This has been a weekend full of fun tatting projects – from dragons to doll clothes:
Here be dragons!  The other day, a member of the Tatta Tat Tatting group on Ravelry began a conversation about tatting dragons.
One thing lead to another, and before long,
I had invited the group members
to participate in a challenge, to make dragons.
The challenge is to make a
dragon in any medium
that includes tatting.
The first thing I always
do when working on
a new piece, is to get out
my sketchbook.
As I was sketching,
the thought popped up…
Could I make a dragon shaped
tatting shuttle?
Well, it took a heap of drawings and sketches, …read more

A week or so ago, a couple of my designs were featured in an article that I wrote for Weavezine.
Here’s the link to the article:
Noreen’s scarves/tablerunners
I designed a couple of scarves
that show several techniques.
One thing that they illustrate
is how to weave a narrow band
of fabric and then to use
my ‘mitered loop’ technique
to make a piece that is twice
as wide, but 1/2 as long as the
original woven fabric.
I also show how to work with
a clasped weft, which is one of
my most favorite techniques.
The scarves, which work really well as table runners, also feature a keyhole, so that one end can …read more

A couple of months ago, I bought a used leather coat at the second hand store. My plan was to upcycle  it into a new bag.
Well, I haven’t gotten around to making the bag yet,
but I did snip a little flap off the coat
and have used it to make
the perfect accessory
for the Fanciful Flat Fiber Friends Dolls: Shoes.
Doesn’t every doll need the perfect pair of shoes?
Well, Flora did, so I got busy
with my sketch book and graph paper.
I snipped out a half a dozen different versions
of shoes for Flora and her friends.
When I was happy with the pattern, I cut …read more

Lots of people love knitting socks, then are afraid to wear them, in case they wear a hole in their special sockie.
If you’re ’saving’ your socks and not wearing them because of  ‘hole-aphobia’, then fear no more!
I have worked out a way of darning socks that is based on using a pinboard loom.
It’s quick and easy and quite fun……
Here’s the tutorial:
The clock ran out on me, so I wasn’t able to show this last little bit… stitching the starting and finishing loops to the sock:
Weave in the ends, and Voila! a quick and easy way to darn your socks.
So, wear …read more

One of my most favorite pairs of knitting needles is a set that I made for myself.
I took small diameter hardwood dowels and then sharpened the points. Then I  added tiny Matroushka doll ends to them:
The  dolly tops of the knitting needles came from a pair of Russian pens that I found in a ‘Ye Olde Crafte Shoppe’ in a local mall.
I sawed the dolly ends off the pens (they never worked as pens).
I carefully drilled holes into the ends of the little Matroushka dolls and then glued the ends of the knitting needles.
I use the remainders of the pens …read more

Woven cloth tapes, ribbons and narrow bands are so common and so easy to get that we don’t even think about them.                                      It hasn’t always been that way, though.
For centuries, tapes and ribbons were essential for so many reasons:
They were used for a lot more things than they are now-
Woven tapes were essential to hold clothing up, hold clothing together, hold shoes onto feet,as well as being used around the house and workshop in a miriad of other ways.
Fancier woven tapes and ribbons were used to trim and embellish all kinds of textiles, from clothing and fashion accessories to curtain …read more

Knitting socks is one of life’s great pleasures.  Handmade socks are just luscious, and they….well….. um….  knock the socks off of any kind of store bought sock.
Lately, I have taken to adding a touch of whimsy to my sock knitting.
Now, I add tatted flowers to the top edges of my handknitted sockies.
I posted the pattern for tatted sock toppers a few weeks back:
Tatted Flower pattern
For awhile now, several of my friends have been asking me to please make a video about tatting.
I was kind of chicken to do that, because I hold my hands in an unconventional way in tatting.
I …read more

In these challenging and  stressful times, people are finding relief by reaching back in time to embrace and re-interpret vintage crafts.  Yarn is one of the greatest sources of comfort imaginable, so it is natural for yarn lovers to find ways of soothing themselves, AND other people with their yarnworks. I have been mulling over some yarnie comforts lately…..
Yesterday,  we had a very stressful day. We went to visit an old friend who is terribly ill in the hospital.
As we were leaving the hospital, talking quietly together about our friend, a young woman dashed into the elevator with us.  We …read more

For the longest time, I have been planning a scarf on the Butterfly Loom.  I have  handspun 2 shades of  yarn for the scarf .
I have been spool knitting variegated handspun for the edging, so I posted a tutorial about how to spool knit a sturdy cord on 2 pegs with thin yarn.  Tutorial
Here’s a pic of the 2 shades of yarn that I spun for it, as well as the Butterfly loom, a spool knitter, my Nostepinne, and a flower loom (I think I will add flowers soon….)
The instructions that come with the loom show how to stitch …read more

All week, I have been scrambling to get the various components made for a bag, using the Lily Speed-o-Weave Loom, spool knitters and vintage flower looms.
Why do cats always need to sit on freshly warped looms?
I worked with 2 looms set to their smallest dimension. (And was supervised well and truly by Ms Kitty)
You choose the size that you want the Lily Speed-O-Weave loom to be by matching up the holes on the sides and bolting them together.
I used Lily Sugar’n Cream in Black and White to make the front and back of the bag, and to spool knit the …read more