photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

Finally, I have finished

doing all the

photo editing

and writing

and pattern

formulating and

text editing

for the pattern.

Some designs

take a lot of work

to develop and refine,

and this is one of those ones.

But it’s worth it. I am pleased!

The Celtic Interlace Spool Knitted Necklace.

If you’re a regular visitor on Hankering for Yarn, you’ll know that  I’ve done a lot of designs for spool knitted bracelets and other jewelry.

photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

Spool knitted cords

make great simple necklaces as well.

You can spool knit a cord,

join the ends

to make a loop, and

hang a bead, charm,

found object

(or in the photo

a tatting shuttle)

on it, and Voila!

a necklace!

When making a spool knitted necklace, feel free to be experimental about combining yarns and threads to create unusual effects.

Dressing the yarn up by making interesting color combinations and textures will go a long way in making the necklace more unique and special.

Spool knitting is a natural for jewelry making and  it can be used to create some absolutely gorgeous accessories and other treasures!

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photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

Sleep just went out the

window as I thought

about how

I could use the

crocheted shadow

scarf as a necklace.

I should have just gotten

up and crocheted it then,

but I lay there, squeezing

my eyelids, trying

hard to NOT think about

crochet, and longing

to be asleep…..

photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

Eventually,

I managed to

fall asleep, but

leapt out of bed

to grab my

crochet hook

bright and

early.

I thought that

the crocheted

shadow would

work really well

with a huge lump

of amber that I had

photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

crocheted into a wire necklace.

But.. I was surprised to discover

that it didn’t work at all.

The crocheted shadow

wanted a very small

and restrained

piece to close it,

thank you very much.

Interesting how these

things speak to us, isn’t it?

Well…. many years ago,

a dear friend (who has since

passed on) gave me a lovely

little ‘heart in hand’ pin.

photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

It works really well with the

crocheted shadow.

I also really like

it with a vintage

bakelite heart button.

I love it!

The crocheted wire

is flexible and really quite

luscious.

Crocheting wire is really hard

on your tendons, arms, wrists,

fingers, hands, shoulders and muscles.

Is it worth it?

Yup.

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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.

photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

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.

photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

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 the left.

It works great, and I am pleased!

For a tutorial on how to work with a flower loom see: Flower Loom Tute

photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

I experimented with

several different

variables:

This flower has

4 layers of wrapping,

is stitched with yarn,

and has a vintage

button stitched on the front.

There’s a pin glued on the back.

I think that 4 layers is a bit too

much.

photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

The experimentation

kind of turned into

a ‘Goldilocks’ thing.

I tried just 2 layers

of wraps for this flower,

and stitched with yarn.

I drew a tiny face and

glued it to the center.

I think that 2 layers

is not enough……

photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

And, this flower

feels

~just right!~

3 layers of petals,

stitched with the

paper yarn.

I drew a face, glued it

to a paper heart and then

glued that to the center of

the front.

A pin on the back finishes it up.

These upcycled paper yarn flower pins look great on bags, hats or lapels. They would also work beautifully in scrapbooking.

I now hoard and spin every bit of tissue paper that I can lay hands on!

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photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay

I was thinking

of one particular

vintage button

that a friend

sent me last year.

It’s kind of

translucent

and totally

wonderful.

I decided that I didn’t want to sew the button to the shrug, as that would mean that I could only enjoy it on one garment.

I thought…. why not attach a safety pin to the back of the button so I can wear it on lots of things?

photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay

I wanted the pin

to stay in one place

without glue, so

I unwound the coil,

then slipped a bead

onto the pin.

Then, I slid the pin

through the shank of

the button, and slipped

another bead on.

I used a pair of pliers to twist a coil back into the pin, and Voila! and tahdah!

photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay

The button is now

wearable on ~anything~

I love it!

and got lots of

compliments on it

today.

This is a big old

button,

but you could do this with

any size button.  Fun!

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It was the pits, and has left me feeling very worn and frazzled.

When I was sitting in the doctor’s office, I was knitting a sock. There I was, with the erky drops in my eyes so they could do the tests- feeling freaked out from all the awfullizing I had been doing over being scared sideways by the weirdness going on with my eye -  and the best way to keep myself from falling completely apart was to knit knit knit my sockie.

Photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright.

For me, sitting still, freaking out, is not a good thing, so even though I couldn’t see, I could still knit, and be comforted by the knitting.

A lady who was sitting beside me in the waiting room started chatting with me about knitting and handwork.

She had never seen self-striping yarn before, so was inspired to go out and buy some after seeing my sock.

Also, she said that her hands really hurt when she knits, so I suggested the fingerless craft gloves that give support to aching hands.

She was delighted to learn about them and those are on her shopping list now, too.

