Along the way as I travel to teach and vend at various textile events, I have noticed a pattern among those I meet. Nearly every person works in more than one kind of medium. Very rarely do I meet someone who only does wool appliqué in their spare time—it’s nearly always coupled with a penchant for quilting, rug hooking, embroidery, punch needle, and other kinds of creative activities. I always love to ask people how they found my designs and how they got into wool applique. Though it’s not true
Lavor punch needle tool is used for punch needle embroidery or rug making. Ideal for making upholstery works such as cushions, carpets, tapestry, rugs and other items. Punch needle embroidery is easy with this needle and doesn’t require skills. Includes 1 adjustable needle and a threader. Works with a variety of wool and threads. Suitable for yarn and thick threads. Made with recycled plastic. Simply screw the needle in place at the height you wish to use. The needle has an adjustable tip that has a twisting mechanism and 7 slots to move the metal part into so you can play with the height of the loops. The longest setting is great if you'd like to try sculpting. The outside diameter of the metal tube is 5.5 mm, internal size is 4.5 mm so the wool can’t be more than 3.5 mm in diameter. The overall length of the metal part is 123 mm. ✈ Shipping • Shipping Worldwide • Items from Ukraine will be shipped with 1-3 business days with a tracking number and you can check its delivery status. • Please be sure to enter your "correct shipping address" for purchases. • Shipment usually takes up to 5-10 business days (UPS, FedEx, DHL, TNT) or courier company • All destination expenses (duties/taxes etc.) will be paid by RECEIVER. ♡ Contact I am always here to help you. Please write to me if you have any questions. I will be happy to answer as soon as possible. And I also will be glad to see you on my Instagram page (@tat.dot)! Happy shopping!
by Linda grimm via Ravelry. This amigurumi project is designed to hold your hooks and needles. This creation uses less than a skein of yarn! buy the pattern for a wee fee now
Learn step-by-step how to finish punch needle bowl fillers by hand using a needle and thread - a great way to finish punch needle projects!
These past few months I participated in a rug hooking challenge, presented by Lori Brechlin of Notforgotten Farms. She provided motifs drawn by her, based on antique rugs. Those of us who chose to participate were to use ONLY those motifs in a rug design that WE created. We could use one of the motif, all of them, or whatever inspired us. She had an alphabet, whale, mouse, cats, dog, flowers, scrolls, chicken, squirrel, I think about 26 different choices in all. The rug needed to be at least 17" x 24". We had three months to finish it, that included binding. The challenge began on October 3 and ended by midnight January 3. For the last ten years or so, I have hooked only my own designs. I guess I had many personal stories and ideas I needed to share and express through my rugs. But, lately, I have tried to say, "Yes," to the Universe, when it comes calling. The idea of using Lori's antique inspired motifs and to be part of a creative group of rug hooking women, seemed like a fun thing to do! And it definitely was! We were to share our designs and rugs with the Facebook challenge group, as we hooked along from start to finish! I was amazed at how some people had their designs on paper and were transferring them to a backing the next day just about. I am a "ponderer", so it takes me a while to get my designs worked out. It was good for me to see people jump right in with their ideas! Liberating really! And best of all, I thought it thrilling to see how other rug hookers, who may have never designed a rug before, made meaningful beautiful rugs for themselves! They were designers! So, how did I choose which motifs to use? When my daughter was a little girl and could not fall asleep at night, we would recite the poem All Things Bright And Beautiful, by Cecil Frances Alexander. When I saw the whale and mouse that Lori had designed, a line from that poem, "All creatures great and small" kept popping into my head. When I initially designed this rug, I was SO FOCUSED on the suggested size, 17" x 24", that I didn't take into account, how the color would flow once I hooked it. (An aside, I was already working on a rug, an antique reproduction, that is 30" x 36", which also had a deadline for finishing... more on this in another post.) So, I was trying to keep the challenge rug as small as possible. Originally my rug design, ended at the top, with a scroll-like wave just above my lettering... But read on! As I was hooking my rug, I realized I had a problem with my design, that would bother me unless I fixed the issue. But the "fix" required me doing something I have never done before. I would to need to attach more linen at the top of my rug, in order to adds the flower motifs, above that top