Rhombic Dodecahedron Calendar

hbmeyer Rhombic Dodecahedron Calendar

I find this 12-sided calendar a nice idea for a gift.
It is made for 2009 but you can adapt it to 2010 from the blank template yourself, possibly even handwritten and embellished with funny sketches.

 


Links:
Rhombic Dodecahedron and Calendar 2009: paper strips for plaiting
There is also a German version.

What Can You Do With Filet Crochet/Cross Stitch Embroidery Charts?

unikatissima Two-coloured Chart (click to enlarge)

Recently something took me and I thought that you can use those two-coloured charts which are usually associated with filet crochet or cross stitch for a loooot of other techniques, too.
I had this idea already before, in my entries about intarsia knitting, the cross stitch heart, the beaded square stitch heart and the polymer clay letter cane.

On the photo you see some letters worked in different techniques (I’m working on letter charts at the moment ;-)):
'u' - Knit-Purl Knitting, each X is a purl stitch
'n' - Fair Isle Knitting, each X is a white stitch
'i' - Sequins Embroidery, each X is a sequin
'k' - Tapestry Crochet, each X is a white stitch
'a' - Filet Crochet, each X is a filled filet crochet square
't' - Cross Stitch Embroidery on paper, each X is a black cross stitch
'i' - Loom Beading, each X is a black bead
's' - Stamping with square stamps, each X is a black square stamp
's' - Illusion Knitting, each X is a black stitch over two rows
'i' - Crochet Yoyo’s, each X is a white crochet circle from dc’s
'm' - Inverted Filet Crochet, each X is a empty filet crochet square
'a' - Macramée/Friendship Bracelet, each X is a white knot

But then I came up with more techniques and if you still have more ideas I’d be glad if you wrote a comment about.
I added for every technique what would be a square of the chart.
Please remember: Not all ‘units’ are square so that the result can look quite different from the chart!

Knitting

Crochet

  • Tapestry Crochet – 1 stitch
  • Filet Crochet – 1 filet square (cross = filled square)
  • Inverted Filet Crochet – 1 filet square (cross = empty square)
  • Crochet Yoyo’s – 1 Crochet Yoyo, viz. a crochet circle from dc’s

Beading

Embroidery

Knotting

Weaving

Sewing

  • Patchwork/Quilting – e.g. 1 patchwork square
  • Yoyo’s – 1 Yoyo
  • Fabric Origami – 1 fabric origami square

Other

By the way I found an blog entry of an embroiderer who thought about the same subject and has more ideas.


Links:
Double Knitting
Picture for sequin embroidery (scroll down to about the middle)
Description of French Knot
Heather’s Friendship Bracelets – Alphabet Patterns
Geometric stitching
Google image search result for ‘yoyo blanket’
Google image search result for ‘ministeck’

Here at unikatissima:
Celtic Cross Stitch Generator
Heart Template (at Beaded Square Stitch Heart)

Patchwork Knitting
Bead Knitting
Illusion knit

Tapestry Crochet
Beautiful Filet Crochet Patterns

Loom Woven Bead Bracelet
Beaded Square Stitch Heart
Bead Knitting
Freeform Bead Embroidery
Bead embroidered Paisleys

Friendship Bracelet
Crazy Daisies
Crazy Daisies II

Tablet or Card Weaving

YoYo Pin
Fabric Origami

Mosaic Table Light (Glass Paint)
Polymer Clay Letter Cane
Mosaic from Plaster
Eraser Stamps

Ugandan Weaving

unikatissima Ugandan Weaving

A long time ago I found a tutorial on how to make bookmarks with Ugandan Weaving, but the site doesn’t exist any more and I couldn’t find it in internet.
Therefore I wrote something myself.

 

That’s what you do:
unikatissima Ugandan Weaving First of all you must cut the paper stripes.
Take two coloured DIN A4 sheets and cut them in stripes of 1 cm.
Slit them in the middle, but let at one side a little piece (0,5 cm) unslit so that the stripes don’t fall apart.
You can see this best on diagram 1 (click to enlarge).

 

unikatissima Ugandan Weaving Then lay the stripes side by side and weave them as seen in diagram 2 (click to enlarge).
I sketched it as if there were 4 colours, that looks also nice.

 

unikatissima Ugandan Weaving When all stripes are woven fold the outer stripes back and weave on (see diagram 3, click to enlarge).

 

Continue until you’re satisfied.
You can see on the photo on top that I haven’t read the instruction thoroughly: I didn’t take stripes of 1 cm but much broader ones, although I slit them every 0,5 cm, too.
The disadvantage is, that the stripes are pushed apart and therefore the beginning (left of picture) doesn’t look very nice (although I took the photo so that it’s not to be seen ;-)).
When you take the 1 cm stripes which are slit once this effect doesn’t occur.
I taped the ends together with clear tape.
And I made the coloured papers by glueing two Christmas gift wrap papers together :)

 

unikatissima Woven Straw Hat unikatissima Woven Straw Hat Detail

While writing this entry I noticed that my straw hat (that I only use as decoration now) is made in a quite similar way. They wove a long strip in a kind of Ugandan weaving and sewed this strip together in spairals.
Very easy ;-)
 


Links:
Original site where I found the tutorial for Ugandan Weaving. When I tried it, it didn’t exist any more.
The site has been saved by webarchive.org, but without the (important!) diagrams: site without diagrams (note: very long loading time).

Folded Paper Strips of Equal Width

Folded Paper Strips of Equal Width

Sometimes you need folded paper strips of the same width, when weaving paper baskets e.g., making a magazine purse or perhaps when making accordion folds.
Making those strips can be a time-consuming and frustrating experience – but it can be very fast and easy as well: Once I read somewhere (unfortunately I don’t remember where exactly) that you only have to roll your paper sheet over a dowel and then flat the paper roll.
Easy peasy, isn’t it? ;-)

 

Folded Paper Strips of Equal Width You need your sheet of paper and a dowel.
I used here one of my giant knitting needles.

 

Folded Paper Strips of Equal Width Roll your sheet of paper on the dowel.

 

Folded Paper Strips of Equal Width Pull the dowel out of the roll and flatten the paper roll.

 

Folded Paper Strips of Equal Width This way you get paper strips which are of the same width over the whole length.
Once I made a bowl like these magazine bowls. I preferred the ends of my paper strips to be thinner then the center, so that everything is about the same width everywhere.

 

Folded Paper Strips of Equal Width Roll your sheet of paper diagonally on the dowel.

 

Folded Paper Strips of Equal Width The paper roll gets longer, but the ends are thinner than the center.
You can now overlap the strips and create a strong bowl.


Links:
Paper woven basket

At craftster.org:
Magazine purse
Magazine bowls

Google image search result for ‘magazine bowl’

Paperweaving Plus

Paperweaving Plus

Although I like it, I always considered paper weaving a bit dull. Then I saw Paperweaving Plus (scroll down until ‘Paperweaving Plus’) and found the results fascinating.
I liked especially the not-only-paper-weave which I have to try as soon as possible.

 


Links:
Paperweaving Plus (scroll down until ‘Paperweaving Plus’)

Weave paper stripes into a sheet of paper (English) (With explaining pictuers)

If you also think, that paper weaving is a little dull, take a look at the flickr results for ‘paper weaving’