I love these paper decorations from mini-eco.
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December 2010
With such a lot going on in the crafty home and in the crafty blogosphere, I simply had to do a midweek extra newsletter, I just couldn’t wait to bring you all the wonderful ideas, tutorials and holiday fabulousness that is cooking up.
Last week I had some extra good giveaways at whipup – I want to thank the book publishers and authors who kindly donated books to giveaway, Princeton Architectural Press, Chronicle Books, Interweave, Hachette Book Group, Crown Publishing Group – Random House, Inc., Sterling Publishing , – Lark Crafts, Abrams books – STC Craft, Hardie Grant Books and Hardie Grant Egmont, Sarah Fielke, and HarperCollins Publishers. I also want to congratulate the winners of the giveaways: Katherine, Andrea, Erin, Seven, Baukje, Rebecca, Jackie, Casey, Shannon, Autumn, Amanda, Susie, Ana, Cheryl, Catherine, Stephanie, Michelle, and Michelle – All winners have been contacted via email and your books should be winging their way to you as I write this.
So things to do:
Its starting to feel a bit like Christmas … or whatever you celebrate at this festive holiday time of year …
Books
Links and crafty news
Ok so get making…
Kathreen
xx
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Make a Feijoa Christmas Wreath [image above]
Make a live succulent wreath
Make an Antipodean wreath
Make an orange and pinecone wreath
Make a living plant wreath
Make a herb wreath
Make a twig wreath
Make a pinecone nature wreath
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This delicious little book is like a recipe book full of dinner party menus, except all the food is crocheted. If you are in any way familiar with the phenomenon of amigurumi, you will know that crocheting (and knitting) all kinds of cute and weird creatures is all the go in yarn circles, and this book follows on from creatures to help you create cute crocheted food. Each project could be used as play food, or to decorate a table, or just for fun.
The book starts with a technique section, so that even a brand new crocheter can get a handle on a foundation chain, stitches, increases and decreases, and constructing and decorating each project. The diagrams are clear, but each pattern only uses US terminology and hook sizes, which will be misleading for those of us who use British/Australian stitch names and measure our hooks in millimetres.
My favourite menus in this book are the vegetable dip with curved celery sticks and stuffed olives, sushi platter with the cutest little shrimp nigri and a wee squirt of wasabi, and the dim sum basket where the dim sim and pork buns look yummy enough to want to have a little nibble.
Reviewed by: Kate is a busy mother of four with many craft projects on the go, including, but not limited to, crochet, knitting, sewing, dyeing, paper making, spinning, felting and bookbinding. Kate has challenges in the areas of finishing things, saying no and craft supplies storage. She also has a very very patient and tolerant husband.
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Knit & Purl Pets by Claire Garland. David & Charles (2010)
Has your child, or a child you know ever begged for a pet? Pleaded so hard that their eyes nearly popped out of their head, clasped hands desperately in front of them and promised with all their heart to walk and feed the pet and clean up all the mess, every single day, I PROMISE mum! Surely it can’t just be my kids.
This book might just be the solution. Knit & Purl pets is full of great patterns for the cutest of knitted pets, including traditional pets like a kitten, puppy, guinea pig and rabbits, moving through a mouse, rat, tortoise, hen and snake, and all the way to a chameleon, pony and a stegosaurus. Who hasn’t dreamed, at least once, of having a pet dinosaur?
The patterns are presented in order of complexity, with some nice easy patterns at the start of the book that would be suitable for a beginner knitter. Many of the patterns are knitted in one piece, and some use techniques like icord and knitting in the round. I really like the way that these patterns are presented, each with a difficulty rating, a generic yarn (no need to chase down a specific brand or suitable substitute), equipment list, gauge, and notes on construction, finishing and safety for small children. I also really like that each pet has multiple photos, so that the knitter (or the child requesting the pet) can really see what the project will look like. All measurements are written in both metric and imperial, which I really appreciate. There are good, clear instructions for making up the pets and the techniques section is also clear and well illustrated. The end of the book includes a list of suppliers, including some in Australia, and I love it when international authors include suppliers in my own part of the world.
I can’t wait to make a chameleon from self striping sock yarn, and a guinea pig from eyelash yarn. And I promise to look after them every day. Honest.
Reviewed by: Kate is a busy mother of four with many craft projects on the go, including, but not limited to, crochet, knitting, sewing, dyeing, paper making, spinning, felting and bookbinding. Kate has challenges in the areas of finishing things, saying no and craft supplies storage. She also has a very very patient and tolerant husband.
[ps. did you know Claire Garland has a blog - and she has some free patterns like these cute knitted chicks and these knitted mouse finger puppets would make great stocking stuffers and these knitted christmas puddings - perfect for this time of year! .Ed.]
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Make a christmas tweed fabric leaf wreath
Make an candy wreath
make a feather wreath
make an origami wreath
make a mini berry wreath
make a fabric rose wreath
make a felt ball wreath
make a pompom wreath
make a mod bubble wreath
make a paper leaves wreath [image above]
make a paper feather wreath
make an acorn wreath
make a wrapped fabric wreath
make a recycled sweater wreath
make book page wreath
make a gumdrop wreath
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Make Betz White’s Felt Ogee Ornament
Simple felt ornaments from Wendy
Make a colourful felt circle garland
Make a felt sphere ornament
Make a jingle mouse ornament
Make an embroidered felt ornament
recycle a sweater into an ornament
Make some felt mushroom ornaments
Make this half eaten felt gingerbread man ornament
Make a retro bird
Some traditional felt ornaments
Make these felt candy cane ornaments
Make some felt star ornaments
Make these machine stitched felt ornaments
make some mini elf shoe ornaments
Make some christmas pudding felt ornaments [image above]
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make this modern paper ornament from how about orange
make this paper bird decoration
Make these cheery paper angels
I love this folded german paper bell
Make some paper heart ornaments
Or this paper flower ornament
An orange paper ornament
How about this paper bauble garland
Make a paper pinecone ornament
I love these paper ornaments (and will be making a few of these this year) [see image above]
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For something for your kids to do – try our Paper and Beeswax Action Pack e-magazine
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I love Alex’s “Happy How To” turning fabric and paper scraps into holiday garlands and ornaments.
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love this idea – give it a go- reusing shopping bags by sewing your gifts up into them.
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