How-Tos

Since the days leading up to Valentines Day are some of my busiest of the year, I tend to look for very simple, easy ways to add hearts to my decor!

Two sweet and easy tutorials were safely tucked away in my bookmark files and a third happened quite by accident!

Yarn wrapped wreaths have always appealed to my eyes! Danielle shares this great tutorial for making a yarn wrapped wreath on her blog Take Heart. And since I had just found a straw wreath at the thrift for $.50 and already had lots of red yarn in my stash, I spent some TV time wrapping!

  Danielle's tutorial includes the technique for making lovely little felt roses. Her roses are simple and quick but since I needed even more "simple and quick" - I cut lengths of red and cream yarn and added an easy peasy bow.

I am loving how this balsa wood heart turned out! A very, very simple to make heart - made from balsa wood which is available in almost any craft store - already cut to size!

Kate - the clever designer of this heart - shares her technique on Design Sponge.

I did modify the heart a bit by staining the inside surfaces with red acrylic paint (slightly diluted) and attaching a little heart shaped mordiford.

(Tutorial for making a mordiford or wheat weaving).

See Diane's beautiful heart shaped mordifords here!

You might remember that my friend Gill sent me a supply of Bastelspan (also known as Spön or hobby chip) from Norway last spring. Spön is very thin shavings from what I am pretty certain is Ash - a tree found all over northern Europe.

The idea came to me that I could duplicate Kate's balsa heart using some of my Spön. But it just didn't translate well in the smaller, thinner material.

It kills me to waste even one inch of my precious supply, so I carefully cut the failed heart apart to save all the portions that were not hot glued together.

Turning to inspiration found on the Magic Onion to make a simple heart from recycled paper, I decided to experiment! Will wet Spön and hot glue form a good and lasting bond?

Happily - they do! I was actually surprised. However, the join must be firmly held in place with a paper clip until the wood completely dries out - that would be overnight.

So really no faster than good old Elmers glue.

Thanks to Danielle, and Kate, and Donni, I am ready for Valentines! How about you?

This idea may or may not be terribly revolutionary in knitting circles. But it sure has been working great for me!

Wanting to block several cowls and not wanting to block them flat, I came up with this idea. And it works so well I thought I would share. All that is needed - bath towels and steam!

The roll of bath towels can be made to fit almost any size and the loops work great to gently hold the wool in place. (Pins could be used if desired but in my case - absolutely NOT necessary.)

Steam irons work for steam blocking; however, I have an even better tool! A "vintage", I suppose, Steamstress II - see image here! No hot surfaces - just lovely steam! I originally purchased this tool when I was sewing every garment I wore and used it a great deal when setting seams in wool fabrics and when sewing with velvet.

Don't know it something similar is still available - mine still is working like a champ so no need to find out! Many of my brides are using "commercial type" steamers on their gowns and I suppose those would work too.

Technique!

Roll bath towels to the circumference of the cowl. Don't make it so small the stitches bunch up or so big that it stretches the stitches.

Place the cowl on the rolled towel as shown above, nudging the edges into shape so that the width of the cowl is nice and even all the way around.

Place the rolled towel on a flat surface in the position shown above. Thoroughly steam one half of the roll and let the knitted fabric sit until it feels mostly dry. Roll over, steam the other side and let sit until it feels dry. 

At this point, I will usually set the towel roll on one end and let the cowl dry completely overnight. In case you are thinking the cowl will slide off - the lovely little towel loops will hold your cowl in place.

It really does a great job of wrangling those stitches into sweet symmetry!

I used the same technique on Diane's market bag. This is the after felting before blocking shot when I was testing how much produce the bag would hold. 40 lbs of fruit and veggie goodness in case you are wondering!

After felting, I filled the bag with plastic baggies and let it dry. It really didn't look so great! So I built an oval roll of bath towels and placed the bag on the towels so that the bottom was facing up.

Then I steamed away! I think the results speak for themselves!

And if anyone owns or knows of a newer steam tool that works without getting hot like an iron, please let me know because this much loved Steamstress may not last forever!

Gorgeous hand spun yarn rescued at a thrift.

Treasures left to be discovered on my path by crows, jays, sea gulls, robins and chickadees.

Inspiration from Susan, a reader who shared a picture of a gift she made a good friend.

The seeds of a new God's Eye (Ojos de Dios) to add to my collection.

