Tag Archives: #handmade

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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Filed under eco crafts & green projects, Simple Little Things That Make Me Happy, spool knitter & spoolknitter & spool knitting & spool knitting, the 100 day project, tutorial & how to

One of a Kind Hand Carved Crochet Hooks for Sale

I’m no longer carving wood, which of course means that I am not carving crochet hooks anymore.

I’m doing a big downsize, so am offering the last of my One of a Kind crochet hooks for sale.

I’ve made a video so you can see them in my hands. The video is posted below the list of the hooks. If you would like to buy any of the hooks, please send me a message or post a note in the comments, which I will pick up and respond to.

NOTE: Because the crochet hooks are hand carved from wood, you need to be gentle with them. Wood has grain, which can cause breakage if you are rough with the hook.

The hooks are varnished to preserve the finish.

All of the hooks have sold except for:

Star Babies approximately 8 inches (20 cm) tall. Approximately hook size 6 mm (size J) Price: $85 +shipping

Sweet Girl with book or box in her hands approximately 8 3/4 inches (22 cm) tall. Approximately hook size 8 mm (size L) Price: $125 +shipping

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Wooden Bunny Dolls and Crochet Hooks

As part of #the100dayproject challenge, I have been immersed in carving wooden dolls and following where that has lead me for my #100daysofcarvingwoodendolls.

I have been sharing images of wooden mermaid dolls that I have carved over the years, and also bunnies, too….

One little bunny doll, Sophia, sat on my carving desk for weeks and weeks without any arms and legs, and FINALLY, I put carving knife to wood and carved her chubby little arms and legs and I am totally delighted with her!

Sophia is VERY happy to be here in the studio and to be all done!

She then inspired me to carve her some bunny friends who were also inspired by the mermaids that I have been carving.

So, I have carved a trio of bunny mermaids from upcycled wood from a piano that fell apart and our friend the piano tuner rescued pieces of wood for us.

This is Jali and Franny with Sophia. Oops… I haven’t taken a picture with their very tiny wee sister, DebraLou, so here she is:
The nickle is there to show the scale of just how small DebraLou is. She’s a very small bunny mermaid, indeed!

And, then, because I was talking about bunnies, I got out some bunny crochet hooks that I carved quite awhile ago….

The Bunny Heart Spoon wanted to join in the fun, so she joined the rabbit crochet hooks.

AND… that inspired me to FINALLY finish carving a blank that I had made for a crochet hook 10 years ago! wow…

I am totally delighted with her and ….

she has inspired me to immerse myself in carving wooden ‘art’ crochet hooks again…. which is very inspiring and exciting, but that’s another story!

Oh my goodness. while I have been so busy posting images and notes daily to Instagram LINK I haven’t been keeping up with posting to my blog, and yikes, everything has changed here in a new and baffling way! I don’t like it at all and am flumoxed with how to deal with it…. so if this post is not quite right, it’s because I honestly don’t know what I am doing with this new and unwelcome and unfriendly way of posting! Fingers crossed that I can figure this out.

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