We use yarn as a blessing.

Is there a baby on the way?

Get out the knitting needles

and crochet hooks to

celebrate!

Is someone ill?

Knit or crochet or weave

them a prayer or blessing

shawl.

Is there a rite of passage or significant spiritual event? Chances are good that textiles will enter into it, somehow, somewhere.

We swaddle our babies and wrap them in soft cloths. And, when the time comes, and we leave this life and are born into the next, someone will wrap our bodies in cloth again.

Cloth, and the ways we create it, whether we knit, crochet, weave or make it in some other way (or have someone else make it for us) is intertwined with our lives from the moment we emerge from the womb until after we leave this life.

So, doesn’t it make sense to find ways to make some of that cloth be significant to us? How do we do that?

By paying attention to what we make, and how we make it and why we make it…. then,  hopefully…. those things that we knit, crochet, weave, spin, and whirl out of our imaginations, hearts, minds and hands, will become the source of joy, sustenance and healing.

Ah,  Joy….. that’s what yarn and thread and creativity can bring….. joy……

Post from: Hankering for Yarn

In ‘Time To Weave’, she has a project (with variations) that uses a peg or stick loom.

She made her weaving sticks by cutting lengths of aluminum tubing.

I was pleased to see that she had included the stick loom in the book, as it’s a small loom that has lots of creative potential.

Seeing her version of the stick loom reminded me that it was something that I had been exploring about a year or so ago.

So, I went and dug out my version of the stick loom.

(Well, to be perfectly honest, I tore the studio apart, because I could only find half of it.

The search for the other half was VERY rewarding so it was a big win-win, even though I had a minor fit at not being able to find it at first).

Anyhow, I found it (and some other really good stuff) and all is well….

Photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

I am a dyed in the wool ‘gadgeteer’…

and I am fascinated by the potential of

working in a ‘cross currents’ kind of way….

using a tool in multiple ways to create

interesting textiles.

One little tool that is a great multi-tasker is the Clover Hairpin Lace Tool, with 6 extra pegs or pins, for a total of 9 pins or sticks…

(Yes, I know, there are only 6 pins in the photo…. the other 3 are in the box)    I know that someone would look at the photo and scratch their head, thinking: Um, can’t Noreen count to 6? Why is she talking about 9 pins? 

Photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

Okay, now that that is settled…

To buy it with all 9 pins, go to Lacis.com

and  type ‘ Stick Loom LF 82 ‘

into their search box.

They are the only vendor that

I have seen with the full 9 pins.

Joann’s has a 3 pin version.

Lacis also has the more usual stick loom with dowels.

Basically, the stick loom holds warp strands, as tails, and you weave the weft on the sticks,

then slide it off the sticks and down onto the tails.

I am working on a set of placemats, and am playing with different ways of trimming the edges.

It struck me that stick loom woven bands would be a great way to finish an edge, so I decided to experiment.

Photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

Years ago, I wove with a bunch of darning needles

held together as a stick loom.

I thought… hey! I have 6 plastic weaving needles….

why don’t I try weaving with them?

So I cut lengths of warp strands

and threaded them into the needles.

and filled them up with weaving….

Photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

It seemed like a good idea at the time….

but…

the great big eyes

on the needles

turned it

into a very bad idea.

Erg.

I had to squeeeeeeeeeeeee, honk and

scrape to get the weft off the needles.

So… scratch the plastic weaving needles with big eyes. One of them has a nice slender eye. The weft slipped off it lickety split. The others clung to the weft like there was no tomorrow.

Darning needles with inline eyes work great especially if you can find somewhat longish ones.  But for now….

Photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

It’s back to working

with the Clover Hairpin Lace loom.

This time with just 3 pins,

as I only want the woven band

to be about an inch wide.

Insert the warp strands

into the eye of the pin,

bring the ends together and

tie a knot. Repeat across.

Now, go back and forth, under over the pins, weaving yarn onto them until you have a couple of inches woven.

Photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

Then, pull the pins

out of the base,

and slide the weaving down

the tails of warp,

until you have all the

weaving slipped down

off the pins.

Insert the pins back into the holes in the base.

Photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

Tug the warp ends

gently to bring

the weaving to the base.

And there you go…

carry on for the desired

length of your

band.

When you are done, tie or braid the ends.

Voila! a nifty woven band on the stick loom!

