Here I am, this time with handmade jewerly, after a week posting about knitting and crochetting.

I get this beads and I start a very easy necklace. I embroider 12 little beads and 1 bigger bead… until I get the length I wanted.

After that I made the hook.

As you can see I made a hook using wire and modelate it with my pliers (clamps). I made the spiral structure and the hook.

Rosemary and Bob are in danger! A spider has arrived and somebody told me she is really big!

Here you have it…….

Well, she is not so big, and she doesn´t seems to be dangerous. Matilda is cute!

How to do Matilda?

Start: Ch 12

Row 1: Work SC, 1 SC in each ch.

Row 2: Work 2 SC in each SC (24sc)
Row 3: Work 1 SC in next SC, 1 SC in next SC, 2 SC in next SC (32 SC)

Row 4 , 5 and 6: 1 SC in each SC (32 SC)

Row 7: DECREASE - SC DEC (insert hook in next stitch - the same you do with SC -  insert hook in following stitch and pull hook through the three loops to decrease.) Make 2SC and 1 SC DEC (24 SC)

Row 8: Make 1 SC, 1 SC DEC, 2 SC, 1 SC DEC.

Last rows: Make SC DEC until thee isn´t a hole. (Only the hole downside)

Legs: Make 7 or 8 CH legs. I embroider some wire in the legs, that´s how Matilda is stood up on her legs in the pic. But for kids is better to take the wire out.

Face: Make the eyes and mouth with white and red yarn. (You can use other materials, like plstic eyes or sew felt pieces)

Fulfill the spider with the material you choose: this time I used black yarn (cotton was not a good material this time: you could see the white color through the little holes.)

That´s all!

In some parts of the world winter time has finished, while in other parts, autumn is starting… Wherever you live, is a good moment to show you this lovely puppet that is wearing cozy and warm clothes.

I improvised the pattern, so I´ll try to remember it for you.

1 - Cast on 14 loops. Make 7 rows of elastic stitch.

2 - Row 8: Knit 2, separate 4 loops in an extra needle, Knit 3, separate 4 loops in an extra needle, Knit 2. Increase 6 stitches (4 next to the loops you separate, 1 at the beggining, 1 at the end).
3 - Row 9: Purl (leaving the 8 loops you separate without purl, in their extra needles).

4 - Row 10: Knit

5 - Row 11: Purl

6 - Row 12: Knit

7 - Row 13: Purl

8 - Separated loops: they are going to be the arms. Make a knot with the yarn in the first loop of one arm (4 loops). Knit the row increasing 2 stitches (you get 6 stitches). Alternate Purl and Knit each row. I made 5 rows. Do the same with the other arm. After that sew the back part of the body and the arms.

9 - Head: Cust on 8 loops and alternate knit and purl along 9 rows. Increase until the 5th row until you have 18 loops, then decrease until you have 6 or 8. You´ll get a rounded shape. After finishing the head, sew it and fullfil it with cotton or a similar material. Then sew the head to the body.

10 - I Knitted the scarf, custing on just 3 loops and making Jersey. (Knit one row, Purl one row). I made the hat with sc (single crochet), crochetting circular. You can variate and put hair made of yarn).

11 - Make the hands: use crochet to make the little balls, there isn´t a technique, I made sc until I had a round little hand.

12 - I made tho little eyes with the sewing needle: look at those beautiful green eyes! But he is mouthless…

I think he is lovely! It was a moment of inspiration, I hope to have those moments more often!

FrAn

Hi! I found this pattern on the web, on sandyfroglegs blog. They are really cute to make as a gift on this holidays. I´ve made only one, but I´ll share it with you now so you can make them for Eastern holiday.

The pattern is really clear: just follow the step by step (or row by row) instructions.

My egg seems Einstein, so I named it Einstegg. I made the eyes and mouth with yarns, but you can try other materials, like beads, for example.

Hi! I want to introduce to you a new member in my finger puppets family. She came to bring me a lot of chocolat on this Easter holidays: please say hello to Rosemary, my Easter bunny!

But she is not alone, someone has to look after this cute little bunny. Bob, the elephant is Rosemary´s company.

How to do them?

I used rest of used yarns.