She got called in, and another lady sat down beside me.

The second lady started chatting with me about my sockies, and was also very excited about self-striping yarn.

(She’s going yarn shopping, too….)

Lady #2 told me that she’s so pleased to see a huge revival in crafting, and I agreed.

She then said that there is one craft that she doesn’t think will be revived.

Immediately, I thought… she’s going to say- tatting…..

She said that her mother-in-law had done something that she’d never seen anyone else do, an unusual thing called, tatting.

I grinned, and told her that I love tatting. She was pretty amazed.

I pulled up the cuff of my jeans, and showed her the cuff of my sock:

Photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright.

She liked the tatted flowers a lot!

Then, she asked me about an odd thing that she’d been given from her mother-in-law’s estate.

No one knew what it was, so they gave it to her.

It’s a ‘U’ shaped wire thing with a little clip on it.

Oh! That’s a hairpin lace loom! and then described how it works.

She was enchanted and said that once the eye drops had worn off, she was going to go dig it out and get started with it. She’s going to the library to take books out on hairpin lace. Neat!

Eventually, it was my turn to see the doctor and get the good and less than good news (ick on what happened in my eye, and whew that things will get better. He said ’should’, but I say ‘WILL’.  AND, I also refuse to think that it could happen again. Been there, done this, don’t intend to ever do it again.

Anyhow, they said that they are going to keep an eye on me.

Which immediately set off a series of metaphoric images for me….  I thought…

hmmmm……  ‘keeping an eye on me’…….

So, after I came home and slept for 4 hours,

I went out to the workshop, and cut some pieces of branch off a piece of discarded firewood.

I was inspired by the buttons I made with a branch from my daughter and son-in-law’s house. So, it was natural to still be thinking about using slices of upcycled branches to work with.  The photo makes it look much larger. It’s actually only 1 1/2 inches wide.

Photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright.

I drew an eye on it, and then burned it, painted it, varnished it and glued a pin back on it/

Photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright.

While I was making it, I was visualizing healing and re-generation, and all kinds of good things.

So, fingers crossed for good health for all of us!  We’ll keep an eye on that, okay?

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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….

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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:

photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

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 yellow wire flower pin that I made the other day on a wooden flower loom that I made so I could play with wire.

photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

So, yay…. I have used the element of wood, and look… there are more yellow flowers, as well as a vintage flower loom that is yellow plastic.

And, since socks seem to be an eternal necessity in our sadly cold weather these days, it makes sense to have socks that are totally whimsical and wild and wonderful.  I love tatting flowers onto the tops of my handknitted socks so that I will always be walking close to flowers.  If I can’t walk through fields of them, I will dance with them attached to my socks!  (The link to the pattern written out is in the last sentence, and the link to the video tutorial is in the next sentence).

Yellow tatted flowers: A video  tutorial

photo and project by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

One of my most favorite recent yellow projects has been this very very simple little thread doll. She’s part of a series of little comfort dolls. (check the link for instructions on how to make them).

And, the YELLOW that I would really enjoy seeing more of these days would be sunshine, balanced with just the right amount of rain, so we could see glorious GREEN!

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Lots of suggestions were made, and at one point, with my tongue firmly planted in my cheek, I suggested that he use duct tape to attach the tatting.

Immediately, that brought up all kinds of crazy ideas and one thing lead to another…. and, well, before you know it, I had issued a challenge.

It’s an odd one….. How can you combine duct tape and tatting in the same piece?

There are no rules, (well, there is one rule: You have to combine tatting and duct tape in the same piece)

and there’s no timeline…. just play with the idea and see what comes up…..

One member of the group mentioned that she envisioned a duct tape corset trimmed with tatting. Ooh lah lah! Fun!

For me, the natural choice was to make a piece of jewelry. I did pages and pages of drawings and sketches.

Eventually, the sketching process lead me to thoughts of making pins that are images of the Little Black Dress.

I was thinking of working in black duct tape, so, you can see how one thing lead to another.

(And the thoughts about  the Little Black Dress triggered my musing on the perfect crocheted LBD, that I wrote about yesterday.)

So, I moved from sketching the LBD, and started snipping:

project and photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

And, then, it was time to get out the duct tape, and start making that perfect, tiny Little Black Dress!

project and photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

Ah, yes, the tatting part of the challenge! I couldn’t find my ‘80′ tatting cotton, so had to settle for ‘50′ weight, which is heavier than I had wanted.  But, still…. it’s fun

Here we go:  The Perfect Little Black Duct Tape Dress Trimmed with Tatting:

project and photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

You are cordially invited to join in on the Duct tape/tatting challenge!

Make something (anything- I just really like making fun jewelry, but I’d love to see some larger pieces!) with duct tape and tatting, in any way, any how, and show  us what you did!

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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:

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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!

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