new pattern - felted bracelets by kim miller.

Skill Level: Easy/Intermediate

I'm a big fan of bold, chunky jewelry but comfort is also important to me which is why I love these felted crochet bracelets! These bracelets are soft and warm and the best part is that they don't make loud clunky noises everytime that you hit them on something. They look great on their own or you can dress them up with a bit of lace detail. They also make a great wristlet for your keys.

These bracelets work up fast and they are the perfect crochet project for you to use up those scraps of wool for felting. This detail crochet pattern includes a chart, colour illustrations, felting instructions and a list of alternate wool to try. The finished size will depend on the felting process but an 11" prefelted bracelet should fit most ladies wrists.

Buy Now

kim.

my new digs....

Life has brought me many, many changes lately. My entire married life I have lived in British Columbia, Canada, but we have recently switched things up in our life. We have undergone a huge move, and we now enjoy the beautiful scenery of the big open prairies of Saskatchewan! Here is a glimpse of what I now call home...

It is truly beautiful but in a very different way than anything that I have been accustom to for the last 20 years. Just a few nights ago, I got to experience the most beautiful display of dancing Northern Lights. It was amazing!!! I just wished that there was a way that I could have captured it on film.

Designing new crochet patterns has taken a back burner for now, unfortunately, as I have got a new project in the works, but this time it involves wood and nails rather than fiber and a hook.  We are building our own home!  This is a new adventure for us.  And when I say adventure, I mean adventure!  This is what we have been working in the last few weeks...

MUD!! Lots and lots of mud!! Just a few days after the hole was dug it began to rain.  A few days of hot weather dried it up enough that we could work at the footings a little. I was excited to have pretty new pink rubber boots to work in, but I'm sad to say that they are not so pretty anymore!

tara.

sneak peek.

I've actually had this crochet pattern for felted bracelets in the works for some time but something was missing. I added the lace detail and I knew when I heard my daughters reaction of "Oh that's nice!" that I had finally figured out what was missing.  Just a few more pictures and some finishing touches and the pattern will be ready for release.

kim.

photo gallery.

If you are looking for handcrafted, one of a kind, finished product then you need to check out the very talented Laura DeMeulenaere of LJDBags. Following are some pictures of the wine bottle totes that Laura hand crafts and sells. 

 Laura specializes in hand knit and crochet felted wool accessories and in addition to the wine bottle totes she also makes purses, lap top bags, and brooches.

 We are sure that you will agree that her workmanship and needle felting is amazing and worth checking out!

If you are interested in making your own Felted Wine Bottle Gift Bag you can find the crochet pattern here at Craftsy.com.

kim.

it's random friday freebie and our first anniversary.

It's been one year since our very first blog post, and it just so happens to be Friday, so we wanted to do something special to celebrate the occasion. To say a big thank-you for your support we are offering our 2 latest designs (one from Tara and one from me) as a free PDF download for 24 hours. The regular retail price for each of these patterns is $3.99 USD. You can download the crochet patterns for the Pinwheel Pouf and the Chunky Cables Decorative Throw either directly from Ravelry.com or by simply clicking on the link below each of the pictures. Remember, you only have 24 hours.

You can download one or both of the patterns for free between 8:00 am PST Friday May 18, 2012 and 8:00 am PST Saturday May 19, 2012.

Pinwheel Pouf

24 hour free PDF download for the "Pinwheel Pouf".

Chunky Cables Decorative Throw

24 hour free PDF download for the "Chunky Cables Decorative Throw".

enjoy!

the round that wouldn't end...

A few day ago I posted that I was working on a Lacy Pinafore for my friends first Grand baby. I was pleased with how fast the little dress was working up and I was thinking that I may be able to complete the project rather quickly. All of my optimism quickly vanished though when I got to Round 26.

I knew from the pattern pictures and the diagram on the bottom of the page, that there was an intimidating round of sweet little flowers coming up, but how bad could it be? As I was making my first flower, twisting and turning my project so that I could get the correct stitch placement, my first thought was, "you are kidding, right"! Each flower consists of 35 chains, 28 single crochets, and 8 slip stitches for a total of 71 stitches, not counting the 13 single crochets separating each flower. On about the 5th flower, I timed myself to see how long it took me to complete one flower. The time was five minutes and the round (are you sitting down) consists of 61 flowers. That means that this one round has a total of 5,124 stitches and is going to take me about 5 hours! Even if I get my time down to 3 or 4 minutes per flower, which by about the 30th flower I would like to think that I would be quite a bit faster, that's still 3 to 4 hours. That's just for one round on a teeny tiny dress that would fit a newborn.