Post from: Hankering for Yarn

Wild art doll by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

I believe that we are hardwired to be fascinated by the shape of human beings.

I think that this is what has lead to the creation of dolls- people ask themselves:

‘How can I take a handful of interesting bits and pieces and put them together so they express something about being human?’

I say: ‘Go for it! Gather up the ephemera of your life, and play with it!’

You’ll see , paper beads, tatting, buttons, dice, incense tiles, beads, charms, bottle tops and more in the dolls in the pictures below.

Do you have some yarnie gadgets that you’d like to experiment with, but don’t know what you’d do with the resulting thingies that you’ll  be making?  Well, get them out, and play with color and texture with them!

The hair on the doll below was made with tiny pom pom makers.  You can also use the flowers from flower looms as hair, too….

Wild art doll by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

Because crochet is both painterly AND sculptural,  it is the most wonderful medium to use in the doll making process.

one of a kind art doll by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

You can add all kinds of  other techniques to embellish the wild dolls. If you are a woodworker, add wooden elements!

One of a kind art doll by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

Love working with wire? I do…. so I build wire armatures as the leaping off point for many of my dolls.

One of a kind art doll by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

It’s important to constantly look at the world in new ways.

Using the doll making process as a way of expressing your creativity will certainly ignite your imagination and fire up your creativity.

One of a kind art doll by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

That’s what I do on a regular basis: I combine crochet, weaving, tatting, woodworking, wire work, knitting and all manner of found and created objects (I have a passion for making unusual shoes for my dolls. What can I say?) and then make all kinds of wild and wooly dolls that are a voyage of discovery and delight!

And, how about you?

How do you put things together in interesting ways?

Have you tried wild andwooly doll making?

I invite you to drop some of your inhibitions, and just play……… joy awaits!

Post from: Hankering for Yarn

photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

experiment with plain, unadorned sock yarn.

Why? I had just done a trade on a handspinning list on yahoo.

My trading partner had sent me  several cones of what looked to be a very vintage blending thread: Bucilla Silk Tweed.

That’s it in the pic, sitting just above the needles.   Oooh… yummy stuff!

I have used the Bucilla Silk Tweed thread in all kinds of projects and absolutely love it.

It’s a slubby, mostly super fine strand of quite lively thread that blends beautifully with any yarn that it is held together with.

I have woven it into shawls and scarves, and all knitted all kinds of socks with it.

But, I had forgotten about my original plan for the tweeded-up wild color socks until just recently.

A week or so ago, I wrote about a pair of socks that I have just recently knitted and tatted flowers onto:

Flower top socks

Well… those socks made me remember the balls of  Sox yarn. I dug out a balls of turquoise, red and purple, and a cone of the Bucilla Silk Tweed thread:

photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

The plan is to tat flowers onto the tops of these socks, as well. I am going to  use green yarn for the stemmie bits and bright yellow for the flowers.  I am sick of winter drab and am breaking out by knitting oh so colorful sockies!

I just love the silk thread so much and am sadly, running out of it.

I was wondering if there is anything in the current marketplace that is close to the Bucilla Silk Tweed?

I googled and searched  and came up blank on it.

So then, I thought… what about blending threads?

So I googled on that, and came up with Kreinik’s blending threads that are mostly meant for embroidery:

photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

The Kreinik blending threads are really neat, but I don’t think I would use them in the body of a sock.

I think that I will, however, experiment to see how it looks with the tatted flower sections at the top of the socks.

I love tatting with metallic threads, so it’s worthwhile to do some sampling.

BUT…. finding something that resembles the silk tweed has totally eluded me and it remains a mystery.

Do you know if such a thing still exists and who carries it?

I bet someone out there knows!

Post from: Hankering for Yarn

Today’s video is quite Earth friendly. It features an old kind of technology:

photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

The Nostepinne.  The whozzawhat?

Nostepinnes are basically friendly little sticks that you use to wind a ball of yarn on.

A reader sent me a note, asking about winding yarn, and saying that she didn’t have a yarn winder.

Well, I DO have a yarn winder. It’s old as the hills, as I bought it when I was 15 and had just saved up all my babysitting  and part time jobs money and bought myself a knitting machine.

The yarn winder is now somewhat fragile, and so I don’t use it very often.

Instead, I wind balls of yarn with  nostepinnes.