scroll, so the colors used in the bottom would flow to the top. I contacted a friend and fellow designer, who often hooks large rugs and sews linen together to make the linen big enough for her rugs. She suggested that for this size of rug, I overlap the linen by three inches, using the largest zigzag setting on my sewing machine, so that my hook could fit between the stitches. I was very nervous to try this. I was possibly going to ruin my rug, and all the work I had put into it. I was pleased her approach worked like a charm! It was not difficult to hook through the double layers of the foundation, and once pressed I could not tell where the rug was joined. (Look closely in the photo below, you can see the zigzag stitching where the linen was joined. In between the TOP zigzag line and BOTTOM zigzag line is the three inches of double overlapped linen that I hooked through.) My goal was to hook a soft, pastel and muted rug, reminiscent of a vintage valentine postcard. I had recently marbleized batches of wool and thought they could blend in an interesting way for the background to look like the sun sparkling on the water. I also used some textured neutral wool, to blend with the marbleized wool, and to add interest. For my binding, I often use the technique of a crocheted edge. I had two ideas I wanted to experiment with. One, was to use yarn for crocheting the edge, the other was to use wool fabric strips. I had some beautiful multicolored yarn, that I thought would look beautiful, and it did! However, getting just the right color placement was going to be "fiddly". (This was the weekend before Christmas, and I had yet to wrap presents, or do any baking.) I needed to finish this rug, or risk mutiny by my family! So, instead of the yarn, I chose to use long wool fabric strips. I had used this same wool in the background and it picked up the lighter and darker tones of the background perfectly. I liked how it did not compete for attention with the overall design of the rug. Thank you Lori Brechlin for the wonderful motifs and challenge! Thank you fellow rug hooker and designers for the shared journey. It was a fun challenge!
Stunning workmanship!!
Another FACE to look at- this time a hooked chairseat by Diane COX of the UK-
Happy Saturday Friends & Folk ~ hope you are enjoying the peaceful-feel this holiday weekend brings as much as we are… tomorrow will be spent with family & friends {{ and we are looking forward to an awesome ham dinner too! }} Here are some more photos of the little hedge witch… I've named this pattern "BEE-Witched" ;) here it if, punching all finished and ready to have the backing machine-stitched on… I chose a complimentary color cotton fabric in a wonderful cheddar color with tiny black stars ~ {witches & orange aren't just for Hallowe'en you know} I've pinned by finished project to the backing fabrics, right sides together ~ …and old black-swirl headed hat pin serves me well ~ now to machine stitch together… can you see how very close I stitch to the last punched row of loops? yep, almost on top of them. I usually machine stitch completely around my project, ~ then cut a slit in the backing fabric and turn & stuff…. and I always use my pinking shears to trim away, especially on curves. that makes for nice & neat edges once turned right sides out. backing & extra weavers cloth timed away to within 1/4" from machined stitching I decided not to stuff this, but merely ironed it flat once finished, added a bone ring & ribbon at the top to hang and…. voila! here is out little witch-friend, tending to her beehive & bumblers :) I like the 'flatness' of this style of finish, and I'm well-pleased with how my finished shape mimics her hat & tall, wonky beeskep !! The paper pattern for "BEE-Witched" will be released at next weekends' Prim Stitchers Society Retreat in Marietta, GA and will be available in our Etsy shop soon after that :) I have two more designs that need to be punched for the 'motto' series yet ~ I will be working on them today! Friendly Reminder: our FARM SHOP is CLOSED from now until April 15th! Have a blessed Easter {Ostara} my friends ~ and get outside to celebrate! ~ Blessings from the Farm ~ Lori
flea-market finds: a bilingual tape measure with centimetres on one side and inches on the other, a batch of crochet hooks, made from a hard kind of plastic and much more comfortable than the metal ones (unfortunately with no sizes shown on them), and a pair of long wooden knitting needles with hooks instead of points - I'd be grateful if anyone could tell me the purpose of these! They are too long for crochet hooks, and have stoppers on the end like knitting needles. Maybe you just knit with them in the ordinary way and the hooks stop the stitches from slipping off? I haven't tried them yet. Edit: now I know that these are Portuguese knitting needles and even found a video that shows how they are used watch
Love that marzipan . . .. now to make something with all the left over PUMPKINS!
