Spool Knitting

Project Gutenberg Spool Knitting

I’m browsing from time to time Project Gutenberg and found last time a book about spool knitting from 1909. They have mittens, bed shoes, a baby ball and much more, all made from I-cords.
It feels to me like a book from the 70th’s ;-))

Perhaps I do a little rummage to play with my knitting spool once more ;-)


Links:
Spool Knitting, by Mary A. McCormack

 

Clothespin bobbins

Clothespin bobbins

Once I found a really good idea on how to make inexpensive bobbins from clothespins.
Later I found more very good ideas at Gabriela Marková’s Kumihimo blog, all entries labelled with ‘Equipment’.
You can use those bobbins very good when making you own Kumihimo cord.

Links:
Learn Intarsia Knitting (the clothespin bobbins are mentioned there)

At Gabriela Marková’s Kumihimo blog:
All entries labelled with ‘Equipment’ (English)

Clothes From Crocheted Medaillons

Clothes From Crocheted Medaillons

Once I found the website of Jessica Tromp.
Hours later I regained consciousness ;-))

It is difficult to say, what I love best, but in the end I decided, that it must be the crochet patterns for/from square medaillons. But make sure to check all the other crochet patterns also (look for ‘crochet PATTERNS’ in the left navigation bar of her website).

Best of all, she designed a gazillion of clothes and each and every one for different women sizes!
In addition she offers basic woman measurement charts for clothing patterns.

I simply don’t find the right words for this site ;-))


Links:
Jessica Tromp:
Crochet patterns for/from square medaillons
Basic woman measurement charts for clothing patterns

Leftover Needlework

Leftover Needlework

I have a lot of yarn and thread rests, some of them quite short and I had no idea, what to do with them (except Freeform needlework as a matter of course ;-)).
And then one day I found an article about the ‘Magic ball’ an article about the ‘Magic ball’ and decided that this is it ;-)
In the bottom line it’s nothing else then taking your short threads and knotting them together (with a weaver’s knot e.g.) to get a long enough thread to knit or crochet or what ever you want to do.
On the photo you see three tests I did: On the item above I simply knotted different strings into a long thread and crocheted. It were quite short strings.
For the item below left I took two skeins of yarn, one green and one rose. I knitted with two threads and knotted them so, that I began working with 2 greens, then a green and a rose, then 2 rose, a green and a rose again and back to 2 greens. That way I got a kind of blend between the two colours.
The item below right is made in the same way, but with one light green and one dark green.

I’m sure that I will get back to this technique again.


Links:
Make your own magic using knotted yarn leftovers: the link isn’t available no more.

At unikatissima’s:
Freeform Needlework
Weaver’s Knot

Bead Knitting

Bead Knitting

Bead knitting is such an interesting technique I wanted to present here (for links see below). Mostly it seems to be used for elegant little bags. I tried it on a cover for a jar to create a special jar for special sweets ;-)


Links:
Free Introductory Patterns for Bead Knitted Bags

Tips for First Time Bead Knitters
How to Transfer Beads to Knitting Thread (with explaining photos)

If you didn’t buy a hank of beads see also my entry ‘Making a Bead Spinner’

Bead Knitted Amulet Bag

Knitting in Beads and Buttons (simple technique for pony beads and buttons)

Detangling Yarns

Detangling Yarns

The original title of this tutorial is ‘Knitting from both ends without going mad’ which is very to the point ;-)
I mostly work with the yarn end that sits in the skein to prevent the skein to roll all over, but then often the yarn entangles so much, that I nearly can’t work anymore.
This tutorial was really a relief ;-)

 


Links:
Knitting from both ends without going mad (with explaining photos)

Arm Knitting

Arm Knitting

I prefer crochet to knitting, mostly because I’m faster crocheting than knitting.
But then I found a tutorial on how to knit with your arms tutorial on how to knit with your arms – the speed of arm knitting arm knitting can’t be beaten ;-))
On the photo you see a scarf I made this way in no time. And you can see in the detail, that it is really knit – no cheating. Just chasing ;-))


Links:
Arm Knitting
The original site doesn’t exist any more and is now available through webarchive:
Arm Knitting

Self-made Crochet Hooks And Knitting Needles

Self-made crochet hook and knitting needles

Once I wanted to have a really big crochet hook and knitting needles and after I found tutorials on how to make them (see links below), I made myself some.
In fact they are so big that it is quite difficult to work with them ;-)
I use them very rarely – but if necessary, I can ;-)

 


Links:
Making Crochet Hooks:
Making Crochet Hooks from Chopsticks (with explaining pictures)
Make your own straight hook (with explaining pictures)

Making Knitting Needles:
Chopstick/dowel knitting needle tutorial

Organic Stripes

Organic Stripes

Note: the Random Stripe Generator doesn’t exist any more, but you can find two new links in my entry Random Stripes Generator.

While knitting or crocheting you sometimes want to stripe your workpiece. I find it difficult to design organic looking stripes.
Math can help here (although I’m not a very mathematical woman ;-)): At Fuzzy Galore you can find an article about the Fibonacci sequence which sounds perhaps difficult, but is quite easy.

And those who don’t want to figure out their stripes themselves can use the Random Stripe Generator. (I just tried the generator, but it didn’t work properly. Hopefully it will ‘recover’.)
(It did work properly, but I didn’t know how to use it ;-)
My problem was, that I entered a stripe width and thought, that this was the max. width.
But for the stripe width selection, it requires that you specify exactly which widths you want. So if you want widths of 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5 rows, you need to select all five of those check boxes, rather than just the box next to ‘5’.
Try it and you will get wonderfully striped patterns. :)))


Links:
Article about the Fibonacci sequence
Random Stripe Generator

Here at unikatissima:
Random Stripes Generator