A little bit of crochet

Found a piece of silk-like fabric in my stash, that looked great but was too small for anything but a scarf. To add that little something, I crocheted two lace trims using two shades of pearl cotton and sewed them on the scarf ends.




Really like these dark teal colour accents.

Cosy needles

In order to make the finding of double pointed needle sets easier, I made some special cosies for them. Although I liked the look of them all together in a jar, this way the sets are always handy and any member less likely to be misplaced.




The cosies are simple tubes worked in the round and embellished with a tiny crochet flower.

Crazy colours against cold

In the midst of white snow, ice and cold, even tiniest colour splashes can feel like a warm Southern breeze. Hot weather is brought to you today by a ribbon embellished pincushion from Bollywood and a miniature crocheted thread basket from the Caribbean:

What women crafted 107 years ago

Came across an antique German craft magazin called Frauen-Fleiss (Women's Diligence) from 1904 and I just have to share some of those fabulous art nouveau style designs and patterns.
It appears to be a tabloid size magazine on four pages, published quarterly since 1893, possibly a supplement of some newspaper.



Bin seit kurzem in den Besitz einer alten Handarbeitszeitung "Frauen-Fleiß" von 1904 bekommen und einfach muß einige von diesen wunderbaren Handarbeiten im Jugendstil vorstellen.
Diese Zeitung auf vier Seiten wurde offensichtlich seit 1893 von Verlag John Henry Schwerin veröffentlicht, möglicherweise als eine Beilage zu irgendeiner größeren Zeitung.

Die Zeitung hat insgesamt 53 Anleitungen, meistens für Stickereien, Näh- und Häkelarbeiten, aber ebenso für einen Behälter für Postkarten in "modernem Kerbschnitt" und für einen Palmenkübel als Tiefbrand-Modellierarbeit.
Es gab noch einen Extra-Bogen mit Musterzeichnungen für größeren Arbeiten, den mußte man von der Redaktion zusätzlich kaufen.


There are 53 instructions for sewing, embroidery, crochet and other needlework, but also for a wooden postcard storage box and a decorated flower pot to be made of clay.













This last crochet lace edging seemed the easiest piece in the collection and the pattern quite understandable to my surprise, so this is my small sample with one motif:



Not sure, if everything turned out the way it was supposed to, but it looks art nouveau enough to me. The only thing missing now is a dress on where to sew it.

Seaside bracelets

The weather has warmed up even here in the North and beach is the place where most people prefer to be.
I had some aqua blue glass chips, just the right colour for this summer, added some glass beads, moonstones and shells and all this was enough for three bracelets.




The bases of two bracelets are crocheted of cotton and linen yarn, the blue one is woven in peyote stitch.

Meet Mannie

Mannie came to me feeling somewhat tired and neglected. She was really happy to hear that I was looking for an assistant and eager to start working right away.



Mannie is my only helper at the moment, doing fitting and modelling, and hopefully will help out with some bookkeeping and supplies shopping as well in the future. (Haven't told her that yet, letting her enjoy the summer first.)

Mannie before and after the makeover:




First thing, of course, was to make Mannie a new proper outfit.
I needed to find a fabric that was stretchy, textured and of beautiful cream or beige colour. Not an easy task at all, but... accomplished - after going through ALL the fabric stores in the city in two days.
This fabric is probably a mixture of cotton and synthetics and not so stretchy as Mannie's old dress, so I had to make a cut in the back and add a zipper.




To give a matching finishing to Mannie's wooden leg, I painted it with water diluted wall paint in three coats. The outcome was really surprising, looking as if the wood had been sandpapered and lime painted and all...