"Milkweed Monarch" copyright 2018 Michelle L. Palmer 22" x 28" Hooked with #4 and #6 wool cuts. It has been so nice to see Monarch butterflies in our gardens again! I took several caterpillar photographs last summer... The perfect inspiration for a wool rug. Monarchs just love common milkweed and I don't mind sharing space with the beautiful plant in our perennial beds. We have an invasive weed, 'Black Swallow-wort,' that monarchs mistake for milkweed. The weed is poisonous to the larvae. The plant also crowds out Common Milkweed. Our region is working to keep the invasive plant controlled. The best way to remove Black Swallow-wort is to dig the entire root ball. Trying to pull the weed is near impossible~ it nearly always breaks off. When walking along trails I pull the seed pods off and dispose of them in our household garbage. A little snippet of a wool rug I just finished... Painting, punching, hooking & dreaming of flowers while waiting on the gardens to wake! Hope you're having a wonderful week, Friends!
Needle felting is a captivating craft that allows you to transform raw wool fibres into stunning works of art like needle felted landscapes.
The Three Stages of Womanhood, 28" x 20", #12-cut wool on Micarelli linen. Designed, dyed, and hooked by Wanda Kerr, Wiarton, Ontario, 2016. It is a fact of rug hooking: if you’ve hooked a rug, you’ve hooked some type of background. It might seem as though we’ve talked about all we can with backgrounds. We’ve used geometrics in backgrounds, we’ve placed shapes in them (like leaves in a floral rug or paw prints in a pet rug). We’ve used filigrees and paisleys, Cs and Ss, swoops and swirls, bricks and bats. These are all shape and line inventions, from a design point of view. But there are other design elements we can think about, and one of those is color. Looking carefully at nature taught me this color trick. I could see that the variety of colors behind what I was studying created a better background than I could ever imagine. Consider this: instead of dyeing one or two colors to pave the backstory of your main motif, why not deliberately analyze the background to express its power more intelligently? This method of color planning will take no longer to hook, increases the star factor of your main player, and is all about color play. This way of looking engages your mind and your soul when it succeeds. This method of color planning will work with almost all types of rug backgrounds. Wanda Kerr is grateful to live in such a colorful world where we can all embrace what speaks to us most. She raises her hook and dye spoon to you: long may you create. Go to www.wandaworks.ca to keep up on all her concerns including The Welcome Mat, (now free) and to try her wonderful compact color system, Majic Carpet Dyes. This article is from the January/February 2017 issue. For more information on our issues, check out our issues page.
Based on material used to make the hook (not the handle) and the method of manufacture. Photographs of hooks are copyrighted. You need permission to copy photos. Hook collection is available for loan to museums and … More→
Explore Laura A. McElroy's 578 photos on Flickr!
still feeling like crap just can't shake this crud so my down time is spent looking online between naps, visiting mom and going to work these girls are the work of Julie Arkell the little one is me... a dedicated collector of dust another of her pieces love the ponderous here's Julie I'd feel very at home in that room almost too pretty to use with my eyes still bothering me I've stayed far away from my wool maybe I can bring home a face shield from surgery so I can at least organize who am I kidding I just want to sleep when I'm not at work I want a cupboard like this! maybe more than one... Happy Weekend!
May 2020
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In order to crochet, you'll need a proper crochet hook. If you're more of the do-it-yourself type of person, or can't find the hook size you need in your local shop, it's easy enough to carve your own. Your own hand-carved hooks may become...
Are you having punch needle problems? Maybe you find yourself wondering how do the loops even stay in the fabric? You've got questions, I've got answers!