- Crochet a little square (the size will depend on the yarn you use and on the finger size). You can use single crochet or double crochet. In my case I made Rosemary with single crochet and Bob with double crochet (body) and single crochet (head).

- When you think that the body is long enough, you increase a little to make the head´s shape (I increased 3 or 4 stitches along 3 rows, but this depends on the yarn you´re using).

- After that, you decrease, but this time don´t be afraid to over do it: crochet two and skip the next one along 2 rows. The important thing is that you don´t have more than 10 stitches.

- Then, sew the piece, leaving a hole in the down side (that´s way you can put your finger in). Put some cotton to make the head rounder.

- To fiinish your puppet add the details according to the animal you are doing and make the eyes with a contrasting color. This is not a big deal and there isn´t a strict technique: just put the hook in the correct place of the head to make the ears, trunk, mouth…

The finger puppets are a cute and easy gift. You can send me links or pics of your fnished puppets to share with us!

Hi! First of all I want to thank you for the sweet comments and emails. I´m happy to share my work with you and give you some ideas and tutorials, and I´m even happier that my work is useful!!

Today I want to show you a very looooooooong necklace that I made: I used very small beads, so it takes me more than an hour to finish the work.

The good thing is that I can use this necklace as a bracel: just put it around the wrist many times….

You can visit other posts for more ideas:

Strange earrings

More handmaded earrings 

Handmade jewerly

My earrings collection… they´re all handmaded!

Handmade bracel with wire and beads

Step by step: how to make a necklace with beads

A necklace with beads 

Bye bye,

Fran

This time, I´ll give you a complete tutorial to make a very nice sweater.

The first rows: double elastic stitch (10 rows).
After that rows: start the desing.

1st design row:

1 -Pass the first loop from left needle to right needle. (pic. a - b)

pic. a

pic. b
2 - Make one lace, as you can see in pic. c.
pic. c
3 - Pass another loop from left needle to right needle. (pic. d) (*)

pic. d
4 - Knit one stitch. (pic. e)
pic. e
5 - Pass the third loop (the one you made on step 3) over the las one you knit. (pic. f)
pic. f
6 - Knit three stitches (no pic)

7 - Knit two stitches together (pic. g)
pic. g
8 - Make a lace.

9 - Knit one. (*)
10 - Make a lace

11 - and start all over again since the first * to the last *.
Lace.

The last stitches of the row are: - Knit 2 stitches together - one lace - Knit one. (you have to finish like this if you want to follow this pattern)
2nd row: Purl all the row (including the lace loops - that way the little holes appears)
3rd row:

1 - Pass the first loop from left needle to right needle.
2 - Knit one
3 - One lace
4- Pass another loop from left needle to right needle. (*)
5 - Knit one
6 - Pass the fourth loop (the one you made on step 4) over the las one you knit.
7 - Knit one
8 - Knit two stitches together.
9 - Make a lace
10 - Knit three.
11 - Make a lace (*)

4th row:
Purl all the row.

5th row:

1 - Knit three.
2 - make a lace
3 - Pass one loop from left needle to right one (*)
4 - Knit two stitches together.
5 - Pass the third stitch over the two stitches you knt in step 4 - this way you close the upper angle of the triangle.
6 - Make a lace.
7 - Knit five stitches.
8 - Make a lace.
repeat from (*)

6 a 12 row : rice stitch

Start all over again from the first row of the design.

Here you can see a complete view of the pattern:

And here a closer view of the “Lace” design.

You have to use a thin yarn and thin needles to make this pattern.

Try it, it´s not so difficult and the outcome it´s great.

Kisses,

Fran

Visit this sites for more ideas: Knit n Purl Zen , Little Purl of the Orient.

I have two pretty and small bags I made last week to show you. I used “unuseful” pieces of felt (that were useful in this case). Using my sewing machine I made, in no more than ten minutes, two little bags.

The handles are made, as you can see, of crochet (just a simple chain with a combining color).

The eyelets are made of crochet too… I made both of them and sewed them with my needles and thread, that´s all!

Today I want to share with you two strange desings.

The first one is a very nice pair of earrings, made of wood beads (they´re beautiful). It seems they belongs to an indian, isn’t it?

The following desing it´s a spiral. I love spirals! I made the wire structure first and then embroider the beads.

See you next craft!

