Category Archives: video tutorial

December 25, 2018 · 9:58 pm

Easy to knit comfort or pocket teddy bears

I love knitting and crocheting comfort/compassion/pocket bears.

Here’s Tottie Tomato with a batch of bears that I just knitted.

By the way, in the video, I explained a little about where ‘Tottie Tomato’ came from.

Back to Comfort or Pocket Bears…….

Over the years, I’ve made thousands of them and given them away.

Here’s my newest version… knitted, and then folded and stitched, and oh so sweet!

The pattern is: Knit 20 stitches for 22 rounds and then follow the instructions in this video:

Happy knitting! And, may the little bears bring you delight in the making, and joy in the giving!

For more patterns for Comfort bears, please click:

Knitted comfort bears

Crocheted comfort bears

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Filed under blessing bear, charity knitting, crafting for charity, gifts & easy to make gifts & presents, knitting, teddy bear, tutorial & how to, video tutorial

Tagged as #blessingbear, blessing bear, comfort bear, Comfort Bears, compassion bear, Easy to knit teddy bear, kindness bear, knitted bear, knitted teddy bear, knitted toy, knitting, Noreen Crone-Findlay, pocket bear, Yarn Crafts

June 11, 2018 · 3:55 pm

How to Make a Niddy Noddy from Cardboard to Wind Skeins

My friend, Teresa gave me a bag of gorgeous Alpaca fiber – bliss!

I started spinning it up, but realized that I had misplaced my Niddy Noddy.

So, I thought… I can make one from cardboard.

One thing lead to another, and I soon ended up with 2 charming little characters who do acrobatics to help me wind a skein of yarn.

They are sturdy, work perfectly and are easy to store.

A totally successful upcycle of re-using cardboard. Yay!

Here’s the pattern that I finally settled on… after a LOT of tweaking and twiddling:

Print it full page: I couldn’t get the thumbnail to open to a larger version, so I have added a larger version at the end of the post that I hope will work for you!

And here’s a video that shows how to use it, as well as the inspiration for Niddy and Noddy’s faces:

Happy Spinning, Happy Weaving, Happy Upcycling!

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Filed under eco crafts & green projects, tutorial & how to, video tutorial, weaving & handwoven

Tagged as alpacas, hack a skein winding tool, hand spun alpaca, how to make a Niddy Noddy with cardboard, Niddy Noddy, spinning hacks, upcycle cardboard, upcycled cardboard

April 28, 2018 · 7:27 pm

How to make buttons from twigs and branches

I love making one of a kind wooden buttons from twigs and branches that I find on the ground.

It’s a great eco-friendly project that is upcycling at its best.

They are a great way of embellishing hand woven, knitted, or crocheted fabric, or to make a sewn garment or accessory even more special.

You don’t have to have a woodworking shop full of power tools to make lovely wooden buttons- a few simple hand tools are all that are necessary.

Here is the video that I made, showing how to make 3 different kinds of buttons from the same twig.

I hope that you will have a wonderful time making your own unique buttons:

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Filed under eco crafts & green projects, tutorial & how to, video tutorial

Tagged as buttons, how to make wooden buttons, twig buttons, upcycle, upcycling, wood buttons, woodworking, woodworking hack

March 13, 2018 · 11:31 am

Butterfly Woman Spreads Her Wings Tapestry

In 2012, I wove a tapestry that was quietly part of a series of tapestries that I have been working on for many years:

In the last few weeks, she has let me know that she wanted to really spread her wings….

So, I wove her a face on my hexagon loom from Dewberry Ridge looms: LINK

I built a little loom to weave hands for her, and stitched on butterflies that I had designed and crocheted many years ago.

I used really thick wire to make and armature for one of the larger butterflies.

And, then, she had wings!

I am so pleased with her, and she is very pleased with me, too!

She’s about 39 inches/100 cm tall and her wingspan is about 22 inches (55 cm).

Here’s a little video that I made about her:

My book, Peg Looms and Weaving Sticks LINK shows you how to weave tapestries on the peg loom.

