October 21, 2025 · 5:42 pm

Oh What a Lovely Evening- The Opening of The Oracle of Stillness-Weaving Coherence in the Chaos

The opening on Oct 17, 2025 at Harcourt House Gallery in Edmonton of my solo mixed media show of Woven Women Tapestries: ‘The Oracle of Stillness- Weaving Coherence in the Chaos’ was wonderful.

I made a wobbly little video after the show was hung but before the lights were set, so some of the pieces don’t show up too well….

Here is the explanation of the show:

This little video by Noreen Crone-Findlay is a glimpse of her solo show of mixed media weaving: The Oracle of Stillness: Weaving Coherence in the Chaos. This series of Woven Women tapestries were created by Noreen Crone-Findlay over many years and include many mediums: fused glass, steel rod, steel and copper wire, beading, Teneriffe lace making, Tatted lace, lace and tapestry and narrow band weaving on looms specially constructed for the show by Crone-Findlay, thread, yarn, painting on wood, painting on watercolor paper, found objects, leather work, crochet, wire work, carved Tagua nut, and carved wood. The Oracle of Stillness speaks to the heart about navigating grief, sorrow around personal loss and chronic illness, as well as the shock of living in social and cultural upheaval. Noreen Crone-Findlay works with her dreams, meditations, prayers, poetry, and deep conversation to create Woven Women who embody presence, mystery, magic, The Great Beauty and the Feminine Divine. The Oracle of Stillness Woven Women are immersive, textural, layered and complex. Each one has taken hundreds of hours to complete and invite the gaze of the viewer to listen with their hearts to find the ‘ring of truth’ and point of Stillness int the quiet of the journey ‘Home’. Noreen hopes that you will find a moment of wonder or Beauty in the Oracle of Stillness Woven Women and to follow the complex threads that lead to the very center of our Being-ness. There is love in every stitch, every molecule of each of these mixed media weavings. May they bring healing…. with love. Please go to http://www.tottietalkscrafts.com for more information

Our dear friend, Andrea Gray took photos at the opening, and oi vey, when I was captioning the pics, I spelled her name wrong! For crying out loud! I had one job to do….. sigh… my apologies… its’ GRAY not Grey….

The gallery was packed to the rafters, so it wasn’t easy for her to get the photos and I am grateful to her! ❤

Anyhow here are the pics:

Just a note… they were taken at the end of the evening and I was exhausted, so I do look mighty droopy!

I will keep working on getting photos of the individual pieces up here and on fb and ig.

Hugs all round!

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February 23, 2025 · 12:44 pm

My Kindness Pin Loom Project

Kindness is important, isn’t it?

When we offer a tiny handmade gift that shows another person that we care about them and that they matter, it is a small act but an essential one.

It’s so lovely to brighten another person’s day by delighting them with a tiny handmade comfort gift.

Amazingly enough, that makes your day so much better, too! What a good way to help to create connection, community and hope.

That is why I have designed a whole bunch of charming little woven ‘Kindness Gifts’ and a small simple, eco friendly pin loom, the Kindness loom, that people can make for themselves using just a few household tools and upcycled materials.

The Kindness looms are perfect for weaving all manner of petite, simple and sweet Kindness gifts that are easy to make. They are a lovely a way to say: “I wish you well”.

The Kindness Pin Loom is all about weaving small tokens of caring, kindness, comfort, wishes for good luck, sweet peace and blessings! From the tiniest flying pigs, Lucky Penny pouches, Comfort Bears, Vasilisa Dolls, Angels, Goddesses to ‘Portrait’ Dolls in homage to family and friends, the Kindness Pin Loom can weave them all, because I am designing them with love and best wishes!

Making things that embody joy and whimsy in small things can add up to great goodness, can’t it? Yup. ❤

As I make the pdf’s for the Kindness projects that I have designed to weave on the Kindness Loom and load them up to my etsy shop, where they will be for sale for a modest fee, I’ll post the links to an all links page LINK And, as I make youtube videos on how to weave on the Kindness Loom as well as some freebie projects, I’ll post those links on the same page, too.

ALL THE LINKS FOR THE KINDNESS LOOM AND PROJECTS BY NOREEN CRONE-FINDLAY

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February 23, 2025 · 12:39 pm

ALL THE LINKS FOR THE WEAVING KINDNESS LOOM AND PROJECTS BY NOREEN CRONE-FINDLAY

Here are all the links for the WEAVING KINDNESS PROJECT by Noreen Crone-Findlay

1– What is the Kindness Loom Project all about? LINK

2– LINK to my etsy shop for:

PDF FOR STEP BY STEP INSTRUCTIONS SHOWING HOW TO MAKE A UNIQUE KINDNESS LOOM

This PDF of Step by Step Instructions shows how to make a Kindness Pin Loom. It’s the instructions for you to make the loom, not the finished loom. You’ll make your own unique one of a kind Kindness loom using these instructions purchased from my etsy shop.

