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Category: Spinning

Progress on my Scrap Project – Make Do and Mend 1940’s Style

Progress on my little crochet flower brooch project continues slowly. I decided to use primarily scrap materials for it, in the spirit of the little flower brooches made by women in the UK during WW2 *

I plan on making some handmade felt for the background, and either felting in some scrap yarns from weaving projects and yarn sample cards, or embroidering on top with a few of them. Here are my flowers on the yarn.

Crochet flowers on yarn

I think I need a bit of contrast with all that green though, so perhaps a pale brown or blue for the felt part? I’m having a lot of fun just doing whatever I want on the spur of the moment, to be honest. 🙂

My son Charlie handed out his gifts to his teachers this morning, so I’ll be showing you what we made them tomorrow. They were another two “design in the moment” projects that we’re really proud of.

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* My favourite 1940’s style brooches are the curtain ring style made from scrap materials and wire coating during WWII. The Needle Files has some really lovely examples in three of her posts : 1, 2, 3. I particularly love the ones that use plastic coated wire as my father was an electrical fitter when I was young and I used to collect scraps of coloured wire from the factory floor to make things with.

How to Wind Yarn on a Turkish Spindle

I’ve never spun on a Turkish spindle but the pictures I’ve seen of them with such beautifully wound yarn have always fascinated me, especially when the wound yarn is long repeat variegated or self striping.

(Turkish spindle by fishandnoodle via Flickr)

Which prompted me to find out exactly how they are wound in order to look so tempting.

Simply Notable has this excellent photo tutorial

or, if you’re like me and you need a video to help you, here is one uploaded by devan marques on Youtube

I feel a sudden need to buy a Turkish spindle and spin pretty hand painted tops. I guess that’s one more thing to add to my wishlist!

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Tiny Flowers from a Tiny Bit of Treasure

The tiny little bit of spinning I mentioned in my last post has become three tiny little flowers!

Crochet flowers made from a scrap of handspun wool/silk
Crochet flowers made from a scrap of handspun wool/silk

With only  a small amount of yarn, I decided to use it to crochet some simple flowers using a 2.5mm crochet hook and this pattern:

Mayra’s Creations: Flower & Leaf Appliques.

Now I just have to make a small piece of felt for a background, get out my embroidery threads and I’ll have a new flower brooch!

Proof that handspinners should always hoard their scrap fibre 🙂

Now if I just knew what to make with the bulky weight 2 ply that I spun with the rolags I made with the rest of the fibre…

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And Now to Bed, But First…

My current spinning: a scrap of merino/silk from my blending board being spun into a lace-weight 2 ply on my Majacraft Mayan Spinner. It isn’t really the proper prep for a Mayan spinner (you need well carded fibre), but since it’s just a tiny sample I thought I’d persevere with it.

Spinning on a Majacraft Mayan Spinner
Spinning on a Majacraft Mayan Spinner

It’s a shame Majacraft stopped making these so quickly as they’d be great for spinning on a long train trip.

I’f you’d like to see exactly how to spin on one of these doohickeys, check out this video by k9nething on Youtube.

And now I really am going to bed. Good night!

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