patterns | Tottie Talks Crafts Blog

Tag Archives: patterns

June 27, 2024 · 9:19 am

The Box of my new book Crochet Stars has arrived

It’s such a joyful moment when a box appears on the porch and it’s my new book!

I was thrilled last week to see Crochet Stars up on the online book sellers, but, to have the book in my hands is pure joy!

Crochet Stars is so dear to my heart- it is a small book – a new format with my wonderful publisher, Stackpole, which feels just so right on so many levels.

Writing this book was a journey of healing on the path of grief. It is full of so much love and is all about finding healing and laughter and hope through the joy of making small but sweet and precious things with our hearts fully infusing our hands as they create gifts of connection and love!

This little Laughing Star is based on a series of delightful dreams that I had over many many years, and it is, in a lot of ways, for me, the ‘Star’ of the book…. but then, I LOVE all the stars that I designed for the book!

Stars are such a powerful metaphor for the light of love, laughter and healing that flows through our lives.

I deliberately designed several very small stars so that people can give them freely and happily as gifts to say to people: Thank you for being here, and I appreciate you and oh my goodness! You matter! ❤

Joni Mitchell had it so right when she sang that we are stardust and we are golden.

I hope that this book, Crochet Stars, will bring golden stardust to life in so many ways! ❤

Weaving Baskets on Small Looms

I love weaving baskets on small looms.

I have just released a new pattern that has step by step photos showing how to weave these gorgeous baskets, using the easiest little loom ever made, the weaving stick loom:

This basket was woven with paper ribbon and embellished with buttons that I made from arbutus twigs and coconut shells.

The heart shaped basket has a plywood heart base (the template for the heart is included in the pattern).

Here, the heart basket is woven with art yarn:

Workshop participants who were learning how to weave the baskets asked me:

What can we use these baskets for?

Anything that fits in them that you want to keep organized! Beads, hair clips, packages of smallness, buttons, thread, bobbins, yarn….

The large oval basket in the photo above was woven with strips of torn fabric, so it’s a great eco option.

The yo yo flowers that embellish it’s side are made from scraps of upcycled fabric. (The instructions on how to make the yo yo circles are also included in the pattern).

This basket is great for holding fruit or heaps of little green tomatoes while they ripen, or anything else your heart desires.

Because it’s made of cloth, if it gets soiled, it can just be rinsed clean.

The green round basket is woven in the same way as the pink and blue one in the photo below, but I pulled up on the warp strands of the upper edges of the green one to curve it in.

So you can see that a small change makes a huge difference in the look of the basket.

I did the same thing to curve the top edge of the black oval shaped basket that is woven in exactly the same way as the paper ribbon basket.

The yarn that you use (combine several strands to get neat effects) and how you embellish the basket will guarantee that each basket that you make is totally unique.

The pattern can be ordered from: LINK

Another set of baskets that I designed has recently been released on the Lion Brand website.

I designed some rectangular baskets, embellished with dragonflies, for the Martha Stewart loom.