Product Review - Pom-Pom Maker

There's nothing really complicated or difficult about making a pom-pom, however this lovely little tool from Clover, makes it even easier.

It removes the need to cut out your own templates from card and means instead of threading the wool through the hole in the centre of the card, which can become a little fiddly, you open each side of the tool and can wrap the wool around much more quickly.

Then you folds the sides back in once you have finished winding the wool around, and cut around the edges as normal and tie a piece of wool or cotton around the middle, to secure the threads together.

The tool then pulls apart in two halves so you're left with a pom-pom, give it a trim to tidy up any loose ends and that's all there is too it.


My cute little Easter Chick was made using this tool

Nickel Content in Jewellery

• a post inserted into a pierce part of the body must have a nickel release rate of less than 0.2ug/cm2/week
• jewellery in direct and prolonged contact with the skin must have a nickel release rate of less than 0.5ug/cm2/week

Crochet Demonstration

Popped in to Hobbycraft for more supplies last week and saw the sign for a crochet demonstration this week.  This basically just made for a good excuse to go back to Hobbycraft again on Saturday so I could see the demo, (and buy more supplies of course!)

I've often been told that crochet is easier than knitting, but to be honest I was never entirely convinced.  However, after a few minutes of watching the demo the lady handed me the crochet hook and wool and asked if I wanted to give it a try.  That was it, I was hooked.

Admittedly I need to work on keeping the tension right, I have the same problem with my knitting, however the actual stitches are actually quite easy and the best thing is, it's so simple to undo and correct if you make a mistake!

I can see now that this is the start of a new hobby... not sure how I'll find the time to fit it in between all my other craft projects but I'm certainly going to try...

Product Review - Mini Christmas Knits (Twenty to Make) by Sue Stratford

I brought this book after seeing the lovely snowman that a friend had made from it, and wanted to have a go myself.

Having never followed a knitting pattern before I was a bit concerned that I might struggle with it, as the finished pieces look so good I figured they must be complicated to make. 

However, I created two lovely little snowmen relatively easily, admittedly they did take me a long time to finish, but that's simply down to me having too many craft projects on the go and not enough time to finish them all.

The book provides good, clear instructions and lovely pictures.  They are fun to make, and turned out really well (even if I do say so myself).  I'm looking forward to trying some more out later in the year ready for next Christmas.

Knitted Jacket

Thought it was about time I uploaded a photo of my first big knitting project...   It's a lovely long jacket from the Patons Colour Works Aran Book 3821.  It's my first knitted item of clothing (aside from scarves).

I've even started stitching it together, just one sleeve to finish knitting and it'll be ready to wear.

Okay, so technically that's a lie.  It's not actually my first big project.   The first started project is currently still taking refuge at the back of the wardrobe, where I hid it after deciding that it was a little to complicated to be the first big project I tackled.  I just dug it out for a quick photo:

Recognise it?  No?  To be honest I'm not surprised, it was a while ago I posted a photo of it.  April 2013 to be precise (I just did a double take when I looked up the date, I hadn't realised it was quite that long ago).  The scary thing is, it really doesn't look that much different...  here's a recap of the photo from back then:

And yes, it is still the same piece :(

Perhaps my joke about this jumper being finished in time for 2020 wasn't so much of a joke after all...

I abandoned this jumper when the counting of knits and pearls to get the pattern right was driving me loopy (or maybe loopier?), not helped by the fact that I struggled to tell the difference between the stitches when the were on the needle.  So I frequently went wrong and didn't realize until I got to the end of the row and the pattern called for 2 knit stitches when I only had one left on the needle...oops!

So a nice simple jacket seemed like a good idea... until I decided that it wasn't long enough and had to start over again :(  It wouldn't have been an issue with a normal pattern, I could have just knitted a few extra rows to make it the desired length.  Unfortunately, this pattern is knitted sideways which meant the number of stitches on the needle is the length that the jacket would be.  Never mind, at least it was a simple pattern, with chunky wool on nice big needles, so it thankfully grew fast (even when I was knitting it for the second time).  Who knows this jacket might even be finished this year.  How many weeks till Christmas was it again?

Anniversary Project

Apologies, I've been a bit remiss about my blog recently.  Not sure where the times goes!

In addition to workshops and filling website orders, I've been some what occupied making a cross stitch for my parents wedding anniversary.  I figured that 15 years was probably long enough for the kit to have sat unopened in the back of my wardrobe!

Based on the size of it, I see now why I left it so long, it's taken ages to make!  However its almost there :) just some text to sew on now to personalise it, a good iron and it'll be finished ahead of schedule.   Well ok, so ahead of the new schedule, rather the schedule that I had in mind when I brought it 15 years ago, I certainly hadn't planned on taking quite so long to get around to it! 

I just hope Mum still likes hedgehogs.  She was a bit of a collector of all things with cute hedgehogs on when I brought the kit.  She doesn't collect them anymore, but hopefully still finds them adorable right?

Jewellery Repair Service - How to convert to clip on earrings

My challenge this week was to convert a pair of stud earrings into clip-on earrings.

Converting dropper earrings into clip-on earrings is usually quite easy.  You can normally disconnect the dropper from the earring, either by opening the loop at the top of the dropper, or if necessary using wire cutters to cut the loop on the earring (don't cut the loop on the dropper though). 

Once the dropper is separated from the earring, you can attach it to a clip-on earring, either by opening the loop on the earring or using a jump ring to connect the two pieces together.

I sell clip on earring repair kits in my store if you want to carry out your own conversion

Clip-on earring repair kits

However, converting stud earrings is more difficult as they don't have the loop.  Fortunately though the earrings I was asked to convert were gemstones in a claw setting.  This meant I was able to thread wire through the claw and create my own loop, which I then attached to the clip-on earring. 

I used a pair of flush cutter wire cutters to cut off the ear post of the original earring and filed down the rough edge at the back of the claw.

A couple of points to be aware of if you are trying this conversion yourself:

• when you cut the ear post off the earring, it will change the weight distribution of the earring, so the stone may drop forward if you haven't taken this into account when making your loop with the wire.
• you need to take care not to weaken the claw setting, when cutting the post off the earring and when creating your loop in the wire, else the stone may fall out.

Please be aware that I accept no responsibility for any repairs that you conduct yourselves from this post.  This is simply information on how I made a conversion from studs to clip-on earrings.  Cutting the ear post, or threading wire though the claw setting may cause damage to, or weaken your earring.

The lady I carried out this repair for was fully aware of the risks before I commenced the conversion, but as the earrings were useless to her as they were, she was eager for me to proceed.  Happily it worked really well and she is delighted with the results!