Look at that sweet face, poised and ready to get her hookin' on. Photos from a 1951 Rug Hooking Bee. What I wouldn't give to travel back in time, dress spectacularly and join the fun. My mother-in-law is a stripper. And a hooker. It's not a secret or anything, we're all cool with it. To each his own, we say. It's good to have a hobby. It was just a little something she started doing on the side a couple of years ago. We didn't think much of it. She got her sister interested in it and now, me. That's right. I'm a hooker. A rug hooker, that is. Why, is there any other kind? Now, lemme clarify. Because when my MIL first began speaking of rug hooking, I immediately had a flash back of the rug hooking I did in elementary school. I remember sitting on my babysitter's couch every afternoon hooking an image of a mushroom with short little strips of yarn. My dad even made one of these types of rugs, a large red number featuring a running tiger. Very 1970's chic. But that's not what I'm talking about. That's latch rug hooking. The rug hooking I'm talking about involves strips of wool, not yarn. And, if you'll notice in above photo, the surface that is hooked upon is a fabric called Monk's Cloth. Not the holey grid-like fabric used in latch hooking. My mother-in-law with one of her many hooked designs. The barn she is hooking is from a drawing my hubs did in junior high school. And an adorable rug hooking she made for me. Notice the turquoise and orange variegated wool near the border? It came from an old wool jacket of mine. And the brown wool on the inside border is from a jacket of hubs. This hooking will one day be made into a pillow or to cover of a footstool. So, to try your hand at rug hooking, the first thing you'd have to do is strip some wool. Wool fabric, which can be purchased or recycled from wool clothing, is stripped through a device that leaves it looking like colorful linguine. A rug hook, best seen in the hand of the freckly little girl, is inserted into the Monk's Cloth with one hand while your other hand works underneath looping the wool over the hook. Once the wool is looped over the hook, it is then pulled to the surface of the Monk's Cloth. With your other hand still underneath the fabric, it pulls the excess strip down to make the wool loops even with the others. Once a couple of rows are completed, the loops should look like little rows of soldiers standing in a row, not crowded but straight and even. My wee little finished section! My hope is to create a decent sized rug for my kitchen. I just had to share this little square (it's about 8" x 8") with you as I was just so excited by the result. Who knew I'd love hooking so much? Er, I dunno if I'll ever like it that much. Ahem. As always, thanks for dropping by! I'll be sure to keep you posted on my progress. Now if you'll excuse me, I've got important hooking to do.
These rainbow-colored mini llama figurines are so much fun to make!!
Friends of mine planned this picnic by the lake for our Cookbook Club and it was so fun! Sharing some still images because it was just lovely!
Here at WOVEMBER we have already looked at some of the actions and words which have historically been associated with shepherding. Here we have another action associated with wool working, which ha…
These rainbow-colored mini llama figurines are so much fun to make!!
Clean and sophisticated this collection of knitwear designs is the epitome of modern knitting. Each design showcases exquisite fibers and stunning designs.
2016 Topic 12: Fabric Rae Missigman Hi everyone, Darcy here, time flies and we are at the start of another challenge. This time it is fabric, I know that may immediately seem scary, but let's have a look at some inspiration and hopefully you will all feel able to take the plunge and bring fabric into your mixed media creations. Textiles have been as part of our lives since earliest civilisation, from handmade clothing and other practical items through to more decorative trims and house decor. Decoration of fabric began with embroidered clothing, and was a sign of wealth. Many samplers were stitched by wives and daughters, these became wonderful pieces of textile art. Antique Dress One of the earliest and simplest forms of textile construction would be felting, taking simple animal fibres and creating cloth from those. Then twisting, spinning and weaving followed. Functionality of textiles has continued, but methods and materials have changed and expanded dramatically and the Industrial Revolution changed textile technology significantly. As for artistic applications, the silk routes and introduction of dyes from abroad really transformed decoration. Nowadays with paint, dyes, unlimited synthetic fibres and all sorts of machinery we can create just about anything...and we do! Before we start, let's see who won the Topic 11: Our House Challenge... What a wonderful array of houses,fit for a Queen of crafting to live in. The