resurrection fern

An acorn , a thimble and more nature inspired necklaces

I have been completely blown away by the enthusiastic response to the acorn necklace tutorial. I think it is a very hopeful sign for the future of our natural work that so many of you love the simple beauty of an acorn so much so that you would like to carry them around with you. I loved the connection some made to peter pan giving Wendy the acorn button off his clothing calling it a kiss. Now, said he, "shall I give you a kiss?" and she replied with a slight primness, "If you please." She made herself rather cheap by inclining her face toward him, but he merely dropped an acorn button into her hand, so she slowly returned her face to where it had been before, and said nicely that she would wear his kiss on the chain around her neck. It was lucky that she did put it on that chain, for it was afterwards to save her life." This made me think of what Wendy gave Peter on the next page of the book , a thimble. You can use the exact same tutorial for making a crochet covered acorn necklace to make a thimble necklace. You only have to continue for a few more rows.

I thought of this as a very tiny vessel to hold some precious little flowers you pick from your garden or meadows.

Or you could hand the little thimble vase somewhere where you curious kitty won't knock it down.

In that last picture is another nature inspired necklace I made on the weekend . I made circular rows in 3 different colors of vintage crochet cotton partially encasing a seed pod. The pod looks like a split acorn and I am not sure what it is called but I will try to find out when I have some spare time. Here is a better look.

Next I was inspired by this bowl of shells on my sister's deck.

To make a crochet covered shell necklace. This was made with rows of single, double and triple crochet in a fan like shape.

Here is a picture of it before I attached a cord.

My next inspiration was one of my favorite summer wild flowers.

So you see packing the red vintage small suitcase with crochet supplies came in handy on my weekend away. I also collected some materials for future projects . I have so much more to share with you this week about the creative Ottawa snails, the smallest friendliest snail ever, fantastic mushrooms and much , much more so stay tuned. Don't forget to comment on the acorn necklace tutorial for you chance to win one. The draw is tomorrow, Canada Day!!!!

Stowaway

My bags are packed and I am ready to head out on the road to Ottawa for the weekend.

I packed up my crochet supplies so that I could make some more coats for natural objects I find on my travels.

I was working on a crochet covered thimble necklace into the evening

I imagined it to be a little thimble vase that can be worn around the neck. It as late so the pictures aren't great and no neck was available to photograph but I think you get the idea.

Then I noticed him, the little stowaway.

His said he wanted to leave the garden and join the circus. He heard that Ottawa was on the way to Montreal where the Cirque de Soleil has it's school for acrobats. He was well on his way.

The circus snail and I will be back after the weekend. Have a wonderful creative time where ever you might find yourself. Thanks so much for all the acorn love. I am amazed at how such a small little nut with a tiny cover can get so much attention. A wise teacher of my children once told me that acorns don't fall far from the oak tree. The sky was amazing last night after a brief thunder storm and I managed to get one picture of the best cloud of the month.

In My Mailbox

I have received some fantastic mail this past week. I ordered one of Geninne's awesome bird prints. Her art and life is so inspiring and we share a great love for the natural world.
Then there was a new little bit of wearable art from maria

I could buy all her pins. They are so absolutely fantastic and unique and I know just how much work goes into each little work of art. She is my crochet idol!!!
Next up mail from my best friend and now my paper cutting idol ( sorry rob ryan) elsita . This is what she sent me for the vintage fabric swap I had a few weeks ago. I can't believe she cut that out by hand with tiny scissors. I think some one needs to go to her studio and look for those little elves with teeny tiny scissors that she must have hiding somewhere . It is really unbelievable what she can do with a plain piece of white paper and a pair of scissors.


The best mail of the week came yesterday after a 10 hour day in the office, the best time to get such a special surprise. It was a beautiful picture my daughter drew with her new art pencils of a special mother and daughter. Do you recognize her? I love that she included my favorite garden flowers, sweet peas in the border. The best thing is that I am going to Ottawa for the weekend so I will get to thank her in person and spend special time with her. Lucky me!!!!

The Crochet Trend Continues

I guess I am stuck on crochet this week. I am also working on a very soft alpaca silk cardigan in a beautiful shade of green but the main focus of crafting on the porch has been covering natural objects in crochet. I keep looking around the house and surrounding environs for things to cover. I grew tons of gourds one year and have dried ones lying around indoors and out . They are a beautiful shade of honey brown now so I washed and polished a few of them with a little lemon wood polish and then proceeded to make a turquoise cover for one of them. The crochet cotton is from a vintage spool I had in my stash. I never buy new crochet cotton because I always find bags of them at the thrift store for 1.99 . The colors are much more interesting than the modern versions and the texture is softer.

