The cable pattern is just beautiful. It looked questionable at various points along the way but always worked itself out in subsequent rows. Following my notes from last time, I used a J hook (6mm) and made the XL size with the S/M ribbing width. I might have been able to make the L, because under its considerable weight it wanted to slouch off my shoulders. I made two fixes to that.

One was to make the ends meet at 90 degrees instead of head on, by placing the buttons parallel to the base of the ribbing instead of parallel to the front edge. That wasn’t enough, so I also slip-stitched from rib to rib on the inside, near the base of the ribbing, to reduce the stretch. That worked perfectly and also made the ribbing stand like an evil Disney queen’s collar, which was a pleasant side effect.

My buttons were marked 1″ and are chunky. I may need to reinforce the buttonholes to keep them from wanting to slip out, but they work pretty well. I like that they look like fancy dice.

Red and purple are hard to photograph…

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Title, compass rose, and attribution. Since I did the vast majority of the work last year I used that date. And since I am me, I designed the alphabet myself, all the letters in upper- and lowercase, and digits although I ultimately liked the look of the Roman numerals better.

Since blackwork was popular over a long stretch of time I had a lot of options for an era-appropriate script. I found a website called Medieval Writing with lots of examples of scripts and was able to observe my lowercase options pretty thoroughly. I decided to create a blend of 15th-16th century English chancery hand and 15th-16th century French and Italian humanistic minuscule, with an eye to legibility for modern readers. Well, it turned out more to be based on those scripts in the way that TV movies are based on true stories, but I think it has the right flavor. I made the uppercase and numbers by looking at assorted typefaces and online calligraphy lessons, and the ampersand right out of my head. My favorites are the old-looking a, dramatic d, and potbellied U.

I have for you a blackwork alphabet PDF that includes the laid-out text for the map (aside from my name, which I didn’t think would be of much use). I thought it would be useful as an example of kerning the letters even if you wanted to use this for a different project.

After stitching, I washed the map and hung it from a deck chair out back, before I remembered I needed to block it on the ironing board with six or seven hundred pins. Next stop: the frame shop. I’ve never had any of my embroidery framed, so this will be an adventure.

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I’ve apparently never written here about my electric toothbrush sander, made from June Gilbank’s tutorial. I used it to take the little molding nub off the sides of the buttons, and it worked terrifically.

Anyway, I have postponed the final images long enough. The shawl itself:

A few more notes: I ended up with one fewer starting shell and one fewer row-pair than the original pattern; the latter was actually great because it meant I needed 16 of my four-to-a-card buttons instead of 17. I do wish I had a bit more length – my shoulders are broader than average and my options for ways to wear this are somewhat restricted.

I had a hell of a time rewinding the yarn for use. It did not particularly want to unwind from the outside, but I couldn’t get it to pull from the inside. So I went back to the outside, but the first skein sort of exploded, and even with my loving husband’s help, getting it untangled took hours of work and split it into four pieces. I was smarter about the second skein and worked from the outside entirely, but even so it took an hour and a half to get it usable.

Finally, although synthetic fibers don’t really block, I did sort of block it. I machine washed it in a fine mesh bag, laid it out longways over my collapsible wooden drying rack, and clipped clothespins all around it. Every shell on the ends, and every four or five shells on the sides, with a second pin crosswise to the first for weight along the sides and a few extra pins clipped onto existing pins on the ends. It looked hilarious but worked pretty well. Should have gotten a photo!

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Instead of a long foundation chain followed by a row of single crochet, I made 213 foundation single crochets to start. Otherwise I followed the pattern, save fixing one typo: In row 9, just before “repeat from * across” it says to dc 3 rows down and skip the next sc. In between those two instructions it should have you chain 2 (in place of the sc you’re skipping).

The pattern calls for you to chain 2 whenever you’re skipping 1 stitch. If I were starting over I would only chain 1. It’s likely the designer’s chains are tighter than mine and a single one puckered unattractively, but in my tension the two chains spread and make the key pattern serif instead of sans-serif, so to speak.

I made the second panel twice. The first time I joined all my leftover gray and still ran out with one long row left. Instead of continuing from that point with new gray yarn and a dozen tails to deal with, I decided to pull it out, and when I got back to the beginning purple I realized I’d joined that in the second row as well! Must have cut out a knot or frayed area. Anyway at that point it seemed worthwhile to start completely over. Once I got the new skein of gray I realized why I’d run out: it wasn’t enough for the panel! Barely – I ran out with maybe 10 stitches left – but man, that’s a yarn eater. I pulled back to the start of the row so the tails would be at the edge and used some of the previous leftovers to finish. Unfortunately the new skein was a vastly different dyelot than the previous, but in the not terribly bright light of the bedroom, hanging off the edge of the bed, it should be fine.

