Well…. I didn’t  think that the buttons were hideously ugly…. just kind of

photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

hopelessly kitschy.

I certainly wouldn’t

have bought them….

but the upcycler in

me just could not

resist the challenge.

I wondered if I could ever use the buttons in a reasonable way.

Hmmm… I could cover them with fabric, if worst came to worst…

This evening, I was looking for something else, and found the poor much maligned buttons.

I thought…. why don’t I use a flower from my flower looms and a little spool knitting and make a flower doll?

Why not indeed?

photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

So, I spool knitted

2 cords- an 8 inch one

and a 4 inch one.

And, I took one

of the flowers

that I had previously

made with my flower loom,

and plugged in my

hot glue gun.

I don’t usually use a hot glue gun in doll making, but, I was feeling kind of , ‘ah, what the heck’- so, what the heck?

photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

First,I glued the face button

to the flower.

Then, I folded the

8 inch cord in half,

and glued it to the

flower.

I made feet on the long

cord and hands

on the short cord

by folding the ends over,

wrapping and gluing to secure them.

photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

I glued the arms to the

body and made a little

paper heart by

punching out a heart

from a piece of junk mail.

I glued it on, and

Voila!

A surprisingly sweet

little flower doll.

So, the next time someone

says to you:

“Blech! This is soooooooooooo ugly I am going to throw it in the trash!”, you might just want to think for a moment before you let them toss it.  A very sweet little doll might be hidden in the “ugliness”.

Post from: Hankering for Yarn

photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

The flowers from

flower looms work

beautifully  in combination

with crochet.

I quite like using

unusual yarns with

the flower looms.

This is slubbly quite

hefty silk handspun

in a shawl.

photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

Here are a

bunch of flower loom

flowers in another

shawl- also all

made in handspun yarns.

photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

The rainbow  flower

was made with

spool knitted cord

on a flower loom.

The white flower

was made with chained

yarn…..

so you can really play with

your yarn before you use it

with a flower loom.

photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

What are those flowers part of?

Well…

a wild and wonderful

freeform crocheted, spool knitted,

tatted, woven, sewn, sculpted

doll made with all manner of

found objects.

Yes…. her

head REALLY is a vintage

shaving brush.

Aren’t her shoes cute?

The red square was made with a

magic loom and soft ribbon.

flower looms and freeform crochet photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

Here’s the back of the doll.

I used black  ribbon with

the flower loom,

and with the magic loom,

and a fair amount of spool knitting,

and crochet, with lots

of vintage buttons, a little lego,

beads, and found objects.

Putting together

all the diverse elements

in a cohesive way

can be challenging.

flower looms and freeform crochet photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

But, seeing the possibilities

for creative adaptive re-use,

aka: Upcycling found and

discarded objects and

using them to create

wild and funky dolls

that are an expression

of human experience

is one of the great joys of

my life….

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photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

I find the distortion and playfulness

of shadow images to be endlessly fascinating.

For a long time,

I have been

contemplating

designing

a series of

scarves that

are crocheted

shadows.

I have been posting for days now about spinning the streamers from the Blue Man show.

I wove a Unicorn with the first of the upcycled paper yarn, then a Fairy doll, then a basket.

As I came to the end of the paper yarn, I realized that I just had to do something very special with the yarn.

When I flipped my sketchbook open to start some new drawings, I saw sketches and notes that I have made about shadows, and

VOILA! I knew what I would use the last of the Blue Man streamers for: I would crochet my shadow!

photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

I realized that I

didn’t have

enough

paper yarn to

complete a

full crocheted

‘Shadow Scarf’.

So, I dug out a

crepe paper streamer

that I had bought at

a garage sale this

summer.  I had been

planning on experimenting

with spinning it, so this seemed perfect.

But, blech! It was awful to spin on the spinning wheel!  So, I grabbed my Navaho spindle and:

So, eventually, I had enough upcycled handspun paper yarn to finish the Shadow Scarf.

photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

I LOVE IT!

Here’s

‘Patient Zillah’

my upcycled

cardboard Mannequin,

modelling it

for me.

Doesn’t she look

fetching?

LOL! Patient Zillah

is kind of related to

the upcycled paper yarn

scarf!

