This made me chuckle, as I realized how fond I am of chopsticks and how much I use them in the studio.

photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

I thought:

‘Okay….I use chopsticks

in the studio ALL THE TIME

so….

how many ways

to use a chopstick

in the studio

can I think of ?

(There are 6

variations in the pic

to the left….)

Here’s my list of ways to use chopsticks in the studio:

1] Since this all started with me using a chopstick as an instrument of de-construction in unravelling weaving, that’s the top of the list.

2] Chopsticks can be carved into great weaving hooks. I posted a video about how to do this: Carve a weaving hook

3] Speaking of weaving: I really like to use chopsticks as shed sticks in weaving:  Weaving with yarn on the potholder loom

4] You can sand chopsticks, sharpen them, glue a bead on, and you have got knitting needles.

5] You know that weaving hook you carved? Well, you can carve a crochet hook with a chopstick, too.

6] In the pic above, a chopstick is supporting a spindle. I use chopsticks all the time to hold things up for photos. Handy!

7]  The spindle the photo support chopstick is holding up is made with: Yep…. a chopstick.

8] Cut a circle of wood, drill a hole in the center, and pop a chopstick in it: Voila! Perfect for holding small cones of thread or yarn.

9] Paint it black and hold a shawl closed with it

10]  Sharpen the point, and sand it, and it works well as a loop lifter for large spool knitters

11]  Ooooooh yes…. mustn’t forget this one: Chopsticks are excellent backscratchers!

12] And, what if you want to conduct your favorite piece of music? A chopstick is a fine little baton

13]  I work with charts all the time, so I lay a chopstick above the row I am working on to mark my place

14]  I wouldn’t recommend a chopstick as a bookmark, but a magazine place holder is within the realm of possibilities

15]  Have you ever had a small object roll tantalizingly close to the edge, but just out of finger range under a bookcase? Well, a chopstick is perfect for flicking the elusive object out of hiding.

16]   Floppy plants can be given a little backbone by supporting them with a chopstick

17]  You can make an impromptu Lazy Kate by poking  holes on each side of a small box and putting balls of yarn onto the chopsticks that are inserted into the holes in the box. Instant assistance in plying in handspinning.

18] You can stir paint with a chopstick

19] You can stir your tea with a chopstick, but not after you have stirred paint with it

20] You can wind yarn on it, like a mini nostepinne (How? Nostepinne how to link)

21] I make tatting shuttles, and when I am varnishing them, I need ways to suspend them. Chopsticks are great for supporting them as they dry

22] Do you need a peg for anything at all? Cut one from a chopstick!

23] Swirl the detergeant around in the pail with a chopstick before you place dirty fleece in it to soak.

24] Lift yarn or roving out of dye pots with chopsticks.

25] If you have long hair, you can twirl it around, and put a chopstick through it to hold it out of the way. I don’t have long hair anymore, so this one doesn’t really count on my list.

26] You can use chopsticks to make doll arms and legs

27] Chopsticks make great support sticks for shadow puppets

28]  You can use chopsticks instead of dowels to hang small wall hangings and tapestries

29] You can use chopsticks to make wrapped God’s Eye ornaments: Tutorial

30] And, perhaps, most important of all: You can eat your pad thai or sushi with chopsticks.

So,  can you think of other ways to use a chopstick in the studio?

Post from: Hankering for Yarn

photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

There are some fun links for you in this week’s Artsy Bloggers roundup:

Arts & Crafts Examiner :
Designer Minoo Hersini shares her unique fall centerpieces, perfect for  Thanksgiving entertaining for our American friends.
Make-unique-fall-centerpieces-with-tree-bark

Creative Dreamer
June shares a post from August when she was experimenting with creating hand made books. She wanted to see if she could create a round one, and these are the result.
hand made books

Gadabout Media DIY
Do you have a pair of blue jeans with a hole? Don’t throw them out – it’s easy to repair them!
how-to-repair-blue-jeans/

Hankering for yarn
This week, I made a video tutorial about how to work with the charming little vintage looms, ‘The Magic Looms’, that mysteriously always have a photo of a crocheted Granny square on the box. This is odd, because the looms couldn’t possibly do that, but they DO create delightful squares. What were the manufacturers thinking? Ah well, the magic lives on…..
how-to-for-vintage-magic-loom/

Mixed Media Artist
Cyndi has finished a second Garden Quilt and is offering her tutorial!
finished-pear-quilt.html

The Artful Crafter
Say �Happy Anniversary� to Totally-Creative and win a free 1-year subscription!

happy-anniversary

We are also open to accepting new members into the Artsy Bloggers group.

