photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

When I was getting

ready for taking

the photos of the

projects, I wanted

to make some

pumpkins that

were the right

size for the

dolls.

I decided that a

pumpkin pincushion

would be perfect.

When I cut out the fabric for the pincushion, I popped a scrap into one of the little cauldrons and that inspired me to make the first set of pincushions. ( I posted about them at pincushion cauldrons)

photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

Here’s how I made

the pumpkin pincushion:

Cut a rectangle of

light weight orange fabric,

4 inches by 8 1/2 inches

on the bias.

Gather the upper and lower

long edges.

photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

Stitch the short

edges together.

Pull up the gathering

thread on the lower

edge, and stitch shut.

Stuff the pumpkin.

Pull up the upper

edge, and stitch shut.

photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

Stitch and overstitch

the centers of

the top and bottom

of the pumpkin.

photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

Thread green yarn

into a sharp needle.

Take it through the

pumpkin  and stitch

the segments

by pulling the green yarn

up tight.

photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

To make the stem:

With 2 strands of green yarn

held together,

spool knit a cord

that is about

1 1/2 inches long.

Cut the yarn, leaving

20 inches

Take the end through the

stem and pull it up a little

to curve it.

Stitch it to the top of the pumpkin.

photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

Use the yarn

ends to embroider

leaves around the

stem and to stitch it

to top of the pumpkin.

I cut stickie paper

eyes, nose and mouth

to make it into a jack ‘o lantern.

You could embroider the features

if you want them permanent.

I think I’ll take the stickie bits off, and leave it without a face and just use it as pincushion without features.

Post from: Hankering for Yarn

photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

I have 

A few weeks ago,

I posted about

finding a delightful

Sunbonnet Sue

Needle book in

a thrift store

while we were on holidays.

That’s her on the far left

in the photo.

I posted the link for the pattern  for my version of an updated Sunbonnet Sue Needle book  (the one in the center) at:

sunbonnet-sue-needlebook

Why would you want to use a needle book instead of a pin cushion? Needles don’t have the head on them that pins do, so when they are

stuck into pincushions, then can work themselves right into the pin cushion and get lost forever.

(And can be found unexpectedly – ouch!)

But- insert them into one of the inner pages of a needle book, and they are safely and securely stored.

A much more satisfactory arrangement all round!

photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

I am making Sunbonnet Sue needle books for a couple of my near-and-dears

for Christmas.

I am tatting the lace for the embellishments and trims.

Why? Because I absolutely LOVE tatting, and because I’d rather tat the lace to scale than try and find the correct size of lace in a store. I’d rather tat than shop!

And, besides, it’s just one more way of making a special little gift even more precious!

I absolutely love these little Sunbonnet Sue needle cases. I hope that they will bring delight on Christmas morning!

Post from: Hankering for Yarn

photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

Well, I have found a gadget that I  truly loathe.

I have a rule about my blog, and that is that I only talk about stuff and books that I really like.

Well, this dumb thing is sooooooooooooooo bad,

you almost have to love it

have to pity the poor thing.

When I saw these two needles in

a drawer of a second hand store,

at first, I thought… hmmm….

plastic punch needles?

Nope…. it says: ‘K-Tel Knitter’ on it.

I still had to try it as a punch needle- and no no no… don’t try it at home.

Alright. So, it didn’t come with instructions, but I am usually pretty darned good at figuring out how things work….

but I may have this all wrong- so if you know how to use it and I have actually got it all bass-ackwards, then that might explain why I find it to be so annoying and irritating.

Okay…. so here’s what I thought it should do….  because it’s got a short section that is too short to actually hold stitches, I assumed that it would kind of work like a crochet hook, with the stitches in the air…

Maybe , I thought…. it might kind of be like a ’shepherd’s knitting’ kind of tool….

photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

Logically, the yarn

is probably

meant

to go through the 2 holes like this.

But I could be wrong….

photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

I tried a few ways of looping it around

and decided, oh what the heck

you can’t go wrong

with a slip knot……

so, let’s start with a slip knot.

photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

The next logical step is to stick the

eye of the needle through

so… that seems like a good way to

make a chain… chains are a logical

place to start, right?

What a clumsy way to make a chain.

You have to push the needle through and

then pull it out  and leave the stitch in the

air and stick the needle through again to

make the next stitch.

Hmmm… not liking this….

photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

That is one slow way to make a

chain! If this thing is supposed

to be a good substitute for knitting

or crochet, then I can’t imagine

how?  erg…..

Okay… now what? um

photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

alright… so if I was crocheting, I would

skip one stitch and work into the 2nd one

from the hook, so…

I  pushed the needle

through the last chain, and skipped a stitch,

and pushed the needle through the next chain

stitch and pulled it back through both.

Then picked it up again and repeated the whole tedious process.

photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

And worked across the chain.

At the end of the row,

I figured, well, if this

was crochet,

I would chain one and turn….

which made sense, so I did that

and then considered the possibilities….

