Wool and Necklines and Icing, oh my! Craftsy Mini-Classes

We just had a long bank holiday weekend in the UK, which gave me some time to kick back and catch up on my crafting. One thing I did was browse the Craftsy course offerings and sign up for a few new mini-courses.

My first introduction to Craftsy's mini-classes was Know Your Wool by Deb Robson - I've already raved about that in a previous post - simply a fabulous class, and I would have paid full money for it!

I'd also already watched Carol Feller's free Short Rows class, in addition to the full-size Craftsy classes I've taken including Curvy Knits and the Garment Grading class.

I signed up for two new mini-classes -- Creative Cabled Necklines and something a little different - Modern Buttercream.

The cabled necklines class is really interesting - again, I would have been happy to pay and watch a full-length class on this topic (the teacher does have another Craftsy class available, about designing cabled garments). It's about designing interesting necklines that complement the rest of your garment and help draw attention upwards towards your face.

The buttercream class I haven't watched yet, but hopefully I will learn something interesting :)

~Joyuna

My new hacked Boye needles

Several years ago, I received a Boye Needlemaster interchangeable needle set as a gift. I was a newer knitter then, and I was thrilled to have every needle size from 2 to 15 at my disposal. The Needlemaster set isn't bad when it's the only thing you've got, but the cables leave something to be desired. They're rigid plastic with not much flex to them, even worse than usual craft-store circs, and they've got a weird bend at the ends of them.

Enter the world of Boye needle hacks. There's a lot of different methods, some more complicated than others. I opted for the simplest method with the fewest materials needed. Here is what I used:

Materials

• Weed Whacker/Strimmer line, round and .065"(1.65mm) diameter
• 2-56 screws. I got these headless screws called threaded studs (Sullivans brand) - as you can see, they cost me £4.40 for a pack of 20. If you can't find threaded studs, you can get regular 2-56 screws and cut the heads off.
• Tubing with an inner diameter of 0.075" and an outer diameter of .125". This can be bought in bulk online, but you can also scrounge materials from around the house - empty pen refills and Q-tip/cotton bud stems are about the same size. I took my tubes from Q-tips.
• Sandpaper and a nail buffer for smoothing things down
• Superglue

All in all, it came to about £10. I have enough materials to make 10 needle cords, with plenty of weed whacker line and tubes left over.

Read more »

Dead Easy DIY: Clementine Candles

I found this great idea over on Apartment Therapy via Pinterest. You can make your own candles (or oil lamps, really) from clementines.

If you don't care to click through their 30-photo slideshow (I don't blame you), here are the instructions in a nutshell.

Take one clementine, a sharp knife, and some olive oil. Slice the clementine skin in half, remove the fruit inside. Try to keep the fleshy bit in the middle intact - this will serve as your 'wick'. Choose the half of the clementine with the most 'wick' and pour some olive oil into it. Let that soak in for a minute or two. Meanwhile, cut a vent in the other half. Light the wick, place the top half over it, and enjoy your clementine lantern. That's all there is to it!

The 'wick' is a bit hard to light, but keep trying and you'll get it eventually. Try to be a little delicate when you're removing the skin off the fruit, so you can keep the fleshy center bit long enough for the wick.

I feel like these would make awesome mood lighting at a party. You could even float them in a bowl or tub. Best of all, they release a subtle citrusy scent into the air (not very strong, but it's definitely there).

~Joyuna

Dead Easy DIY: Lip Balm

Recently, I tried my hand at making lip balm. I wanted to get everyone in my extended family something small but thoughtful for Christmas. I'm a total lip balm junkie myself, and when I found a recipe for DIY lip balm online, I couldn't resist giving it a try. It turned out great!

I used this recipe from Instructables, which I found via Pinterest. It's really simple and once you get all the ingredients, it's a snap to make.

Read more »

My first foray into the world of needlefelting

Since learning to spin, I've accumulated a lot of roving. It will take me a long time before I can spin it all... I just got two more pounds of wool! So, I'm learning something new to do with my roving. That new skill is needlefelting.

Needlefelting creates matted mounds of fiber by using a sharp, barbed needle poked repeatedly into the fiber. Normally you use wool, but other fibers can be needle felted too. As opposed to wet felting, which can only be done with animal hair fibers, you can needle felt other kinds of fiber such as silk and bamboo.

You can either needlefelt flat shapes onto another surface (such as decorating a sweater or a hat), or you can create 3D needle-felted forms. This is my first needlefelted creation, after a little bit of practice:

It's a black panther, which kind of-sort of stands up by itself. You have to adjust the legs or it will fall over. It's hard to make long, thin, detailed things like the legs and tail though. It was fun, but it does take a while to get the wool felted together. My felting needle tool has three needles in one, which makes the felting go a little bit quicker.

The felting needle is sharp... very sharp... Not a good thing for clumsy me ;) But needle felting is definitely a good way to release pent-up anger... just stab, stab, stab the wool to your heart's content! And when you're feeling all calm and relaxed, you'll have a fun needle-felted sculpture. :)

Books on Needle Felting

~Joyuna