If you are regularly blogging about the arts and crafts and are willing to post a link to the group each week and then to post the collection of everyone’s links to your blog

once a week, then you might want to join us.

If you are interested, send me an email with a link to your blog, and I will pass it along to the moderator of the group!

Post from: Hankering for Yarn

photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

Bless her heart,

she gave me a couple more

of the fab wire baskets

that she made a few years ago.

Here’s one of the

new ones,

sitting on the

shelf that lives

on my knitting machine

table.

When I was

busy admiring

the new baskets,

photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

I realized how  much

I love using baskets

for organizing studio

stuff, and that I have

baskets by the dozens.

(There’s another one of

Chloe’s baskets in this

pic, too)

So, I started taking

photos of some of

the baskets in

my studio,

and before long

photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

I had taken

almost 50 photos….

I won’t bore you

with photos of

all the studio

baskets, but

there are a few

baskets that are

dear to my heart…..

The blue wicker basket

is an old one that I bought

when I was a teenager. I painted a sheet of masonite with a homage to oriental carpets, and wired it to the top and used the basket as a table. Now, it holds a huge whopper of a melon basket that I found at a garage sale this summer. They are both great for yarn storage.

photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

I thought that I would

also include a pic

of Ms Kitty examining

a couple baskets

that I have just recently

made.

I posted a tutorial

on how to spool knit

the basket that is full

of spool knitters.

The crocheted basket is made

with yarn that I spun from

paper streamers from the Blue Man Group show last month.

Baskets are one of the most ancient ways of organizing the stuff of our lives.  They are also a wonderful way of expressing creativity, because every handmade basket is, by it’s very nature, completely unique.

Do you have any favorite baskets?

Post from: Hankering for Yarn

photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

But, the boxes have a baffling oxymoron-

a photo of a crocheted granny square,

which could lead people to assume

that the Magic loom produces

crocheted granny squares.

They don’t.

But you can make wonderful squares

with Magic Looms, and then

combine those squares

to make other charming things.

photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

Like this

tiny bog coat

that I made with

four little squares

from the 2 inch

Magic Loom.

Here’s the link

to that tutorial:

Bog Coat on the Magic Loom

The coat in the photo is about 3 inches tall, but, you could make a full size Bog coat for yourself with the Magic Looms.

I’ve made a video tutorial explaining how to work with the Magic Loom: Hope it’s helpful!:

Post from: Hankering for Yarn

photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

Here’s another of my

most favorite tools

of the designer and author’s trade.

What is it?

A spreadsheet.

Why is a spreadsheet

such a big deal?

Believe me…

it’s truly one of

my favorite tools for a lot of reasons!

This is the spreadsheet from my latest book: The Woven Bag (the link is to Amazon, but it’s not one of the payback links…. it’s just the only link that I can find to the book at this point…. )

Anyhow…. when I am creating a book, there is a TON of information that I need to organize. I designed about 37 bags for the book. I needed to keep track of a whole bunch of things for each of the bags….. a million piece of information were flying and whizzing around my head, believe me!

As well as all of the information about each of the bags, I also had all kinds of other things that needed to get into the book- all manner of how to’s and illustrations and charts.

There were different deadlines that had to be met, and because I was zipping stuff off to my editor all the time, I needed to know when I sent what.

So, you can see why I would love spreadsheets so much!

It gives me a chance to break down and organize a mountain of information into an easily accessible, visual format that lets me pinpoint everything I need to keep track of.

There are categories like chapters, projects, which looms are used in which bags, what fibers and embellishments, whether illustrations and charts are done,  the dates when different deadlines are met, as well as text requirements for each piece.

I also like to establish codes that match up on the spreadsheet, to help me with the whole organizing process.

For me, working on  a huge project like writing a book requires that I summon all the organizational skills that I can muster.

A book may look like it’s just a collection of some projects and that the author probably had lots of fun whipping it up, but the truth of the matter is that the creation of a book takes monumental effort that is almost mind boggling.