I could go through the back bar of the previous

row, or the front bar, or both bars….

photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

This pic shows how it looked when I

just went through the back bar….

Picking up the previous stitch out of the air,

as the loop seems to need to come off the

needle after completing each stitch…..

boy is that slow!

photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

I experimented with different

stitch lengths, and with picking

up the different bars on different rows,

and threw the whole thing across the

room with a gigantic snort….

This thing takes the cake – not only is it slow and clunky to work with, but the finished work is the pits pits pits.

blech.

Fie.

A pox upon it.

If you have one, and love it, then that’s neat. I hope that the two of you will live long and happily together. I won’t be coming to visit it…..  of course, this is just all my opinion, and all that…. but yech.

But wait! There’s more!

No there isn’t.

It just seemed like a good way to finish, but really, I don’t have anything more to say about it. Myech.

Post from: Hankering for Yarn

Photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright.

Poor little thing… she’s very stained, and rather frayed around the edges.

Even so, she stole my heart, and I knew that I just had to see if I could rescue and re-create her.

If you are wondering what a needle book is, it’s a rather sweet bit of stitchery history.

Needlebooks are small ‘books’ with cloth pages that are alternatives to pin cushions.

Needles are stored in the inner pages of the needlebook.

Her front and back are way out of kilter with each other, and the middle section is oh so frazzled.

I sketched and worked on the pattern and made some adjustments and arrived at my version of the Sunbonnet Sue Needlebook:

Photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright.

I cut out 2 outside pages from cream colored felt, and one inner page of white felt. I cut the feet off the inner page:

Photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright.

Then, I crocheted 5 tiny flowers, using a .6 mm hook and size 50 crochet cotton, and my pattern from Crocheted Flowers:

Photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright.

I stitched tatted lace edging  to her hat, and to the  hem of the skirt in the inner pages.

I stitched the flowers to her muff, as well as tiny felt leaves.  I stitched a bead to the center of each flower.

Photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright.

I made a  bow from a narrow strip of felt, and stitched that to her hat.

I also stitched leaves and a flower and beads to the inside of the front cover,

and covered the stitching along the hat with another strip of felt.

The original needlebook just left the inside cover with the raw stitching showing, but I prefer the way it looks when it’s ‘cleaned up’ :

Photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright.

Then, I sewed the 3 layers together at the 2 ‘X’s -

the original was only stitched at the nape of the neck, but I prefer the stability that the exra stitching gives.

Photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright.

I just love her to pieces….

Here she is with her much older sister:

Photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright.

I think that she’d make a lovely gift…. I can see that I am going to have to make more Sunbonnet Sue Needlebooks!

Post from: Hankering for Yarn

Ours was lovely, although we are all so exhausted we are walking into walls……

it’s been moving week for our daughter and her husband, so we’ve been scrubbing,

sanding, priming, painting, packing, moving moving moving…. yargle………

Anyhow…. we had a lovely supper with the whole family, and afterwards,  my daughter-in-law and son brought out a special little Easter treat….

the chocolate bunny was delightful, but even better…..

The lovely tin box it came in has become the home for some of my crochet hooks and tatting shuttles.

I have a major soft spot for rabbits, and as soon as my daughter-in-law and son saw the box, they knew that I’d love it. Bless their hearts!

They were right…. the box is lovely, and the rabbit is just wonderful.

I am going to enjoy keeping  small projects, or  crochet hooks and tatting shuttles in the new bunny box!

photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

Post from: Hankering for Yarn

I have several little loop lifters that came with red plastic spool knitters. They are really uncomfortable to work with, as they are too short and have a sharp sawed off end.

BUT… today I had a brainwave!

I often use sponge brushes in the studio.

I use them until they give up the ghost and squeak and crumble into tiny woebegone little bits.

I never throw away the wooden handles, as that would be a terrible waste, wouldn’t it? 

The handles pop off quite easily, as, luckily, they are not glued on.

So……… today, it suddenly struck me……

why not slosh a little craft glue into the hole in the handle and

stick in one of the too-short owee loop lifters?

Tadah!   It works beautifully!     I am so pleased!

The other loop lifter beside the newly cobbled together one is one of my other favorites. It’s a turkey skewer with a big glass bead glued on. It works really well for spool knitting fine threads and yarns. Ah yes… upcycling wins again!

photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

Post from: Hankering for Yarn

Of course, if you love winding hanks of yarn into balls by hand, then by all means, skip the winder. Your local yarn shop may even offer the service when you purchase yarn there (for a small fee). I’ve had online vendors offer yarn-winding, too (again, for a fee).

However, a ball winder can be a good investment. You can find a decent one that costs around $40.00. I’ve seen some for half that price, but can’t say how reliable it would be. And you can always find some that cost a lot more. For now, my kitchen chair backs work almost as well as a swift, but it’s nice to not have to wind 400+ yards of laceweight yarn by hand.  

Image: KnitPicks

Post from: Hankering for Yarn