‘Ugh!’, said the daughter of the woman who was holding the garage sale, ‘Take those ugly buttons, away! Please! Free!  Just take them!’
Well…. I didn’t  think that the buttons were hideously ugly…. just kind of
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 …read more

I’ve been posting about flower looms lately, because a dear friend sent me a box of flower and magic looms.
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.
Here are a
bunch of flower loom
flowers in another
shawl- also all
made in handspun yarns.
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.
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…. …read more

When you are a yarn lover, chances are good that you’ll fall in love with gadgets and devices that allow you to make, manipulate, and play with yarn in lots of fun ways.
Yesterday, I posted about a wonderful box of goodies that one of my friends (who is also a fiber artist) sent me- with a set of Magic Looms in it.
As well as the Magic Looms,
she sent me a set of
flower looms,
which made me
so happy.
I know, I am easily
amused…. but these
are such charming
little looms-
The booklets say
that they were sold in 1970.
They feel a touch brittle, and, given that I …read more

A couple of days ago, I posted a tutorial on how to upcycle  tissue paper by spinning it into handmade yarn.
BIG tip: To set the spin on the paper yarn, squeeze the copp (the ball of yarn on the spindle)  hard with your hands while it is still on the  spindle. Voila! the twist is set.
As well as knitting
and crocheting
handspun upcycled paper yarn,
you can use flower looms
to make wonderful
flowers.
I recently broke and
then repaired my
vintage flower loom,
so am rather careful with it
nowadays.
I wasn’t sure
about how much
stress the paper yarn
would put on the flower
loom, so I made
myself a wooden one.
That’s it on …read more

Project Spectrum is a very neat ongoing online crafting project  that Lolly began on her blog: Project Spectrum
There’s a Flickr group and a Ravelry group, too.
It’s all about creativity and being inspired by specific ‘triggers’.  The leaping off points for May and June are the following:

EAST (May/June)
Color: Yellow
Material: Wood
Season: Spring
Element: Air
We have had the longest winter ever, and a late and cold and miserable springtime.
This means that we are sadly lacking flowers outside right now.
Bless the sturdy little dandelion that braved the cold and popped up outside my window.
In order to get flowers, I have to make them myself.
Here’s a …read more

Vintage flower looms are wonderful little gadgets. You can use them to make vunderbar flower motifs with yarn, embroidery floss, ribbon, cord, or even wire. A word of warning about working with wire on any vintage loom- basically….. don’t do it.
Why? Wire has no give at all, so you don’t want to stress your old or vintage looms. If the metal or plastic is fatigued, it will break.
Now, I really wanted to play with wire, so I whipped out to the workshop and made myself a wooden flower loom.
I cut a circle of hardwood that’s  2 3/4 inches (7 cm) …read more