Since I’m down to just the border, here’s my leftover non-black yarn (plus all the ball bands, minus one small ball of light gray which hid in the bag). This is the remainder from 5 dark gray (Red Heart Classic Nickel), 3 light gray (RHC Silver), 5 light purple (RH With Love Lilac, double-sized skeins), and 4 dark purple (RHWL Violet, ditto). The pattern called for 3, 2, 9, and 7 single-size skeins of each color, respectively, so I used less than one additional skein of each color (not counting the extra gray for the extra panels).

In fact, if I’d omitted the extra panels and done the joins and border in two different colors, I believe I could have squeezed them out of the remaining yarn as well. That’s rather amazing because my afghan came out a third again the size predicted – the squares that said they would be 9″ came out 12″ – and I did not buy a third again the called-for yarn. My work must have much more extra air space than extra yarn.

I’ve begun the border but it is slow. I’ve now been working on this afghan fairly steadily for nearly seven months, though, so what’s another one or two?

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I made two pencil bags using a tutorial from craftlog.org, with some changes: I was using zippers with decorative tape, so I wanted them entirely on the outside, and I was limited to 7″ instead of 9″ length. I cut the fabrics (and lightweight interfacing because they were quilting cottons) 9″ by 11″ instead of 10″x12″ and sewed them down the 9″ sides, right sides together with interfacing on the wrong side of one, and with a half inch seam allowance. After pressing, I turned it right side out and pressed flat, with the lining fabric peeking just a tiny bit to the outside at each seam. The zipper took up the length of the seam – make sure you space the teeth a bit away from the fabric – and I ran two lines of topstitching down each tape. The second side is awkward, of course. From then on it’s just as in the original tutorial (well, without needing to trim the zipper tape), though you have to pin the open ends of the zipper tape close to each other on the backside of the pouch, and I attached my binding differently from hers. That’s a matter of taste and familiarity. I like to unfold the tape and line the smaller side up with the edge of the fabric, then stitch in the fold, and after wrapping the tape over the edge with the ends inside appropriately, stitch in the ditch on the front to secure the back of the binding.

The other item up there is a “spa scrubbie” from Flamingo Toes. I didn’t change the pattern at all, but doing the final topstitching I wish I would have hand-basted the turning opening closed first. I worried that pins would be bent in the sewing of it, but I wasn’t able to keep the edges lined up by hand and so had to go back and hand-sew afterward anyway. The terrycloth was a washcloth, which was just right size-wise (wide enough to gather up, long enough to trim off the smooth “stripes” parallel to one edge, but almost no other extra), and the other fabric was from a thermal shirt I couldn’t resist at the thrift store, but which turned out to be too small even to be a layering piece. Glad to put some of its cute owls to use.

The Christmas sewing not from a pattern amounted to two other things. First, cat toys: pillows with strips of fabric and lots of fresh catnip from the bulk spice aisle of the local co-op, with the ends closed at 90 degrees to each other, so to speak. One end has the side seam in a crease, and the other has the side seam halfway between creases. I’m told they’re quite popular and the first one was soaking wet a few hours after the kitties were given it.

Finally, with no photo because it’s not mine to share, a friend asked me to make texting gloves for another friend. He had wonderful lined leather gloves and conductive thread from Chica and Jo, and asked me to stitch the Triforce on the index fingers and thumbs. Turns out the Triforce is a terrific motif because it splits out into three regions that are relatively small, which gives you accuracy plus different spots to use for tapping versus pinching. I didn’t worry about making the interior of the stitching “messy” (as you’ll see in various tutorials) – when outlining the large triangle I stitched all the way across on the inside, but due to the fuzzy lining it wasn’t terribly noticeable. When we tested, though, that was ample contact to trigger the screen. Two tools were indispensable for the process: a large marker to act as a “darning egg,” keeping me from sewing through the lining of the opposite side of the finger, and a needle puller (small flower-shaped piece of rubber, like a jar opener), which I used to protect my finger when pushing and to grab the needle for pulling. Nice leather is both tough and grabby.

When next we meet it will be 2015! Enjoy your New Year’s Eve!

