Socks Socks Socks 

For a little change of pace, how about sock talk. I've knit socks in the traditional way in the past, but not recently. Earlier this year, i discovered sock looms. Who knew. Sock looms make life so much easier as I've discovered. When your hands start aching from the amount of work we do in our lives, no wonder they revolt. 

Sock looms take most of the stress off our tender over worked hands. These are the looms I have been using. 

These are available through Knitting Boards in the US. Here in Canada you can find them at Sitich it Central. You will see two colours of looms in that listing,  that's because they are sold as a 2 pack. Ladies and mens sizes. I bought 2 packages so I can work on two socks at a time. You don't have to do that, I just find it easy to do and it keeps them the same length as you work. 

The tape across the lower front is a guide for decreasing and increasing for the heels and toes. I am left handed, so my guide goes left to right. Should you try these looms and are right handed, the numbers would go from right to left. Here is a link you will find so helpful. It takes you through making socks from start to finish. It's very well recorded and you can stop and start, or rewind to watch parts over again.  Sock making with this loom.  

I bought a couple of accessories to work with, but not necessary to be able to knit the socks. First are these sock frames. They came as a 2 pack on Amazon. When you finish your socks, you can wash them and put them onto a frame to shape them. I do a light iron on them using a press cloth.

The other accessory I got, was this bowl. It's so convenient to keep my yarn from drifting all around my work space. ;o) I thread it through one of the holes on the side and it also keeps the yarn from getting tangled. The two colours of small pins in the envelope are stitch markers, and I found them on Knit Pics, but you can find many fancy and otherwise on Etsy.

These are the socks I knit with the loom. 

 

The yarn I use is from Arcane Fibre Works. They are based in Alberta, Canada. They have a newsletter and if you sign up, you will receive regular updates as to new colourways. Some are short term, some last longer. I just got these two skeins last week, so bright and cheerful. (Fingering weight for socks)

The last sock for this post, is the pretty blue and white sock next to the bowl in the picture above. That one is crocheted. The pattern is by a Russian designer, Miss Kochina. The instructions are good, but I recommend using a scrap ball of yarn to practice on, unless you find you are familiar with her work. She offers a link to her YouTube site to show you the stitches.

 Paper Art Projects 2

These are the next projects I made with printable kits. If you decide to give it a try, be prepared for the possibility of becoming addicted. I have my favourites now, amd mostly work from their kits, but there are endless designers on Etsy (my main source), but I'm sure there are many other sources.

This little project is a freebie. Alexandra M. offers this free printable and others on her Ko-Fi site.  You can also find lots of fun projects on her Etsy site There is also a tutorial for this on Alexandra M.'s YouTube channel.  Look for the title, "Expansion File Tutorial..." Like Vectoria Designs (Tinne), Alexandra is a very good teacher. You can easily complete this and will give you a great start for future projects. 

 

The next project is made from a printable by PaperArtbyMC. Another quick and easy project you can make in an afternoon. The tutorial is here.

The next three are from Vectoria Designs (Tinne). 

The first one is her Autumn Mini Folio. Here is the link to her tutorial on YouTube. With this project Tinne's gives you the printables for free. 

These next two are so much fun to make. A little more involved, but patience is a virtue. You can do it, especially if you're motivated by cat and dog themes. They are two separate projects, but using the same tutorial. 

 

The cat mini album is shown in this tutorial and the printables are free. 

and not to be outdone, the dogs..... The printables for this one you can buy on Etsy.  I also just finished a Christmas version on the weekend, I'll post that when I have all my Christmas ones finished... Enjoy..

Paper Art Projects 1

       Paper Art Projects 1     

I thought I would post the projects I’ve been making over the past few months. I have no idea what I will do with them, it’s the creative process that I’m enjoying. The mini book in my last post was made after all the projects I’ll be showing you in the next couple of posts.

This first one is called “A Never Ending Mini Journal”. Tinne, the designer of the printable kits, often features other paper artists/designers to create projects from her kits. In this project, Tina has created this mini journal. Here is the link to the tutorial on Tinne’s YT channel, and a link to Tina’s channel.

A Never Ending Mini Journal             Tina’s YouTube Channel

This is the link to Tinne’s Etsy shop. Vectoria’s Designs. There is a sign up for her newsletter option in the area above the items for sale. When you sign up you will receive freebies, advance notice for kits she has put up for special savings for limited times and much more.

My version of the Never Ending Mini Journal is made using Tinne’s Hummingbirds kit. I suggest waiting for a sale unless you can’t help yourself, which wouldn’t surprize me as her work is just so beautiful. I used embellishments from the kit and other items from my stash. 

