Dyeing Buttons

Still waiting for spring here. Hope the weather is pleasant where you are. Yesterday I finished sorting out a large jar of old buttons I had recently purchased and there where some white ones that didn't look too good. So I decided to dye them. I had tried it last year with some and got excellent results using turmeric for yellow and henna for brown. The substance the buttons are made from decides how effective the dyeing  will be.
Below you can see the white buttons as they started out.

Here they are after being in turmeric for one hour.

This is what I used to dye them in. I put a tablespoon of turmeric in a cup.

More white buttons waiting to be dyed.

These were left in henna using the same method as for the turmeric.

None of these white buttons really took the dye too well. The ones I did last year came out way better. The ones in the photo below have a more intense color. I used white buttons that were not in very good condition. Some of the ones in the upper left corner had hairline cracks in them and the henna got into them and gave them an interesting effect.

I was surprised to see that the henna turned the buttons brown instead of red like my hair. But I am very pleased with the various shades of brown I got. Also with the yellow. Now these rejuvenated old buttons can have a new life.

Felted bag using recycled purse closures

Hello. Glad you could make it. I hope spring has sprung where you are. Yesterday we got more snow which is melting again now in the afternoon sun.

Today I have a second felted bag to show you. For this one I recycled the magnetic closure from an old purse that had its day. Some time ago I realized the old closures and other hardware can be recycled from purses. Now I cut out all the magnetic closures and anything else that can be reused. This includes the straps, pieces of the material and the zippers. Anything can be recycled with a bit of imagination.

The body of the bag was knitted and the strap was made with a French knitter. The magnetic closure's tabs were opened with the edge of a butter knife. Use the top edge so as not to ruin the working edge. They can be hard to open. I used my thumb nail to push it up enough, when necessary, to give the knife blade room to get underneath. Then once they were in place I used my hammer to slowly push them closed again.

The finished bag.

Close up to show how fuzz it is.

The magnetic clasp.

I just cut them out and save them for a later project.

This shows how they are attached.

And this shows them once I worked them apart.

To hide the clasp I found a big button from my (huge) collection to sew over it. I was going to add some embellishments but decided against it for this one.

This is one of my French knitters. I've had it for over 30 years.

I hope this inspires you to try out ideas of your own. I welcome any comments or questions. I'd love to hear from you.

Zigzag Knitted Scarf

Winter is almost over. YAY!  Soon I can start my balcony garden. Get all the little plants out there so they can grow into yummy veggies. I love my veggies!

Here are two knitted scarf patterns that I designed this winter. The second one isn't finished as I just wanted to try out the pattern with some yarn ends to see how it looked. Now I plan to finish all those projects that I started and left "for the time being" and never did get back to.

Do any of you have a backlog of projects waiting to be finished? And what are they if any? Me?  I have a growly bear, two dolls, a ladybug, a spider and a bumble bee to finish. That's just the knitting. There are also several jewelry pieces I need to finish. Gotta run...I hear them calling me.

Here is the finished one.

This is is the "try out" piece to see how the second pattern looks

Some Doll Items

Hi. I didn't get the felting done that I had planned to show you today as I had other things to do that needed my attention. One item I was working on was to make a "photography studio" but as you will see spray painting is definitely NOT my forte. I will later wallpaper it with wrapping paper. Or somethng.

Another thing I was working on was getting my balcony garden started. I sowed cucumbers, pickling onions, beets and radishes so far. I used pots made from coconut fiber and used clear plastic containers I found in the recycle bin as mini greenhouses.

And I fixed the strap of the little felted bag from last week. I was really not happy with the one it had. The new strap is an old necklace I recycled. I buy second hand jewelry and take it apart and make new items with them.

A few years ago I got into knitting cotton dishcloths. I also was working on doll clothes and thought why not make a doll sized dishcloth. There is also a felted tote bag I made and a pink bikini. An odd trio of items to be sure. But here they are.

The pink bikini and the felted tote.

The tote and the dishcloths.  And my bad paint job.  : (

The felted bag with its new handle.

My mini greenhouses.

Small Felted Bag

Hi everyone. A year or so ago I got interested in making felted bags. The first two I gave away and unfortunately I don't have a photo of them. I started several more but then I got sidetracked with other knitting. This week I finally finished one of the bags. It is a very simple design. I love the way the bags get so super fuzzy. It was a total surprise to see how fuzzy they get. I have three more in the works which I hope to finish this month. One is a hobo bag for my daughter which I should have finished absolutely ages ago and the other two are small ones. These will be finished more elaborately with a lot of embellishments.

Felting is so much fun. I've made cat toys for my daughter's cat. A doll sized tote bag which you will see in a few days. Pincushions, beads, and a scarf are felting projects I hope to complete this month yet as well.

The strap turned out to be too wide.

And the flap ended up being too small. (Sigh)

See you next Tuesday with more felted items. TTFN