I am also showing some pictures from the beaches of Vancouver Island, British Columbia. We spend a few weeks there last summer on vacation and it was such an amazing place. I have been dreaming about it this week and wondering when I will get a chance to go back. If you live on the west coast you should definitely consider a holiday there.

A few people have asked me to recommend a beginners crochet book. It is a really easy skill to pick up, most say it is a lot easier than knitting but I can't actually remember how I learned to crochet . No one taught me. My mom only knows how to knit. I do recall my sister Ann crocheting granny square vests and a green dress so she might have shown me the ropes. I will have to ask her next time we talk. I have recommended the hip to knit book for newbie knitters so probably the hip to crochet book is a good start or find some lovely granny somewhere who would have all the time in the world to teach you what you need to get started.

And for all those who say "I really love the things you are making but I don't know how to crochet" . I say try it. Crocheting is so forgiving. It is much easier than knitting. You can make any shape you want, you don't need to follow a pattern, crochet hooks are cheaper than knitting needles and you can take them on airplanes. Replace, " I don't know how " with " I think I will give it a try".

Then you can have covered rocks, pieces of wood, gourds , etc of your own to admire.

I guess that is why I make tutorials because I think deep down everyone has the ability they just need to have the will to try. Don't let everyone else have the fun of making things , try it yourself. You have to start somewhere. I think a large part of what makes us so special is our strong desire to create. The ocean is vast and so is your potential.

Crochet Covered Acorn Necklace Tutorial

You can't just have one acorn necklace i discovered so I was making some more this evening and decided to take some photographs along the way and make a little tutorial out of it. All you need is some crochet cotton, fine gauge works best, a small crochet hook, a yarn needle or tapestry needle and acorns of course. I used the real ones but I don't see why the wooden ones wouldn't work, they are just larger.

Start by making a chain of 5 stitches and join to make a very small circle. The opening of the circle is where the sharp tip of the acorn will poke through later so don't pull too tight.

Make a single crochet in every stitch of the chain circle, five total to make the first row.

Now for the second round make 2 single crochet stitches in every stitch , thus doubling the number of stitches to 10 at the end of this row.

Continue now on these 10 stitches for at least two more rows or until you have reached the desired height for your acorn. Remember not all acorns are created with the same dimensions.

You should at this point have a very small crocheted bowl .

Now with the cotton yarn still attached make a long chain of chain stitch until it is the desired length to fit around the neck of the recipient.

Secure it with a stitch to the exact opposite side of the tiny basket.

Sew in your loose threads with a tapestry needle or yarn needle.

Insert your acorn and make sure the sharp tip is inside the bottom circle you started with.

Admire your beautiful little creation and then place it on the neck of a special person where it will be very appreciated.

There is an old british folk tradition that if you carry an acorn in your pocket or purse ( or maybe around your neck) it will prevent old age. And If you don't want to wear your acorn they look really sweet as ornaments in your home.

I would love to give one of these necklaces away. Please leave a comment below and I will draw a name on Canada Day, July 1st.

Designs from Nature

I have a large stack of national geographic magazines in the bathroom and I just looked at a article about this very topic , designs from nature. I thought it would make a great title for my next post about some of the crochet covered things I have made this past weekend. I love the way nature covers some of her rocks and over the past year I have taken some pictures of them so I will share some of mother natures work and some of mine.

The last thing I wanted to share with you today was a little crochet covered acorn that I turned into a simple necklace with a length of chain stitch. Have a great start to your week!!

The First Sunday of Summer , the day in pictures

Here is my day in pictures with a little comic relief to start if you remember the snails ended the day yesterday consoling themselves with a heineken after the netherlands lost at Euro 2008 to Russia and this morning they were a little hung over. I made them some kasha to start the day. My father was born in St petersburg, Russia so I think I might just start cheering for Russia now.

Then we had a little garden drama involving Edgar the cat and a young bird.

I did a little crafting on the porch , covering some small smooth rocks with crochet . I am not sure what I will do with these but they remind me of a more natural sort of cameo. I don't even like to crochet, it seems to make my fingers numb but I find myself strangely drawn to cover all sorts of natural things with crochet lately. I have some others to show on a future post.