vibrant colours and quirky shapes are such fun, it looks like you had a great time creating them. Even without a house stamp or stencil I think these are one of the easiest images to create. I hope this challenge has inspired you to add more houses in your work. . The winner of Our House is: Helen from StampingbyH Email Darcy to claim your prize. [email protected] Let's start with felting, a flat piece of felted fabric is one of the simplest techniques to try, however there are some stunning felted pieces out there. Needle felting especially can be intricate and very detailed. Soroka As we move through history we come across dyes that were introduced by travellers, these were brighter than the moss and vegetable dyes that we had traditionally used. Modern dyes and colourants are so varied, but the simplest and cheapest way to colour is with wax crayons. Here is a quick and easy video for you from Terrie Kygar. This technique could easily be applied to stamped images on fabric. Did you know that you can use your Fresco Chalk paints on fabric? add a little fabric medium, any brand, and the item becomes washable. I made this apron a few years ago and it has been washed several times. Weaving always had practical applications, whether for blankets, rugs or clothing. However there is no reason that practical can't be pretty too like these sweet woven bracelets by Kate Whitehead. If quilting is your thing, how about this bright and funky lollipop flower quilt. Your favourite flower stamps could be used here as the base shapes. Deborah O'Hare You don't fancy sewing? no problem, take inspiration from Elfi Cella, a Swiss painter. Here a shirt has been attached to a canvas and then texture paste added and painted. This would also be a good project for those still playing with Powertex. Moving onto smaller pieces, how about some cards made from tiny leftovers. These are stitched but you could easily layer up your scraps and glue them in place. Kelly King No stitching with this one at all, use freehand cut out shapes or stamped faces and create clothing with scraps. I have seen this done with pretty handkerchiefs as the skirt. LazyDoll Staying with smaller projects, let's go 3d. This decorated koi from Brooke Connor is so much fun. How about adding wire to your fabric and creating freestanding decorations. Many of your flowers and leaf stamps could be used to create wired flowers. Jennifer Swift These moths are my favourite find for this topic, I adore them. There are so many possibilities, ideas inspired by these little creatures. How would you go about creating something like this, think about what is in your stash right now, what could you use? Mister Finch All these so far would seem a little time consuming, so here is an idea for a really quick bookmark. Nothing could be simpler, but of course you could add your own twist to it. You could paint the card and stamp onto the fabric. Alysse Here is another no-sew idea, tags with die cuts holes and a piece of fabric glued behind. Darcy If you like layers then you could add fabric to a tag, make a pocket and fill it with all sorts of interesting bits. Anita Houston Now for some wall art, there are so many possibilities, fabric is so versatile and malleable . A simple layer glued on gives immediate texture, while subsequent layers and forms add dimension. Ginny Gibson What good are layers if you can't see through to the one below? Here you will find a tutorial by Susan Lenz, showing how she creates her box fibre art, and how she uses a soldering iron to reveal the layers of fabrics. If you are a fan of recycling then how about using up clothing labels and shopping bag handles. This is an intriguing quilt, it shows a glimpse into the maker's shopping habits, and could easily become a memory quilt. Perhaps you have shopping labels from a holiday? this would be a great way to collate them. I think I may have left the most interesting projects till last.. fabric journals. These can be no-sew, or they can be heavily embroidered, whichever you prefer. As mixed media artists these probably fulfil our need to use different mediums more so than other fabric projects. These books can be painted, dyed, stamped, stitched and embellished, really, anything goes! DJ Pettitt These are by Frances Pickering, they utilise pelmet vilene. This is an excellent base for a book cover as it is very sturdy, will take paint but can also still be stitched. I really like the shape of these books. I will leave you with this video from Leandra showing just how she paints with Frescos onto fabric . Hopefully you are now inspired to use some fabric, remember it does not need to be stitched, it could be glued as a layer under a stamped image or it could be a bought fabric item that you decorate. I am sure you have bags or an apron that could be transformed with paint. Have fun! Don't forget to follow Darcy's and Leandra's pinterest boards (Leandra also has a mixed media Textiles board here) if this topic pushes your buttons, you will see plenty more examples to whet your appetite there! I am really looking forward to seeing what you create over the next 2 weeks! Darcy Topic 12: Fabric PaperArtsy Blog Challenge We'd love you to share your ideas and link up your creative response to our current blog topic. Take a minute to read the challenge guidelines below. All links go in the draw to win a voucher to spend on products of your choice from the PaperArtsy online store. The Fabric link will close 17:00 (London Time) Sunday, June 26th winner will be announced 2 hours later at 19:00. 