3– Video tutorial: How to weave a square on the Kindness Loom by Noreen Crone-Findlay

LINK: https://youtu.be/2fzG2l-Hyzg

4- The video tutorial link for the how to’s for making the Lucky Penny Pouch is on

Weaving Kindness Project- How to weave a Lucky Penny Pouch

4- How to weave a Rectangle on the Kindness Loom: L I N K

The links to both the Square and Rectangle are on this blog post L I N K

5- How to Weave a Kindness Butterfly on the Kindness Loom: L I N K to free video tutorial

6- Tiny Flying Joy Pigs – L I N K to my etsy shop for the pattern

7- An update about pins for the Kindness Pin Loom L I N K

8- The woven Kindness Kittens- so adorable! L I N K

9- The Wise Little Mouse- L I N K

10- The Gentle Restful Rabbit- L I N K

11- Tiny Birds of Hope and Happiness and Comfort and More – L I N K

12- A New Version of the Kindness Loom L I N K

13- Kindred Spirit Comfort Dolls L I N K

14- Tiny Kindness Angel Dolls L I N K

15- Tiny Flat Comfort Bears: LINK

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March 3, 2026 · 9:55 am

Day 9 of #100daysofspoolknittersandlittlelooms-Jane Austen Spool Knitter – How to Upcycle a cardboard tube into a spool knitter

If you’d like to make a large spool knitter without woodworking tools, and have a few crafting tools, then you can make yourself a spool knitter that is uniquely yours and pleasing to work with.

You need a sturdy core for the body of the spool knitter. I wound off some jute string onto a bobbin to free up a cardboard tube.

It’s 1 1/2 inches/4 cm in diameter (yours can be any diameter that you happen to have) and 4 1/4 inches/10.5 cm tall.

I bought a little bag of bamboo lolly pop sticks in the candy making aisle of the grocery store (craft stores sell them too). They’re 1/4 inches/.5 cm in diameter and 5 inches/25 cm tall.

Mark 1 1/2 inches (4 cm) from the end of 6 (or however many you want) of them.

Line up the marks so they stick out from the end of the tube.

Glue the dowels to the outside of the tube with hot glue.

Now, mix up some wallpaper glue or thin some white glue.

Tear up paper and glue layers of it to the spool knitter.


My Homage to Jane Austen spool knitter is one of the unexpected delights that has unfolded for me because of my project, the #100daysofspoolknittersandlittlelooms. A couple of weeks ago, I picked up 4 old encyclopedias at the Re Use centre to use in papier mache projects.

What a thrill to find an article about Jane Austen in one of them. I immediately pulled her pages out and carefully tore them into sizes and shapes to fit the spool knitter. Then, I gleefully glued them on.

I waited overnight for the papier mache to dry and then added a little bit of color with water color pencil crayons and Mod Podged it.

I am absolutely delighted with my Homage to Jane Austen spool knitter!

#100daysofspoolknittersandlittlelooms has given me a lovely gift!

BTW- there are benefits of working with ‘larger than usual’ spool knitters and I will be showing those in upcoming posts.



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March 2, 2026 · 10:33 pm

Days 6 and 7 of #100daysofspoolknittersandlittlelooms-Upcycling bowls into spool knitters

Day 6 of #100daysofspoolknittersandlittlelooms-Upcycling thrift shop bowls into spool knitters

I have been working on a whole bunch of things for
#100daysofspoolknittersandlittlelooms all at once and have gotten all out of order on doing posts.

Back on Day 6 of #the100dayproject2026 I started working on a series of posts about upcycling to make spool knitters.

Last summer, when I was talking with my brother Jonathan (@distinctivewoodworking) about co-creating different sizes and shapes of spool knitters, I mentioned that I often make larger than what people usually expect spool knitters to be by upcycling thrift shop bowls.

He and his son, Kieran turn a LOT of gorgeous bowls on the lathe.

Sometimes, there are ‘oops’ and a bowl goes boink and gets tossed into the firewood box.

Jonathan said: Do you want some of those to make into spool knitters?

YES yes yes, I shrieked.

So I showed him how I take an unloved bowl from the thrift shop

and sand off the varnish (because usually, the varnish on thrift shop bowls is in tough shape).

And, I drill a big hole in the base, then 6, 7 or 8 holes for pegs,

Then I glue in pegs and I draw & burn on it, paint it, varnish it and Voila!

Start spool knitting with it!

I remembered to take pics of the process with the first bowl, but doh, completely forgot to do that with the second one.

Hurrah for upcycling! I’ll be posting lots more about upcyling things to make spool knitters.

