Yahaira is calling for submissions for knitting and crochet patterns.

Sensual Knits and Sensual Crochet will each have 25 high-fashion, sophisticated designs inspired by runway looks. All will be created with noble fibers, like silk, cashmere, and merino, used to their advantage. We don’t want ‘plain’ projects here, think couture or Vogue. Pay attention to shaping, textures, and fit. Projects will include camisoles, dresses, skirts, sweaters, coats, wraps, and some accessories (like stockings and gloves).

What are you waiting for?!

How is everyone liking the new Etsy?

Marieke from Netherlands writes in to introduce her blog, treats and treasures, and tell us about a couple of patterns she has online (check out the stole). This is a real treat of a blog - check it out.

Kristy from Little red pear writes in

We love whip up - what a fantastic website!
We are a small company (only two and a half people) in south australia, who make originally designed soft toys for children, young people and people who like to think they’re young.

I have extended whiplash Alt Crafting for 2 days. Hope some people reconsider and enter something.

With the holidays approaching I thought I’d share a favorite idea for decorating a dinner table for a large family gathering. About ten years ago when my husband and I were planning the rehearsal dinner before our very small wedding, we wanted our guests to get to know each other and for them to know how much we valued the history we had with them. So instead of beautifully scripted placecards to direct guests to their seats, we combed through our photo albums and shoeboxes of miscellaneous pictures and found old photos we had of each guest or the spouse of the guest. We printed them with their name on cardstock and used them as placecards. The effect was so charming that we saw the waiters and waitresses before the dinner carefully looking and each one and smiling.

The other wonderful effect was that it started conversations between people who didn’t know each other. “When was that taken?” “Oh, remember how beautiful their wedding was..” “Look how much hair I had then!” “Our family used to rent this old beach house…” Guests who had recently married into the family got to see childhood pictures of their spouses that they may not have seen before. Children got to see their parents when they were children. These simple placecards provided a much-needed opportunity to stop and remember our histories with one another.

Great Advent Calendar Tutorial over at My Minutia. Teresa takes a cookie sheet and some magnets and makes this super cute decoration for the holidays!

Whilst checking out the news today on the Craft Scotland website, I came across this short article exploring the problems facing ‘craft’ and the difficulties surrounding the usage of the word ‘craft’ in reference to comtemporary applied arts……there is also a forum where people are able to respond to this article, which also makes for an interesting read.

Tina Rose, the Craft Scotland editor writes…

“The word craft is misused, misunderstood and misplaced. It is used in ways that diminish its credibility. It is vitally important we reclaim the word craft so it is understood and people will buy it, galleries will want to exhibit it and the media will want to write about it. How can we stop the word craft being misused and misunderstood?”

….this is certainly one debate that will spark a lot of opinions, and I though many of you out there may well have some thoughts on this too??….

By Tsia Carson of Supernaturale
Published by HarperCollins (and sent over by Jeff from 52Projects)

When I first flicked through this book, my first thoughts were that it looked pretty cool, great images but it seemed a bit discordant. So I went back to the beginning, where they had obviously anticipated this, and found the ‘how to use this book’ section where it was all explained, and then I thought it was not just cool but really quite exciting.

So here it is, the book is broken up into several chapters based on materials such as yarn, fabric, paper, wood and best of all lost and found. Then within each chapter the projects are listed as craft lite (easy), craft master (expert) and craft luxe (funky projects), there are also craftshop (techniques explained) and showcase (inspirational art projects).

The craft lite projects are fun simple easy projects for the beginner wanting to try out a new craft and the craft master are trickier projects that require skill and time and dexterity. But what sets this book apart are the craft luxe projects and the showcase sections as well as daring to delve into wood and paper, and in giving found objects a whole section all to themselves.

To give you an idea of the sorts of projects in this book and how different they are from the usual suspects, here are some of my faves that I really dug: the crochet skull (luxe), and the t-shirt underwear (luxe), embroidered screen door (master), wheelbarrow fireplace (lite), the chandy (luxe) (see cover)and the moth embroidered sweater (lite). Lots more to discover for yourself, this is a fun book excellent as a gift for (yourself) or best friend.

Great crochet tutorial over at Bella Dia for a Vintage Vertical Stripe Crocheted Blanket. I love that she uses big, clear pictures to show you exactly how to change colors when making stripes.

June at Planet June sent me this email - Thanks June for your honest feedback - What does everyone else think?