1. The challenge is a for you to show how you are inspired by the current blog topic. Your entry should contain: - a mention of which post inspired you and why, and - a link in your blog post to that original post on the PA blog. The whole concept of this challenge is 'play along with us'. You are encouraged to put your own twist on ideas you see on our blog, do your own thing - whatever grabs you! 2. The link you put on our linky page must lead directly to the specific post on your blog where you have explored the technique/ idea mentioned in point 1 above. Don't link to the home page of your blog. 3. We prefer your challenge blog post is created exclusive to our challenge, but if our topic fits perfectly with another challenge, then you may link to both if appropriate. 4. You are most welcome to use stamps/ products/ substrates you have to hand from a variety of companies, we do not expect you to exclusively use PA products - it's lovely when you do though! 6. You can enter as many times as you like. We don't want to restrict your creativity! NB. Link closes at 17:00 Sunday June 26th (London Time) 7. The winner of the random draw will receive a £50 credit voucher to be redeemed on the PaperArtsy Website. The credit voucher includes VAT and postage. We request that one of your purchases is an A5 rubber stamp. You can add any other items to your basket, but the final total should not exceed £50. 8. Each fortnight on Sunday, the winner will be announced at 19:00 (London time). In the same post, the link for the next fortnight will be posted. 9. It's your responsibility to claim your prize coupon from Darcy. email: [email protected] Good Luck! If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask!
A beginner's guide to what makerspaces really are, whether or not one should be implemented, and some fun ideas for the new school year.
Right now I'm just in craft fever making camera bags. As always, I'm afraid for my beauties in my big pockets, that's perfectly. This time it's about a bag for the Diana Mini.
What is more dismaying than making a whole project only to find that the fit is terrible? If your gauge is off even a quarter stitch in an inch, you get that "shock and awe" moment when you realize that your project is ruined. We machine knitters have a fantastic advantage when it comes to fitting our garments because we can very quickly knit a nice, big gauge swatch. You see, the bigger the swatch, the more accurate the measurement. If a pattern gives the gauge in stitches per inch, or even stitches in 10 centimeters (common in international patterns), whether you're hand knitting or machine knitting, you want to measure a larger area than just a few inches (10 cm is roughly 4 inches, by the way). Our typical swatch size in machine knitting is 40 stitches by 60 rows, and in fact, we knit the swatch bigger than that and mark a center area to make it easy to measure that size rectangle. Here's a video showing how to make a good gauge swatch: Lesson 28 Gauge Swatch The eyelet holes mark the tension setting, and the colors mark the block to measure. You'll be able to measure in several places and you won't have to try to count individual stitches. If you are working on a bulky machine, you can knit your swatch 20 stitches and 30 rows. Go ahead and block and launder your gauge swatch in the same way you plan to block and launder your garment, as those processes will change the size of the stitches. Still, bigger is better! Waste a little yarn to make the whole project turn out much better. Now, to move from inches to centimeters, just multiply by the number of inches by 2.54. If you would rather use a conversion table, here are a couple of them - And rows...
Ice scrapers are a sure sign that it's time to break out those "serious" sweaters that I've had packed away since Vermont. Oh how those sweaters kept me toasty! Unfortunately it looks like two of them have met with the dreaded wool-nibbling moths! I was able to poke a finger through all four holes. After frowning for a moment and pledging to make some little sachets of cedar shavings, I brightened up a bit when I realized that the new Full Circle Roving had the perfect colors to repair both sweaters without any fuss at all!
Simply lay pieces of glue-soaked yarn onto a ball to make this loopy bowl.