And, yes, lots of posts about what you can make with spool knitters. As I said to Jonathan today:

Context and content! Spool knitters are just shelf warmers if they don’t have a good project or 10 to inspire people to pick them up and start creating with them! So… yes…. lots of projects will be unfolding as I trundle forward with #100daysofspoolknittersandlittlelooms

Day 7 of #100daysofspoolknittersandlittlelooms-Upcycling one of a kind bowls into spool knitters


For the #100daysofspoolknittersandlittlelooms, Jonathan sent me a box of spool knitter blanks and some bowls that were damaged when he and his son Kieran turned them on the lathe.

A Paduak pot pourri bowl has been singing to me since I opened the box, and finally, today, I drilled a hole in the base that is larger than the rip out, then 7 holes for the pegs, and did a little sanding and glued in pegs.

I was utterly gobsmacked by how freaking gorgeous it is, and there is no way that I am going to I draw or burn on it! I put a light coat of walnut oil on it, so I have to let it dry over night before I can start spool knitting with it!

I tore over to the computer and fired off a ‘WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE’ message to Jonathan to tell him how I am absolutely swooning over this glorious spool knitter. Wow. Just wow….

I also informed Jonathan that he is a bad influence, because the two of us just keep whipping up more and more ideas and I can barely keep up! I love feeling inspired! and #100daysofspoolknittersandlittlelooms is definitely doing that for me!



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March 1, 2026 · 8:08 pm

Day 8 of #100daysofspoolknittersandlittlelooms-A BooBoo Bear

Day 8 of #100daysofspoolknittersandlittlelooms-A BooBoo Bear

I spent the day, hard at work on delicious new things so I could catch up on posting Days 6 & 7 of
#100daysofspoolknittersandlittlelooms and it’s all VERY exciting and yay and I am looking forward to actually doing those posts.

BUT…. my ‘little’ brother (he’s a whole lot younger than me), Jonathan (@distinctivewoodworking) threw me for a loop…. eegads and little fish! He sent me a photo of truly yikes-ness….. he was trying to push through on meeting deadlines and completing projects and he cut the heck out of the palm of his hand.

I was aghast. We are a ton of miles apart (several provinces away) so I couldn’t rush over and try to be useful, so my response was to revert to my ‘love language’, which is ‘Teddy Bear’.

I immediately drew, then burned and painted this ‘BooBoo Bear’ and took this pic and sent it to him.

He thought that it should be called: Injured and Grumpy Because of It Bear.

Please send him healing energy!

And, I ‘ll get back to work on the projects that I am working working working working on to get myself back in sync with the ##the100dayproject2026 timeline.

Hugs all round and ttys. STAY SAFE!


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February 28, 2026 · 9:47 pm

Day 5 of #100daysofspoolknittersandlittlelooms-what are you doing? she asked


Hmm, someone messaged me asking me what I was doing with my 100 day project andwhy?


Well, first- I have adored spool knitting since I was a little girl.

Spool knitters feel innocent and sweet and oh, my word! Those feelings are desperately needed nowadays!

And, second: Some Family stuff: My nephew, Kieran is autistic and is really good at doing woodwork with his Dad, my brother, Jonathan. (@distinctivewoodworking) who carefully mentors him with the lathe.

So, bringing those elements together: We decided to co-create some nifty stuff, and it’s kind of challenging but inspiring & wonderful, too!

(BTW I’m working on tutorials on how to make upcycled spool knitters, too, because that feels important).

I’m having a blast designing vunderbar goodies for spool knitters & exploring intriguing small looms!

The 1st spool knitter in this series is my wish for us all:


May you be well

May you live in Peace.

May you be happy,

May you be safe

I find her very comforting

.

Of course, this project is also about making stuff with spool knitters.

These Simple Tiny Spool Knitted Angels are quick & easy. I love them.


The pdf pattern is in my etsy shop: https://www.etsy.com/ca/listing/48409301/pdf-pattern-for-tiny-spool-knitted-angel

So, here’s to joy, and to 100 days of spool knitters and spool knitting and little looms and to all good things!


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February 25, 2026 · 6:47 pm

Days 4 and 3 and 2 of 100 days of spoolknitters and little looms

Days 4 and 3 and 2 of #100daysofspoolknittersandlittlelooms

For this year’s 100 Day Project, I am co-creating with my brother, Jonathan (@distinctivewoodworking) and his son, Kieran.

They are turning the parts for small looms and spool knitters on the lathe, and I am doing all kinds of things with the wonderful wooden elements.

We are calling it: #100daysofspoolknittersandlittlelooms

I am posting it here and on IG @noreen.cronefindlay

Here’s where I am at on Day 4 and working backwards to Day 2:

Oooh… painting! Here are a couple of little spool knitters and the beginnings of a little loom that I painted today.