I have been thinking it over for 2 weeks and I cannot think of anything I could make that would fit into this [month's whiplash theme - Alt Craft] category. And then it came to me: I am not alternative. And maybe that’s okay - I make up my own designs and patterns, so my work is not entirely traditional or derivative. I’ve seen some amazing alt-craft projects on craftster etc, but I admire them without wanting to do something similar. I like the things I make, and I don’t want to put time and effort into making something that doesn’t “fit” with me.

Maybe I’m not alone in this… There are suspiciously few entries this month (only 5 at the time of writing) - a lot less than usual. Maybe everyone is too busy, or leaving it to the last minute, but maybe there are others who feel the same as me.

Kudos to the folks at whipup for creating whiplash and the amount of crafty brilliance it generates each month. I’m not criticizing their choice of theme. I just wonder: is ’alternative’ now the only way to be cool? Have I just pigeonholed myself into the ‘unhip’ corner? I am proud of my work the way it is and I don’t want to feel pressurized to change my style (even though the pressure is probably all in my head).

And that’s why I’m not going to enter whiplash this month.

I am curious about what others think. Is whiplash just boring now, is everyone too busy with Christmas coming up, or is the theme just not a happening thing for the whipup readers? I want to know - feedback very welcome, and thank you June for starting the ball rolling.

Whiptips craft advice column for readers to ask questions or offer advice by leaving comments. Whiptips archive here. Questions to whiptips@gmail.com. Please include photos!

Robyn writes in asking where can she purchase really top quality wool felt? and I want to know if there are any bargains to be had.

I know that I can make felt thrifted from wool sweaters and the like. I have also bought very expensive felt from catalog children’s sites like Magic Cabin. I want to know where readers think the best source for good crafting felt is…

Caroline Love “The Big Knit”

Bridget Cameron explores the place of knitting in society and art, the reasons for its resurgence and the majority of its practitioners being women and some collaborative knitted works in a thought provoking article you’ll find here.

Knitting and crafting in Oslo, Norway. I nearly went to Norway once, I met a boy on a plane and it was really long flight, via Russia, via Turkestan, via about 5 other places and then via Norway. So we talked a lot and I nearly got off there with him but at the last minute I got cold feet. So anyway I have a soft spot for this blog but thats not the only reason I like it. Lots of crafting and lovely patterns.

Heather Bailey has done it again — first there was the “My Favorite Knot” tutorial, then the Yo-yo’s and now she has published a wonderful tutorial online for Continuous Quilt Binding.

She has even formatted it into a handy, printable pdf, so that you can keep it with your sewing things and always have it when you need it!

Krista from papered together wrote us a lovely letter. Thanks Krista.

I just wanted to let you know how much I enjoy reading your blog… fun, informational, inspirational and beautiful!

Brandon writes in to tell us about his indie card and t-shirt online shop - the Argyle Adademy

We’re a tiny company that specializes in hand-made cards, tea cup sets, t-shirts and other artistic goods featuring our ever-growing roster of eccentric creatures.

Joanna from star dust shoes wrote with a tutorial
Check it out

Just wanted to let you know that I recently posted a tutorial on making baby shoes, similar to Robeez, except made with cloth instead of leather.

One of our ever thoughtful students dropped off a copy of an article in the December 2006 issue of Quilters Newsletter Magazine. The article was written by Ann Fahl and advocates an interesting method of folding quilts on the bias to avoid permanent creases. I knew that folding quilts the same way, in halves at each fold, would damage the fibers over time and the creases would be permanent, but I had never seen this method.

Prior to reading this article, I made a point of folding differently every quilt I take out for a lecture or show to a client. Some I fold in thirds, then random proportions. Others I’d fold in different proportions for storage.

But invariably as I am hurrying to pack up after a trunk show or lecture I’d end up folding a lot in half so only the back of the quilt is exposed because it’s faster. While I like this new technique and will use it once the quilts are back in the studio it does take a little practice to master. If you have some special quilts that you want to keep for future generations, try wrapping them in a clean sheet on the bias. Small pieces work well on an acid-free cardboard tube that is covered. Be sure to give your quilts plenty of air to breathe and avoid keeping them in plastic bags or containers for long. For more details about quilt conservation click here for an excellent article from the Canadian Conservation Institute.

by Rene Steinke
Published by Harper books (thanks Jeff from 52Projects)

I was curious about this book, why Jeff sent it to me. I am glad he did because it is an excellent book. A novel about a real life person, Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven, a little known eccentric artist and poet from the dada art movement who cavorted and was friends with DADA artists Man Ray, Marcel Duchamp and Berenice Abbott.

