fiber arts and handicrafts

[Frelga]

Offler's teeth! Yes!

[Impenitent]

More like a Mccaffrey fire lizard It's very cute!

Maria, don't give up this new hobby - you are so very good at it, and your skills can only get better and the creatures you produce will be more and more magnificent. I can't wait to see where you're at in a year from now, in two, in five, in ten! I knew her when....

[Maria]

I had to stop needle felting. I gave myself a repetitive motion injury to my elbow. After 1.5 years it doesn't hurt any more... except if I do the needle felting motion.

I've taken up crocheting again. It doesn't use the same muscles, so doesn't trigger the needle felting injury. As long as I don't tighten up my finger muscles too much it doesn't hurt at all. Here's what I've been working on:

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It's not done yet. I'm going to make it to fit a king sized bed.
This is all yarn from my sheep.
In their natural colors.

[Inanna]

Wow.

[Primula Baggins]

Gorgeous, Maria. An heirloom in the making!

[Maria]

I hope someone wants to keep it when we are gone! It'd be a shame if it sold in an estate sale for $15.
Crocheted afghans are probably the least appreciated craft there is. They sell on Ebay for tiny fractions of the amount the yarn cost, not to mention the hundreds of hours in their making.

I may put a tag on it when I'm done, just so someone knows it is wool and doesn't just throw it in the washing machine and turn it into a ball of felt.

[Lalaith]

That is lovely, Maria! I do hope it is loved and appreciated long after you're gone.

[Frelga]

It looks beautiful and I hope it's treasured as it should be.

[Sunsilver]

My birth mom hand-crocheted a queen sized bedspread. I didn't want to keep it because it was white, and very heavy, therefore difficult to keep clean. And I have a black cat who likes to sleep on my bed. I also have a queen sized handmade quilt that was a wedding gift from one of my aunts.

When I had the yard sale last summer to get rid of some of Pat's possessions, I didn't include it in the sale, as I had no idea of how to price it. However, a lady who did crocheting happened to see it and wanted to buy it. I told her I couldn't put a price on it, and she bought some yarn from me, and went on her way.

She returned on the final day of the sale, late in the day, and wanted to offer me $20 for it. She KNEW how much work went into something like that! I felt the offer was an insult to my mom's memory, and turned her down.

I wound up giving the quilt to a cousin who lives near London, Ontario. She knew my mom personally, and will be able to treasure the quilt as a family heirloom.

[Maria]

I bought an oversized king sized afghan on Ebay this year, so I could have a better idea of how the joining method on the granny squares worked, since I could see it was the same method I wanted to use. Also, I wanted an enormous, heavy blanket for our bed that I *could* throw in the wash if needed.
This was the Ebay listing photo:

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It's 120 inches by 130 inches and weighs 17 lbs. I couldn't fit it in the washing machine. I had to wash it in the bathtub, and then hang it outside to dry. I strung a pole between two posts to lay it over outside, and it was incredibly heavy. I almost couldn't get it up there. It probably weighed 70 lbs or more when wet!

It makes a nice heavy cover for the bed, one wide enough that we never fight over the covers in the night, but it drags the floor at the lower end of the bed. I've taken it off for the summer, and may modify it for winter use.

What I DID learn about construction of such a thing was to NOT attach one row of squares all using the same length of yarn. The stitching slipped a bit during my epic struggle to get the thing over the drying pole and made a ruffle like gathered edge. It was easy to fix, however... just slide the stuff back where it was supposed to be. I'm doing mine so it doesn't do that, of course.

I think mine is going to be lighter, too. Not sure why. What I've got done is about half the size of the one I bought and it's much lighter than half of the big one. Finished weight is going to be less.
Probably.

(Edited because I hit submit too soon and wasn't done yet!)

[Sunsilver]

Maria, I am curious to know how much you paid for it, given what I posted above!
And yes, hand-crocheted bedspreads ARE very heavy!

[Cerin]

Maria, I'm sorry you had to give up the needle felting; it seemed like a true calling.

Maybe you could sew a label to the back of the crocheted piece, telling about care, and also your date and location, so that if it endures, the people enjoying it will know something of its history.

[Maria]

I've tried needle felting just half an hour per day to limit joint strain, and found that I can't get into the .... zone, I guess I'll call it. I don't get caught up creation mode and when I stab my fingers it really hurts. When I could felt for hours at a time, I'd be so caught up in making what I imagined turn real that I'd really not notice the finger pricks unless they got bloody.

I've got a mostly done black and purple dragon that I need to make myself finish, even if it's only half an hour at a time. The poor thing's been sitting on a shelf for a year and a half with only one wing. Making wing membrane takes forever, though, which is partly why I bogged down with the half hour at at time restriction. Didn't seem to be making any progress and more interesting projects kept luring me away. AND I seem to stab my fingers more, the longer the intervals between working on it.

I paid $159 for the huge crocheted afghan, Sunny. Shipping included. It's really hard to get oversized bedding of any sort for a reasonable price, so I talked myself into paying that much. I did toy with the idea of getting two similar twin sized ones and stitching them together... but decided there was no chance it wouldn't look crappy and discarded the idea.

I like the weight. I never feel warm in the winter unless I have heavy covers on the bed.

[Sunsilver]

Given the amount of work that obviously went into that quilt, $159 seems a very reasonable price! Handmade quilts at local fairs in my area sell for hundreds of dollars.

I love the quilt one of my aunts made for me as a wedding gift, and I only have the one queen-sized bed, so I really didn't need the one my mother made.

I took this picture because Black Jack is hiding underneath the quilt...

[Maria]

That's a pretty quilt.

Brand new crocheted quilts/afghans do cost hundreds of dollars on Ebay. The one I got was used, and such things are always a gamble over the internet. Will it smell fusty? Are there lots of little places where the yarn is sticking out that the photo doesn't show? Are there stains? This one didn't have any of those faults.

My only complaint with this one is that the finished texture is a bit rough. It's certainly not a yarn I would have chosen. Our cats love it, though. And with a sheet between the yarn and you, you don't feel the scratchiness. If I'd been able to evaluate it in person first, though, I probably wouldn't have bought it.

When I'm working with Shetland wool, acrylic yarn always feels harsh.

[Frelga]

Sunny, that's a very pretty quilt.

Could I get some advice from you experienced knitters? I'd like to get back into regular knitting. I finished an alpaca scarf for my son (back in a fall, although I haven't dared to ask if he actually wore it) and I'm looking for my next project. I think I'm ready for something larger. Do you think I should risk a sweater, or should I go for a hat first?

Also, if I make something for him, it has to be machine washable. I've seen wool advertised as washable, but I have dire suspicions. What do you think, stick to cotton? I need it to be soft, so that the project is a pleasant touch experience, or I'll never finish it.

[Maria]

There are yarns out there that are marketed as machine washable, but I've never tried them. I'm also not a knitter, so I can't advise you.

[Impenitent]

I hope this isn't considered out of place, as it's made of plarn rather than a natural fibre.
I think I used about 20 or so plastic supermarket bags to make the plarn.
I quite like it.


Sent from a tiny phone keyboard via Tapatalk - typos inevitable.

[Primula Baggins]

Lovely, Impy! Plastic supermarket bags that will continue to be useful for years.

[Inanna]

That’s actually beautiful.