Knitted Black Fly and Bee

Hi all. I hope you are all enjoying the summer weather. Where I live we have a lot of black flies late spring and early summer and  mosquitos till first frost. I made some changes on my knitted black flies and mosquitos because I wasn't too pleased with the way I did the wings and legs on the earlier versions. I'm much happier with these ones. And these guys neither bite nor sting you.

I made dangly legs with little beads for feet. The wings were knitted with a sparkly yarn and a worsted weight one together. This way they were a little firmer and had some shine to them. I used worsted yarn also for the body of the bee and black fly. And I thought I would add a stinger to the bee though in the photo it doesn't show up too well.

I'm working on a few ideas to make my photos better. There is so much to learn and whenever I learn one thing I find out that there is still more I want to learn whether it is about photography, knitting, jewelry making or whatever. Oh my.  But that is a good thing, isn't it?

Here is the revised version of the black fly from the back showing his dangly legs.

And here he is showing his great big teeth. Yes the black flies in northern Ontario are particularly deadly.

The revised bee showing his stinger.

The face of the bee.

And showing his wings better.

The mosqitos are also getting a makeover plus I am planning to make a few other flying critters between working on other projects. Come back often to visit, you never know what might fly in here.

Hello everyone. A few weeks ago a friend of mine mentioned needing a plastic apron to keep her clothes from getting wet when doing dishes. I told her I had the same problem and we thought about different ways to make such an apron. Now I love aprons and I had  several ideas I wanted to try but I'm not fond of sewing by hand and I don't have a sewing machine. So I thought why not knit one. It would have to be cotton yarn but all I had were odds and ends left over from when I had a dish cloth and soap bag knitting frenzy.

After two false starts I came up with this. By the time I had the darn thing knitted  I was in absolutely no mood to knit the ties and just made the twisted cords instead. You would think something as simple as an apron would be easy to design. Hah! Knitted fabric is heavy so the darn thing sags. Also it is too busy looking what with all the different colors. But hey I used up a lot of my cotton yarn stash.

I tried to get a photo of me wearing it to show you how it looks on but it was scary-funny. Darn it's hard to get a good photo if you have to take it yourself, lol. I still have enough yarn left to make several small items. Let's hope they turn out better. Bye for now.

Copyright Theft

Hi everybody. Sorry I was away for so long but I had some problems I had to solve before I could devote my time properly to my blog. I was planning on having a new item to show you but it is taking longer to finish than expected. It is often the simple things that I have design troubles with. So rather than have nothing I decided do a post about copyright theft.

I found a website that has the best explanation of what copyright theft is and how it affects everyone involved and I would like to share it with you.


Here is the link.  http://www.craftdesigns4you.com/stop.htm  

Knitted Mosquito

Hi everyone! We've been having lovely weather here in Cobalt. I finally got to put my garden (such as it is) out on the balcony. My cucumbers are all of 1/4" long lol. Everything is growing fine. And I have been busy walking around Cobalt taking dozens of photos. And knitting a  mosquito in several different variations, one of which I have for you today.

I tried different ways to make the mosquito's "needle" and this way was the simplest but I'm not quite happy with it. I also came up with various ways to make the legs and wings but am still working on ways to make them better. Got a few more ideas to try.

I want to make a standing version and have an idea for it which I will try with a smaller mosquito as this guy is too big for it to work. Look for more knitted mosquito variations in the weeks to come as well as other creepy crawlies as I have more in the works.

Knitted Black Fly

Hi all!  Well spring has finally come to Cobalt. Yay!  The weather is perfect and if I had my way it would stay like this until fall.

Here is the black fly I mentioned last Monday. I always tell everyone that the black flies up here have teeth as they can really chew the heck out of you. Then until the bites heal it looks like you have some kind of nasty skin disease. Oh they're terrible little toothed beasties for certain.

For the black fly wings I used this sparkly yarn. The body was knitted with a slightly fuzzy yarn which I thought was black when I started knitting and I didn't realize until I was finished that it was a very dark blue.

I used the same pattern as I did for the bumble bee wings and  stiffened them with tacky glue. This time I sewed the two wings together before I attached them.The legs are simply lengths of yarn run through the bottom and stiffened with clear nail polish. Two little beady eyes and the teeth completed the black fly. I hope you enjoy this little critter. See you all next Monday.

Knitted Bumble Bee

Hi everybody. Just a quick post today to show you the first in a line of knitted insects. Today I have a cute knitted bumble bee. It didn't turn out as nicely as I hoped, but, hey! one learns from ones mistakes. The next critter will be better and I will make an improved version of the bumble bee as well. Check back in a few days.

The wings were fussy to make. I stiffened them with diluted tacky glue and when that didn't quite work the way I wanted I used clear fingernail polish.

The legs were stiffened with glue and the antennas with clear nail polish. But they were way harder to attach than I expected. Argh! And all the parts are not exactly placed either. It seemed so simple on paper lol.

The next ones will be better. I came up with alternate ways to do the wings, legs and antennas. Hope they turn out better.

Recycling Jewelry

Hi. We're not having much of a spring here in Cobalt yet. Yesterday morning we had not only snow but freezing rain and rain. All within a few hours. YUK! Today it is snowing off and on. Hello, Spring! Yoohoo! Did you forget us?

I love thrift stores. You never know what you can find. My favorite things to look for are jewelry. Sometimes you find a necklace with really awesome closures, especially the older pieces. Or the necklace is not very nice but there are some beautiful beads in it. Or like I'll show you today there are earrings that can be recycled for embellishments. And, yes, sometimes I find jewelry that I will wear as is.

Here are some of the large earrings in my collection that I will use as embellishments on felted bags or that will become part of a new item of jewelry. Some will be used to cover up the closure like I did on the felted bag I showed you earlier. 

These earrings can be taken apart and sewn on a bag or other item using the hole where the jump ring was holding the two pieces together.

Same with these ones. They are easy to recycle.

And I think they will look prettier being recycled on a felted bag, for example, than as earrings.

Here is a wee felted bag with an old brooch that I discovered in the thrift store. You're limited only by your imagination. Any piece of jewelry can be recycled. Even broken pieces.