I am always looking for creative and practical ways to store my stash of yarns :)
I've been noticing a lot of people on facebook lately struggling to understand punch needle. Though I made a tutorial video many years ago I thought I'd take time to delve into a bit more and start from the very beginning. **Please understand that these recommendations and opinions are mine. I have been punching for 15 years and these tips are what work best for me. I encourage you to do all the homework and watch as many videos as you can. This is a wonderful craft and lots of people have great tips. Punch needle embroidery is the art of creating a design out of thousands of tiny loops of thread. Punch needle designs are on the smaller side and many people ask what they use them for. Well, they are pretty decorative accents for your home, but you can also make coasters, ornaments, pictures, etc. The most important thing is that this wonderful craft becomes our friend. We look forward to seeing this friend at the end of a long day, or maybe it greets us early in the morning. We gain comfort from our punch needle and you can feel the stress of your day just melt away when that needle goes in your hand. So, let's get started. The needle....... There are many punch needles out there are the market. The main reliable three are the Ultra or Cameo punch needle (left), CTR Punch Needles (Middle) or the Iglochky Russian Punch Needles. (Right) All three punch needles are very good and reliable. I started off many years ago with the Russian punch needles. There are actually 3 to a set, much like the CTR, a 1 strand, 3 strand, and 6 strand or small, medium and large. For me, though I used this punch needle for many years, it hurt my hand. The other inconvenience for me was that you need to insert a rubber piece onto the shaft of the Russian and CTR needles to regulate your loop height. You can see in the pictures below the way you hold each needle. For me, I have big fingers, the Russian Punch Needle was just way too small, it caused my hands to cramp. (yes, I do bite my nails) The CTR needle feels a bit better, but is still too small for me.. The Ultra Cameo is just perfect for my hand. I like to hold my punch needle like a pencil. I was introduced to the Ultra (Cameo) quite a few years ago and fell in love with it. This pencil type punch needle comes with all three tips that are interchangeable on the needle with a simple twist and your loop heights are controlled by the number adjusters on the side. The Ultra is my go to needle. Edit ~ March 7, 2019 ~ I liked this needle so much that we bought the company in October of 2018, well after the date that this blog was first written. In picture one below you can see that once you easily twist off the top level of the needle you are met with your needle with a spring on it. This spring is for use with the small and medium needle. (see how it is tapered at the top). When you purchase the 3 set needle you will receive a large spring for use with the large tip. Slide off the spring.... Twist off the needle. See the slot where the needle simply fits in. Twist to set in. Now on to threading. This, for most, is the hardest part of learning how to punch. When you purchase your punch needle you will be provided with two very long threaders. Let me warn you, cats love these things and they are hard to find once they are gone. Keep your threaders in a safe place (we do however have replacements at our website...all links will be at the end of this blog.) So, you want to insert the tip of your threader into the tip of the punch needle. The needle is essentially a long, hollow shaft of metal. Insert the threader all the way down the shaft so that it comes out the bottom of the needle. Boop!! There it is! Insert your strand of thread/floss into the threader and pull it back up the needle. When you pull it back up, you will see it come out at the tip, right where you started with your threader. You are not done, now you need to actually thread the needle. See how the thread came right up that shaft? Now you want to continue the thread on out the eye. I do not need a threader to do this. I simply moisten the thread and pull it through, but if you need the threader, remember to insert the threader into the eye from the back. The back of your needle is the straight edge, not the beveled end. So, to recap, up the shoot and out the eye. There we go! Side view of your threaded needle. The thread comes out to the back. ~ Threads ~ So, you want to punch and you know how to thread the needle. What threads should you use. Well, this is the fun part. Most punchers use DMC and Valdani, but the sky is the limit. This is where you get to experiment. Try everything! The important thing to remember is the thickness of your thread. If you are using a fine thread you will want to use the small tip. If you are middle of the road, using 3 or 6 strands of DMC or a 3 strand of Valdani or the #8 Valdani you will want to use your medium tip. You can run fingering weight sock yarn through your large tip and other thicker threads. This is the experimental and fun part. Most of use have skeins and skeins of DMC around the house. We use a lot of it at The Old Tattered Flag (our house thread is actually called Sullivans a sister thread