Category Archive: Embroidery & Stitchery
Embroidered Garden Flowers by Kazuo Aoki
Roost Books (to be published in January 2018). In the twenty-first century, while the traditional embroidery styles sashiko (“little stabs”) and nihon shishu (ornate symbolic stitchery), have continued to enchant and engross stitchers, there has also developed a less-stylised kind of Japanese decorative stitching. This popular kind of embellishment is more varied than the darning-style stitching of sashiko and less painstaking than the fine satin-stitch of nihon shishu. One category of modern Japanese embroidery often features ‘kawaii’ figures in stem and outline stitch – animals, people, household implements – and is popularly used on children’s clothing. Another school focuses on the botanical – landscapes, plants,…
Continue Reading →Mollie Makes
If Mollie Makes were a woman she would own “Millie’s”, a quirky organic vegan café. The cafe, her house and her daughter Charlie* would all be decorated in a quirky retro, minimalist style featuring lots of polka dots and woodland animals. On Sundays Mollie Makes would dye her severe bob black or purple, pop on her quirky red-rimmed glasses and cycle with Charlie to roller derby practice. The magazine is as worthy as that – heavy on the Scandanavian look, white walls, foxes, deer, owls, recycled furniture and dots. The projects are usually at the easy skill-level. Of course beauty is in the eye of the needle, but to this crafter the Mollie Makes projects are too often offputtingly err……
Continue Reading →Floral Teacosy Instructions First Half.
Hello Everyone, thank you for visiting !! This is an update of my previous post about the floral teacosy which I made for my friend L. I posted a pic of the teapot on Attic 24’s Facebook page and many lovely people have asked me for the pattern, so I shall do what I can. Here are some photos. I don’t have a pattern as such, but I will do my best to explain how it was done! MATERIALS I mainly used acrylic 8 ply yarn and 8 ply cotton with 4mm knitting needles and a 4mm crochet hook. I did use…
Continue Reading →2015 : The Year of Teacosies?
Wishing everyone a Very Happy New Year. ♥♥♥AN UPDATE – INSTRUCTIONS FOR THIS TEAPOT CAN BE FOUND HERE AND HERE♥♥♥ I have made a floral teacosy for my friend L – it was to be a Christmas present. But…..so now it will be a birthday present for February. The basic pattern for the teacosy came from Crochet by Raymond, a fabbie site (Raymond is a cat, BTW). I found patterns for the flowers and leaves from all over the place. For more SENSATIONAL teacosies, do have a look at my Pinterest board, “Crochet and Knitted Teacosies” (Should that be “crocheted”? …
Continue Reading →The Lily of the Valley Doesn’t Know
According to those who know these things, Friday’s colour is green which is surprising. I was sure it would be black. Green and I have a troubled relationship. When I was a child I learned that it is bad luck to wear green, or at least too much green, because the fairies consider it to be their colour. No-one wants to upset the fairies. Oh. No. You do NOT want to upset the fairies. So I don’t wear green (olive doesn’t count). You think I go to far? Consider – one of the regular customers of the pharmacy in which I worked while at…
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