Have you ever seen a great looking shirt at a second hand store or garage sale, but didn’t buy it because it had somebody’s logo on it?
Well, now you can treat yourself to that shirt and upcycle it by crocheting simple flowers to cover the unwanted logo.
The other day, I was looking at my summer clothes (finally – what a long winter!)
And, I realized that I needed a new black t-shirt.
My old ones  are beyond wearing, and are destined to become fabric strips for weaving.
They’ll also become rags and other ‘green’ options.
Later that day, we were at a garage sale, …read more

Today, I was asked a question about working with copper wire.
The questioner had just gotten a fab deal on 24 gauge copper wire and snapped it up.
When she experimented with crocheting it, she found it to be not very pleasant to work with.  24 gauge is pretty energized, and fairly stiff.
Crocheting with it is mighty tough on the tendons.
She had seen that someone else had asked me to make them sturdy spool knitters for spool knitting wire and wondered if  the 24 gauge could be spool knitted.
Why would you spool knit wire?
Because you can make absolutely gorgeous jewelry with it!  …read more

This week’s listing of artsy bloggers links has, as usual, some fun stuff for you to check out!

Cyndi always has great tutorials to inspire you. Check out this week’s: She shows how to make absolutely gorgeous monoprint papers.
I just loved Chloe’s tutorial on making woven heart bags, so I couldn’t resist including it in today’s roundup:
A New Creative Journal
Heather Goldsmith is starting a new blog about journal writing.
How to Make Window Envelope Cards
Which do you prefer – the stamped or digital version?
Recycling and upcycling for threadies
My  husband bought me a bag of mystery …read more

Of course, I couldn’t stop at just one bracelet…
so I made a second one:

Because I had a plan…. bangle bracelets look better when there are more than one….
(BTW, the flash does nasty things to the bracelets…. in real life, they look smooth and kind of irridescent. The flash seems to expose their undies. How rude!)
AND, because I love Furoshiki.
What’s  Furoshiki?
It’s an ancient and elegant Japanese solution to carrying things in the greenest possible way.
Here’s a link: FUROSHIKI
I’ve impressed the heck out of all kinds of people by whipping a headscarf out of my purse and tying a couple of knots …read more

My husband started it all. He bought me a bag of mystery synthetic cheap and cheerful thread at our favourite second hand store, and then magically made it appear in my studio.  (He’s such a romantic! He knows that I am addicted to thread in all it’s manifestations – even cheap and cheerful mystery thread! LOL)

Part 1- upcycling a bag of funky mystery thread
So, I got out some of the tatting shuttles that I love to carve and filled them up with multiple strands of the threads:
Part 2 – Choosing colors and loading tatting shuttles
Now, some folks might say that …read more

In Part 3, the tatting finally began!
This is a rather unique approach to tatting…. there are no lacy bits, no loops, picots, chains, just plain Josephine Knots over a simple flat wooden bracelet with upcycled funky thread.
(Feel free to do this with gorgeous thread! It will be – well….. gorgeous!)
Now…..
What if you want to change colors?
Easy peasy….
1 choice is to cut the first color, leaving a few inches to spare.
Just pick up the next color, and hold the thread end from it together with the last  thread end, and carry on as if you were in your right mind.
When …read more

Once I had all the tatting shuttles full of the mystery thread, I started working on the bracelet:

I didn’t tie the thread to the bracelet (by the way, this would work on any bangle bracelet).
I just took the thread through, and pinched it to the bracelet with my left thumb.
Then, I started making Josephine knots over the bracelet. What’s a Josephine knot?
Basically, it’s the blanket stitch.
∞The tatting shuttle goes through the bracelet, from the front to the back, and a loop of thread goes over your left index finger.
The shuttle comes up through the loop and then is pulled …read more

My lovely husband, Jim, brought me home a goodie bag of mystery thread from the Sally Ann.
Not primo for sewing… so what to do, what to do….
Hmmmm…. good for spinning… yes! Will set some aside to use when spinning ‘designer yarn’.
Wait a minute…. this is T H R E A D, right?
T H R E A D !
Thread = tatting……yessssssssssssssssssssss………..
And, then I HAD it!
I decided I would  finally get around to finishing some wooden bracelets that I made last summer.
My plan was, cut out plain wooden circle bracelets and crochet yarn around them.
Good plan…. but – I have a …read more

The other day, this treasure magically appeared in the studio.  Woohoo! Obviously my Hunnybunny had paid a visit to our fave 2nd hand store. Mmmmmmmm yum! a bag full of fun…… now what to do with it….Obviously, it’s super cheap and cheerful mystery synthetic thread – and I don’t trust it to hold together anything vital. Visions of dissolving garment or accessory being lifted out of washing machine in pieces after cheap and cheerful thread goes ‘boink’.
(You weren’t supposed to WASH me, human! I no hold together when wet!)
Loved the colors, tho’, so had a little think about it……

(image source: …read more

Yesterday, I posted about the ‘Blogiversary Bracelets’ that
I made to celebrate my daughter, Chloë’s and my blogiversary of our blogging for 2 years for b5.
We drove to their house for dinner last night – through a storm of epic proportions. Whew!~ visibility at one point was zero. We had to pull off the road because we could not see through the rain! ugh…..
Anyhow… I was pleased that Chloë  likes the freeform Recycled Ruffle Cuff bracelets that I made for us from recycled wood:

LOL… I just noticed that the photo makes our fingers look verrrrrrrrrrrrrrry short. Ah well…  c’est la vie!
Image …read more