crunchies

If you're wondering what else I've been up to lately ... here it is ... the Crunchies!

a few of the crunchies gather round for a pic

They even have their own Crunchies blog here. I hesitate to call them amigurumi, though some might classify them that way. They hate labels, so well, I'll just call them Crunchies.

webs we weave

I've never done weaving on a big scale before, actually, other than using a potholder loom and fashioning a little loom out of some cardboard, I've never done much weaving at all! To get a taste I got a simple lap loom and have decided to give it a go. It came with one shuttle and I dug out some netting shuttles that I had kicking around from when I tried my hand at netting a few years ago.

It seems like slow work, but maybe that's just because I'm new to it. Think I might experiment with the various colors and see how it goes ... more pics to follow!

vested interest

Last weekend I went to some yard sales. It's always fun to come upon vintage fiber arts books .... mainly because the photos are usually just so dated that they are absolutely awesome! I came upon this book of "big needle"knit and crochet patterns. I'm not sure when it was published, but I'm figuring by the styles it's probably from the 70s.

here's the cover ... hey, who gave that baby those huge knitting needles to play with!!

Here's my favorite picture of them all ... a man's vest:

The picture is black and white, but I think you get the idea.... I would love to see my husband in this one! The checkered shirt was a nice touch to the whole ensemble too.

buttons

One of the most fun parts of summer around where I live is going to yard sales... yay! Today, a neighboring town had their "town-wide" yard sale. It would have been possible to spend much of the day there poking around and hunting down some great buys. Of course, I didn't have all day, but I did have time to wander down a few streets and look things over. I generally scan the tables and boxes and head for anything that looks craft related since I never know what I might find. Today it was all about buttons!

As a child I was always fascinated by going through my mother's big green sewing box and looking at all the odds and ends of things in there and wondering what on earth one did with some of that stuff! She had a small plastic box she kept in her sewing box that contained buttons, cause, well ... you never know when you might lose one and need a replacement!

I use buttons myself from time to time, and had been running low lately, so I decided I might see what I could find at today's yard sale and.... here they are:

These containers all had buttons (and few other sundry items).

I find it interesting the various containers people use for their buttons. This was a great collection: a margarine tub, little plastic box, whipped topping container, old pill bottle and a couple generic plastic containers. I thought they warranted a picture before I sorted through them and added them to my own button box.

Buying things like this always make me think about the people who owned them, what they were like, if the contents of these little containers met much to them. Of course, I wonder if someday someone will be going through my button box.

This one was my grandmothers. I'm not sure what the original purpose of the box was, maybe some type of butter box.

 

 

And ... here's mine ... overflowing after today's purchase:

we are open!

Yeah! This weekend is the official open of Crunchy Banana for the summer season! We'll be open:

• Friday & Saturday 10 - 5
• Sunday 12 - 4

We've been busy rearranging the shop for our second year in business. Here are a few pics:

little bags, pouches and skull necklaces!

tatted, crocheted and knotted jewelry

pouches and pockets just right for smart phones

my "folkwinds" area ... Native American flutes, ocarinas, whistles

bottle bags, beach totes, skinny scarves! all with 100% natural fibers

skinny scarves

frilly loopy skinny scarf, hand dyed yarn, crocheted

I'm on a roll of trying to finish up some projects before starting anything new... at least that's what I tell myself (I get distracted by wanting to try something new very easily).

Here are two "skinny scarves" that I designed and have just finished. They are both crocheted from the same hand-dyed sock yarn. Each is about six feet long. Great for Summer wear since they're really a cross between a necklace and a scarf... more of a neck adornment!

rings and chains skinny scarf, crocheted

more fancy phones

A few weeks ago I showed off my latest smart phone cover up:

I was so pleased with the result of combining crochet and tatting that I set out on making another. Here are the pics!

I used Lizbeth 10 for the crocheting and a matching Lizbeth 40 for the tatting.

Again I made the pouch itself as a wristlet that opens easily to get at your phone.

Here's a detail shot of the single crochet and tatting. This time I used clusters of three seed beads (size 11) on the picot of the chain.

Since I had some leftover thread, I tatted this lock stitch chain bracelet/necklace. The beginning and ending rings just slip over one another to hold it secure.I've never had a problem with one of them coming undone (you'd really have to get it a pretty hard tug).

Next up! I have a new idea for another phone pouch, but this time I'll be using different tatted ornamentation. Pics to follow!

Finger Lakes Tatting Conference 2011

Another year has come and gone.... the annual trip down Seneca Lake to Lodi, NY for the Finger Lakes Tatting Conference. I always pick up some new tip or idea there and it's great fun to hang out with all the other tatting geeks! This year there were people in attendance, not only from all over New York state, but from throughout the Northeast as well as Canada.

Here's a synopsis of my two day experience in photos:

I started the first day ready for action! My tatting bag, shuttles, winder and other essentials like coffee and water!

Workshop 1: using hand dyed thread ... yay!