to DMC). I use all 6 strands and run it through my medium tip. Some ladies prefer to use the large tip. Try both to feel what is best for your hand. I recently have added these fabulous Velvet and Alpaca threads to our website. I find that the large tip works best with the velvet thread and oh my, it's so lush and gorgeous. The Alpaca thread runs through the medium tip nicely and is equally gorgeous, great for sheep! But my favorite thread is Valdani! A lot of punchers use the 3 strand ball (right). I started out punching with 6 strands of DMC so when I started using Valdani I wasn't comfortable with how thin it was. I use Valdani #8 Perle cotton. I like the look it gives my pieces and it is a better value than the three strand. Most of my designs are large so value matters when putting kits together. Every once in awhile I'll play with a fingering yarn. There are some beautiful sock yarns out there. Experiment with these, you won't be sorry. So, I mentioned that Valdani is my "go to" thread, but in truth the #8 was still not quite the thickness I loved, so one day I thought, "I wonder if you can double it" and sure enough, you can. I simply pull the strand from the center of the ball (the hole at the bottom of the ball) and grab the strand from the outside of the ball. I match them up and thread my needle as usual, threading both strands through the medium tip. You could also use the large tip if you prefer. This is how it looks when it's double threaded. Oh, and then I stick the ball down the front of my shirt and into my bra for nice safe keeping. When I need more thread I simply pull both strands. Another interesting story is about all the Valdani discs I find in my bra at the end of the night.....I digress! Ok, so you have your needle, you know how to thread it and you know what thread you want to use. Now......the fabric. I hear a lot of chatter about this on facebook and it makes me nervous because I hear people recommend muslin. Please, don't do it! I speak from experience. You can be punching along happily then all of a sudden a big tear and you have a hole in your project. And there is absolutely nothing you can do about it. You want to use Weavers cloth. Please, use it.....find it! Many people are selling it. We have it on our website, you can sometimes find it at Joann's. All punch needle designers draw/print on weavers cloth. Weavers cloth is a finely woven fabric that has enough give in it for your needle. It can handle a lot. But, that said, don't pull your work out a lot. Even the best fabric cannot withstand repeatedly punching and pulling out and will eventually tear. Think about it, you are essentially punching knife through fabric repeatedly. You want a good strong fabric. Start with weavers cloth.........then experiment. After you have learned the feel of the fabric you can then try other fabrics. You will know the correct feel of the needle going through the fabric. You will know if a fabric can handle it. I have used feedsack fabric before with wonderful results and punching through wool......oh, it's like punching through butter! (with the large tip) So, now you have the needle, the thread and the fabric. Do you need a hoop? Yes you do, but not just any hoop. You need a locking hoop or a gripper frame. I recommend and sell the Morgan telescoping hoop 7/9 in. It's a nice size for most punchers. It holds your fabric tight........ .....but not as tight as a gripper frame. I use to say to people, oh try the hoop first, and though I still do, I tell them that they are not going to get the honest feel until they try punching on a gripper frame. (We have two kinds on our website.) This one below is wonderful because it provides a large working area and, on the bottom is a swivel so it will spin while you are working. I am a directional puncher. I learned to punch in the direction you are going. Try as I might I cannot go all over the place. So, I love this spinner frame. We also have a "Peekaboo" gripper frame on our website that has a cut out window underneath. Lots of ladies like to constantly look at their work while they are punching. The Peekaboo is nice for that. **If your pattern is too small for your gripper frame simply sew some scrap fabric on the sides of your pattern to make it fit. The reason I prefer a gripper frame is because you want your fabric to be as taut as possible, tight like a drum. In the hoops it has a tendency to loosen. It will not loosen with the gripper frame and your needle will slide in and out of the fabric with ease. So....finally.....you have your needle, your threads, your fabric and your hoop/gripper frame. You are ready to start. Hopefully you have chosen a pattern that you love, or maybe you have decided to draw your own. I recommend buying a piece of weavers cloth along with your first pattern to practice on, or draw some shapes on the side of the pattern to practice on. A straight line is the way to start. You will be punching from the back.....did you know that? Yes, the design as drawn on the fabric should be backwards because it is the back of the design. Your loops will be coming out underneath. It's very important to remember to draw direction patterns backwards. I cannot tell you how many times I've punched a flag backwards.....geez! Your ready