Link to order scarf pattern

photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

They both began their lives as trees,

and are now living

quite different lives as guests in my studio!

If someone had told me

that going to see

the Blue Man show

would have triggered

such an explosion of

creativity for me,

I would have been amazed.

Well, okay, no I wouldn’t.

But, anyhow, I am pleased

as can be with all the deliciousness

that I have had with upcycling  the streamers from the show.

And now, I can play with my shadow anytime I want to, whether the sun is shining or not. Peter Pan would be jealous!

The Shadow Scarf is an original design by Noreen Crone-Findlay and is copyright protected.

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photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

Today, I used the

upcycled paper yarn

to crochet a

fairy doll to

keep the Unicorn

company.

Crocheting the

paper yarn is

a touch tricky.

It will break  if you pull too hard on it.

photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

At the same time,

it has no flex to it,

so it is a lot like

crocheting wire.

So, you have to

be gentle with

the paper yarn,

and gentle with

your tendons.

It’s a delicate balance.

Rather like riding a unicorn…..

While I was crocheting the fairy,

I had some questions.

photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

Here’s the  fairy doll.

I was wondering….

should I add hair?

should I paint

the fairy doll

a color,

or combination

of colors?

So I took a

photo of

the doll….

photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

and then,

I photo shopped

out the

background.

I sketched in

the outline of

the ear that

wasn’t

showing up.

photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

This gives me

a chance to

sketch in some

hair….

yes!

I like that!~

So, I think

that I will

add some

hair.

Good.

photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

And,

because the fairy

is crocheted

from paper yarn,

there is a tantalzing

possibility of painting

the fairy……

BUT… I don’t want

to wreck the doll

by painting it and

then going- oh oh…..

So, by playing with photoshop, I can experiment with different colors, different saturations and different combinations….

What a useful tool!  I am definitely going to add hair, and need to play with more photoshop colors before I pick up my paint brush and start splashing paint around.

Working with a photoshop program is a superb design tool. It gives me so many ways of exploring a design without making potentially damaging changes to the project. It’s win-win!

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photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

I have fallen madly in love with netting style shuttles and am having a wonderful time upcycling old rulers into shuttles.

Today, I needed to take a little break.

So, I grabbed a couple of the

old wooden rulers that we have

found in our recent travels.

As I was working on carving

the old rulers into shuttles,

I noticed something…

The 2 lower shuttles in the

photo at the left

came from a ruler that

just has inches.

The 2 shuttles at the top of the pic came from a ruler that has centimeters as well as inches. Neato!

That means that the lower ruler has to be at least 30 or more years old, because it’s been yonks since Canada adopted the metric system.

So… when I am wrapping these shuttles up with yarn, I will be wrapping up a little bit of history.

I even varnished the pencil marks into the shuttles. I remember being bored out of my gourd when I was a kid and running my pencil up and down, up and down, up and down, in the channel of my ruler. Obviously, some other child felt the same way. I tipped the tin of varnish to them, and varnished in those pencil lines! Hopefully, that child has found creativity and inspiration – I have!

photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

This ruler cracked me up.

I love the ‘fortune cookie’

messages on it.

“Looking Ahead to A Bright Future?”

Oh, yes, please!

photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

“Working After School

Or on Your Holidays?”

(Why yes, I did!)

“Ask Our Manager About

A Career with the bank”

(Oh, I don’t think that would be a good idea!)

Aside from the  curious capitalizing on random letters, I found the cheerful and oh so optimistic little messages from the bank (also pre-metric vintage) to be rather endearing.  That was a much more innocent time.

Yes, I have totally destroyed the collectability of these vintage rulers by cutting them up and carving them, but I have also upcycled them into tools that I will enjoy working with enormously. So, it’s worth it to me.

It’s win-win.  I get the pleasure of the woodworking time (boy, the wood in these old rulers gets hard over time!) and then, I get the pleasure of the weaving time.

So, yes, let’s go back to looking ahead to a bright future, and in the meantime, we can upcycle all manner of fun for ourselves. yep.

Post from: Hankering for Yarn

photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

I am a total tea afficianado-

I drink it from morning to night.

White, black, red, green…

I love it.

My husband is a jazz musician,

and when his trio plays at

our favorite bistro,

they always immediately make me

a cup of green tea.