If you’d like to know how to weave tapestries on the hexagon loom, here’s a how to video:

After a very long, very cold and very snowy and icy winter, I do believe that Spring and Butterflies on their way!

Cutting garments into fabric strips to weave and knit

Recently, I made a video about cutting up garments to upcycle them by weaving or knitting with the fabric strips.

In early October of 2017, my son in law’s step-dad passed away.

This was, of course, very hard on our grandson.

I talked with him about what it meant to him to have his ‘other’ grampa (not my husband) pass away.

I asked him if he needed something of his grampa’s to hold onto, and he said yes.

So, I asked for a couple of Bill’s shirts so I could make comfort critters with them.

I cut them up and wove them into kittys, as that was what my grandson asked for, so he has one, and other family members have them too. (I didn’t photograph all of them).

I also knitted a teddy bear for one of our relatives, as he is definitely a teddy bear guy 🙂

The bear and kittys have been well received and they do carry the love that went into every stitch of making them.

I’ve done this before, and have found that ‘compassion critters’ made from upcycled clothing of a dear one is very comforting for people in grief.

Every little thing helps….

Here’s the video:

The woven kitties and knitted bear are made from the following patterns:

https://www.etsy.com/ca/listing/88710…

and https://www.etsy.com/ca/listing/27430…

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Filed under blessing bear, charity knitting, crafting for charity, eco crafts & green projects, Findlay Bear and Flora Panda, gifts & easy to make gifts & presents, knitting, Loom & looms & small loom weaving, personal stuff, potholder loom, teddy bear, tutorial & how to, video tutorial, weaving & handwoven

Tagged as blessing bear, compassion bear, compassion critters, grief, how to make fabric strips for weaving and knitting, knitted teddy bear, Memory Bear, upcycling, woven kitty

January 3, 2017 · 4:06 pm

How to Carve a Weaving Hook from a Chopstick

I use weaving hooks in all kinds of weaving- everything from potholder looms and frame looms to triangle looms, and a fair few looms in between.

Crochet hooks are okay for some weaving, but they can be too short and too round for some weaving.

I have found that making weaving hooks from chopsticks is quick, easy and very satisfying. It’s a great way to upcycle.

Chopstick weaving hooks are longer than crochet hooks (afghan hooks can be hard to find) and are flatter, and work beautifully.

You can customize your weaving hook to be the absolute bees knees by fine tuning it with a little sanding or whittling as you work with it.

Here is a step by step ‘how to’ video tutorial that shows you how you can easily carve or whittle your own perfect weaving hook with just a few simple tools:

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Tagged as how to make a weaving hook, make a hook from a chopstick, Noreen Crone-Findlay, simple carving, turn a chopstick into a weaving hook, upcycle a chopstick, weavies, weaving, weaving hack, weaving hacks, weaving hook, whittle a hook, whittling, woodworking, woodworking hack

July 1, 2016 · 1:35 pm

Weaving the Flower of Life Pattern on a Hexagon Loom

I’ve just finished weaving a new Woven Woman mixed media tapestry. LINK

Woven Woman (Essence) by Noreen Crone-Findlay (c)

I’ve made 3 video tutorials to show how I wove various aspects of her:

Peg Loom Circle with outside band (c)

How I wove the ‘Galaxy’ circle at her heart: LINK using the Peg Loom

weaving with wire on weaving sticks

How I wove the narrow copper band around her face, using Weaving Sticks: LINK

And, the third video shows how I used a Lily Speed o Weave loom to weave a hexagon, using the ‘Flower of Life’ pattern, with spool knitted cord.

I spent several days shooting a video, showing how to weave the Flower of Life with wire, but the wire just doesn’t show up in the video. Sigh.

So back to the drawing board, and several more days, but this time, using spool knitted cord, because it shows up well in the video.

Flower of Life pattern woven on the hexagon loom by Noreen Crone-Findlay

You can use all kinds of things to weave this pattern that is a celebration of geometry- Lucet cords, wire, thread, yarn, art yarn, roving (use thread or embroidery floss or yarn to tie the intersections), t shirt yarn, fabric strips…. no limits!