to punch that first loop. It's going to be harder than you think. When you punch down the fabric grabs the needle. You are going to want to pull up fast and since the fabric is grabbing the needle it's going to pop right out. Punching is a controlled movement. Punch down..... All the way down so that the blue part hits the fabric. The punch needle is designed to work with the spring action by you punching it all the way down to the fabric. PUNCH IT! It should be loud, especially if your fabric is nice and tight. Sometimes it drives my husband crazy. I digress.... I tell my students that this is the time to move in super slow motion. There are no speed records in punching. You want to pull that needle out super slow, because of the fabric grab and move it over to the next spot, which is right next to the first stitch you've just done. Not too close and not too far. If you punch your stitches too far you will see gaps in your work, if you punch it too close you could tear threads. You want your needle to work much like a sewing machine needle. It's hard to find the rhythm at first. You want your "stitches" to lay nice and flat. You can see above where one of mine is higher, loopier...that is because I pulled up too high with my needle. (I meant to do that...wink). If this happens, and it will, you can pull those loops out and from the top of your needle where your thread is going in, just pull the thread back a bit. Punch needle is very forgiving. I have turned my frame and added another row to show you that you want to punch close to the previous row. Again, not too close and not too far. Practice, practice, practice to get this right. It will come to you. When you are ready to end a stitch, hold your finger on the thread, at the last loop and push down, pull your needle back..... ....and snip. I have seen people who leave 1/4 inch tails all over the back of their work. They think that they must do this because the thread will pull out. It might. But if it does all you have to do is trim it even with your loops. All those 1/4 inch tails on your work can interfere with your punching and you might punch one through while your punching anyway. (I'm a bit OCD on this one, those tails make me shutter) You want to flip the fabric over, you know it....ok, let's look at those loops..... Tada......lush loops. I usually punch with my needle on a height of #2 (remember those numbers on the side of your needle). Experiment with the heights. Sometimes it's fun to set your height higher if you want fluffy grass or a sheep, etc. Have fun with the heights. Bigger height makes bigger loops. I've also seen on facebook that a lot of ladies think they need to brush glue on the back or iron on stabilizer to hold the loops in place. I don't and never have! I'm not sure what these ladies intend to use their punch needle pieces for, but the loops aren't just going to pop out. They are decorative, not footballs. Think of a hooked rug, we don't put anything on the back of a rug to hold the loops into place. It just isn't necessary. **One more thing, and I can't get the picture because I've been writing for a long time and I think the blog is telling me enough is enough, but sometimes my punch pieces are so large that they extend over the gripper strips. I do it all the time and I've never had a loop come out. You can do it. You just have to be gentle. If you follow me on facebook, check in my past videos and you will see me show how I do it. So, that's it, that's how to punch. Once you have punched your first loops you are going to be a woman possessed. Your going to love your new craft. Learn all you can and try as many threads as you can, be adventurous. Remember that none of our pieces were perfect when we first started punching. Don't be hard on yourself and don't pull out your threads a lot. You want to look back on that first project to see how far you've come. As I'm sure you know, I am Julie, the punching part of The Old Tattered Flag. I design Hooked Rug and Punch Needle patterns. We have over 200 punch needle patterns and kits on our website as well as all the supplies needed. To see our punch needle designs click here: Punch Needle patterns and Kits For Punch Needle Supplies Click here: Supplies Until next time.....
Did You Know... About Men And Knitting
I've been noticing a lot of people on facebook lately struggling to understand punch needle. Though I made a tutorial video many years ago...
Find out what I learned in my punch needle comparison of punching with 6 strands, 3 strands, and 2 sets of 3 strand threaded together.
Crochet hook size matters - a lot for project final outcomes. Here’s your guide to everything you need to know about crochet needle sizes.
All you need to know about the 3 size punch needle instructions In this blog we share a few tips specifically focussing on the 3 size punch needle we sell in our shop. You may also want to read our step by step punch needle tutorial for beginners and tips to avoid most common
Dimensions: 24" x 42" Materials: hand-dyed wool, wool yarn, polyester sheer fabric, nylon stockings, metallic threads, velvet yardage, and silk sari ribbon on rug warp Designed by Norma Batistini and hooked by Terryl Ostmo, Wahpeton, North Dakota, 2016. This rug is featured in Celebration 27.
