Thursday, November 29, 2007

Victorian lace ornament, a touch of elegance

Although I could never afford to buy one, Faberge ornaments are the most beautiful of all holiday items. With that in mind, I decided to create a "little touch" of Faberge style on the Knifty Knitter Flower Loom. The result is what I call a Victorian Lace Ornament, similar in design to this Faberge Coronation Ornament that sells for about one hundred bucks.

Since my design is made with metallic cord from the craft department at Wal-Mart and shatterproof (translates as plastic) ornament balls, these will only set you back about fifty cents each plus your time. As with most of my projects, these make up very fast. Also, the lace ornaments would make a nice little extra gift for someone special and best of all, no one has to know how cheap you really are. The pattern is available here or in my Pattern Box on the right.

This project was also featured in Craftzine here.

Wednesday, November 07, 2007

Loom knit snowflakes, a lesson in I-cord bind off

When I posted Boo-Ella I promised to follow up on the new technique I developed for the ruffled edge of her skirt which I call the I-cord bind off. It is really very easy to do and creates a nice picot edge that could be used on baby items or any place you want a little added decoration.

Since I've had a number of folks email me asking for the snowflake pattern, I decided to design a snowflake that incorporates the I-cord bind off on the outer edge. I knitted Snowflakes on the Loom last year, but this snowflake design is very different from those. They were made using short row shaping and the new one is made completely in the round on the 12 peg Knifty Knitter flower loom. I never posted the instructions for those snowflakes, because they were actually a translation of a needle knitted design from a book, Knitted Snowflakes. The new snowflake is not only my original design, it is much quicker and easier to make; plus you have a mini-lesson, free pattern and a finished project all rolled into one. The pattern is located here and is posted under Pattern Box in the right sidebar. Hopefully, you will enjoy making and displaying these as much as I did designing them for you.