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Are there any other string crafters out there? By string crafts, I mean things like knitting, crocheting, embroidery, tablet weaving, fingerlooping, and netting. Those are the ones I've done so far. I'm currently working on a pair of Squares Slippers.
What projects are you working on?
Posts: 486 | Registered: Feb 2005
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I cross-stitch a lot. Currently I'm working on a small picture for someone else, and a wizard/sorceress picture which is *huge* (to me), that I started about 5 years ago. My original goal was to have it done by the time I'm 35. So I've got a while yet.
Also, I intend to learn how to darn socks this summer, if that counts.
Edit: I thought this thread would be about Cat's Cradle and all the string figures you can make like that. I've got a neat book with a bunch of those.
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That's how I knit too, Elizabeth! When I was little, the first thing I knit was a pair of slippers, but decided half-way through the first one that that was enough knitting for me, so I made it into a slipper for my curling shoes, so I wouldn't have to make another.
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well, I must say, I also fully knit things, and then leave them in pieces for decades, without sewing the pieces together. I recently handed my sixteen year old niece her baby sweater, in pieces.
It is pathetic, actually, sort of a fatal flaw.
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I'm a hopeless half-quilter. I've probably got ten quilt-tops at home that just need backing and batting, but I've never yet put one together. All the fun is in making the tops! I even tried to finish one by making two tops that could fit together once, making a reversible quilt, but it's still sitting in a bin in two pieces somewhere...
Edit: Hester, the solution for half-cross-stitching is easy. It's called "needlepoint".
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Well, at least I am not alone! I guess that is why divisiomn of labor was invented. There must be someone who loves to sew together the pieces.
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Well, Astaril, that is another problem I have. Sending things. I will buy a birthday card a week ahead of time, and still won't send it in time.
OK, that's it. No more confessions! ha ha
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Me too! I cleaned out some folders the other day and found some Christmas cards I wrote and stamped and everything from 1997! Among other things...
Right. Maybe I should stop confessing things I don't finish too, like
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I have finished many projects, but I bet for every one of them, I've started something else that I never finished.
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I tend to only finish things I make for someone else. As a result, a lot of friends have my handiwork on display, but I have none of my own. Oh! Wait! I have finished a couple quilts! I gave them away, so I forgot about them. Well, there. I don't feel *so* unaccomplished then.
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Astaril, I'd finish those quilts for you, if you sent them to me. My mother-in-law even has a quilting machine that quilts pretty patterns, and I've been wanting to learn how to use it, but-- you guessed it-- I lose patience with doing quilt tops!
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This is incredible! We should totally start a Hatrack craft-finishing circle where we all send the parts we don't like doing onto someone who does. Postage might get expensive though...
My mother just got a quilting machine last year too! She loves it. She designs/makes quilts pretty much for a living, but hates the final actual quilting part. She says it's much more fun now though.
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I agree it's not too much fun, but with a quilting machine, it seems to go quite fast. I usually tie the quilts I make, though. That, you can do anywhere. In fact, I also tie my mother-in-law's quilts, because she doesn't mind the sewing, but doesn't always have time to tie them. Posts: 21182 | Registered: Sep 2004
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I'm very heavy into cross stitch. Current project (as in I'm stitching as I wait for the next topic to load on screen) is called Home of the Brave, and it's for a soldier remembrance project I've become involved with. A local boy was killed in Baghdad and I'm making this for his family. I've also got 6 other projects currently in various stages of incompletion, and a folder full of stitched but not assembled pieces.
I also crochet (some), knit (a tiny bit), plastic canvas needlepoint (used to be heavy but not so much now) and if really driven, sew clothing. The next one I want to learn is Swedish Weaving.
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I used to love to make potholders on paper plate looms. I was reminded of that reading this thread. Also, yarn dolls. And spool- and finger-knitting. Anyone do any of those as a kid?
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ketchupqueesn, I swear, you could have been a child in the 70s.
We did finger weaving, and the spool thing was sooo in when I was a kid.
I went to a school for a year, a junior boarding school, where we had free access to the art room in our free time. They had the huge looms, and also table looms, and we could do batiks whenever we wanted. I loved that, and it was the last time I ever loved art class. It always seemed to be about drawing and painting.
OK, that is it. I am going upstairs right now(well, in a minute) to get one of the two toddler sweaters going. If anyone wants this pattern, I will copy and send. It makes a sweater that is boxy, with a rolled neck, and can be worn big by a one or two year old, and as a regular sweater as they grow. My son wore his until he was three or four. It is made with bulky wool(I have also used acrylic), and I can make one on a weekend if I get off my behind.
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One of my friends, who loves knitting and sewing, and I have decided that they should create a new major in college - Fiber Arts. We would just knit and sew and embroider all day. Posts: 486 | Registered: Feb 2005
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I think a lot of college fine arts programs do offer that as a major, Hester. Or maybe it's called "Textile Arts" or something like that instead.