 

Workshop1 : Making continuous/contiguous motifs - see flowers above (not separate motifs that were joined). A great technique since joining motifs can be a bummer!

Examples provided by our illustrious teacher, Jennifer Ostrander.

Workshop 2: Using mock tatted hairpin lace, taught by Ruth Perry. Mine is the one on the bottom.... hey, gimme a break, I hate using picot gauges!! Loved this technique.... thinking of ways to incorporate it into jewelry now.

It's always great to see all the projects people have been tatting away at since we last saw each other a year ago. I snapped a few pics of some of the great work I saw there this year:

A very simple, yet interesting and elegant tatted beaded strip that Ruth MacEachern showed me. I got ideas for this one!

This shawl edging, by Ruth MacEachern, was done in a wonderful variegated pearl cotton... some of my favorite colors!

Gorgeous little dark blue miser bag! Can't remember the name of the lady that showed me this, but it was great work!

Spiders! Lovely and ingenious design by Ginny Weathers.

Using hand dyed thread and a beautiful stone (eeek... can't remember the name of the stone!) this was created by Vicki Clarke as a gift for a friend.... but wait, hmm... Vicki was wearing it, shhhhh, don't tell!

Contest entries! This year's theme was "Tatting Along the Garden Path". It was extremely hard to pick just one favorite!

Ruth MacEachern was this year's winner! Love those ferns!

Every year we raise funds for a charity and of course, to support the annual event by holding raffles and silent auctions. This year I won this green jar of green stuff at the raffle ... love green!

I was also the lucky recipient of one of Ruth Perry's butterflies (I was the person in our class who had been tatting the fewest number of years, which is about ten now.) Shown also in the pic is this year's commemorative shuttle created by Sandy Maguire.

I did purchase a small supply of hand dyed thread from Karey Solomon of Graceful Arts Fiber Studio. Once you go hand dyed you'll never go back!

Workshop 3: On Sunday I sat in on two workshops by Karey Solomon. In the first she showed up how to do tatted "Catherine Wheels". Again, these are contiguously constructed .... way cool!

Workshop 4: In the second class we learned how to create a floating chain... a great way to back track!

Many thanks to all of you who work so hard each year to make this conference a success!!

I look forward to next year!

fancy phone

It's been forever since I updated this blog, well, not forever, but about three months. After the Christmas season I found I needed a bit of a break from fibers, and apart from a few small projects I was not too active. So now I'm back at it and decided to come up with a little smart phone pouch that combined crochet with some tatted lace adornment ... so here it is!

In the beginning: I used Lizbeth 10 (Caribbean)  for the pouch itself and Lizbeth 20 for the tatted trim. The beads are amethyst. The trim was attached as I went along by crocheting directly to the pouch.

I had just enough of the amethyst beads that I could do four rows of trim. Once I complete the bag, however, I didn't' like the placement of the first row I had joined (the one at the bottom), nor did I like how I had finished the closing at the top, sooo... I ripped it all out!!

Here's the redone version with better placement of the trim and a new closing at the top.

Detail of the closing. The strap was done in crocheted slip stitch, three rounds (which I threaded through the openings in the pouch as I started the second round so that I could crochet continuously.

The strap is long enough to go over the wrist when it's drawn up tight and securely holds the phone in place.

By moving the inner part of the strap aside the phone easily slides out. I tend to experiement with different ways of closing that don't involve too much sewing.... I'm a horror at putting in linings and zippers, but I have done it on occasion.

Detail of the tatting.

I'm happy with the result of this one overall and I've started the next! Once again I'll use a combination of Lizbeth 10 for the pouch itself and this time size 40 for the tatting. Here's a sneak preview!

Hues of orange, red and yellow for the next one with red seed beads.

Merry Crunchy Christmas!

It's the time of year when my crafting slows down a bit to focus on other activities. What will the new year bring? You never really know, and for better or worse.... that's the adventure.

May you all have a Blessed Christmas and a Peaceful New Year.

craftastic mess

Ok.... Big big sigh... I'm tidying up and have managed to consolidate things into just one pile! Now I just need the motivation to whittle away at this pile. Wish me luck!

ribby scarf

With Fall in the air, I get on the mood to crochet scarves, oh, fine, I'm in the mood almost anytime to make scarves.

I'm crocheting this one using a post stitch to give it that ribbed look. Can't decide if it's going to be a narrow one of if I'll make it wider and warmer... It is 100% wool. I'll know when I get there!

potholder scarf

Last winter I came by a website of someone who had used a potholder loom with yarn instead of loopers, and sewed together the results into various forms. I ended up weaving up a scarf that I blogged about back a few months.

For some reason the urge hit me again, so this week I've worked up a potholder scarf in two colors of Cascade 220 wool. Here are the results:

scarf woven on potholder loom, crocheted edging

I was really pleased with the random crossings that using two strands of red and white created. As crazy as this sounds I've already started another one. This one will be lacy with each block a different color. I'll let you know how that one turns out!

first three woven squares of next scarf