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I thought at first that I would chain stitch ribbon around wire, bend it into shape, and connect the ends; nesting two or three of different sizes would fill out the star. That might have worked if my wire had been a bit heavier, but as it was it was too flimsy, and it was also difficult to smooth and flatten the wire without crimping and creasing the ribbon.

Then I went looking for patterns and found one by Kimura Kraft that I liked the look of. Unfortunately it didn’t work in ribbon; the inner part was somehow too large for the outside.

Fortunately I had purchased three “kegs” of ribbon, so after two strikes I could still try for a hit, modifying that pattern. For the star shown I used a J hook (6mm), a 40ft roll of 3/16 inch wide ribbon (12.2m|~5mm), and a generous 2ft (60cm) of 28-gauge jewelry wire. I had a decent bit of ribbon left, but only about half the difference to the next available size down, 32ft (9.75m).

Here are my changes to Markus’s pattern. Unfamiliar abbreviations below (and the rest of them too) are explained on the Crochet Reference page.
Round 1: Replace the starting ring and chains with “ch-4, work into ch next to sl kn.” Make sure to put your sl kn onto the hk loosely – ribbon is inelastic.
Round 2: Ch 3 to start instead of 2; work only 1 dc where it says to work 2 (so don’t make that first dc, in particular).
Round 3: This one’s different enough that it’s simpler to give the instructions in full. Note that “in picot” means to treat the “sl st in 3rd ch from hk” parts of rnd 2 as chain rings, working into the center:
No ch this rnd. Work the following stitches around the wire as well as the rnd-2 sts, leaving a wire tail of several inches: *sc 2 around next ch-2; [sc 2, ch 1, dc, ch 1, sc 2] in picot; sc 2 around next ch-2; sk dc* around. Sl st into 1st sc of rnd to join (40 sc, 10 ch, 5 dc). FO ribbon.
Twist ends of wire together and use to attach star to tree or other hanging/display place. Shape by hand.

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The photo is my button box and organizing system for buttons that belong to clothing I currently own: I got a package of paper tags on strings, and I attach one to each button packet, write a description of the article of clothing on the tag, and add the lot to a large safety pin.

Fabric (and embellished fabric)

The easiest way to make fabric buttons is with button cover kits, which come in many sizes. To dress them up you can ruche the fabric (works best with very large buttons), embroider it, or embellish it with beads.

You don’t have to use a kit, though, and Angie’s Bits and Pieces has tutorials for making standard shank buttons and a particular style called singleton buttons, which are made over a ring and have a raised outer edge as a consequence (there’s a slightly more involved version on Craft Stylish). The Renaissance Tailor has a near-spherical version with stuffing or a wooden bead as the core, and with something heavy like wool felt you don’t even need the stuffing. You can even make bead-encrusted buttons without a cover kit, as shown in this tutorial from Shawkl (though if your buttons will encounter water, don’t use cardboard as your stiffening layer – thin plastic from food packaging, another button, or something like a bingo chip would be preferable).

Knots

Knotted cord is a classic form of button. It calls to mind frog closures, though you can certainly use these buttons elsewhere (and very small knotted buttons are seen on wedding dresses sometimes). Of course you can use any knot you like as your button, provided it’s bulky enough to stay closed, but there are standard choices. There are instructions in the frog link, and you’ll find two distinct tutorials for the Chinese button knot on Chinese Knotting and Free Macrame Patterns, so hopefully among them you’ll figure it out easily. There are also a Celtic button knot and the large and lovely Bao treasure knot as options.

Additional toggles and a button called the Monkey’s Fist are in this Threads magazine article if you scroll down. Finally, Threads magazine also has an article about using fabric rather than (or sometimes in addition to) cord for these buttons.

Wrapped or woven thread

Needle-woven buttons comprise a large category, I found out. The simplest form would be to wrap a disk of some stiff material with yarn, either slightly offsetting each wrap from the previous to work your way around and cover the whole thing, or doing a bit of weaving as in this Knitting Daily tutorial (but again, don’t use cardboard if the button might get wet).

Button weaving can get arbitrarily complicated, though. You can cover a wooden bead, as shown on The Renaissance Tailor; a similar version is called a grindle button and uses needle weaving to cover a fabric-wrapped base. Death’s head buttons, also called Leek buttons, are a particular class of needle woven buttons that seem to be distinguished by starting with an X-shaped wrap used to anchor subsequent stitches. The basic button acquires a look similar to raised fishbone stitch in embroidery, but the weaving is unlimited. I try to avoid non-tutorials in these roundups (otherwise we’d be here all year) but you really have to see this eighteenth-century example.

