Tag: craft

Crochet Project: Anya Scarf

Anya taught me how to knit, and I am slowly knitting her a scarf … but it’s more of a fancy going out scarf than a “keeping warm” scarf. I found the same yarn that I am using for our sofa blanket in a variegated color (Tidepool), and I used that to make a really warm scarf. I started off knitting, but the Bernat Blanket yarn doesn’t knit well for me — I managed to get about three rows in after more than an hour of working on it! Took that out, grabbed a crochet hook, and used double crochet stitches. Two days later, voila! She’s got a warm, snuggly scarf. Just in time for … 60 degree weather. It’ll get cold eventually. And her scarf is standing by!

 

Macrame Project – Hanging Plant Basket

I have eight spiral knot “arms” on the plant hangar — it’s starting to look like a sea critter!

The trick that I’ve found to macrame is managing the cords as you work. It’s rather difficult to make knots with four eight foot cords. Gathering the working cords into individual bundles (and, since I am doing square knots where two cords are being wrapped around a pair of cords … I gathered two of the cords into one bundle) makes the whole process quicker and easier.

The tie around the “active” cords then matches up with the string color on my knot diagram — which is great for remembering which of the two knots you just tied!

Macrame Project – Hanging Plant Basket

Scott got a hoya earlier this year, and it is about time to transplant it into a larger pot. He wants to be able to hang it in the window to get plenty of light — so I’m making a basket to hold the plant.

The main part of the planter is 16x 18 feet strands that will be folded in half an arranged as four sets of four strands. Additionally, I need a 6.5 foot strand to wrap the hanging loop and another three foot section for gathering at the base of the loop. Wow, it takes a lot of cord to make a plant hanger.

Hanging loop followed by four groups knotted as: 7″ of spiral knot, 4.5″ straight then single knot, and
10″ of square knot. Then the groups will be changed to form a diamond shaped net that will hold our planter.

I got all of the cords cut, taped off the ends so they don’t fray, and am starting to make the hanging loop.

Since this is such a huge pile of strings, I grouped the strings that will be knotted together. Once they were grouped, I coiled each group up and used a bread time to hold the coil. I’ve still got a big pile of strings, but only the four I am actively working on are eight feet of hanging strands.

Lion Costume – Mask

I started making Anya’s costume – this year, she wants to be a lion (took a while explaining that once we order fabric and stuff you cannot change your mind) with a mask on her face. Specifically, she wants a mask. Very important. So I had to figure out how to make a lion mask. I used Pepakura Designer to create a 3D model of a lion face and then unfold it into a series of printable shapes.

After printing the design, I clipped the paper to half-back (thin cardboard) that I use to store fabric. A straight-edge and x-acto knife helped in accurately cutting the pieces. They’re still a pain to assemble – a couple of extra hands would have helped. Problem is it needs so much tape to keep its shape, I have no idea how to paint the thing.

I’m thinking of using the cardboard mask as a base to apply papier-mâché. Then we’ll have a consistent surface to paint.

Book “Guitars”

I’ve been trying to play some more teaching games with Anya. Today’s activity was building our own guitar-like instrument. A small box with a hole cut in it would work well, but we used a couple of her board books. Stretch a few rubber bands around the book (I’m a little uptight, so I put them in a specific tonal order … hers are a haphazard arrangement), then insert something under the bands along the book to raise the bands up a little bit from the book. A wooden block, a marker, and a glowstick all worked well. If you put the object toward the center of the rubber bands, then you get two different notes per band.