I was just dazzled by the gorgeousness of the flavor of  a new  tea, and was delighted when the server told me that it was because the tea was in a silk bag.   There was no way I was going to throw that bag away, so it came home with me, and inspired me to start experimenting with the fabric from cloth teabags.

I wondered if the shape of teabags and being made of cloth would make a difference to the flavor of the tea, and in lots of cases, I would think so…

Anyhow… I’ve been sampling several different teas that come in cloth bags – and have been playing with the sheer fabric that the teabags are made from.

photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

I let the teabags dry out after I have

sipped up the tea.

Then, open the bag, empty it, and pull

the edges apart.

It ends up as a small rectangle.

Cut a narrow strip along the long edge of

the rectangle, almost to the short end.

Turn, and cut another strip parallel to the first,

again, almost to the edge. You’re cutting a

continuous strip, and will end up with

approximately one yard of narrow ribbon yarn.

photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

Wrap the ribbon yarn

onto a bobbin

and then -

you can either

weave with it,

or crochet with it.

photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

I crocheted flowers with

the upcycled teabag fabric

ribbon yarn:

With a 1.5 mm steel

crochet hook:

Ch 4, join to form ring.

(Ch 5, sc into ring) 5 times.

Sl st last st to 1st.

Pull yarn end through last loop on hook.

Stitch it to something,  (in this case a sampler that I am weaving with natural cotton yarn and silk thread and stitch a bead in the center of each flower.

Here the flowers are appliqued to the sampler:

photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

And here, you can see some of the yo yo circles,  a small diamond shape of inlay weaving with the ribbon yarn, and then at the lower edge of the photo, another crocheted applique that has beads stitched into open spaces in the crochet:

photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

And, I have been doing other interesting things with the sheer fabric teabags….

I’ll be posting more about this fun upcycling project, so stay tuned!

Post from: Hankering for Yarn

The buttons in this photo came from a second hand store in Quebec City (including the 6 inch diameter ancestral photo ‘buttons’):

photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

Many of the buttons have gone back to Québec City, as I used them to embellish a handmade book that I made for a dear friend in Québec City. And, she will fill the book with her poems, and I am willing to bet that she will hear the whispered stories that the buttons are imbued with.

Another friend gave me a wonderful card of vintage shirt buttons:

photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

I can’t bring myself to use these buttons, as it is such a sensual delight to run your fingers over them – they feel like scales on a dragon. Perhaps, I could use them in the same pattern, closely organized and running along so politely in their perfect little rows. I don’t think they could stand being separated from the rest of their family, so it’s all or nothing with them.

photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

When my husband’s Mum passed on a couple of years back, one of the important things that sisters and I did, was to quietly, carefully, lovingly, divide up the buttons in Grandma’s button jar. It was very significant for all daughters and  grandchildren (great-grandchildren, really) to receive some of the buttons from Grandma’s button jar.

I have had a wonderful time, making jewelry and other treasures,upcycling of some of the buttons in Grandma’s button jar.

To celebrate Grandma’s button jar, I have made a  series of little wearable Story People dolls that incorporate the buttons and bring their button stories to life:

photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

Zephyrama posted a very neat tutorial on how to make a unique bracelet from vintage buttons: Zephyrama’s bracelet

But, what if the buttons on a coat are dreary and un-inspired?

Why not make your own?

That’s what I did for a coat that I inherited from my dear Mum-in-law:

photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

Here’s the tutorial on how to make one of a kind handmade buttons from twigs and spool knitting: Twig buttons

To make sure you are keeping the Twig buttons a very green craft, please DO NOT cut twigs from living trees. Only use twigs that have been pruned correctly or are dead and on the ground already. And, of course, never take them from public parks…..

Did you know that there is a webring for button collectors? Yep… I googled to see what was on the interwebs about vintage buttons, and found all kinds of things…. webring

So, next time you see an old button, maybe think about the story the button has to tell….

Post from: Hankering for Yarn

Well, now you can treat yourself to that shirt and upcycle it by crocheting simple flowers to cover the unwanted logo.

photo & project by Noreen Crone-Findlay (copyright)

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, and Tah-dah!