  

This next project is called “Sticker Organizer Tutorial + All the Printables for Free”. For this one, you will see a download link in the description box for everything you need to make this.  Following along with the tutorial you will see how easy and fun it is to put it all together. Tinne is very good at showing you how. Enjoy.....        

Natural History Mini Book

Boy it’s been a long time since I posted. I have been busy with projects, just haven’t been able to get things posted. I’ve taken a step away from doll making to give my poor aching hands a rest. I decided to work on some paper art projects and am really enjoying that. I’ve also been doing some knitting not with needles, but with looms. Later for that.

This is the first paper art project I’m going to post, I have done others and will post them another time. This is a design by Alexandra M. There are so many wonderful kits to purchase from her site and she offers many tutorials to show you how to put those projects together.

Alexandra M’s Etsy site                              Alexandra M on You Tube

So this is the project. it’s titled Natural History Mini Book. I will show you the individual pages first, that make up this book, the kit is available on her Etsy site. There you will see a number of pictures of everything contained in her project, and again in the accompanying YouTube videos. Make your way over to Alexandra’s You Tube channel where she has generously taken the time to do 7 videos explaining how to put this all together from start to the finishing details. It may seem daunting, but once you start the process is not difficult at all, Alexandra has a well thought out teaching process.

Each of the five pages is embellished on both sides and each has a large tag with beautiful art on each side. The flip side of the large tags are pictured below. When you watch the video’s for the kit, Alexandra shows you all the gorgeous details, there are so many.

These two pages are the front and back inside covers.

                 

These are all extras, embellishments, envelopes, small tags, fussy cuts and cards. Alexandra fills each printable page with all kinds of great extras as she doesn’t like to leave a lot of wasted space on the paper. These can be used to fill up the notebooks that you will make as well, applying them throughout the pages.

And now these are the pictures of my finished version of Alexandra’s design. It varies from her finished book slightly. I have used some silk flowers on the top corner. On the spine I added a couple of the extras and a bit of bling for the top just below the flower. I added a tab to hold the book closed, but I may have to add an eyelet and cord to wrap around as the book has gotten quite full and the magnets I used are just barely able to hold back the flood of pages. ;o)

On the spine and the tab to hold the book closed, I used a product called Kraft Tex. I buy mine from Black Rabbit Fabric here in British Columbia, also the colour I used, on Amazon.ca, but you can find it easily in many places. Click on any colour on the Black Rabbit Fabric page and you can read the description of the product. I am going to use it for journal covers, I think it would be perfect for that, but it has so many applications.

A TIP: use a glue such as Aleene’s Tacky Glue or Weld Bond, something that will give a sturdier hold. This is a heavier product than cardstock and requires a little extra holding power. The colour of the Kraft Tex I used, is called Saffron. When I got to the stage of covering the chip board pieces for the front and back covers, I used a cotton fabric with a tiny checker board pattern. The tab is fastened on the back with a brad, the front has magnets.

    

Beaded Hummingbird Pin Cushion

My first project of the new year 2024, is this pretty hummingbird pin cushion. I’ve had the kit for a little while and decided while the snow is falling why not  work on project while staying nice and warm indoors.

This is a kit I purchased from a seller on Etsy that is from Ukraine. Those artists in Ukraine are truly amazing. You can find Wonderland Ukraine HERE.

Everything you need is included in the kit. They use wood cuts for beading on. I think it’s like an MDF board. It’s a medium density fibre (MDF) wood product. It’s made by breaking down hardwood or softwood residuals into wood fibre. Then combined with wax and a resin binder and formed into panels using high temperature and pressure. It does not off gas and is in incredibly hard.

Every colour of bead is individually packaged, as well you will receive all the necessary parts to complete the project. They even include the felt to attach to the back to cover the stitching. Very simple to assemble. Take a look at the Etsy site, they have a great variety of unique projects to choose from.  Here is my finished piece.

All you have to provide is some glue to stand the hummingbird up in the space provided. After you stitch the pin cushion together, you first glue a circle piece of wood inside the base, then glue the pincushion into the base. I used a glue stick and it seems to be holding well. Enjoy…

Missing Pictures on Posts

UPDATE:

There are many posts missing the images that go with the text. I’m hearing it’s a Google issue and I’ve also heard it’s a problem with the software I use, Open Live Writer, or a combination of both. I don’t know the actual problem but some comments I read, say it has something to do with a change in plug ins or other that has changed in Google.

In any case, some bloggers are missing years of images, so let’s hope it’s corrected soon. Not sure when it will be fixed, but in the meantime I will be adding back the images that aren’t showing. If there is a post that you would like to see the images for, you can still click on the image names below the text of each post, and they will still display, although you will have to do them one at a time.

Hopefully this will be corrected soon. Thank you..