I hope you have had a wonderful day that included lots of lovely green living

photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

and eco projects, and that you are going to do something special for Earth Day tomorrow.

We are going to plant some baby trees.  That’s them in the pic to the right.

The Spool knitter is one that I made from a chunk of old wood that we found in Jim’s Dad’s workshop 10 or so years ago. Jim’s Dad was a champion recycler.

He would upcycle stuff in the neatest ways…. nothing much got thrown away around Mum and Dad’s house. If it could be re-used, repaired, re-purposed, reclaimed, or restored or renewed, you know it would be!

In amongst the things we found in the workshop after Dad passed away was a very old handle from some kind of gardening or maybe woodworking tool.  The wood is super hard and wonderfully worn.  You can feel the years of use that have gone into wearing the grain into the wood.

So, I have been really enjoying being able to upcycle that old handle into spool knitters for jewelry makers to create wonderful treasures with.

Today, as an ‘almost Earth Day’ project, I finished up  a bracelet that uses a fun bit of upcycling and reclaiming: (as well as the upcycled wood in the spool knitter itself, that is!)  I spool knitted a bracelet with copper wire, and pushed a vintage marble into the center of the spool knitted wire cord:

photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

I bought the marble at our favorite second hand store, because it looks so much like the earth.

How perfect for an Earth Day bracelet.

Spool knitting with wire is somewhat tricky, as wire has no give. It’s worth it, though, as you can do fab things with wire!

There are a few things that I have found over the years that make spool knitting with wire much easier, and so I have made a video to help show these special hints and tips:

Post from: Hankering for Yarn

photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

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!  Scrumptious!

I tend to use mostly 26 gauge wire for crochet and spool knitting, so I figured I had better give 24 gauge wire a try.

I tried it on the spool knitters that I had already made, and yes, it worked. BUT…. it seemed to me that it would work better with a different configuration on the spool knitter. One size doesn’t always fit all with spool knitters. In fact, it’s really helpful to have a selection of spool knitters in different sizes and shapes, with different numbers of pegs or nails.

By the way…. don’t try to spool knit wire on a plastic spool knitter, or on one with wooden pegs.

You’ll regret it…. plink, plink, plink…. the sound of breaking pegs…

I went out to the workshop and started working on a spool knitter that would work better for the 24 gauge wire.

photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

I used  some wonderful old wood that we had inherited from my husband’s Dad (Earth friendly… it’s an upcycled very very old handle that had parted company from it’s original tool. I have no idea how old it is, but it’s O L D and incredibly hard wood!)

Anyhow, I made her a different configuration spool knitter, with a larger hole and the pegs spread further out, and it works a fair treat with the 24 gauge wire!

It’s slow going to work with such heavy wire, but worth it.

I decided that I had better make a video tutorial about spool knitting with wire, because it’s a whole other kettle of fish than spool knitting with yarn.

But, I had also been working on getting the soundtrack re-recorded and edited on a couple of other videos that I have just made, and ran into frustrating techno glitches (grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr).  So… it’s way late, now, and when I tried shooting the spool knitting wire video under artificial light, it looked baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaad.

I need to wait for daylight to shoot it.

Some things are worth waiting for…. and sunlight is one of them.

So is a tutorial sharing secrets of spool knitting with wire, so stay tuned!

Post from: Hankering for Yarn

You’ll need: A ball of pink yarn (I used Bernat Denimstyle in Weathered Rose)

A Potholder Loom,a weaving hook, a chopstick,a crochet hook,

a 4 peg spool knitter, a loop lifter,

a craft needle, a ruler, a dime, scissors, about an ounce of polyester stuffing,

about 10 inches of red yarn, a paper punch for circles, a paper punch for the heart,

or cut it out of junk mail freehand, thick craft glue, a bee button (ONLY for older children – NEVER use buttons, charms or beads on any toy or doll that you give to any child that is under the age of 7 years old), about 2 square inches (5 cm) of black felt for eyes.

Weave one square on your potholder loom, using two strands of yarn held together.

Spool knit the following  cords with all 4 pegs, using only 1 strand of yarn:

For the ears: 2 cords that are each 4 inches (10 cm) long

For the paws: 4 cords that are each 2 inches (5 cm) long.

Now, click on the video, and make yourself a Springtime Plushie Potholder Loom and Spool knitted Bunny!

All images, text, video and layout are copyright.  Video and photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay (copyright)

Post from: Hankering for Yarn

I’ve just become acquainted with some wonderful new spool knitters:Crystalite French Knitters from Susan Bates. They’re 4 and 6 peg spool knitters and are very sturdy.

I really like them! They’re solidly made and are very nice to work with.

One of the things that is really neat is being able to see the cord while it’s still inside the spool knitter. They come with a wonderful little tool (Sylvalume Handi tool) that has a hook on one end and a point on the other.

Definitely thumbs up on these ones!

Image Source: Noreen Crone-Findlay

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About 10 years ago, I was thrilled to bits to see a very special spool knitter on eBay. I have always loved spool knitting, but until then, hadn’t seen a spool knitter that looked like a doll.

I was so excited to see a spool knitter that was painted to look like Little Orphan Annie. I bid on her and won the auction.