Post from: Hankering for Yarn

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.

photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

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 broke a vintage flower loom recently, I want to be very very careful and gentle with these ones.

One of the things that I love about finding different versions of vintage tools and gadgets is that, when you are lucky enough to find ones that still have the instructions with them, you will often learn new ways of working with the tool…. Today, I learned a new way of stitching the center of the flower….I think I am going to have to do a video tute to show the different ways to stitch the centers….

I am really enjoying working with yarn that I spun from paper (here’s a tutorial on how to do that ) and I particularly like the way paper yarn works on the flower looms.

The two flowers with faces are pins that I made a week or so ago.  The other 2 flowers are ones I made today, when I was experimenting with the new flower looms.

I have a  fun idea for a cute gift to make with them……. so stay tuned!

By the way, I was sure that I had seen a current version of these nifty flower looms, and so I did a websearch.  I was really pleased to discover that  they are still being made. They are called Knit Wits nowadays. (no profit or connection or affiliation in my posting the link, just the fruit of a happy websearch)

I

Post from: Hankering for Yarn

We find treasures that we send to our friends- so the friends are happy, and the post office is sooooooo happy because Friend B then mails a treasure on to Friend C, to keep the de-cluttering going.

And, oh yes,Friend B has to send a little thank you back to Friend A.  Yes… the post office loves it when we de-clutter.

photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

One of my friends(Friend A)

started a cycle of

making the Post Office

and me (Friend B)

very happy.

We were talking about

small looms and

flower looms.

She had noticed that I blogged about my broken  much loved flower loom . She mentioned that she had an extra flower loom or two and would I like to have them?

Are you kidding? I went wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee oh yes oh yes oh yes oh yes puhleeeeeeeeeeeze……..

photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

I was thrilled to bits

when I opened

the box and

whoo whoo!

Not only had my

friend sent me

some flower looms

(I’ll take pics)

she sent me

a set of Magic Looms, too..

And, I just  cracked up when I saw that the big box of new loomies has EXACTLY the same photo, (only upside down), as the little box that I already have.

photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

Magic Looms are

really quite

wonderful.

They make neat little

squares of all descriptions….

and it struck me

today, that you could

use them as flower looms, too….

(That’s on my ‘give it a try’ list.)

photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

I have been

experimenting with

using the Magic Loom

for making needle lace .

I love using the motifs

from the Magic Looms

in dollmaking  and

freeform crocheted

pieces, too.

There are a lot of ways of

working with the

rather appropriately

named little loomies.

(I don’t think they’re made anymore, so you’ll have to watch for them in garage sales and at thrift stores and places like that).

The one thing that the Magic Looms ABSOLUTELY DO NOT make would be anything remotely resembling a crocheted Granny Square.

So, tell me….. why, oh why, would the manufacturers show a photo (repeatedly and then upside down) of something that their product is totally incapable of making?

Why would they do that?

Don’t they understand how ticked off some poor person was going to feel about it, if the only reason why she bought it was because she thought that she could make a granny square on it?

Ah well, customer relations were obviously not part of their picture.

That’s okay, because The Post Office is pleased.

And,  Friend A is hopefully going to be pleased, because, of course, I will have to send her a little something to say thank you, and then there’s Friend C that will be receiving a little something from my stash. (In the interests of de-cluttering).

Yep…. the Post Office loves de-cluttering…. don’t we all?

Post from: Hankering for Yarn

copyright Noreen Crone-Findlay

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.

copyright Noreen Crone-Findlay

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.

copyright Noreen Crone-Findlay

I crocheted these two

Shadow Scarves

using  red merino/possum

lace weight yarn from New Zealand.

The shadow scarf on the left

was crocheted with just the red yarn

and a size ‘H’ (5 mm) hook and is

delightful.

I wanted to see what would happen if

I combined a strand of the variegated thread

with the red yarn. I also wanted to try taking

the laciness factor up a notch, so I went up

one size of hook, to an ‘I’ (5.5 mm).

copyright Noreen Crone-Findlay

The variegated thread

really punches up the

impact of the plain red yarn.

Even though the variegated thread

is very thin, it has tiny slubs,

so it dramatically increases the

texture of the finished fabric.

Wonderful!

Oh…. I just realized that the one

thing that I haven’t done (doh) is

to crochet or knit the variegated thread completely on it’s own.

I’ve been so caught up in combining it with other yarns, that I forgot to try it on it’s own.

