One of the pleasures of painting with yarn and a crochet hook is to explore the subtleties of blending colors by combining yarns with threads.
Oops…
this yarn isn’t
crocheted, it’s
spool knitted.
I spun it from
a variegated roving,
but found the color breaks
to be too sharp.
So, I plied it with a thin
slubby strand of brown silk thread.
This toned down the color breaks and made the yarn more visually cohesive.
This golden
yarn was just a little
bit flat looking.
Combining it with a
strand of very thin
variegated thread gives
it depth and more
life- it’s a far more interesting
fabric than when the gold
yarn is used on it’s own.
I crocheted these two
Shadow Scarves
using  …read more

A few years ago, I learned about Dios de la Muertos – the Mexican Day of the Dead, which is November 1, All Souls Day.
I saw a  fantastic
film that was a real
eye opener for me.
The film was an explanation
of how the Day of the Dead
is a celebration of love and life and connection.
We went through a rough passage a few years ago,
when we had many deaths of family and friends,
and we were worn out by grief.
The documentary said that Mexicans
feel that the ones we love
are still present in their own way
and that the veil of separation lifts
between Halloween and …read more

Yesterday, I posted about how I spun paper streamers from a Blue Man show into yarn.
I promised to show what I have been doing with the upcycled paper yarn.
Well…
I’ve been working on a couple of things.
I knitted a little pocket doll with the yarn.
Myeh.  It wasn’t magical.
So I frogged it.
And, then, I followed my intuition. One of the b5 bloggers wrote recently that her little girl was saddened by being told that Unicorns are not real.
I thought…. hmmm…. why not show her that the realm of imagination is alive and well?
So, I got out my potholder loom, and started weaving …read more

My husband’s sisters are visiting us and it’s great! Last night, Sis said that she wanted to make a God’s Eye ornament but couldn’t remember how to do it.
Of course, I immediately thought…. ooooooooooooh! You could make such a neat doll using the God’s Eye wrapping technique.
Sis wanted
to make
hers with
toothpicks
and size 10
crochet cotton
from Coats.
To get started,
glue 2 toothpicks
together and
tie on the cotton.
Wrap the thread in an ‘X’
around the center.
To make a larger
scale God’s Eye,
tie 2 twigs together.
The thread
(in this case, hemp cord
from Jolly Store)
is wrapped
around one arm,
taken to the back,
and wrapped around the next arm.  Keep turning the God’s Eye, …read more

Yarn can be very good medicine.
We use yarn as a blessing.
Is there a baby on the way?
Get out the knitting needles
and crochet hooks to
celebrate!
Is someone ill?
Knit or crochet or weave
them a prayer or blessing
shawl.
Is there a rite of passage or significant spiritual event? Chances are good that textiles will enter into it, somehow, somewhere.
We swaddle our babies and wrap them in soft cloths. And, when the time comes, and we leave this life and are born into the next, someone will wrap our bodies in cloth again.
Cloth, and the ways we create it, whether we knit, crochet, weave or make …read more

Yesterday, I posted about turning silk teabags into yo yo circle embellishments.
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 …read more

I am a dyed in the wool tea fanatic- I am never without a cuppa tea beside me or in hand.
Recently, I found some delicious tea that comes in silk teabags.
Well… if that isn’t an invitation to upcycle, I don’t know what is!
After all, if I am going to pay for the silk
in those tea bags, I am certainly not
going to waste it!
It’s silk, for goodness sake!
and silk’s precious!
So, now, after I savour my cuppa tea,
I save the bag and turn it into all kinds of  upcycled embellishments.
I used to snip one edge of the teabag open,
but I realized that …read more

Earlier this week, a friend sent a link to a pic of a wonderful wedding dress that was made of wool locks for a shepherdess in England.
It’s a pretty amazing dress….. and the sheep are pretty darned cute, too!
It made me think about
how much I love wool
and enjoy working with it.
I also love wood
and twigs
and wire
and bits of leather
that I can upcycle
and anything else that I can
get ahold of….
so I can put them all
by weaving, and carving and
sewing and tatting and spool knitting and crocheting and and and….
there is such delight in
making simple dolls that
are rather elemental
and somewhat quirky….
Putting things …read more

If you live a yarn-centric or yarn centered life, chances are good that you enjoy working with more than one yarnie technique.
Crocheters often weave.
Weavers often knit.
Knitters often embroider.
Embroiderers often crochet.
Tatters often crochet.
Spinners use their yarns in
all kinds of ways….
Some of us love to
explore all of the above.
And why not bring all  these strands together  in one piece? This is often called free form work.
I call it  a ‘Cross- Currents’ approach to the fiber arts.
This photo is the back of  a Cross Currents Jacket
in which I used handspun yarns,
with crochet, weaving, knitting,
embroidery, spool knitting  and tatting.
How do you pull together all …read more

Last week, a friend wrote to me from California, saying that she and a few other friends would love to join me in my studio for some creativity and yarnie goodness.
That’s not going to happen soon, so, I thought…. well… I should post some pics of the studio so we could have a virtual get together.
Then, I looked around the studio at the heaps of projects in progress, and generalized chaos, and went…. yikes.
Instead, I decided to just take a few pics of some of my fave shelves.
I have a lot of small vintage and handmade shelves, and I just …read more