yarn – Page 2 – Daily Fiber

Finally using the Black Yarn

Posted on October 30, 2019October 31, 2019 by Laura Kate

A few months ago, I blogged about working with black yarn. https://dailyfiberfun.wordpress.com/2019/03/09/black-yarn/

After months of fiddling around with the luxury blend, coal colored yarn my daughter gave me, I finally settled into a shawl design. Fellow blogger Deb Gemmell has unvented an improvement to the basic triangle shawl which she calls Wedges Shawl. Her goal is to increase the length of the shawl ends without making the body section excessively long. You can read about it on her blog: https://wordpress.com/read/blogs/135503248/posts/1913

I thought I would give this concept a try. I started out normally, with a garter tab cast on. After increasing four stitches every other row for awhile, I began to insert wedge-shaped sections. These are created with short rows. To make a nice contrast with the black yarn, I chose a beige singles yarn and used the classic eyelet pattern of k2tog, yo. I also tossed in a couple sections of garter lace pattern with the black yarn.

After I worked up about 290 stitches, I switched back to the black yarn for one more eyelet row and bound off. Here is a blocked shawl.

**I couldn’t quite fit the whole shawl into one photograph.**…

…**So I folded it up and took another picture.**

It came out rather well. With such neutral colors, it should be a versatile addition to my winter wardrobe. Thank you, Deb, for your improvement!

Her patterns can be found on Ravelry: https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/wedges-shawl

embellishing

Fun with Embellishments

Posted on August 6, 2019 by Laura Kate

This school year I will again be teaching fiber arts to students age seven and up. I’ve organized the sessions into 4-week workshops. One workshop will explore techniques to use in embellishing clothing and other fiber objects. Today I am learning to make pom-poms using these:

It seems like an easy, anyone-can-do-it craft to use up extra yarn, so I’m all for it.

What I learned in my first attempt is that the instructions included with the tool were incomplete. I got lots of bits of yarn falling out of the plastic holder.

After a quick trip to U-Tube – source of every craft technique in the world – I discovered that the yarn needs to be wound until the holder’s center is filled completely. Then, when the holder is closed and the yarn cut, compression keeps the cut bits together long enough until they can be tied up with a piece of yarn.

Winding the yarn
Here is the holder with the correct amount of yarn
Cutting
Wind a piece of yarn around three times, tying after each wrap. I used a surgeon’s knot the last time.

I made one medium and three small. Here they are decorating a cross body bag.

I’m confident all the students will have a great time making pom-poms. I can’t wait to see how they use them to jazz up their clothes One final note: Don’t lose these little pieces, or your pom-pom makers will be useless.

crochet, knitting

Playing with Dolls: The Purple Yogi

Posted on June 28, 2019 by Laura Kate

Like many women in my demographic, I get my exercise by practicing yoga. I don’t remember when I got the idea to make a purple yogi, but I know where. It was during a yoga session. While searching for a drishti (otherwise know as a focal point) in the middle of forming tree pose, my eyes glanced at a ceramic yogi in seated position. Breaking my concentration, I thought, “Wouldn’t it be fun to make a posable figure from yarn and wire?”

Thus was conceived the Purple Yogi. He is constructed of yarn, florist’s wire, a little fiber fill and some white glue. The gestation period was about three months, and the birth itself took two half days of work. I started with a sketch, and proceeded in single crochet to make his torso and head.

Next I crocheted down from the waist to make a pair of manly hips. The arms were knit in I-cord. One wire was inserted through the body at shoulder height and slipped inside both the arms.

The legs came next. I inserted a wire through the hips, with loops where the ball sockets would be. A wire was inserted into each loops and stretched down for the legs. The I-cord legs had two increase rows, to make them a more tapered shape. Then the knitted legs were slipped over the wires, sewn to the body, and a little glue added to shape his feet. Here is the completed doll.

**Yogi is sitting still while his gluey feet dry.**

**Here he is in seated pose, ready to start his first yoga session.**

I discovered very quickly that he could not sustain a pose without a sticky mat. I cut one out of a rug grip pad. Okay, Yogi, let’s strike a pose or two!

This project really made me smile. It’s good to play, even if one is a bit old for dolls.

embellishing

Easy Peasy Tassel Necklace

Posted on June 19, 2019September 28, 2020 by Laura Kate

I’m back to the Daily Fiber blog, after a pretty long vacation trip. The fatigue of the trip has sapped my creative energy. So I thought it would be best to make an easy fiber object on my first day back.

This little necklace showed up in a women’s clothing catalog I paged through recently. It’s very fetching, but to me, not a good value at $70.00. I’d like to try my hand at my own version.

To make the tassels, you will need one skein of embroidery floss for each tassel, some jewelry jump rings, a few beads, lobster claw fasteners, thread cutters, tapestry needle, and glue.

**Here are the first six tassels completed.**

With the paper sleeves still on the floss skein, slip a jump ring to the skein’s center, or tie the skein tightly in the middle with a piece of floss. Slip off the paper sleeves.
Fold the skein in half, holding the ring or floss tie at the top. With another piece of floss about 12 inches long (matching or contrasting,) make wraps around the top of the tassel, working down the tassel about an inch or as desired. Tie the two ends together with double overhand knot.
You can hide the knot by threading the ends on a tapestry needle, then push the needle up through the wraps coming out of the top of the tassel. Do this one end at a time.

At this point, you can finish off the tassel by attaching a lobster claw clasp to the ring, or if you used a floss tie instead tie the ends to the clasp. A drop of glue on the knot will keep it from coming loose. Cut the excess thread away. If you want to add beads, they can be threaded on the ties before you attach the clasp.