Webbcrafts

My first Christmas present (for this year)

Christmas present time

I’ve started to sort out my Christmas presents, and no, it isn’t too early. How many times have you said to yourself, “I would love to knit that cardigan for Christmas, but I haven’t time now that it’s November.”

Start Now

Use magazines for inspiration, make a list and sort out what materials that you can use from your stash, and what you need to buy. In this way you won’t buy too much.

Look for offers

I saw a great offer in a knitting magazine. Free pattern and yarn to complete the project. I duly purchased the magazine and set about making a pretty striped beret. With just a few rows to go the yarn ran out. I undid what was looking like a very nice project, re-wound the yarn and weighed it. Instead of the two 30gm balls promised, one weighed 27gms and the other 29gms. I was very disappointed.

Free paterrn with free yarn

The moral of the story

Don’t assume that the yarn supplied will actually complete the project, weigh it first.

No need to waste anything

The hat was completed very successfully from stash yarn, and so it was a good free pattern. But what to do with the free yarn?

Rattigan the aristocratic cat

I made a composite toy cat…we called him Rattigan, although pink, we are sure that he’s male and very aristocratic.

Rattigan

I used the free yarn for head and body using a single crochet stitch, a scrap of tapestry yarn for his nose, two tiny buttons for his eyes and some French knitting that my 4yr old granddaughter had helped me with, and was patiently waiting for a project to come along, as arms and legs. His whiskers were a tiny amount of homespun…nothing wasted.

Marking Your Page

A New Book

Today a beautiful new book arrived through the post. The smell of it’s pages inspired the need for a beautiful new bookmark to go with it. Bookmarks have a fascinating history and the making of one connects our thoughts to long gone crafters.

History of bookmarks

The first bookmarks were used throughout the medieval period, circa C5th to C15th century, consisting usually of a small parchment strip attached to the edge of folio (or a piece of cord attached to headband).

As the first printed books were quite rare and valuable, it was determined early on that something was needed to mark one’s place in a book without causing its pages any harm. Some of the earliest bookmarks were used at the end of the sixteenth century, and  Queen Elizabeth 1st was one of the first to own one.

Modern bookmarks are available in a huge variety of materials with a multitude of designs and styles from which to choose. Many are made of cardboard or heavy paper, but they are also constructed of leather, ribbon, fabric, felt, steel, wire, tin, beads, wood, plastic, vinyl, silver, gold and other precious metals, some decorated with gemstones.

The first detached, and therefore collectible, bookmarkers began to appear in the 1850s. One of the first references to these is found in Mary Russell Mitford’s Recollections of a Literary Life (1852):

“I had no marker and the richly bound volume closed as if instinctively.”

Note the abbreviation of ‘bookmarker’ to ‘marker’. The modern abbreviation is usually ‘bookmark’. Historical bookmarks can be very valuable, and are sometimes collected along with other paper ephemera.

Most nineteenth-century bookmarks were intended for use in bibles and prayer books and were made of ribbon, woven silk or leather.

I made a beaded one.

Beaded Bookmark

Materials:

Some Dos and Don’ts

• Don’t use silver beading wire…it breaks
• Don’t use cheap beads…the holes aren’t uniformly drilled
• Don’t use earing posts…they don’t bend well
• —————————————————————
• Do have a selection of needles ready
• Do use a bead spinner, it makes threading quicker…as long as you don’t use cheap beads
• Do use a good quality silver wire to make your ends…it doesn’t break

It’s up to you

You can make any pattern of beads, just using the beads that you have collected by keeping old jewellery, or buying from a charity shop. Your ends need to be finished attractively, but you can experiment with twisted wire and end beads to achieve the effect required.

It is helpful to have the small jewellery pliers, but if you haven’t got them then raid a tool box. The smallest pliers work well.

I had about three goes at this bookmark before I was satisfied…if at first you don’t succeed, try a different technique.

I'll Keep Your Place

Simply Knitting

The Really Useful Blue Cabled Bag

Free bag handles from ‘Simply Knitting’ magazine gave me the nudge to try their patterns for knitted bags.

Stash Buster

They would, I thought, make handy project bags. Easy to carry about with a piece of crochet or knitting, and small enough so that I would have enough yarn in my stash.

Never the Right Yarn

Sorted through my stash pile, and was able to come up with similar colours, but of course, different weights from the pattern. This wasn’t going to make too much difference, except the size of the bag would differ from the given dimensions.

One Small and One Useful

Using Aran weight the cabled bag was an excellent project if you are new to cabling, and came out a useful size. I used the yarn left over from when I made a cabled cardigan, and so with the free handles it didn’t cost anything in materials to knit. The pink and purple bag was knitted with left over yarn from children’s  cardigans which made it much lighter, and therefore smaller.

Off Cuts Make Good Lining

The lining was also an off cut bought from our local charity shop which had been stashed away for when it would be useful, and now it was. Cost was about 40 pence, and it lined both bags.

Keeping the Blue

I shall keep the blue one because it is just the right size to hang from my spinning wheel, the pink one I shall give to a little one to carry something precious around with her.

Pink and Purple Children's Bag

The Importance of the Swatch

I’m always unwilling to knit a swatch, it seems like a waste of time, but these bags are a real lesson in why it is important to do it. This project didn’t matter, but if I needed something to fit and I couldn’t find the correct wool for the pattern it would matter a great deal. I will remember this!

Lining secured and neatened

The Hand Made Card

Card framed and hanging on wall

What usually happens to even the most precious birthday card? It is thrown away, and if I was going to spend an afternoon hand crafting a birthday card I didn’t want that to happen.

Something really special was needed for my husband whose birthday was also the day which would see him retire from work. Sometimes this is a stressful time, and lack of status which employment brings needs some adjustment. A morale booster was in order!

