create a whole collection

of compassion caps and has shipped them off to the Knots of Love folks

so they can distribute them to cancer patients.

Bless your heart, Barbara, and thank you!

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It’s a F A C E of Joy challenge, right?

teddy designed, made and photographed by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

Soooooooooooo…..

that means that the face doesn’t have to belong to human being.

AND……

I did say that for this challenge,

WIRE counts as yarn, right?

So……..

my entry for ‘The Face of Joy’ challenge for today

is

A teddy bear that I crocheted from 28 gauge coppper wire.

He has a big heart and a happy disposition.

He’s got wooden beads inside his head and his tummy to keep him

from squishing flat when he’s off on an adventure, inside my pocket or a bag.

He’s about 3 1/2 inches tall (9 cm).

And, when I look at him, I have to smile…..

and isn’t that what the face of joy is all about?

I invite you to play with wire today and see what joy you invent.

Remember to hold the wire very lightly, and don’t try to put much tension on it

or it’ll play havoc with your tendons, and that’s no joy…..

have fun!  Play time!

Please remember to send me pictures of  YOUR face of joy projects, so you can win the Jane Austen crochet hook.

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I’ve been reading up on ‘play’ (click the link to read what wikipedia has to say about play)

image & photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

and playfulness.

Expert after expert has talked about the importance of being playful

for our entire lives.

There was a wonderful conference about Serious Play last year.

All the experts agree:

Play is essential to our well being, in body, mind and spirit – as individuals and as communities.

Being playful can alleviate all kinds of stress.

Playfulness increases resiliency and flexibility….and, whew… do we ever need to be flexible these days!

Because of the grim situation with the economy, we are all rattled and frazzled to some extent or another…. sooooooooooo…….

I thought……….

How about starting a challenge of playfulness?

Here’s the scoop:

For the month of April, I would like to challenge you to  show us all

your face of joy.  What does that mean?

Well, play with some yarn and make a face that shows an image of joy,

image & photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

whatever that means and however you interpret that. NO! you don’t have to be an “artist”  !  A few simple lines CAN convey joy!

For example: I drew a ‘joy’ face with spool knitted cord. (1st pic)

Then, I played with my photoshop program in the 2nd pic. (you don’t

have to do that…. I just wanted to play with it!)

The RULES:

1] Make a face that shows joy- BUT… the face MUST have yarn as some part of it. (Thread and string and wire all are going to count as yarn for this challenge).

2]Any technique that uses yarn IN ANY WAY to make a face, and, the more playful the better! (You can make a mask or a puppet or a doll or a wall hanging or or or… )

(knitting,weaving, crochet, photo collage, spool knitting, tatting, beading, embroidery… and…. and… or…..

ANY playful way you can think of to make a face  of JOY and you’re in!)

3] Send me a pic of your Face of Joy OR blog about it and link to this posting.

4] The challenge lasts for the month of April

5] You can make as many faces of joy as you would like….. please post a comment with your blog links if you’re going to post the pics on your blog, so people can see what you are up to.

6] Would winning a prize bring a smile to your face? Well…. I thought that it might…. so, I am going to give one of the challenge participants one of the one of a kind Homage to Jane Austen crochet hooks that I carved: ( I do ask that the winner pays the postage… sorry about that part…. )

image & photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

image & photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

All right! Now go have some fun! and make some faces of JOY!

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The invitation is  from Luib na Lùban, (Lùban air an Drochaid in Gaelic, pronounced, roughly, “Loooban er n drawkitch”),

copyright stitches on the bridge

which translates to: In Amongst the Stitches.

They are  a new textile art group in Skye, Scotland, that is inviting all Scots, ex-pats, Scotophiles and any other stitching folk  to take part in a wild and woolie project to cover the Skye Bridge in knitting and crochet.

On their Ravelry page, they have listed the dimensions of all the pieces that they need. (They need a lot, and don’t worry, the pieces won’t be wasted! They’ll be re-configured later to donate to charity)

The Skye Bridge links the Isle of Skye with the mainland in the West Highlands of Scotland.

The plan is to link this gigantic and glorious feat of urban stitching with Highland Homecoming 2009.

The Highland Homecoming is an exuberant  celebration of Scotland’s many wonderful contributions to the world, in October 2009.

Here’s the website: stitches on the bridge, where you can find links to myspace and facebook as well as other group links,

and here’s the  link for the yahoo group yahoo stitches on the bridge and the  Ravelry page

Get your hooks and needles flying! They need to cozy up the bridge to Skye starting now!

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