Definition of DADA: Dada, or Dadaism, was a cultural movement that involved visual arts, literature (mainly poetry), theatre, and graphic design, and began in neutral Zürich, Switzerland during World War I. … According to its proponents, Dada was not art — it was “anti-art”. Dada sought to fight art with art. … Dada activities included public gatherings, demonstrations, and publication of art/literary journals. The movement was a protest against the barbarism of World War I, the bourgeois interests that Dada adherents believed inspired the war, and what they believed was an oppressive intellectual rigidity in both art and everyday society. Link

This book is a fictional interpretation of the life of Elsa the Baroness, it begins in Europe and travels through her many love affairs and marriages and then moves to New York where the real drama begins. Her health and finances deteorate and she starts to write poetry seriously. Elsa was a truly original charactor, a little bit mad and wonderful, her life and her art merged at this point in her life. She performed her poetry publicly wearing outrageous outfits that nearly got her killed on a more than one occasion. Her incredible outfits were one of the interesting things about her, and this is probably why Jeff sent me the book, she was an original in refashioning her clothing. Some of the creations are fantasically described and really come to life on the pages.

A great read, enlightened me about a person who I had not previously heard about, and has inspired me to get out the scissors and spoons and kewpie dolls and get creative!

QUICK GET YOUR ENTRIES IN

click on the button on the right to get to the whiplash page
Entries close 18 November

Whiptipscraft advice column for readers to ask questions or offer advice by leaving comments. View the Whiptips archive here. Submit questions to whiptips@gmail.com. Please include photos with your questions!

Lindsey from Linques is asking for website design advice

My question is more technical then crafty, but for a crafty reason. Last year when I wanted to start a website store, I bought all-in-one software that lets me easily upload my items and publish it to my site. It is not, however, very aesthetically pleasing! Now that I’ve grown, I really need a site to showcase my work.

Since then, I’ve been trying to research new software and website designers, without much luck. I would love a designer, but usually they’re too expensive for such a small business. Having looked through the crafty world, I have seen some fabulous sites, so I am pleading for some advice! Does anyone know of either easy to use software or a wonderful designer? How do you get such lovely and easy to navigate sites?? I do have Dreamweaver, but am fuddling through it and do not know much about adding shopping carts! Thanks!

Kevin Perkins “Cape Barren Goose cabinet”

Whether or not you’re approaching winter or dancing into summer in your part of the world, online exhibitions can give you a tour of wonders and inspiration whatever the weather, no matter if you’re in Cleveland, Cairns or Cannes, and with no admission fee.

Material Culture is an exhibition of craft/art/design at the National Gallery of Australia which is supported by an excellent web presence.

Material culture gathers from the planned as much as from the spontaneous, the banal as much as the enlightened, the local and the global. It can translate into poetry or dross, the mawkish or the transcendent and its progress is as much about timing as it is about technical or artistic achievement.

Anne Dybka “The shoal”

Each of the three sections, Structure, Narrative and Transformation, contains text and illuminating images of various forms of craft/art. Both images used here come from the Narrative section.

Have you come across any excellent online exhibitions you’d like to share in the comments? If you have, please do.

Shannon writes in with a trip to a fabric mill to share:

I thought you might enjoy pics from my recent trip to a fabric mill. I’m interning with an organic textile and wallpaper company and I got to take a field trip to the mill where our fabrics are finished (they are printed at a different location).

A very cool thing about visiting a mill is that they sell “seconds,” that is printed fabric that has some kind of imperfection so the designer rejects it. Seconds are sold at significantly reduced prices $10 - $16/yard for fabric that would sell for $60/yard and up usually. It’s a great way to get a deal on fabric.

Check out Bees knees knitting.

I sell handspun yarn and knitted/crocheted items. I have been admiring your marvelous site, Whip Up!

Check out the free patterns at oddball knitting

THE HANDMADE MARKET: BECAUSE “MALL” IS A FOUR-LETTER WORD!
Saturday, November 11th :: 209 Oberlin Rd. Raleigh, NC :: 11am - 5pm
www.thehandmademarket.com

Sunshine creations has an online tutorial on how to make a yoyo friend - check it out and tell us what you think.