There was the PERFECT shirt- black, short sleeves, cute button front…. perfect!

photo & project by Noreen Crone-Findlay (copyright)

The only problem was that there was a very obvious company logo on the back of the shirt , just below the collar.

I had been working on the Simple Crocheted Flower Jewelry tutorial, so immediately, it struck me-  Whee!

I could use the crocheted flower motifs to cover the unwanted logo!   YES!!!

(click the link in bold letters to go to the tute and instructions)

So, I got out one of my most favorite ever threads: South Maid mercerized cotton in Mexicana, and a ball of Aunt Lydia’s Size 3 Fashion Crochet thread in Warm Blue, and a ball of Red Heart Hula in Orangina. I used a 1.75 mm hook for the rainbow thread and a 3.5 mm hook for the orange and blue. I crocheted up a medley of flowers and pinned them over the logo:

photo & project by Noreen Crone-Findlay (copyright)

Then, I stitched the flowers to the shirt, and added a couple of vintage buttons, and a bead or two:

photo & project by Noreen Crone-Findlay (copyright)

and the ‘new to me’ shirt is now gloriously and completely mine all mine!

photo & project by Noreen Crone-Findlay (copyright)

I am really pleased with the way this shirt turned out. I have another one that has an unwanted logo on it, and guess what?

It’s going to get upcycled with crocheted flowers, too!

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I love how they look, I love how they feel, and  I love MAKING tatting shuttles…..

photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay (copyright)

Because I am a tatting shuttle afficianado, I will often look at things and think:

Wow…that looks like a tatting shuttle!

So, the other day, I noticed that a plastic paper clip on my desk looked like it could be a pseudo-tatting shuttle….

Of course, I had to give it a try!

And, yep!

You can indeed, upcycle and re-purpose a plastic paper clip and tat with it!

And, that’s mystery thread that I bought by the armload when my local weaving store was going out of business.

So, with a little creativity, you can make lace anywhere, anyhow!

Happy Tatting!

Post from: Hankering for Yarn

Mother Earth doll designed and woven by Noreen Crone-Findlay (copyright)

Green and eco projects are always a good idea.

I wanted to celebrate Earth day by coming up with some fun ‘eco-upcycling’ projects that would be quick, easy and oh so friendly to the Earth.

I’ve made a few notes about a couple of them, and will be sharing them this week.

Today, a very very easy one  popped into my mind.

I was rummaging through a drawer and

I found a bit of  inkle weaving that had been left over from another project.

I thought… hmmm…. this would make a great bookmark!

Bookmarks are great.

They are a fun way to experiment with needlework techniques and take ideas for trial runs.  You can make a small sample or a swatch and then modify it a little and use it to keep your place when you’re reading…. that’s great… multi-tasking!

Besides… I can never have enough bookmarks. I often mark several places in the same book, so a spare bookmark is always welcome.

And… another thing…. bookmarks make great little gifts. You can pop them in an envelope and mail them of to a friend to make them feel extra appreciated. Yup…. bookmarks are fine things!

Anyhow. Back to this particular bit of upcycling.

I liked the idea of using this scrap of inkle weaving as a bookmark -

But, it needed something….. hmmmm…

Then, I noticed the corner of an out of date business card.

Aha! I could use the pic off the business card to ‘top’ the bookmark!

photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

I grabbed a pair of scissors and some extra thick glue.

photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

I snipped the pic off the business card, then cut a back the same size, and glued them to the weaving.

Voila! an instant upcycled bookmark!

photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

Hmmm… the cut out is kind of wonky…. so

I thought…. let’s try this again!

This time, I used a fragment of tatting that I had tossed in the drawer after ’sampling’ some crochet cotton to see if it would be okay for tatting.

And, I decided to use a punch to cut out the shapes from the business cards to make the cutout top more regular:

photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

I added a small tassel to the end of the tatting and then glued it all together:

photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

There… I like that better… using a punch to cut out the pic for the top of the bookmark makes it cleaner. I’m happy with it….

Hurrah for upcycling!

What if you don’t have old business cards? Cut or punch out a front and matching back from a photograph or use a postage stamp or even a bit of a pic from junk mail!

What if you don’t have a scrap of weaving or lace? Use a bit of ribbon, or spool knitting, or part of a broken tape measure….

what  do you have ? Upcycle it!

Post from: Hankering for Yarn