Boy, was I ticked off when the seller decided that the price hadn’t gone high enough and refused to honor the auction. Humph!

I was really annoyed. But, I always figure:

Why get mad? Why not get creative?

So I asked my husband to turn me a spool knitter on the lathe, so I could burn it and embellish it the way I wanted.

Little did I know that one thing would lead to another.

And, so…. over the last decade, we have made countless spool knitters – each one totally unique and one of a kind.

The spool knitter on the right in the pic above, is the very first spool knitter that we made.

The one on the left is a vintage Spears spool knitter that a friend sent me. I would have LOVED to have had one like that when I was a child!

I am still completely in love with spool knitting and am still designing for the spool knitter. It’s such a delight!

Here are links for lots of spool knitted projects that I have designed. Have fun with them!

AND

Happy news for people who would like charming little spool knitter people at a very reasonable price:

Lion Brand makes darling little 4 peg spool knitter dollies.

They are really sturdy and very pleasant to work with.

My next posting is about some more new spool knitters that I really like.

(PS: I don’t profit by telling you about them- I just really like them.)

Happy Spool knitting!

Image Source: Noreen Crone-Findlay

Post from: Hankering for Yarn

What on earth does Jane Austen have to do with Panda Bears?

Here’s the scoop – I have been working on a new Jane Austen spool knitter for weeks now.

It really hasn’t gone well. I have drawn the face at least 7 times, and each time, I have ended up sanding it off the spool knitter. argh.

I ended up painting layers of gesso on the spool knitter and just leaving the white ‘ghost of spool knitter future’ sitting on my desk.

I asked Jim to turn me another Jane Austen and he looked significantly over at the verrrrrrrrrrrry blank one. Oh okay!

sigh….

I have also been having trouble with 2 other spool knitters.

I painted and sanded off the paintings and painted again and sanded off again… and again. Ah, phooey.

I was looking at my blank spool knitters and feeling like they were mocking me. But then, a whisper of an idea started to unfurl…. earlier in the week, I had seen a pic of a panda bear online.

I love panda bears. I’ve designed all kinds of homages to them:

crocheted: (from my book:

Crocheted Teddy Bears

and woven on the potholder loom : from my book:

Potholder Loom Teddy Bears and Monkeys, too

It struck me that the simplicity and charm of the panda bear face would be wonderful on the spool knitters.

Bingo! I was totally inspired! So, I sat down and started painting.

I painted a Panda Bear 4 peg spool knitter:

and since two Panda Bears are better than one, I painted another one! This time, a 5 peg spool knitter:

Painting the panda bears in just black and white was very liberating. It made me realize that I wanted to work with just black and white and grey for the troublesome Jane Austen spool knitter.

It’s really clear to me that the spool knitters are very determined that they are going to be what THEY want to be, and I have to stand back and let them flow through me. When I try to push my concepts and ideas on them, they push back and refuse. Sigh.

So, when I let go, the spool knitters come to life in a delightful way. Which is exactly what has happened with the new Jane Austen spool knitter:

Isn’t it neat about synchronicity and how one thing can lead to another in the creative process? It’s like one thought or image can become the doorway for a whole cascade of ideas.

Have you had a strange pairing up of ideas that helped you to break through a stumbling block?

What’s your version of ‘Jane Austen and the Panda Bears’?

Image Source: Noreen Crone-Findlay(copyright) 

Post from: Hankering for Yarn

I am just loving working on this series of Jane Austen spool knitters.

It just delights me every time Jim comes in from the workshop with a new ‘Jane’ that he has turned.

At some point, I am actually going to get to live with one of them. But for now, they keep getting adopted and flying away.

Hmmmmm…… I suppose I really ought to design a spool knitted Jane Austen doll…… hmmmmmmmmm

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For the last week, this Jane Austen spool knitter has been sitting on my desk, unpainted.

I have been waiting for the perfect moment  to start drawing  the image on it.

All of a sudden, today it just seemed like the right time to draw her…. so  here she is!

Homage to Jane Austen in a lace trimmed cap………

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An ‘e’ friend of mine, Marian Clark, has the most extraordinary collection of spool knitters I have ever seen.

She fell in love with the Jane Austen with a purple cape Spool knitter and bought it. She also bought the -next-

Jane Austen, even though I was still working on it, and hadn’t photographed it yet!

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So, I am steaming along on new work that has got me just beside myself with excitement….. and I can’t say peep about it!

BUT, luckily, I am working on other things that I can chat away about like mad.

One of the things that I am sooooooooo excited about is our new series of Jane Austen Spool knitters.

Jim’s really busy these days, so he doesn’t have a lot of time at the lathe. I keep bugging him to puhleeeeeeeeze turn me another Jane Austen….. so in self defense, he’s squeezing in as much lathe time as he can.

Here’s the Jane Austen homage spool knitter that I just finished.  I take the pics of the spool knitters before I varnish them, as the varnish flashes so much that it messes up the pics.  This pic was taken late at night, so it doesn’t do her justice. But, I was so excited about her that I just had to put her pic up!

This one has our Jane Austen heroine wearing a lavender cape with the hood up….

And now…. I need Jim to turn another Jane Austen….. there are so many more I want to make…….

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