Day 3 was frustrating:

The rheostatic pyrography machine that my lovely husband built me more than 35 years ago went kaput.

Oh no! my Luvie had to rebuild it for me so I could carry on burning the drawings into the spool knitters and little looms.

I spent Day 2 of the project working on getting a LOT of holes drilled and then fine tuning the insides of 17 small spool knitters in preparation for tapping in and gluing the nails into the holes.

Doesn’t sound like much hard work, but really, it is.

Then it was time to start drawing. Yay!

I am having so much fun…. 🙂

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February 22, 2026 · 10:32 pm

The 100 Day Project 2026- Co-creating spool knitters and small looms with my brother and nephew

In June of 2025, my brother (Jonathan Crone -an awesome woodworker- https://www.instagram.com/distinctivewoodworking/ and I started talking about making spool knitters and small looms together.

We live in different cities and provinces so we’ve been sending each other tons of drawings, photos & “What if messages”. Hurrah for the miracle of the interwebs!

Jonathan and his son, Kieran have been turning lots of wonderful things on the lathe.

Jonathan shipped me a small but heavy box of treasures in January.

AND.

The courier managed to loose the box! EEK!

Eventually they found it & delivered it.

Whew!

Our spool knitting/small loom adventure is in gear now!

I am excited about it, but a little anxious, thinking- oh my word-can I handle doing #the100dayproject right now? (Living with chronic illness and other commitments and life in these turbulent times. oh my).

Well, fingers crossed-

Here’s Day 1 of Two Crones and One Crone-Findlay Making Spool Knitters and Small Looms Together Across Many Miles.

Not a snappy title for my100 day project- but if I come up with a catchy title, I’ll post it.

I am so inspired & really excited about these co-creations.

Here are a couple of pics of the box, with the packing paper and some bags of bits and pieces pulled out already.

Sorry, the pics don’t show how much amazing stuff there is for me to make magic with.

All shall be revealed over the next 100 days!

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January 27, 2026 · 3:26 pm

Oracle of Stillness-Blossoming- a prayer

I have just made a video of a prayer for ‘Blossoming’ in response to the madness and nightmares being unleashed upon the world.

This Woven Woman is ‘Blossom’ from my ‘Oracle of Stillness’ series.

She is all about our need to protect all that is innocent, and good, and beautiful and protect it from the destroyers….

The link to the video is:

https://youtu.be/YjYIcTPHxtQ

May the Great Beauty prevail!

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January 12, 2026 · 3:27 pm

Oracle of Stillness-Ancient Grandmother- Keeper of the Hearth

Ancient Grandmother -Keeper of the Hearth

It’s not necessary to have been a mother to grow into the energy of being Grandmother.

The Grandmother energy holds clearly, deeply, and sometimes, ferociously on to the essential work of protecting, nourishing and nurturing the innocence inside herself, and in all of the chicks that gather under her powerful wings.

Ancient Grandmother energy is the Keeper of the Heart and Hearth and her role in the world is key and oh so very very full of meaning.

Honor her in yourself and in those who spread their branches in the Tree of Life. Listen for her stories and songs and her silence. Then join in singing them with her, or at least, hum along….

❤

I’m posting all the images from the Oracle of Stillness here on www.tottietalkscrafts.com

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December 23, 2025 · 4:10 pm

The Oracle of Stillness-What We Carry In Our Hearts

Our hearts are amazing and miraculous and vast.

They are the holding place for all the stories of our lives.

And, as the stories bubble up into noticing, we have to to decide:

Which stories do I choose to still tell?

What stories have taught me well, and now can be blessed and allowed to drift away into dormancy? What stories seed awe and magic and wonder and healing and connection and clarity so they will bloom in Beauty?

These stories are the best stories to contemplate and cherish and tend to with care.

This Woven Woman is one of the mixed media woven figures from my Oracle of Stillness series.

She is an homage to “What We Carry In Our Hearts”.

I’m posting all the images from the Oracle of Stillness here on www.tottietalkscrafts.com

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December 17, 2025 · 4:48 pm

The Oracle of Stillness- Learning from the Child

This Woven Woman is ‘Learning From the Child’ from my Oracle of Stillness series.

I am inspired to post this one, because I adore the Kindergardener from next door.

He drops by sometimes for little visits and it’s always a delight to have a chat with him.

It feels like it was only moments ago that he was a tiny babe in arms and now, he’s taking ski and snowboard lessons and painting the Northern Lights with alcohol ink and watercolors.

I love looking into his eyes and seeing the sparkle of discovery and the joy in mastering new things.

I’m posting all the images from the Oracle of Stillness here on www.tottietalkscrafts.com

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