I made this earrings and the bracel for a firend´s doughter, Lucy. She loves animals, so I gave to the earrings a personal detail.

To make the earrings use rounded pliers to make chains with the wire. You can make yourself the part of wire that goes in your ear: put the wire arround a pencil or pen (or arround something cylindric) to give the wire that shape.

I made this earrings and the bracel below, embroidening the beeds in an elastic fishing line.

Here you can see both designs.

     

Hope you like them! Try handmaded jewerly, it’s an adicction!

When I first visited the Mercer Museum last year, more than just handtools caught my eye. I was intrigued by folksy musical instruments, called Scheitholts (also Zither or Zitter). The Germans who settled in Pennsylvania and other parts of Colonial America in the early to mid-1700s brought the zither, or at least the idea of the instrument, with them.

The ones on display in the museum’s current exhibit "Everyday Rhythms" are 19th c. However, a few 18th c. zithers are know to exist, including a 1781 instrument on loan to the museum and one in the Colonial Williamsburg collection, which is represented in a photo enlargement. Zithers (both those played with a pick or quill and those played with a bow), dulcimers, and other early musical instruments are included in this special exhibit which will run through May of next year. Permission to include the photos I took provided courtesy of the Mercer Museum/Bucks County Historical Society, Doylestown, PA.

Zithers, although each one slightly different, are basically a tapering, hollow (but for the solid wood head) trapezoidal-shaped stringed instrument.

3 melody strings were accompanied by multiple, perhaps 6, drone strings and were plucked or strummed with a quill. Songs played on zithers tended to be slow and produced a deeper sound than that of a dulcimer. At the “Everyday Rhythms� exhibit, you can hear melodies played on a reproduction zither.

The strings, most likely made from animal gut, were tightened by iron or wood pins and passed over wire staple frets, of which there were normally 14. The instrument typically rested on a table top with the strings nearest the player as he/she strummed.

Although more refined and ornate versions of the scheitholt were made professionally in Europe, the ones discovered in Pennsylvania are much more modest and practical. Nonetheless, craftsmen decorated their product with simple carvings, cutout shapes, and chamfered edges.

I contacted the museum’s Vice President of Collections and Interpretation who granted me some alone time with two zithers and permitted me to take measurements and photographs. He also offered me a stack of information about the instruments from which much of this information was obtained.

One of the zithers I examined is left-handed, has 19 frets, and has cutouts of a circle, a crescent, and an “S� in the soundboard, which may be interpreted as initials: O. D. S. There are remnants of a reddish stain and the strings are secured with carved wood pegs at the tail end of the instrument.

The other zither is a little more elegant, with a shaped tuning head on one end and a round over on the other. The soundhole is made with semi-circle shaped holes and with punched indentations for decoration, presumably. Instead of wood pegs, strings are held in place with brads.

The soundboard on zither #1 is 1/4� thick while zitter #2’s soundboard is 1/16� - 3/32� thick. Both zithers’ sideboards are made from 1/4� thick lumber, and the tuning heads are solid wood.

Zithers were enthusiastically played throughout the 19th century among German speaking communities, and yet original instruments are difficult to find.

I was grateful to get an up close look at these rare scheitholts and look forward to making my own someday. Now, if only I were musically-inclined....

グリーンウッドワーク�会����秋�アメリカ�グリーンウッドワーク�第一人者�ドリュー・ランズナー�を講師�招��椅���り講座を実施���。

�阜県��れ�生�木を使��人力��具を用��美��椅��仕上���。
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Green wood chair making class by American master craftsman Drew Langsner takes place this autumn at Gifu Academy.
We make a traditional ladderback chair out of local green wood, using only hand tools.


ランズナー���３�年以上グリーンウッドワーク��り組ん����世界的�有��木工家��。アメリカ�Country Workshops���工房を主宰��多数�講座を実施�����。�統的�椅���り����詳述��「The Chairmaker's Workshop����本�著者�も�り��。
Mr. Langsner is a world's famous woodworker who has been pursueing his career for more than thirty years. He runs various craft courses at his Country Workshops. He is the author of 'The Chairmaker's Workshop'.