Chinese Astrology

The Chinese Astrological system came to my rescue. It isn’t necessary to believe in any system to use the iconography, but in this case it worked for me!

The Rooster

People born in 1945, yes baby boomers, were born in the year of the Rooster which has the most brilliant colour scheme of reds, black, and purple with yellow highlights. I found an illustration and then interpreted it in needle felted wool.

Attributes of the Rooster

I used the features attributed to the Rooster to make a rhyme:

The Rooster

You are a Rooster capable and wise
With thoughts that sing a deep song
You do not sleep through a brilliant sunrise
And all your thoughts are brave and strong.

Framed

I cut card to fit a picture frame that I already had, and as soon as he received it he wanted it framed and up on the wall. I call that success.

My Husband the Poet

My efforts have inspired my husband to write more verses around the Chinese Astrological symbols, http://www.poetryweaver.com and of course I will make more needle felted pictures to go with them.

My basket of coloured Merino needle felting wool

Lamb Amongst Spring Flowers

Making An Easter Lamb

I saw some lambs with their mother’s playing in a field and couldn’t resist making one for my grand daughter.

Needle Felting Again

It’s good old reliable needle felting again, and once more my stash was raided.

Having ready washed and combed fleece means that sculpting can be done at a moments notice, as the mood or season takes me.

Have Your Wool Ready

I also have felting needles and foam pad ready for when I need them. This also means thinking ahead. You will be glad that you did.

All Wool and Needles Needed for Resting Lamb

Now is the time to start thinking about your fleece stash.

All woollen sculpture can be made with any fleece, but the best use of fleece that can’t be used for spinning is the basis of sculpture. This is always inexpensive and sometimes free.

My fleece comes from organic Kite’s Nest Farm in Worcestershire. They only have four sheep which means that their wool doesn’t have to go to the Wool Marketing Board. One of the sheep has such poor quality wool that it is better to use it in ways other than spinning. I always have too much for my own projects though, so should any reader require fleece, do get in touch, and I’m sure that I can provide some for you.

Make Your Basic Shape

When you have made your basic shape then you can apply colour or a different fleece to make a different texture for your sculpture. I buy coloured Merino tops for this purpose, and these too are inexpensive, as you get a lot for your money.

The picture below is of Kite’s Nest sheep when they were young, browsing on the roses.

Roses Good Enough to Eat..

Crocus Pattern Eggs

A Cunning Plan

When thinking about filling my nest with eggs, I hatched a plan!I would make some Clarice Cliff inspired eggs because her crocus patter is the epitome of Spring.

I used combed sheep wool to make solid eggs and then decorated with coloured Merino wool. The colours are vibrant, and this wool was purchased for Christmas, another stash buster!

Easter Ornaments

Why do we only have ornaments around the house at Christmas? This year I made a collection of 25 needle felted ornaments which were meant to be hung up one at a time starting on the 1st of December. (Picture on side-bar.)

Advent

When the day came and the box of goodies was given to the children, they didn’t want to wait, they wanted all the ornaments hung on the tree right now. And so this is what I’ll do for Easter.

A Permanent Nest Egg

Give the nest and selection of different eggs so that they can sort out the ones that they can eat, and then hang the others on a twiggy decoration. After all there isn’t much that any child can do with a felted egg except throw it around for a while and then lose it. This way they will have a collection that can be bought out year after year. Long after I’m gone.

The Nest is Filling up

The next eggs will be edible…

My Mother's Day Flower

This is how my flower happened for me.

From my stash of fabric I chose the plum colour with biscuit inserts. I didn’t have any green beads but I had pink, which meant that I didn’t buy anything specifically, making this an economical project.

Method

• Cut six 20cm squares plum fabric
• Fold each in half and then again making 10cm squares
• Trim contrast material into six 14cm squares
• Fold each into quarters as before
• Place biscuit and plum  squares together in shape of a diamond
• Using double length of thread sew a line in large running stitches diagonally through both pieces of material
• Trim raw edges straight
• Pull up the thread and shape into double layered petal
• Repeat five times
• Sew petals together
• Cut two 5cm circles of plum and sew one to back and front to hide raw edges
• Cut 4cm circle of biscuit fabric and thread tiny sunning stitches around perimeter
• Stuff button with raw wool/polyester stuffing
• Cover button with tiny beads and stick or sew into centre of flower
• 

  Reverse side showing pin

• Sew brooch pin to reverse of flower

Mistakes I made that you don’t need to:

The circles would have been far easier to attach if I had used matching felt. This fabric frayed which meant that I needed to make a tiny blanket stitch hem, and always use matching thread when sewing on beads. My original thread was too dark and it showed, which meant that I had to attach more beads than I really needed to cover it up. I needed to stuff my centre button, because although my button stash is huge, I didn’t have a rounded button big enough. If you have a large rounded button, just sew your beads directly on to fabric cover.

Pleased with an afternoons work

I’m happy with the result, but the flower can’t be presented without wrapping. When I buy birthday cards I save the cellophane envelopes and fortunately one was big enough. Having slipped it into this covering I can wrap in tissue paper to present.

Wrapped and Ready

Cheer up a shopping bag

I’m going to pin mine onto a plain jute shopping bag to cheer up my day!

12 Days to go…

There are now only 12 days to Mothering Sunday, and yes I hadn’t looked at the calender either!

Keep Calm

Let’s not get stressed and feel that we have to buy any gift that looks as though it might be suitable…this is where you raid your stash.

I found this flower in a crafting magazine, and I’m about to find the fabric and beads that I already have, which of course, won’t be the same as the picture.

We’ll look forward to creating our own version.