No holidays for kitchen maids

Those old style wooden pegs are well suited for fastening all sorts of half full food sacks. I thought it to be more fun if they looked like real kitchen staff.




After a short training period, I'm sure, I will not be needed in the kitchen at all. The three girls can work out a schedule among themselves, and each gets to be in charge of one meal a day.




And they always work with a smile.




These other type of clothespins come handy, too, to snap smaller bags and packages.

Little Craft Cottage: Outside

The little craft cottage also has a garden to relax in and do some gardening for a change. The green spot is in full bloom now, the grass has been cut and weeds pulled for the photo shoot.




Thanks to the warm and sunny weather this summer, it seems like the apples have ripened early. An apple for everyone willing to do some raking!




The green, green grass of home is actually an old towel painted with brush. The idea was found on Minttumeirami's blog, the tutorial is in Finnish only, but with many great pictures.
The garden path is made of real gravel (intended for aquariums) that has been glued to the cardboard base.




The trellis consists of natural wood, i.e. small branches from the forest. The climbing plant is probably a Clematis. The leaves are cut out with a leaf shaped punch and winded between thin double wire.




These are real driftwood shingles covering the cottage roof - not at all easy to cut with a kitchen knife. Should have looked for a miniature axe.




The cottage, formerly known as shoe box, is glued onto double cardboard. This tiny world now exists on the bookshelf next to gardening books.




When the night falls, the lantern will give a little light to the garden. Twilight is always the perfect time to think about the day gone bye and the one ahead.



Enjoy the summer. Be outside.

Little Craft Cottage: Inside

This little craft cottage is my first miniature project and it features a creative space for an artisan working with yarn and textiles in 1:12th scale.




The rustic style cottage room decorated in shades of blue and grey is fitted into a cardboard shoe box, which was exactly the right size. Some furniture pieces and tiny accessories are commercial, paper and textile stuff is completely homemade.




There is a sketching in progress on the desk and a cork inspiration board on the wall to help with idea generation. Newspaper is waiting to be read and some correspondence to take care of over lunch break.




Toothpicks are so perfect for pencils. Found the idea in the zakka life blog, there is a great tutorial for making these as well.




The chest of drawers is made of matchboxes cut in half, legs and pulls are just metallic spacer beads. The stool is made of matches glued together as other small wood material is really hard to find. The stone flooring was quite easy: teared pieces of cardboard glued and painted.




For the shelf unit, I found a box where the 'shelves' were already there. It's not very strong, but enough to hold the sewing machine and all the supplies, books and notions quite well.




The fabrics are folded over pieces of cardboard and fixed with glue. Same with thread and ribbon on printable cards.




All the yarn in the stash is real wool in cobweb and lace weights. The chunky knitting basket is crocheted of medium weight cotton.




As for books and magazines - I just diminished the ones from my own collection...




When there is work in progress, coffee must be available at all times, why not serve with style on a silver tray.




For after dark hours and burning the midnight oil, the hanging ceiling light can be switched on. It's a battery LED light, no electricity and wiring needed.




For the size comparison, here's an oversized apple from the big world.

Green stone necklace

Making something green seems completely unavoidable in springtime. This is a dangling necklace with green jade beads (probably man-made), a carved Mayan stone pendant, and various glass beads joined together with dark bronze tone wire.




The necklace is intentionally asymmetric and messy. The circles of cream coloured seed beads add some light and cheer.

Sewing machine's new clothes

The sewing machine got a new dress - hoping to get her into working mood more often. Besides, the original plastic cover was just ugly.




There is a small summer wardrobe fashion show on the front to give hints what to make or what to wear. (Despite all that endless snow outside.)

Small and easy gift box

This is a quick box shaped solution for wrapping small gifts. The box can be completed in minutes, but it is totally acceptable to spend many hours adding the creative finishing touches.




The size of the completed box will be approximately 6x4x4 cm, when printed on a full A4 or Letter size page. Click on the picture to open the template in .png format:




The printed template can be glued onto heavier paper or cardboard before cutting and folding, leaving it to the inner side of the box. Alternatively, it can be used only for drawing the lines onto decorative paper or cardboard.

Tip for folding: use a ruler or the edge of the table to get a straight folding line. Smooth and finish the folded edge using something like scissor handles.




The outside of the box can be decorated with paper, fabric, buttons, flowers, embellishments, drawings... anything you like.




Punch holes where indicated, gather the punched top edges starting with the smaller box sides, and complete with a ribbon. Don't forget to add the gift before that!

This box is also on CraftGawker.

Narkissa gloves

The fabulous winter issue of Clotheshorse Magazine is out now and I am delighted to have one of my designs included, the Narkissa gloves. Clotheshorse is a trendy webzine published three times a year, featuring knitting and crochet patterns in several themed collections with each issue.

© Clotheshorse Magazine

These are opera length fingerless gloves in wide ribbing (for a perfect fit), decorated with lace insertions at both ends. The gloves are knitted starting from the fingers' end, so it is very convenient to try them on while working.

© Clotheshorse Magazine

19th century craft books

There are some old craft books to be found among Project Gutenberg free ebooks. Unfortunately, most of these are available without images, so one could practice a lot of blind knitting, for example, and wait for the surprise outcome.
Here are a couple of books that have many inspiring pictures along with instructions, though.




Beeton's Book of Needlework by Isabella Beeton, 1870

This book contains patterns for tatting, crochet, knitting, netting, embroidery, point lace, guipure d'art, Berlin work, monograms, initials and names, pillow lace, and lace stitches. And 600 engraved illustrations.




The knitting chapter looks very interesting. Some patterns, e.g. this knitted neckerchief(!) in black Shetland wool, have been added to Ravelry and the project notes can be very helpful for working the shawl.




Another lovely example, a knitted border with pleats:





Cycling and Shooting Knickerbocker Stockings by H. P. Ryder, 1896



The stockings are worked in ribbing for the most part and decorated with fancy tops. There are many options to choose from for making the top and the stitch patterns come with photos.