I knit like a mad fiend whenever I can find the time, which is not as much as I'd like lately. I'm currently working on a pair of socks in self-striping yarn, a sweater made from the Cursed Red Yarn (this is my fifth or sixth attempt to make a sweater from this yarn, somethig always goes horribly wrong and I end up having to frog it), and I just bought more yarn to start making things for the forthcoming onslaught of Hatrack babies starting this fall Posts: 957 | Registered: Aug 2002
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quote: I think a lot of college fine arts programs do offer that as a major, Hester. Or maybe it's called "Textile Arts" or something like that instead.
Cool! *does a search for Textile Arts*
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HesterGray, The Waldorf School has kids learn fiber arts all the way through high school. They learn to knit from the get-go. I was actually going to do my English thesis on weaving and knitting as a theme/image in literature. I, well, did not get enough done in time, so switched the topic to doorway images in Charlotte Bronte's "Villette."
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Elizabeth, it sounds like that was a pretty awesome school! My mom had a very small loom I used to work on; she's an OT. I think that's also why she taught me spool-knitting and such; as my finger dexterity improved, so did my writing. But I didn't figure that out until years later. Posts: 21182 | Registered: Sep 2004
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KQ, the school I went to (North Country School www.nct.org was not a Waldorf school, just to be clear. it was very similar, though.
NCS was the first progressive junior boarding school(or maybe even school?) in this country. My dad taught there for a year, and it was the most incredible school year of my life. I taught and lived there the first two years out of college.
[ April 24, 2005, 02:09 PM: Message edited by: Elizabeth ]
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I'm not a string crafter, but I recently decided to free myself up from patterns. I'm making a purse for my daughter and decided to do it entirely on my own. No patterns.
I've been having a blast. I'll post a picture when I'm done - I combined crazy quilt techniques with recycling an old pair of overalls, for a total cost of about $3.00 in fabric. I decorated it with free embroidery designs for my machine that I downloaded from the 'net. The most expensive thing will be the handle, which I'm probably going to make out of rolled cording.
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Swedish Weaving Not the best possible link but I'm still looking for good ones, wanted to post something in the meantime.
Also known as huck embroidery when done on a specific fabric, it can be done with Aida or Hardanger cloth with regular embroidery flosses. Instead of piercing the fabric as you do with cross stitch or needlepoint, you slip your thread into the weave of the fabric. The thread stays on the top of the project and you get no tails on the backside. It looks simple, it's just a matter for me of having to wait till I finish my current time sensitive pieces so I can focus on it.
Here's another link to a designer with some really good pictures: Nettie's
That sounds so interesting...but I don't need to tackle anything new right now! I'll just admire your work from afar. Posts: 14428 | Registered: Aug 2001
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one of my 4-H leaders brought a blanket thing that she had done with sweedish weaving this week, i might look into learning it.
Right now I am knitting, a lot, I just made a hat and skarf combo, very cool, tan wool, I think next I want to try a todler sweater, my grandma is trying to find me a pattern, I have this cute pink worsted weight cotton, and just want to make a simple stokinette cardigan, with borders in a pink varigated of the same yarn. I also am making skarves for all my friends to wear at the Harry Potter midnight thing, just need to find yarns in the right colors (bronze is hard).
Posts: 5362 | Registered: Apr 2004
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I can't believe I missed this thread earlier! Right now I'm crocheting a blanket for the baby-to-be. I love it; it's a very bright multi-colored yarn. I need to finish it though so I can make some others. I was also going to try my hand at crocheting a few diaper covers. I'm also crocheting a picture for the baby's room.
Huh. That baby's getting everything around here! Last week Mr. Opera and I picked up a few nightgowns and sleepers. Boy Opera said, "Huh. It's really weird that the baby gets stuff even before it's born."
quote: I also am making skarves for all my friends to wear at the Harry Potter midnight thing, just need to find yarns in the right colors (bronze is hard).
That is awesome! Actually, the only reason I ever tried my hand at knitting was so that I could make a Gryffindor scarf to wear to the second movie. And I did! Are you going for all different houses? I'm assuming Ravenclaw if you're looking for bronze. I was able to find Gryffindor and Slytherin colors easily, but I haven't looked for the others.
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I offered out any of the four houses, but so far my friends want Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw, we're not brave or cunning. Hopefully I can find at least a good brown to be bronze, I saw that Lion brand makes a bronze metalic yarn, but I'm not sure that's what i want.
Posts: 5362 | Registered: Apr 2004
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One of the girls in my Stitch n' Bitch group is making a Ravenclaw scarf, and she managed to find a half-decnet bronze. I wish I knew what kind of yarn she was using so I could tell you Posts: 957 | Registered: Aug 2002
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