After a moment or two of panic, I thought about all the wonderful things that my friend had done for me over the years and I got to work. It wasn't that bad at all. I crocheted for a bit...I did some housework...I crocheted for a bit more and so on....by late evening I was well on my way to completing the round. With only 8 flowers left to make I did a quick count of the remaining loops from the previous round and there was one chain 7 loop too many. I must have counted wrong so I recounted. I recounted again, and slowly I came to the realization that I had made a mistake...sad days...

If you play with string you are going to run into tangles and if you crochet enough you are going to run into mistakes. That's just part of the deal. Now, the question was, how bad was the mistake? Much to my dread I found the error just after the 18th flower which would mean ripping out 35 flowers in order to make the needed correction.

I think that our tendency with crocheting is to try and ignore any mistakes and move on, but we need to keep in mind that every new stitch is another stitch away from making any corrections. Whenever I find myself in this position there is a series of questions that I ask myself. How bad is the mistake? How much do I have to tear out? Is it a mistake that only I would find or is it a mistake that someone who doesn't crochet could find? How much is the mistake going to bother me?

Since I wanted to make something really special for my friend and because this was a noticeable mistake I decided to tear it out. I had already put a lot of hours into the dress and difference between not feeling overly great about my finished project and feeling proud of my hard work was really only a few hours. What's a few more hours of crocheting? There are worse things in life.

I ripped out my work last night and right away I got into making a few more flowers. This morning while I was enjoying my coffee I crocheted a bit more and already I am over half way around. 

I would love to hear from others about that row/round that you thought that you would never get through.

kim.

yarn bombing in the "loops".

Some of the fiber artists of Kamloops B.C. were busy beautifying their city over the weekend for their annual Spring Festival. Here are some photos that I took...

kim.

current project - lacy pinafore by lucille laflamme.

A good friend of mine is expecting her first Grand-baby and she loves crocheted lace, so I'm making a little dress for her. I'm using a size 7/1.65 mm steel crochet hook and some beautiful, vintage, lace weight cotton. The cotton is very delicate and it is a pretty off white colour with a slight sheen. I haven't done a lot of lace work so I'm feeling very Victorian as I work on this project. I will post more pictures when the dress is all finished and blocked.

If you are interested in the pattern you can purchase the download at e-PatternsCentral. When I checked earlier today the download for the complete collection, which includes instructions for 5 different frilly little frocks, was still on sale for $3.95 USD.

kim.

how we came up with our name - why knotsewcute?

Original Etsy Banner

  

When Tara and I started our Etsy business, just over 4 years ago, we found that the most challenging part was coming up with an original name. When we researched names on the Internet we were overwhelmed by the massive volume of Internet and Etsy businesses. Every creative, whimsical name that Tara and I could think of was already taken in some form or another so, in order to come up with something original we jokingly said that we will have to call our shop “Not So Cute”. After a bit of a chuckle, we switched up the spelling and that's the name that just seemed to stick.

Current Etsy Banner

Over the years we have changed our banner, and we currently have plans for a new banner in the works but we'll always be known as "knotsewcute design shop" :)

kim and tara.

finished project - pretty triangle scarf by kim miller.

Pretty Triangle Scarf

I was inspired by a knitter/crocheter on Ravelry that gets as many hearts♥ for her finished projects as many designers get for their designs. She has this wonderful, classic, bohemian style that that I love and this style is reflected in many of her projects. If you are a member of Ravelry.com then I would recommend checking out her projects here. If you have not yet discovered Ravelry it is a wonderful community of knitters and crocheters, and it is a great resource for patterns and everything fiber related.

The yarn that I chose is Noro Taiyo Sock (colourway S25), and the crochet pattern that I used is one of my own called the "Pretty Triangle Scarf". I only needed one ball of yarn and I easily finished the project in a day. The pattern suggests blocking, but I loved the look of this scarf as is.

If I had read the comments on Ravelry about the Noro Taiyo Sock yarn prior to my purchase then I may have never bought it. The general complaint is that it tangles and twists like crazy. Although, the Noro Taiyo Sock yarn definitely does have a tendency to kink and twist back on itself I personally never had a problem with it tangling. I love that the yarn has thin and thick spots giving it that homespun feel, and the colourways are absolutely amazing so despite the "twistiness" I will definitely be purchasing this yarn again.

kim.