It feels like I’m spinning all the time, and that’s because I am. In April, I took the plunge and bought myself a spinning wheel. Since I live in a dorm room, I need something light and compact, but it still needed to be beautiful. My wheel – a kromski sonata. The first night I played with me wheel I realized I didn’t know how to spin; I barely even had the hang of spinning with a drop spindle. I immediately got on amazon and ordered the spinning book with the prettiest cover.

Of course, we all should know the saying – don’t judge a book by it’s cover, but that’s what I did. I’m writing this post as a book recommendation for those that are thinking about learning to spin. A few weeks ago, I decided I needed to learn more, so I bought Teach Yourself Visually Handspinning by Judith MacKenzie McCuin. Amazing! This book goes from a history of handspinning, to processing and spinning your own fibers, to making novelty yarns. While the downside of this book is that the pictures aren’t too appealing, the information is incredibly helpful. I know I’m not a book critic, so my word may not be much, but I am someone eager to learn to spin and I reach for this book everytime I sit at the wheel.

Have fun spinning!

Kate

Since winter has come to New Zealand I have been inspired to start crocheting again. So what better way to start then to have a look around the net and see what great patterns have come out for some inspiration. Here are some links I wanted to share with you:

• First of all you have to go and have a look at PlanetJune‘s blog here she has been crocheting up a storm over the last couple of weeks. And you can not really resist these adorable amigurumi.. Have a look around at all the other patterns June writes (some are freebies!) when you are here.

• Another awesome free project can be found here on Little Projects blog. It is a purse organiser so you can stop rummaging for your lip balm, cellphone, keys, change for parking, cards etc and get organised. Its a quick crochet pattern after that just pop it in the washer a couple of times ans taaddaaaa!! Have a look around this blog while you are here there, Jo sells some awesome crochet patterns for bags. The one below is my favourite. 
• Some of you might have already seen this one featured on other blogs but I am so in love with Brie’s work, her blog is called Roman Sock and you can find it here. She has promised to write us a pattern/tutorial about this amazing Acorn so better go and leave a comment.

I hope this got you really inspired to do some crocheting this week. Don’t forget to post a picture in our Flickr Group or for some more inspiration go and join the the Crochet Along they have a new theme every 2 months starting and you are welcome to join anytime.

Eve

Since I’ve been talking about baby hats lately, I thought I would share this awesome way to get involved and make a difference in the life of a child.

Save the Children is calling on knitters (and non-knitters willing to learn) everywhere to knit newborn baby hats to send to newborns around the world. A hat protects infants in other countries from getting pneumonia and potentially helps save their lives.

So check it out. If you’re a knitter, perfect! And if you’re not, they even have a section dedicated to teaching us non-knitters (I don’t know how to knit yet, either) the basics of knitting. Pretty cool. Let us know if you decide to do it – I’d love to see your pictures.

Earth Day is just around the corner (April 22nd). In honor of Earth Day, I thought I’d highlight some of the crafts you can make from used material. Craft something that’s earth friendly today!

PAPER CRAFT IDEAS

Tealight Decoration using recycled cardboard tubing.

Magazine Bowl – a bowl made of magazine pages. Amazing!

Make your own Paper – Use up your paper scraps and make new paper.

Handbag made from books – This is the coolest! Refashion an old book into a cool purse.

FABRIC & YARN IDEAS

Peasant top – Cute shirt made from a thrift store muumuu.

T-shirt into Tube Top – It even has cute pockets.

Refashioned T-shirt – Make an oversized shirt fit you.

Field Bag – Use your old clothing to make this cool field bag.

Denim Potholder – Cute way to reuse your old jeans.

Knit Tea Cozy – Use up your leftover yarn stash!

PLASTIC IDEAS

Crocheted Plastic Bag Tote – Cute bag made from plastic bags.

Messenger Bag – Another crocheted bag using plastic bags.

Fusing plastic bags – This tutorial teaches you how to fuse plastic bags together, which can then be used to make all kinds of cool stuff!

VCR Tape Evening Bag – Have a bunch of old VHS tapes you don’t need? Crochet the tape into this fabulous bag!

METAL IDEAS

Aluminum Can Jewelry – A beautiful way to reuse an aluminum can. And it’s wearable.

*Photo by aussiegall

I’ve loved flip books ever since grade school when I used to draw stick figure animations in the margins of my text books. Lately I’ve seen a lot of different ways to make them yourself, or have them made for you from your videos or illustrations. They’re definitely a fun little thing to have around, an interesting novelty, but I have to admit my practical side has resisted them, because really, what purpose do they serve?

The answer is simple: tutorials! These knitting flip books, called Flip Knit, by Annie Modesitt are the perfect practical application of the flip book. Each book shows two different knitting techniques. Flip the book from the front for the first one, and turn it over to flip from the back for the second. Here’s a video of one in action. This is such a great idea, I wonder what other craft techniques could be taught with a flip book?

via The Independent Stitch.

Cheers!
Donna