This particular thread came from Salt Spring Saori, and is kind of one of a kind, I think, as Terri brings in unique yarns from Japan.

Watch second hand stores for interesting threads and yarns- and garage and yard sales, too! Also, don’t be afraid to combine serger threads and sewing threads with your yarns to create interesting crocheted, knitted, spool knitted or woven fabrics.

You never know where you’ll find fun threads and yarns. And, when you put them together with other yarns, you might just be surprised by the fascinating textiles that you can create!

Post from: Hankering for Yarn

photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

They are useful,

and can be embellished

in endless ways

to make them one of a kind.

There are a million ways to make a basket.

One of the most fun

ways of making

baskets is to spool knit them.

photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

To make a

spool knitted

basket,

you’ll need to

spool knit a heap

of cord.

Luckily, this is a

very pleasant and

contemplative task.

Make a couple

of yards each of

2 contrasting colors.

I like to use my 2 peg

Cordelia spool knitters

photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

as they are so speedy

when I’m spooling up lots of cord.

Making a basket

is much easier if

you have a mold

to shape it over.

So, for this basket,

I used an empty

olive oil tin.

Trace the bottom of

the tin onto graph paper

and draw lines at the center.

Find a chunk of foam or

use several pieces of

photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

cardboard so

you can stick pins in it.

Pin the 2 cords to the center

of the pattern.

Bring one of the cords around

the other,

and then,

coil them

in a spiral,

until you fill

photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

in all the lines.

It’s a good idea

to pin the cords to

the pattern,

but you might

prefer to not

pin….

you’ll begin

the stitching

photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

process at the

center of the

coils.

Stitch through 3 cords

at a time, working

your way around

the coils.

Place the stitches fairly

close together for

sturdiness.  As you stitch,

the shape of  the base of

photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

the basket

is being established,

so squinch and

squeeze to make

the base fit the pattern.

When the base is

complete,

lift it off the foam

and continue wrapping

2 cords around the tin.

Stitch through both of them, and through the last cord of the previous round. (Remember, you always stitch through 3 cords at a time).

What do you do if you run out of cord?  Grab your spool knitter and spool knit some more!

You can weave in the ends later, so don’t worry!

Finish the basket by cutting the last round of spool knitting, taking the end through the stitches at the end of the cord, and weaving them into the basket.

photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

And, before

you know it-

Voila!

Or as some people

say it: Wallah! LOL!

you have made

yourself the

most wonderful

little basket…

perfect for holding

your spool knitters

and spool knitting or

other fab yarnie projects!

I made a little video about basket making , for those who like to see things in motion:

Happy Spool knitting! and Happy Basket Making!

Post from: Hankering for Yarn

paper yarn copyright St Martin's Griffin

Paper Yarn:

24 Creative Projects

to make

using a variety

of techniques

by Uta Donath,

Eva Hauck,

Petra Hoffman

and Claudia Huboi,

published by

St Martin’s Griffin.

I had no idea that there are so many paper yarns available on the marketplace! I REALLY need to find explore this more!

The projects are made using a wide variety of techniques:  weaving, crochet, knitting, sewing, wrapping, kumihimo, braiding and decoupage.

I love the shoulder bag that uses woven bands in combination with felt. Yum.

And, the box with woven sections and interspersed with unwound paper yarn is delicious, too.

There are all manner of really neat projects, from fashion accessories to home decor items.

The techniques are diverse and inviting, and are well explained, often with low cost options for making the projects.

One quibble: I wish that they had given the manufacturer’s name and source for the ’school loom’ that is used in several of the projects. (It’s not Schacht’s School Loom, which could have been used for the projects, though)

The loom that they call a ’school loom’ is a frame style loom that has a magic heddle similar to the ones made by Goodwood Looms.

If you are spinning your own paper yarn (see this LINK for a tutorial on how to spin paper yarn) or have found some out in the world, then this book will inspire you to try out some fun ways of working with it.

(And, of course, many of the projects would work beautifully in other yarns, too).

My policy on Hankering for Yarn is that I only write about things I like.  I like this book.  Thumbs up.

(But I think that a section on how to make your own paper yarn would have been a valuable addition to it).

(Legal disclosure: Review copy supplied by St Martin’s Griffin Press).

Post from: Hankering for Yarn