Category: Craft

Update on Grandma’s blanket

On By CarynIn Craft

I’m still working on my Grandma’s last unfinished project. I’ve been knitting along on the main body of the blanket and I had a chilling thought. What if I don’t have enough yarn to do the border? I have an idea of how long she intended it to be, but what if I’m wrong? What if I’m missing a skein or two? Yikes! Deep breath. I’ll just make the borders now, while I have plenty of yarn.

Grandma’s blanket with one border side complete

The top and bottom border strip are a fixed length, so I’m starting with those. For the side borders, I will knit them as long as I think the blanket should be, but not finish the taper, rather I’ll put the stitches on a stitch holder, and if I need to rip out, I can do so. Then I can go back and put 90% of the rest of the yarn into the central field. When almost all the yarn is gone, I can finish the side tapers and sew it all together. I don’t need to save yarn for the tassels called for in the pattern (I don’t like tassels, they just get tangled), so I just need to save enough to piece it all together. I have a plan.

Spinning upgrade

On By CarynIn Craft

I’ve been stalking online spinning groups, reading others’ questions and the answers given. On a post about drive bands on spinning wheels, I read a discussion on cotton versus hemp bands and adjusting the tension, and in that discussion someone causally mentioned stretchy drive bands. Hm? What an intriguing idea. I dug through my stash and found some stretchy cord usually used for jewelry. Only the largest diameter (1.5mm) was still in decent condition, the rest had dry rotted and was brittle. Taking the warning for the long term stability of rubber, I tossed the useless bits and used the thicker cord for my bicycle spinning wheel.

Clear rubber cord used as a drive band

I had been having trouble with the cotton cord drive band slipping, even with a couple coats of beeswax. So I removed it and tried the clear rubber cord with surgeon’s knot. While I was experimenting, I also wrapped a couple tiny rubber bands around the spindle’s hub to give some grip. It took a couple tries to get the tension right, but then everything worked even better! Hurray!

Custom bracelets

On By CarynIn Craft

Although I have gone away from speculative jewelry making, I do accept custom orders on occasion. I particularly like stamped metal bracelets with dual messages.

Getting ready to stamp metal

After using 0000 steel wool to smooth the edges, I stamp the outside of the aluminum bracelet blank first, then engrave the second saying on the inside with a small rotary engraver. Black ink in the recesses enhances the stamped letters, but doesn’t help the engraved letters. Another pass with fine steel wool and the bracelets are ready for forming.

Engraved side

I did splurge on a new tool for forming the bracelets; a steel bracelet bender (shown in the top right of the top photo). This works very well for the middle, but I still like my nylon forming pliers to get the curve on the very ends. After bending, a couple coats of microcrystalline wax helps prevent fingerprints and gives a nice finish to the cuffs.

Finished bracelet surrounded by hand stamped muslin pouches

The muslin pouches I blogged about yesterday work wonderfully to protect and package the bracelets. Job done!

Stamped pouches

On By CarynIn Craft

I had an idea for a small pouch that didn’t require a string tie, or button, or zipper. Inspired by couch pillow covers, these have overlapping flaps in the back that do well to keep small rigid items protected.

Stamping muslin

I wanted 4” square pouches, so tore an 11” strip of washed and ironed unbleached cotton muslin, marked 4.5” sections along the strip, and stamped my logo in the center of each section. To stamp, I squirted some fabric paint into a bowl, then loaded a sponge brush with paint to apply the paint to the stamp.

Making a 1/4” hem

I hemmed both long edges of the strip with a 1/4” hem foot on my sewing machine. (Hands down, this is my favorite foot.)

Sewing adjacent sides of the pouches

To form the pouches, I folded the long strip inside out, with about a 2” overlap, then sewed 1/4” on either side of my pencil lines. A cut between the seams, clips of the corners, turned inside out and pressed, and I was able to fairly quickly produce many small product bags!

Finished stamped product pouches

Painting rocks

On By CarynIn Craft

It has been a long while since we’ve painted rocks, I believe since last summer, but it is a great activity any time of year. My youngest brought up the request, but my kids and I all painted. After washing and drying the rocks, of course.

My attempt at a chocolate candy with a bite out

I don’t usually do “commercial” items, but there was one broken rock, and I’ve seen some rather clever M&M designs utilizing the broken edge (thanks Pinterest). We use acrylic paint and paper plates as our palette. I’ve tried various protective coatings, but the freeze thaw cycle of outdoor life is hard on painted rocks. The designs that stay the best are the ones that are kept inside. Still, we will take and “hide” these around town because the idea of bringing someone a bit of joy with found art is worth it. What the finder chooses to do with the rock is entirely up to them. Some post to social media, some keep, some hide again.

All the artistic endeavors from this round of painted rocks (mine is the green one, the rest are my kids’ work)

For more information on the Kindness Rocks movement, visit https://www.thekindnessrocksproject.com. They have a lovely site and sentiment and project ideas for spreading kindness. There are many other organizations as well, and many local groups that post hides and finds on social media as well as organizing rock painting events.