We went for a beautiful hike in a wonderful place a short drive from our home. It had amazing views, wonderful smelling meadows, beautiful stones, babbling brooks, many varieties of butterflies, tadpoles in the pond and the largest jack in the pulpit I have ever seen.

That is the day so far, I am going to catch the end of the Spain vs Italy game and then think about dinner. I love these long summer days. Have a great remainder of your weekend.

Eurocup 2008 Snail Style

Yesterday one of my flickr friends Laurie Brown ( http://flickr,com/photos/lauriebrownjewelry/ ) gave me a great idea when she commented on one of my snail photographs and gave me a link to you tube to watch a snail ballet video. This morning I went out to the garden to find some garden snail volunteers for a video shoot. The snails were scarce this morning but I managed to audition two very enthusiastic snails for the job. I hope you enjoy this action packed 4 minute video. Here is the link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4RByjzuHDyg. I have never posted a video on you tube or on my blog so I hope it works. I made the little soccer pitch inside a gift box and it took those eager little snails 4 minutes to go from the half to score a goal. I made this video way before the netherlands played russia today so I hadn't realized that our favorite player Robben , number 11 was not going to be playing. If I had known I could have suggested they call us the snail version to play. He may be slow but he knows how to find the net. After the great loss today to Russia, my little snail mates went straight to the heineken to reflect on what went wrong . The littlest one was feeling like it was the end of the world for him.

His team mate consoled him and reminded him that there is always the next world cup to look forward to and there was still lots of good beer left.

As they crawled very very slowly back to the garden they recalled the fun they had playing soccer today and the amazing goal that was scored after a fantastic cross .

Hope you all enjoyed a great first day of summer.

Transition State Complex

School's out and today marks the official start of summer this evening. For most families this is a time of transition . You may have exciting things planned for the summer like trips to far away places.

Or lazy days at the beach.

Or you may be planning a green vacation or eco friendly activities with your children.

What ever you have planned you may feel overwhelmed by this transition. You may feel like you will never be able to accomplish the things you need to do to get to that place where you can relax and enjoy all the wonderful experiences summertime has to offer you.

You look all around to find a way to get to the place you need to be but all directions look very difficult.

You just don't have enough energy to take that big step.

In chemistry the intermediary stage of a chemical reaction is called the transition state and sometimes it requires a lot of chemical energy to get to that state and it can be very slow and difficult. In chemistry to reduce the amount of energy required chemists make use of helpers like enzymes, cofactors and catalysts.

The helpers reduce the amount of energy required to get to the transition state.

The help you receive really makes all the difference and you are ready to embark/

Phew!!! That was so much easier with help. Break the "good mother myth" you don't have to do it all or do it all alone. With everyone pitching in to help just think of the places you can get to and the fun you can have. Happy summer!!!!

No snails were harmed in the photographing of these pictures. Did you know that snails are hermaphrodites having both male and female sexual organs. They still require another snail to mate. They have 4 tentacles, 2 longer eye stocks and the 2 shorter feeler tentacles. Some think of them as garden pests but I love them so much . They eat mostly dead organic matter of which there is always a lot of that in my garden and they always make me smile.

A Softer Starfish

This month cathy cullis of november moon sent me this as part of our monthly handspun yarn swap.

The wool is BFL in a beautiful shade of greenish yellow hand dyed with nettles . I wasn't feeling inspired to knit anything lately until my wonderful little nephew Roberto took a real liking to this.

He fell in love with "stars" and although he was trying to be very gentle with the starfish , I was concerned that they would not withstand his young enthusiasm. THe nettle dyed wool reminded me of some of the starfish I had seen on a trip last summer out to the west coast of British Columbia. I decided to crochet a star about the same size as the one he was so interested in. I only had enough yarn for one side so I used some kaffe fasset fabric from my stash for the other side. I embroidered some french knots along the undersurface of the arms and left the edges rough giving it some extra texture. I love how imperfect it looks, just like nature itself.

I underwent the kitty test to test its durability and passed with a five star rating,

And now for a few starfish facts. You can't tell the sex of a starfish from their outward appearance. Males and females look the same. The sex organ is hidden inside each of the 5 arms and the gametes are released into the open water when the conditions are right. Risky business I say. The last photograph was taken last night of the evening starfish in my kitchen .