My husband upcycled the  nostepinne in the picture from a handrail that we had installed in his Mum’s house to make it safer for her to navigate.

When she passed on, we took the excess handrails down and cut them up and turned them on the lathe.

My bit of Mum’s house became a  much used and loved nostepinne, and I feel the touch of her hand in it still!

It’s easier to get the hang of using a nostepinne by watching someone use it.

So, I have made a video  of  ‘How to wind a ball of yarn on the nostepinne’ in honor of Earth Day – to celebrate a very simple tool that works really well!  Here’s the tutorial:

There seems to be something troublesome happening with the embedding link, so…

if the video isn’t working properly for you, please go to the direct link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xuc11P4Wi4

Hope you had a lovely Earth Day, and have done some kind of upcycling, recycling or other form of green living and earth keeping!

Post from: Hankering for Yarn

Now, this may not seem to be all that important, but believe me, for MANY reasons, it is VERY important.

You’ll be hearing about this a lot in 2009!

It’s really expensive to maintain a herd of fiber animals!

B U T- here’s the great news!

You can help support a lovely fiber farm  in a truly concrete way,

AND you get a luscious treasure from your goodness…..

Read all about it at: Hudson Valley Fiber Farm Co-op

Image source: Original drawing by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright and not to be reproduced without permission

Post from: Hankering for Yarn

There have been a heap of changes and I am soooooooooooo excited to be part of the new direction !

One of the biggest changes is that Hankering for Yarn will soon be part of Bliss Tree, which is an oh so nifty website/community.  I am looking forward to seeing how this all unfolds!

I have all sorts of ideas and plans for Hankering for Yarn, so stay tuned!

I will be playing with all things yarn:

Which is why I combined all those things in the picture.

If you can tell me what everything in the picture is, leave a comment in the comments section below, and you’ll win a prize!

Alrighty… you have until Tues March 10 to list off everything in the pic, and tell me what it’s for….

and yes…. there is a  mystery object in the picture…. let’s see if anyone gets it!  LOL!

I feel like I have come home again…..  I am happy dancing! Won’t you join me?

Thank you so much everyone who has posted so far…. I had planned on masking the answers, but woke up this morning to discover that answers were showing up….. oops!
That really ticked one reader off, ~sorrrrrrrrrrry~
SO – being a very creative hoppitty bunny, I am going to award MORE than one prize!
Alrighty?

(image source: Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright)

Post from: Hankering for Yarn

One way knitters and crocheters who want to have less of a harmful impact on the environment can help is to invest in organic yarn. There was a time when organic yarn was hard to find and when you found it, it was very expensive. Nowadays, with more companies (big names like Lion Brand included) trying to get into the eco market, organic yarn is not only easier to find, the price is becoming comparable to traditionally harvested and dyed yarns. It’s no longer cost-prohibitive to knit with it, which is a great thing. The more affordable organic yarn becomes, the more people will buy it, use it and that in turn will keep the price down.

Organic wool and cotton rely on different methods of harvesting and dyeing than conventional wool and cotton. Cotton, especially, when grown in traditional ways, has a big negative impact on the environment.

And if you think that organic yarn only comes in one color because you can’t dye with natural ingredients, think again. Not only do wool and cotton naturally come in a range of shades, but natural dyes that come from plants are often used to create a rainbow of colors comparable to traditionally dyed yarns.

Look into these companies for a selection of organic yarn:

• Eco Choices
• Jimmy Beans Wool
• Fabulous Yarn

Post from: Hankering for Yarn

I went into Hobby Lobby the other day for some cotton dishcloth yarn. You really can’t beat the craft stores for inexpensive cotton yarn.

They were having a sale on some items and bargain-loving woman that I am, I decided to buy this yarn I’ve never tried before. I’ve used Lion Brand before and it’s a good workhorse type of yarn. I’ve never tried their sock yarn, however.

So far, so good. It’s not as luxurious as Lorna’s Laces or Claudia’s Handpainted, but it’s similar to Opal. It feels like a sturdy, dependable sort. Of course, I won’t have a full review until after my socks are done and I’ve worn them and washed them a few times, but working them on my new nickel plated needles has made for speedy and enjoyable work.

But for $8.00 for one ball — and as you can see, “one ball makes a pair” — I thought it was too good a deal to pass up.

Ever used this yarn? What do you think?

Images: © D. Sandeen

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