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

Now that November is here, the gift making season has begun.
Well, okay,
for me,
the gift making
has already started.
I’ve been having
a lovely time
working on
Sunbonnet Sue Needlebooks.
I just love making them, and I hope that the friends and family that are receiving them will love them, too!
Here’s the link: Sunbonnet Sue
If  needle books
aren’t your cup of tea,
maybe making
a bracelet or two
might appeal?
Here’s a tutorial
for how to spool
knit with wire.
Spool knitted wire bracelet
Spool knitting wire
is a great way to
showcase a favorite bead,
button, stone or found object and turn it into a one of a kind bracelet.
One of my favorite
tiny gifts to make
and to receive
is …read more

A couple of days ago, I showed a quick and easy way to use spool knitting to embellish a handmade mask.
There are also tutorials
on the web
for spectacular
masks for
crocheters and
tatters.
Here are links for some dazzlers:
Have you seen the tutorial for the exquisite Tatted Mask on Instructables? Awe inspiring!
And, here’s a link for a gorgeous Hairpin Lace  Mask from Stitch Diva.
If you are looking for something a little more whimsical, then Melissa Mall’s crocheted critter  1/2 masks on Crochet Me might be just perfect: Critter masks
If you would like to be inspired  by the sculptural potential of crochet, then definitely check out …read more

How odd.
Even though the weather absolutely gorgeous today, I felt out of synch with the beauty of the day.
Today was a day of melancholy for me.
Perhaps it’s because it’s close to the anniversary of the death of one of my husband’s sisters.
Perhaps it’s because the other sisters have been here visiting and now they’ve gone  home and I miss them.
Perhaps it’s because the project that I have been wrestling with for days is refusing to set itself to rights and is a disappointment.
Perhaps it’s because I always feel sad when I cut down the glorious hollyhocks and sunflowers and put …read more

Several of my readers and I have been talking lately about  NOT recycling needlework and craft magazines so that a valuable ethnilogical, anthropological, historic and sociological resource is not lost. (Besides, we just plain like old needlecraft magazines and books!)
First of all
check out the
lace behind
the bunny
tatting
shuttle….
It’s  a fragment
of needle lace that
I bought 20 years
from a lace collector.
I am fascinated by fragments of  interesting lace whenever I come upon them, as I feel that they are a valuable resource that have clues to the history of needlework.
Anyhow… check out the tiny flowers… aren’t they gorgeous?  Bear with me… this gets a …read more

My mother always says: Actions speak louder than words! So, when several people asked me how to wind thread onto flat tatting shuttles, I thought… rather than trying to describe it, I will just make a video!
Hurrah for
technology!
How amazing
to be able to do this!
I grabbed a
handful of
tatting shuttles
and then,
showed how to
make a Lark’s
Head Knot
through the arms
of the Great Mother
tatting shuttle,
so it can be worn as a
pendant.
This is a handy trick to know,
as you can easily do this
with a key or scissors or other
tools, and wear them around
your neck, too.
I made the cord in the video with one of my Cordelia …read more

Have you ever noticed how sometimes, the absolutely simplest solution is the very best one?
I am making some Sunbonnet Sue
needlebooks for
Christmas presents.
I based the pattern on
a vintage one(far left)
I found in
a second hand store
when we were on holidays.
I made a pattern based on her (center) and am now working on the series of presies.   I tried felting some handspun yarn to make the felt, but I wasn’t happy with the resulting felt so decided that I would go with purchased felt. (Simple solution #1).
Simple solution #2:
I wanted very fine, quite
plain lace for the lower edge of
her dress.
So, the simplest solution …read more

I am a totally visual person and I love metaphors.  Today, I had a really metaphor-ish sort of a day.
I have been working really hard on getting some
technical writing done to meet the deadline
on the final stages of my book,’ The Woven Bag’.
It’s been a fairly ‘left brain’ time,
focusing in on writing the
exact chunks of text that
are needed to make the book flow.
I have to confess that it hasn’t been
an easy skippetty hop time.
I have had to grab myself by the scruff of the neck
(metaphorically speaking, of course)
and plunk myself down and glue my nose to the keyboard.
Well, that ‘plunking …read more

Yesterday,  I posted pics of  an improvised drying rack for hanging tatting shuttles after I have varnished them.
Lynn posted a comment saying that she uses  a pasta drying rack for drying her lace bobbins.
I thought that this was a great idea, and filed it away in the- hmmmm… ‘clever… file’….
When we dropped in on a garage sale,
I spotted a wire basket
that gave me an aha moment…..
I thought…
it’s not a pasta dryer
but ….
this will work
BEAUTIFULLY
for drying  the tatting shuttles.
So, that’s my ‘yay’ for the day.
And, now, there’s another totally excellent book that I want to give the thumbs up to….
‘Tatting with …read more

Today, a friend and I were ‘chatting’ on Skype, and we were both multi-tasking.  My typing can be ‘interesting’ at the best of times, and when I get distracted, sometimes, the typing can get downright challenged!
We agreed that multi-tasking isn’t always the most efficient way to do things!
Efficient or not, I do tend to be a multi-tasker.
Earlier in the day, I had been multi-tasking like mad.
I was working on a couple of projects at the same time,
including finishing up the varnishing on
on a whole bunch of tatting shuttles
that I have carved over the last several months.
Usually, I varnish just a …read more