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�期�３日間��丸太�ら�部�を木�り�一部を蒸��曲��形��る��。
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��ら�一方��加も�能��。

�加料��期�後期�も２４���円を予定�����。
宿泊費�食費�別途必���り��。
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The chair making class consists of part A and B.
On part A we cleave logs to get chair parts, steambend and shape them.
On part B we drill mortises and cut tenons, assemble and weave the seat.
You can book either part A or B, or both.
The tuition is 24,000 yen for each part. Room and board is not included.
We accept eight bookings for each part. Contact Japan Green Woodwork Association.

アメリカ�第一人者�学�〜グリーンウッドワーク�椅���り
講師　ドリュー・ランズナー
会場　�阜県立森林文化アカデミー　森�工房


�期　９月２７（土）〜２９（月）
後期　１�月１８（土）〜２�（月）
��れも９：��〜１８：��

Green wood chair making class by American master craftsman
Instructor: Drew Langsner
Venue: Forest Workshop, Gifu Academy of Forest Science and Culture

Part A 27-29th September 2008
Part B 18-20th October 2008
9:00-18:00

The Long's Park Art & Craft Festival is a juried exhibition of the products made by talented craftspeople who work in a variety of media. I sought out the woodworkers, of course, and asked them about their pieces.

First I encountered Joe Graham (Photos 1, 2, & 3. Photo #2 is from Joe's website), Windsor chairmaker and instructor/owner of Lenox Workshops in Ohio. Joe works with handtools and at the show used a workbench made from 3 slabs of thick, single-dovetailed wood, a stretcher, and tusk tenons. The bench didn't rack at all while he used a drawknife to shape spindles, so it was an effective, knock-down workbench—perfect for travel.

Joe, who studied with Mike Dunbar and Ernie Conover, offers week-long classes, including private room, all meals and materials. By the end of the week, you will turn a log into a Windsor chair, using only handtools. The classes focus on several styles of traditional Windsors, but Joe also offers his own adaptations in his product line.

Next, I met Sam Martin (photos 4, 5, & 6), who makes intricately-detailed scale reproductions of a multitude of vehicles and who co-wrote Making Toys: Heirloom Toys to Make in Wood. As if the amount of work required to construct his pieces wasn't impressive enough, he pointed out that all his vehicles have moving parts. Doors & tool boxes open, gates fold down, fire truck ladders extend, and spreaders on road graders move sideways and foreward and backward, just like on a real one.

The logging truck was my favorite and he explained that the miniature logs were cut from saplings on his property. I asked how he made the tire treads (shown on the road grader and on the vehicle above the cattle truck). He cuts the circle first and then uses a table saw jig which is equipped with a protractor that indicates where to cut the treads. His products make great gifts for collectors as well as grandkids. But if they were my grandkids, I doubt I'd let them play with these beauties unsupervised!

Brad Smith (photos 7, 8, & 9), owner of Bradford Woodworking, studied at R.I.T. and belongs to the Pennsylvania Guild of Craftsmen.

Brad builds unique and custom pieces, some of which incorporate his signature design element—ax handle legs—which are turned on an antique ax handle lathe. The lathe leaves a ridged pattern on the wood which ax makers would sand smooth. Brad instead allows the ridges to remain, which gives his pieces a handcarved, organic look.

His tractor seat stools, which include ax handle legs, also feature a reproduction tractor seat, produced by an Amish foundry in Lancaster County, PA, that comes complete with the Bradford Woodworking logo.

Be sure to check out Brad's website and also his blog.

The last woodworker I met was Todd Gill of TMG Designs (Photo #10). Todd is a recent graduate of East Carolina University and worked collaboratively with Brian Bortz to design the sofa tables in his booth. Brian designed the shape of the tables and Todd constructed them and designed the decorative inlay, made from metal and colored resin, for the table tops. All other pieces in Todd's collection are designed and built solely by him. He mainly works with veneer over mdf, which enables him to control wood movement and allows him to use highly figured species.

The designs have a contemporary feel, and Todd told me his products sell better in certain larger cities that appreciate modern furniture. The market, he said, changes with each year and it's difficult to predict when pieces will sell or not. Todd works part time in his business, participates in 10 shows a year across the country, and works as a sub contractor for other furniture makers.

He was also the youngest participant at the show, in his early twenties, and it was refreshing to see this kind of talent in a young woodworker.

Be sure to visit the woodworkers' websites for more information about them and their works of art.