By the way: In my etsy shop, there’s a great eBook:

LINK

(Lily Speed o Weave patterns and designs)

Another YouTube video for a different Lily Speed o Weave tutorial :

Happy weaving!

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Filed under Loom & looms & small loom weaving, tutorial & how to, video tutorial

Tagged as hand weaving, hand woven, hexagon loom, how to weave on a hexagon loom, Lily Speed-O-Weave loom, Noreen Crone-Findlay, open mesh pattern on hexagon loom, Sacred Geometry, weaving hexagons, weaving with spool knitted cord, woven hexagon

January 20, 2016 · 9:07 pm

A Butterfly to make on the Lucet

Butterflies are the symbol of transformation, and since everyone I know seems to be experiencing some kind of transformative experience or another, it seems to me to be a good time to make some little butterflies.

They are very quick and easy to make, using a Lucet – although you can also use spool knitted cord, if you prefer.

They can be used to embellish anything that you can think of, or can be stitched to a ribbon for a book mark, or have a pin sewn to the back so they can be worn on a hat, bag, scarf or lapel. They can be attached to a key ring.

They can be used in scrapbooking or card making.

It’s lovely to have one in your pocket to give to a friend who just needs a little comfort…..

Here’s the video for how to make the butterflies:

We are in deep, cold, snowy mid winter in Western Canada, so it’s lovely to have butterflies flittering about the studio, even if I had to make them myself! 🙂

That just reminded me of something that I hadn’t thought of in years….

My mother used to give us ‘Butterfly Kisses’, which were a quick little flutter of her eyelashes on our cheeks.

That’s a dear memory to suddenly pop up… sweet!

Butterfly kisses all round! ❤

10 Comments

Filed under gifts & easy to make gifts & presents, Lucet, personal stuff, tutorial & how to, video tutorial

Tagged as butterflies, butterfly made with lucet, butterfly motif, easy to make butterfly, lucet how to, lucet technique, video tutorial by Noreen Crone-Findlay, yarn butterfly, Yarn Crafts

January 14, 2015 · 10:22 pm

Upcycling a little box into a band loom

I absolutely love weaving Scandinavian style woven bands, using different styles of rigid heddles.

A few weeks ago, as we were cleaning and clearing in preparation for our big move, we found some sweet little drawers that my father in law had made many decades ago.

He had reclaimed some tiny little wooden butter boxes and made wee drawers for his workshop with them:

copyright Noreen Crone-Findlay www.tottietalkscrafts.com

And, since then, the idea for building a tiny, oh so portable band weaving box loom has been gestating in my mind….

After much trial and error, I have built the little loom, and absolutely adore it!

I have made a small video that shows what I did to build this little charmer:

This is the ratchet and pawl that I designed for my loom.

I made them from a scrap of marine plywood, which allowed me to curve the pawl.

I am going to make the next one from a piece of purpleheart that we’ve been saving, so I am going to make the pawl straight, to make it stronger and not risk breaking it by cutting a curve against the grain.

If you are interested in learning more about weaving Scandinavian style narrow bands, definitely seek out the work of the marvelous weaver extraordinaire, Susan Foulkes:

http://durhamweaver64.blogspot.co.uk/

And, if you’d like to see some of the ways that I use narrow bands please click:

https://tottietalkscrafts.com/2014/08/08/woven-women-small-bird-sang-and-all-was-forgiven/

Note: I have upgraded the little box loom…. it’s even better!

Here’s a link to how the little band loom has evolved: LINK

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Filed under band loom, eco crafts & green projects, Loom & looms & small loom weaving, tutorial & how to, video tutorial, weaving & handwoven

Tagged as hand weaving, hand woven, how to build a box loom, how to make a band loom, loom, narrow band weaving, Noreen Crone-Findlay, reclaiming, recycling, Scandinavian style, upcycled box loom, upcycling, video tutorial, vintage butter box, woodworking