punch needle experiments

Hello hello! I hope ya’ll are doing well — it’s been a while!

I’ve been up to a low-to-moderate amount of crafting lately, and I just finished a project I’d like to share with you! It’s not from a pattern or anything, so it was a bit of an experiment and it’s certainly not perfect, but I’m happy with how it came out overall. Here it is:

Looking at the picture I might have to go back and adjust the fabric to get it to lay a bit more flat in the frame, but that’s okay. And the stars are actually made up of that plastic shimmery embroidery floss, it’s just hard to tell in the photo.

Punch needle is really fun for me. All I really had to do here was use a water soluble pencil to sketch out the luna moth and the moon, then I just had fun filling it in with color! It took much more floss than I expected — just the darkest yellow in the moon was like 4 or 5 skeins of floss on its own — but since floss is so cheap it wasn’t a huge problem to go back to the store and pick up more.

Have you ever tried punch needling before, and if so, how was it for you and what did you make? I’m curious to hear if people usually use patterns or just kinda make things up as they go.

a look back on 2015

2015 was a much more productive year for me than 2014 was, so that’s already awesome!  Here’s a recap of the [finished] projects from this year!

And there are a couple items I forgot to post about. I knitted a Fuego hat with some spare Berroco Vintage:

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And then there’s a secret project that I made as a Christmas gift for someone, but they might see it here so I’ve left it out and I haven’t been able to give it to them yet, so a photo will have to come later!

All in all that’s 13 crocheted projects (counting the Christmas gift) and 11 knitted projects.  Well now that I’ve totaled it up it doesn’t seem like so much, but it’s still better than 2014.

2 of those projects were my own patterns that I released, and I guess I’ve got the bug because there are SO many ideas I’ve got all of a sudden — there are definitely going to be more pattern releases in 2016!  I’ve already got the yarn and everything for almost all of my ideas, and can’t wait to get started!

Also of course there were some big life events this year!  I started working on my LPC licensure (to be a super-fancy licensed counselor) and, best of all, I got married!

I hope that 2015 was a good year for you, too, and of course I wish you the happiest of New Years and a great 2016!

Thanks for stopping by, see you soon!

crochet “paintings”

The other day I saw these on Pinterest, pattern by Claire at Haken en Meer, and I had to make my own.  Now before you see the pictures, I must tell you that I am a complete novice at embroidery.  Just today I learned how to make french knots.  My technique is terrible, but for my first try I’m pretty pumped.  This is the leftover yarn from my afghan, posted previously.

a bird with a flower

Scottish thistle

owl

whale

kite

heart

umbrella in the rain

Now I just have to coat the back of them with something to make them keep their shape, attach a hanging device of some sort (perhaps just a loop of yarn), and hang them up!  I’m thinking in my bedroom, because there’s really nothing on the walls in there and it’s gloomy.

These are a little different than Claire’s — I used hdc for the circles instead of dc and tried to find embroidery patterns on the Internet.  A few of them came from here, and the others were just Google search results.

I hope you like them!  I have no idea what’s coming up soon — I’ll have to start something new!  See you soon!

wall hangings

Made these wall hangings from spray painted embroidery hoops, fabric, and yarn!  Here are some close-ups:

The pattern on this one and the next one both come from “201 crochet motifs, blocks, projects, and ideas,” which I mention in my ‘books worth buying’ section of the site.

The rose pattern is found here.

This started as a regular granny square.