The classic amigurumis arms or legs are either sewn on or crocheted to the body (like my trolls or critters). Some dolls even have arms or legs that are part of the body (like my fairies or human like dolls). But then you find a pattern for a doll and find that you would like to have this doll with movable arms or legs so you can pose your doll; Barney is a doll that's been designed with arms and legs that are movable. Today I want to show you how to use classic bear joints for your amigurumi dolls and I want to show you how to create a neat alternative in case you don't want to use classic joints (maybe you can't find them or they don't fit) Classic bear joints are most often three- or sometimes four-piece joints. They can contain disks and washers and wobble pins or nut and bolts, some joints resemble classic safety eyes: you could even use safety eyes as joints ___________ now, how do you install them? the standard method would be to place one part of the joint inside your dolls body and the matching part into the arm or leg: 1 - crochet all legs and arms before crocheting the body 2 - don't stuff just yet 3 - add one part of the joint to the e.g. leg: place one disk/disk with shank inside the leg, position it at the inside of the leg, add the washer and bolt resp. washer and wobble pin by pushing the pin or bolt through your material 4 - stuff 5 - close leg (maybe crochet the last row and bind off) sources for classic joints: mohairbearmakingsupplies.co.uk the lovely Clara from 6060 on etsy there are plenty other resources as well ___________ The alternative to this classic joints would be what I would call "button-joints". Sometimes classic joints are really hard to find or (which I found to be a problem) they just don't fit through two layers of crocheted fabric. Another reason to search for an alternative would be the size of the classic joints would be either too small or too big for your dolls arms or legs. The "button joint" can be easily adapted to solve any of this problems. Pick smaller buttons to fit small arms/legs, you can find buttons everywhere (I like to use those blouse-buttons that I would keep in case I would ever need them again, but of couse never did) and since you're using yarn to built the joint you can use it for the thickest fabrics as well. what you need and what the button joint will look like: buttons (find some that fit into arms and legs easily, you can choose bigger ones for the body) and yarn or other tear-proof thread like fishing line. how to do it: 1 - prepare your buttons: cut yarn or fishing line to pieces of about 10"/25cm and pull them through your buttons as pictured 2 - pull the fishing line/yarn ends through one layer of your leg/arm, be careful to position at the inner side of each arm/leg, so you don't accidentally will receive arms or legs that face the wrong way 3 - stuff 4 - finish leg or arm (crochet last round and bind off, hide yarn ends) 5 - now find the position on your dolls body where the arms/ legs will be attached 6 - pull the fishing line/yarn ends which are coming from the inside of an arm or leg through an hole in your bodys fabric 7 - push a button over the yarn/fishing line ends (space them evenly) 8 - tie knot (fix with a drop of glue if you like to make it extra secure) Again it's very helpful to crochet the arms/legs before you start the body, this way you can add the prepared arms and legs when needed and stuff and finish the body afterwards. I like this method very much and will use it again on other dolls. I also was very surprised that the button-joint was a lot less wonky than I had expected. Hope you liked this tutorial and find it useful, take care Diana
The yarn needed for this pattern is variable, You can make it as big or as small as you like, and use up all your bits and bobs. I had two skeins of wool yarn with splices in it. I hate splices. So when I take my yarn from skein to ball, I always cut it when I find a rough splice. These particular skeins wound up in 7 balls of varying sizes. I found some other wool yarn in complementary (and complimentary) colors, and just started knitting, from smallest ball to largest, and stopping when I felt like changing colors. As you can tell, I changed with a color order in mind, but random would look great too. On to the pattern: Yarn: as much as you can gather. Remember, washing instructions should match the most vulnerable of the yarns you use. Needle: Use the size closest to the average thickness of your yarns. You can also use smaller yarns doubled to make a nice plump stitch. I used size 10.5 for this project. Cast on 3 stitches. Row 1: Knit every stitch until last stitch. In last stitch, make an increase (of your choice) I did a knit in front and back loop increase. Rows 2 - last one: Repeat row 1. When shawl is big enough, bind off loosely. A nice easy loose bind off is: Knit two stitches, place back on left needle, knit them together through the back loop, *knit 1 more stitch, place both stitches back on left needle, knit the two stitches together through the back loops* repeat between * * until you reach the end. Click on image for a larger view: Here she is all sprawled about:
These Cable Headband Knitting Patterns feature stunning cable stitches. It will keep you warm and add a touch of style to any outfit.
Learn how to mend socks to save money and go green. If mending socks isn't your thing, keep reading for many ways to reuse old socks.
Super Bulky, plied, 150g, 90 yards, 100% superwash merino wool. Machine washable, gentle cycle, cold water, do not tumble dry, although I always recommend hand washing my knits. A very unique yarn. A bulky thick n thin yarn paired with a binder thread. Such a cool textured yarn! Many fabulous colors to choose from! In