I have never outgrown my absolute enjoyment of weaving a God's Eye. Perhaps it has to do with something Susan said about "the symmetry and intent of protection of the God's Eye".

I still remember learning to weave my first - at Girl Scout camp - sitting at a long table placed near a smoldering fire in the huge, old stone fireplace which also served in winter to keep skiers warm and toasty after a day on the slopes. (My summertime Girl Scout camp was a ski "resort" in winter!)

We were each given two pine twigs and allowed to select our favorite yarn from the supply at hand.

Sitting down at a spot bathed in New Mexico sunshine, I struggled to follow the instructors words - "bind the two twigs together with a half hitch" (or was it a clove hitch). They wobbled and twisted out of place at first, seeming quite unruly and impossible. But slowly, as winding began and continued, the twigs settled down into their proper place and the pattern emerged. And a young girl found herself completely enchanted.

Some of you who are new to Gingerbread Snowflakes may not know that I have made three tutorials to share the enchantment. Links are included at the end of the post!

Susan Burnett, a reader who lives in Houston, Texas (and fellow ex-pait of New Mexico - yay!), left me a comment last summer telling me she had just made her first four God's Eyes. She gave them as gifts and the happy result - one of the recipients immediately took her to a craft shop to get her more dowels and yarn!

A month or so later she sent this picture of a God's Eye made for a very dear friend. I responded first to the yarn - muted, natural colors with interesting texture - and then to the little gather of feathers.

Something deep within began stirring. Not to make a God's Eye exactly - I have tons of colorful yarns for that! But something was stirring.

What I did know for certain was that my treasured feather gifts, picked from many paths and gently carried home, would definitely be a part of it. A beautiful way to honor the gift givers.

During a quick trip to a thrift last month,  I happened upon this gorgeous stash of hand spun wool yarn - the natural, slightly silky/sticky feel of lanolin still clinging to the fibers.

$1.00 - including the plastic bin! How could this be? No way would I leave it there buried in piles of unwanted cast-offs. I brought it home where it would be appreciated! I know many of you reading understand.

And now that stirring again. And I knew!

I needed to create a God's Eye using this beautiful hand made yarn and my feather gifts.

Had it not been for Susan, I might have never have noticed.

Thank you Susan. Enchantment is back.

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For those of you wanting to seek your own enchantment making God's Eyes:

*Basic instructions for making a simple God's Eye

*Adding Beads to a God's Eye

*God's Eyes as a display frame for found treasures (perfect for children who find treasure while at the beach or in the forest)

You can find links to Susan Burnett here

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Added January 21, 2012:  I received a comment today (thank you Annette) linking me to Jay Mohler.  I do not publish link posts from people I do not know and usually not even when I do know them.

However, I was thrilled to have his name and so now I am adding the following links to Jay's site Ojo de Dios by Jay Mohler because I had intended to leave you with a link to his incredible Ojos yesterday but neither an internet search or my brain would give up the information!

Go visit Jay's site.  He is has devoted a good deal of his adult life to making Ojo de Dios and has become a master.

Ojos de Dios by Jay Mohler

Jay's Story

Free instructional PDF

Jay's Etsy shop

Here he is! My very own little Finnish Tonttu! I love him to pieces!

Up until December 11th, I was convinced there were no little Christmas elves to be found in Finland. On December 12th, thanks to a lovely reader named Dawn, I was directed to Lene who offered a complete how-to for making Finnish Tonttu on her blog Dances With Wool.

One of my very best gifts from "Santa Mom" this year was a bag filled with lovely hand spun yarns from Shepherd's Lamb, a sheep ranch in northern New Mexico producing excellent quality organic Lamb and beautiful wools for knitting, crochet and weaving. Apparently, she has been visiting their booth at the farmer's market in Santa Fe quite frequently this past year buying fresh lamb for her and beautiful hand spun yarn for me!

FYI, if you are into lamb dishes, like I am, you might enjoy some of the recipes included on the site! And if you are into wool, like me, you will be as excited as I am for their online shop to open!

Anyway - back to my little Tonttu -  two of the yarn skeins in the bag exactly matched the yarns Lene used for her Tonttu! So, my Tonttu already has a history - designed by a spinner living above the arctic circle in Finland and made with hand spun yarns from sheep raised on a sheep ranch in my beloved northern New Mexico.

