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

Happy Earth Day!
Today’s video is quite Earth friendly. It features an old kind of technology:
The Nostepinne.  The whozzawhat?
Nostepinnes are basically friendly little sticks that you use to wind a ball of yarn on.
A reader sent me a note, asking about winding yarn, and saying that she didn’t have a yarn winder.
Well, I DO have a yarn winder. It’s old as the hills, as I bought it when I was 15 and had just saved up all my babysitting  and part time jobs money and bought myself a knitting machine.
The yarn winder is now somewhat fragile, and so I don’t use …read more

Happy Almost Earth Day!
I hope you have had a wonderful day that included lots of lovely green living
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 …read more

When my daughter got married a couple of years ago, I carved her a one of a kind crochet hook. I wrote on it:
Wherever you go
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 …read more

The other day, we were racing off to the city, and I tore out of the house
with my potholder loom, yarn  and stuff in a project bag .
As we rolled down the road, I was not happy to discover that I had left my weaving hook at home. Oh rats! That would mean ~no weaving~ for me.
No no no  no no no!
Luckily, I had an extra chopstick, so I knew I would be able to carve another weaving hook by upcycling the chopstick into a weaving hook.
When we got to the grocery store, my husband loaned me his pocket knife …read more

A member of the Ravelry group: Tatta tat tatters had a lovely idea for a shower gift for her friend.
She decided to make her a hankie with simple tatted edging, and asked for input.
I thought…. ooooooooh how neat…. I have a collection of vintage lace trimmed hankies that I love,
so it seems to me to be the perfect timeless and heartfelt gift.
I looked on the net to see if I could find some entry level tatted edgings,
but didn’t find any.
But, I did find 2 sources for linen hankies to add the lovely lace to:
mielkes farm
and
lacis
I looked at a heap of …read more

Recently, I was given a copy of a wonderful old book: Spool Knitting by Mary McCormack.
It is a treasure. It’s 100 years old and has delightful photos.
I find it interesting that Mary McCormack consistently calls the spool knitted cords, ‘webs’, rather than cords.
I think that this is probably because she likens a child (she always uses ‘he’ as the supposed spool knitting  child, never ’she’, sigh) to a spider spinning a web.
Her projects all involve spool knitting yards of cord, mostly on 2 peg spool knitters, and then stitching them into shapes that are then assembled for the finished project.
To …read more

For months now, I have had a cap sitting in the studio, whining at me to finish it.
I have carried it around in bags, moved it from table to desk and back, taken it out, put it back, taken it out again, sighed, and put it back …. and  just haven’t been able to finish it.
Why, why why, I snivel? It’s a simple little cap!
Alright.
Yesterday, I read a note about March being crochet month. I even joined a Ravelry group in celebration of Crochet month!
I decided- this is it!
Crochet Month is here- I am gonna finish that cap in honor …read more

I am making a cap for a friend. He wants it in synthetic yarn, and it has to be quite thin yarn, so I went mooching through my stash looking for the perfect yarn.
I had some discontinued Caron Shadows that I had used in another project that was rejected, so I figured I would be eco friendly and recycle and upcycle the yarn.
By splitting it, I was able to divide out the color shifting sections and use them in the design of the cap.
Splitting yarn is a pain in the neck if you don’t have the secret to doing it …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