Dorset buttons are needle-woven buttons made using a ring as the base. You’ll find basic instructions at Craft Stylish and in pdf form from Rachel Clare; the latter is aimed at children. Threads Magazine has a page with fancier variations, including a different style called shirtwaist buttons. As with the death’s head buttons, you can make as fancy a weave as you like here.

Rachel Clare also has instructions for Yorkshire buttons, an all-thread (well, plus a little stuffing) woven button made on a stiff round frame that is removed when the weaving is finished. They look perhaps to be a specific kind of Teneriffe lace, but the other examples of Teneriffe I’ve found are too open to be used for buttons without a lining layer.

Other methods

Crochet is another popular way to make buttons from yarn or thread. Mrs. Micawber has a flat crocheted button that involves only yarn; you can also crochet buttons that are round and stuffed or flat, but double-layered and stabilized by a plastic ring or an internal button or other disk.

Wool fleece can be felted down into buttons, either spherical or flat. The International Feltmaker’s Association has instructions for spheres, both wet felted and needle felted; see Simple and Joyful for an additional needle felted version. Mollie Makes has a tutorial for a flat button, and this tutorial from The Art of Megan for felt cabochons could easily be adapted to buttons.

Additional fiber-based buttons I wasn’t able to track down tutorials for online may be found in the book 50 Heirloom Buttons to Make.

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In the early days of this blog I designed a compact fluorescent lightbulb and stitched an incandescent bulb to go along with it. In honor of today I thought I’d write a pattern for the incandescent bulb, clean up the CFL pattern if possible, and add an LED bulb pattern to the mix!

The CFL changes have been made to the original blog post, and for the LED pattern you’ll have to get the Name-Your-Price pattern in the store (which includes all three bulbs). The incandescent pattern is below.

Incandescent Light Bulb

Gauge is not terribly important, but since I use an E/4 hook (3.5mm) on the CFL, I used it on the incandescent as well. You’ll need worsted weight yarn in two colors, stuffing, and (optionally) something to weight the bottom with (I have used tangled necklace chains, beads, pebbles, and coins). My crochet abbreviations and conventions are on the crochet reference page, and any stitch instruction you might want is linked to from the pattern page.

In bulb color:
1. Form magic ring, ch 1, and sc 6.
2. 2sc around (12).
3. *Sc, 2sc* around (18).
4. *2sc, sc 2* around (24).
5. Sc 2, *2sc, sc 3* five times, 2sc, sc (30).
6-8. Sc around (30 sc; 3 rnds).
9. *Dec, sc 5* four times, sc 2 (26).
10. Sc 2, *dec, sc 4* four times (22).
11. *Dec, sc 3* four times, sc 2 (18).
12-13. Sc around (18 sc, 2 rnds).
14. *Dec, sc 4* around (15).
15-17. Sc around (15 sc; 3 rnds).
18. *Dec, sc 3* around (12). Stuff bulb.

Cut yarn and needle join in second stitch from end; FO bulb color.

In base color: tie slip knot and place on hook. Insert into any stitch of rnd 18 and attach with slip stitch.
19. Starting in next st and ended in same st as sl st, sc around (12).
20-23. Sc around (12 sc; 4 rnds). Stuff, finishing with bottom weight if using.
24. *Dec* around (6). FO.

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Today is tau day, 6/28. In its honor, I have a tau for you. This is made by cutting pi in half rather than doubling it: you need the Big and Little Pi pattern, but then you simply do only select parts of it to make tau.

Here is how to make tau from Big little pi:

• Big little pi top bar: stitch rounds 1-17 (horn through first leg opening). Proceed to stitch rounds 28-33 (making the leg before stitching round 33, as directed).
• To check your counting: there will be 6 rounds of “sc around” after the round that stitches into the chain of the leg opening.
• Big little pi tapered foot: make as instructed, beginning in the center skipped stitch of round 12.

That’s all!

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Grain Monster Pattern

You’ll find grain monsters in many places….

The flour canister is an obvious place to look.

The mixing bowl likewise, but….

They can appear in places you wouldn’t expect, as well!

Mean or nice, however, they like to play, especially if they can build something.

For more portraits and details about the pattern, visit the pattern page.

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