Not having a wooden ball 1/2" in diameter in my stash, I decided to use my last little 1" felted ball for the head - which meant that I had to make the hat and body a bit bigger!

Links for the tutorials to make your very own Tonttu can be found in the December 11th Christmas Elves and Yule Lads post, or again at the bottom of this post.

While listening and catching up with the November and December podcasts (which are available from Craftypod), my hands were busy printing out, cutting and assembling these charming and playful Danish Nissers which have been in my bookmarks since 2008!

Actually - that is not exactly a true statement - there was so much inspiration and useful content in this set of podcasts, that I frequently had to put my little Nissers aside to take notes!

In case you hadn't guessed, the Nissers were designed by Margit at papirklip og æsker and the two Nissers with the tree and the Nissers with the ladder can be found in her 2008 archive along with printable gift tags and an entire Nativity to print out and make!!

This Nisser is actually 7" tall and is quite happy sitting on my mantel with my Santa and Father Christmas figurines. You can find him as well on the above link to the 2008 archive!

So now, unless someone tells me differently, I have a full set of - Christmas Elves!

Here are the links for the Tonttu tutorials on Dances With Wool:

Head

Body

Hat

Happy 8th Day of Christmas!

The Crafty Christmas Tree Challenge ends tomorrow! And I am sliding in just under the wire with my finished ornaments!

My plan was to show them all together on the little four foot tree I use as my year-round seasonal tree. However - that is not going to happen! During a very long phone conversation with a dear, dear friend this afternoon, my sweetie decided it was time to decorate his "Star Trek Tree"! My seasonal tree is now covered with Star Trek ornaments!

So - I am sharing the images of the ornaments taken BEFORE he got to the tree!

Meg's idea for using cookie cutters as a needle felting guide grabbed me and wouldn't let go! I decided to find out just how complicated a shape I could use! Apparently, almost any cookie cutter out there will work for Meg's amazing felting technique!

HAD to make a snowflake!

Bees wax sheets and cookie cutters pair together to make great ornaments! Cutting sheets of bees wax designed for candles using cookie cutters is a piece of cake ornament making technique! Use a needle to carefully string through a hanging loop and your ornament is ready for the tree!

These little wax ornaments are very effective for catching and scattering the light from tree lights. No matter where on the tree an ornament is placed, it will glow!

I fell in love with cutting Danish paper ornaments last year and decided I really, really needed a couple trees on on my Crafty Tree!

There is nothing to these! I simply traced a Danish pattern four times and cut.

Stitched all four together as shown with needle and thread! That is all there is to it!

I used saved copier paper - you know the sheets that blow through before beginning printing with like three words printed on them!

Simple designs work beautifully! Make one of your own, cut out four, stitch together and guaranteed, it will be love at first sight!

And if you prefer, your little trees make great  table toppers! Imagine a whole forest! O yeah - I am having a whole forest!!

And finally, I collected scraps of yarn left over from several projects completed this year, wound them into little balls and added a couple tooth picks. You might remember this tutorial from last year!

This would make a cute gift topper for knitted or crocheted gifts using yarn left from the gift.

Now to the boring old task of accounting!

Felted ornaments: Actually I had the roving. But to be fair, I am charging my bank for four 1/4 oz balls of roving from the Pendleton on line shop. Four at $1.50 each equals $6.00.

Bees wax ornaments: Found bees wax candle kits at the thrift last summer. I purchased two at $1.00 each.  I used the wick as hanging loops. Total cost $2.00. And I still have tons of bees wax left.

Danish Paper Trees: These are basically free! As I said, I used those wasted sheets of printer paper that go whizzing through my printer just before it begins printing! Why does that happen anyway?

Yarn Balls and Knitting Needles: Again, using up those little scraggly balls of yarn that are beginning to accumulate now that I have learned to knit! And I still haven't exhausted that $3.00 bag of yarn purchased at the thrift and used for the woven ornaments. So really no cost there. But I did purchase a package of fancy toothpicks - one end is carved. $2.89.

Total spent for materials for the above four projects - $10.89. Add $3.97 spent on the mirrored Yoyos and $4.24 for the woven heart, and $.25 for the gingerbread man and the sand dollar ornament and the grand total is $18.35.

Meg is posting highlights of all the entries here! Go check them out!