Tatting – An Introduction

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Rings, chains and picots in lace tatting

I am delighted to welcome my dear friend Ali Shaw of Heartfelt Reflections today! Ali and I are “real life” friends — homeschooling moms who met at theater class then discovered a mutual love of words, the Word and crafting. Now we both write at Do Not Depart, and meet weekly with our daughters for craft time. While I stick with knitting, Ali often brings a tatting project. I had never heard of tatting until Ali introduced me to it. Today she is guest posting and teaching us about the art of tatting! This post contains affiliate links.  – Patti […] Read more »

Basic Crochet: The Chain Stitch

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Basic Crochet: The Chain Stitch from blossomsandposies.com

Have you ever tried to crochet? The first stitch to learn is extremely simple – the chain stitch. All you need is some yarn and a crochet hook. The crochet chain can be used as the base line of stitches for a project, as an edging, or even alone as an embellishment. Check back soon to see a project Abbie is working on using JUST the chain stitch. Easy peasy! Here is Abbie demonstrating the basic chain stitch: How to Crochet a Chain Stitch   Materials yarn crochet hook   Directions 1. Make a slip knot. You can find instructions […] Read more »

Knitting Basics: The Knit Stitch

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So you want to learn how to knit? Yay! We love to knit. Mrs. Brown: It’s pretty much constantly hot in Texas. When I first started knitting, it seemed a bit odd to be making wool socks or hats when it was hot enough outside to cook an egg on the sidewalk. But then I realized that it would be impossible to actually knit all the items I wanted to give as Christmas gifts if I waited for the few weeks it was cold out. Now I give thanks for air conditioning and knit year round! You too can knit […] Read more »

Knitting Basics: The Yarn Hold

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hook yarn over pointer finger - blossomsandposies.com

First things first: a yarn hold is not a big cargo area in a ship all filled up with yarn. Teehee. Although that would be wonderful to behold, wouldn’t it? 🙂 Behold… get it? *blushing* We are total word nerds. No, a yarn hold is simply how you hold your yarn as you work with your needles. You use a yarn hold for both crochet and knitting. Your yarn hold is important, but it isn’t always easy to sort out. You want to be able to hold the working yarn with enough tension that you can make a stitch, but […] Read more »

Knitting Basics: How to Wind a Ball of Yarn

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How to Wind a Yarn Ball - BlossomsAndPosies.com

Sometimes yarn is sold in units wound in such a way that you can knit or crochet from them immediately. But often yarn is sold in skeins. These skeins of yarn need to be wound into balls in order to knit them easily. If you don’t wind them first, you will end up with a giant tangled mess of yarn! If you buy your yarn in a nice yarn shop you can ask them to wind it for you, which they will do with a yarn swift and a yarn winder. But if you forget (or buy it online,) you’ll […] Read more »

Basic Knitting: Long Tail Cast-On

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Long Tail Cast-On - BlossomsAndPosies.com

Casting on is the term for putting your first yarn stitches onto a needle for knitting. It is the very first thing you will do when you knit. There are a number of ways to cast on. Here we demonstrate the long tail cast-on, which gives a nice stretchy edge. This is especially useful for hats and sweaters, which need to expand when you put them on. It is also just a good basic cast on, so we use it for almost everything we make, even non-clothing items. Abbie insisted that I (Mrs. Brown) do this demo, so for the […] Read more »

Two Girls, One Story: How we learned to knit, gave up and started again

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basket with yarn - Blossoms and Posies

We have a story for you today. It’s a story that played out in each of our lives at different times. It’s the story of two girls who couldn’t knit. And how we stopped knitting because of it. But that’s not the end. Abbie’s Story – Sometimes It’s Just Hard When I was six I learned how to knit. And I kind of did it for a little bit, but I wasn’t very interested. I think I thought it was too hard. So I threw it to the side. But then, a couple years later, I took a ball of […] Read more »