I saw this book in Hobby Lobby one day, and it was calling my name..... It had a gorgeous hooked canvas journal book cover on the front...I waited and waited for awhile, then I caved in and bought it....Theresa Pulido is the rug hooking artist/ author, and she has a website devoted to locker hooking with videos, free patterns and gorgeous fabric strips. Locker hooking is a vintage method of rug hooking, where after you pull up 4-5 loops on a special long crochet hook with the hook at one end and a large needle eye at the other, you pull yarn through your loops and the loops are "locked" down to the canvas. They can't pull out. Here's what the needle looks like...Hobby Lobby has them.... For the "yarn" for hooking loops, you use fabric--you can use cotton fabric strips, you can use wool, and/or you can use a combination of fabric strips with specialty fibers, the possibilities are many. There are two sizes of rug canvas---5 mesh, and 3.75 mesh. The larger number mesh means that the holes to pull your loops through are smaller to the inch than the 3.75 canvas which has slightly larger holes. If you are wanting detail in your project, you would choose the smaller holed mesh, but honestly, I counted the squares per inch for both, and there's only one square difference between the two sizes. Hobby Lobby carries the larger, more common 3.75 mesh. You cut or tear fabric strips...1/2" width is the usual size used if you are using batik fabrics, and 3/4" is the size for all other fabrics. Batiks are wonderful because the print is the same on both sides. Here I've torn my fabric strips and wound them on little scraps of cardboard so I don't have to stop as much during my project, I've got lots of choices ready to use. If you use regular fabrics, then you will need to fold your strips in half because the print is only on one side of the fabric. There are several great YouTube videos that teach you how to join strips and tie up your loose ends as you work your way through a project, so a video is a better way to learn, I found for me. Theresa Pulido's website, Color Crazy, is another great way to learn how. Here is a basic idea of how to do it with still photos. My first project was a hot pad/trivet....This is what it's going to look like when I'm all done. You cut your size canvas to be about 3/4" bigger all the way around than what you want the finished size to be. Next, you fold each of the four sides over, about two to three squares and crease it down. You whip stitch the edges with fabric strips, not using any twine or yarn just yet, you are just binding the raw edges down so they don't unravel. They still might do a little unraveling as you start hooking. Next, you take a strip of fabric and hold it behind the rug canvas like this, ready to pull thru a hole with your special long crochet hook/needle eye. This is the back side. At the eye end of the crochet hook needle, you thread the eye with your locking yarn/cotton/twine, like a threaded needle. It just dangles off the back end of the crochet hook till you are ready to use it. Now, you reach through the rug canvas hole, and pull up a loop on your hook, leaving it on the needle... Then, you pull another loop with your crochet hook and leave it on the needle....Each time you pull up a loop, give a little tug with your finger on the back side, to keep the loops consistently the same height. You want them to be about a quarter inch tall. I find a tug from the back of the canvas with my finger holding the strip of fabric, keeps the loops about as tall as the width of the crochet hook, which is just perfect. The loops need to be tall enough so your locking yarn/cotton/twine can be pulled through, which is usually no problem as it's a lot skinnier than your fabric strips! I've pulled my locking medium through the last set of loops, so it's sitting there waiting, dangling off the back end of my crochet hook till I get my next cluster of loops on the hook. I usually pull up about 4-6 loops, then it's time to slide the crochet hook to the left, like you are "threading" the loops, leaving the loops standing up in the canvas. Your locking medium, which is threaded at the right end of the hook, now slides through those standing loops, following the crochet hook path. Here, I just need to pull a little more with my crochet hook to tighten up the black yarn so it disappears between the loops. Sometimes you can see the locking medium and that's no big deal. The loops will close up a little more once the trivet/hotpad is done and the loops get a little "squished" from pots or dishes or candles sitting on them. I picked a black yarn since there are so many colors on this trivet. White might have been better, but white would show the rug canvas threads a little more, so I picked black. You could use any color yarn, as long as it's worsted weight or thicker. Hobby Lobby sells a stringy twine for locker hooking. I have some of that but have not tried it yet. The bulkier yarn helps "fill" the little loops, I think. I chose to go back and forth for a linear look for my first one. Then, I decided to do a "spiral" design. I started around the outside edges and went round and round. After my sister saw my first one, she said, " I want FOUR!" so I was off and running.... Here is the second one, almost done..... And, my set of four for my sis. Thanks, sis, for your order! And that's the very basics of locker hooking! Let me know if you decide to try this....It's fun, but I will say it's hard on the hands and fingers...
Thinking about trying punch needle? Save yourself some frustration with these tips you NEED before you try it! + Free Printable Patterns! Get started off right!
Project Specs Pattern: Absolutely Fabulous Throw - Scallops Pattern Source: Colinette Yarns Yarn: Absolutely Fabulous Throw Kit in Sedona; used one full skein each: Mohair in #75 Moss, #60 Chamois, and #127 Morocco, Zanziba in #127 Morocco and #89 Dark Umber, Skye in #89 Dark Umber, Wigwam in #127 Morocco, Fandago in #127 Morocco Needles: Denise Circular Needles size US 11, crochet hook to attach fringe This throw is Kit #14 - Sedona. I think it turned out great and I know my grandma will love it! blogged
Floss Punched Three Ways, Punch Needle Embroidery, Needlepunch, DMC Thread, Punchneedle, 2 Threads, 3 Threads, 6 Threads, Ultra Punch, Rose Clay, Three Sheep Studio
What type of yarn is best for punch needle? A few thoughts on how to pick yarn that will be perfect for your punch needle project.
