All the Crafts!

Instead of blogging recently I have been making things! I love my new craft room - it is wonderful being able to easily access all the tools, books and supplies, and I have been spending a lot of my time there. Here are some of the things I have been working on (picture heavy)-

I turned a piece of the card weaving braid from earlier in the year into a door hanger.

I added a couple of tassels, twisted and braided some of the fringe, and added lots of bells and bobbles. For some of the beads I used jewelry making skills to make little charms.

Along with the other piece of braid they should be good for Christmas decorations.

Quite a while ago I read about a quilter that made test blocks, and class blocks out of Christmas fabric, because if nothing else she would eventually have enough blocks for a Christmas quilt - I apply this to other crafts and make things in Christmas colours, so they could always be used for decorations.

I made a little bit of Russian punch needle (igolochkoy).

The circle is about 1.5".

I used 1 strand of embroidery floss (the three were all handdyed).

My oldest son made the box - he is working on his new laser cutter and trying things out.

I made a couple of pairs of moccasins (my husband and I needed new slippers).

They are made from moose leather and beaver fur, with a fleece lining.

It is the first time I made moccasins with a sewn on extra sole, and it worked surprisingly well. For one pair I used the smooth side of the leather for the foot and the suede side for the top with the beads, the other is reversed. Both have the soles made with the suede side, so that they aren't slippery.

I took a class on making moccasins and mukluks many years ago, and use a book from MacPhee Workshop that is still available (there is also a video link on making mukluks).

The beading starts with a drawing on paper.

The designs are outlined, the paper removed,

and then filled in. 

The first pair had more beads than the second one because my fingers were getting tired of beading.

Apart from machine sewing on the soles (with a walking foot) the moccasins are hand sewn (I used imitation sinew for the first time which was much easier than what I had previously used - nylon thread and beeswax).

There is nothing like a new pair of moccasins!

I couldn't resist participating in the new Temecula Quilt Company's Mini Monday Sewing Bee.

These are the blocks for January and February (4" blocks).

Recently I have been watching Floss Tube (the term cross stitcher's use for their YouTube channels). It seems that cross stitch has changed recently - there are lots of new-to-me terms, so it has been interesting. 

I love the overdyed fabric and floss that people use, so since I have lots of floss and scraps of fabric leftover from other embroidery projects, plus dyes for plant fibres, I tried my hand at dyeing fabric and floss. They all came out really well and I hope to dye more.

The first thing that I embroidered with the floss and fabric was this little pincushion - it is a free pattern from the Primitive Hare.

With a little bit of fabric I stitched just the hand and turned it into a tassel.

Last time I showed a skein of yarn that I spun, now I am knitting a cowl with it (I am participating in a spin/make along). This is just a simple 6 stitch entrelac cowl.

This isn't something that I made recently - this is my Quilt Along quilt from 2011! It is a very big quilt and never fit on any of our beds. Last week my husband and I celebrated our 32nd wedding anniversary, and bought ourselves a new queen size mattress ("love you, but need a bit more space"). Our antique brass bed was converted into a queen size by cutting the side railings and welding on extra metal, and longer wooden boards were added to support the mattress. It worked out well and we were pleased that we could keep the bed frame.

Photos from Around-

Miss Maggie enjoying the sun.

Miss Molly enjoying the cold (she runs like the wind!).

She loves pushing her ball down the snow banks and running after it.

The snow from the surrounding fields seems to have blown into our yard.

We have had strong winds and cold temperatures,

Such cold temperatures (-35ºC) that one of the windows cracked (really exploded - there were tiny shards everywhere) - this is the inside pane, luckily there are 2 more panes of glass (hopefully they will hold until temperatures warm up enough that we can change the window).

All the best!♥︎

Lots of Weaving

This past week has been about weaving.

I finished my first card weaving piece. This was really easy, and enjoyable to weave.

I ended up with about 1.5m of braid. It is made from 8/2 unmercerized cotton in 4 colours.

The design is created by turning all the cards at a time. The top design is turning the cards 4 times one way and then 4 times the other way while weaving. The bottom design is 8 times each way. I believe this type of design is called a threaded in design. There are many other ways to card weave, and I look forward to trying out some other designs. The braid is quite thick and strong, because it is 4 layers of thread. The reverse side of the braid is a different pattern (it's visible in other the photo).

I also finished weaving the boucle towels (before washing).

Since some of the towels needed a loop, I wove a small band. This is the first time I have woven boucle cotton on the inkle loom - I was surprised it worked, but it was a bit hard to weave.

This is the fabric, and braid after washing. The white line on the fabric is a thicker cotton, where I cut the towels apart.

Nine towels - all hemmed, and ready to use (each one is different).

Nice and bright, spring time towels (although it is very chilly outside, -33ºC this morning).

I also finished spinning another skein of yarn. This one is a merino/tencel blend that I dyed. It is chain plied, so the colours wouldn't be too blended.

Photos from around -

Molly's frosty face from digging her ball in and out of the snow.

The little white house was moved to a new location this week.

All the best!♥︎

Another Type of Weaving

I have been wanting to try out card/tablet weaving for a while, and since there is a New-to-You Make-Along happening on Instagram I thought this was the perfect time.

I watched a workshop on Long Thread Media - Tablet Weaving Made Easy with John Mullarkey (he really did make it look easy). I cut up some old playing cards, punched holes in the corners, labelled them all ready for weaving. I am using the inkle loom.

I think like weaving on a regular loom, getting everything ready takes the longest amount of time. It should be fun.

I am up to towel #5 on the floor loom - this one will be all navy, then I will try out some striped towels.

I am working on the heels on the handspun socks.

I think she was hoping I had put some food on the floor.

I spun up another skein of yarn for socks.

We are still working on basement renovations. We had enough leftover flooring that my craft room storage room was able to get some nice flooring (it was just rough painted cement before).

Much better!

 

All the best!♥︎

Some Dyeing

This past week I did some dyeing-

This is all a Blue Faced Leicester and nylon blend for socks.

This is the first bundle that I decided to spin - I tried some different colours for this one, and wanted to see how it would spin (I used Jacquard acid dyes in the colours Russet, Teal and Golden Yellow mixed with a bit of of Jet Black to make lime green).

The three bobbins ready for plying (I like a 3-ply yarn for socks).

The finished yarn.

I really like how the colours came out.

And this is how it is knitting up (toe-up, two-at-a-time socks, with 56 stitches, on 2.75mm needles).

The colours on the fibre seemed so bright, but they really muted down after spinning - the colours are on opposite sides of the colour wheel.

I am almost half way through my weaving project - #4 out of 9 towels, each one is a different yarn colour so far, and then I will make some with stripes.

Photos from Around - 

Look away Mom!

The cat brought a live mouse in the house for the first time.

My son took this picture - I was up on the counter texting my husband that we would have to move.

We eventually got it to leave the house. The cat isn't too fond of mice she prefers voles.

My oldest son finally received all the parts he needed for a new project for his business,

and this is the main part - a laser.

This will all be a CNC laser cutter for wood, leather, plastic etc.

All the best!♥︎