Category: Handmade
Knitted Sock Puppet Tutorial
Today’s post is a guest post from my daughter, Kendra. You can visit her at her blog, Sanka Pup Designs or at her etsy shop.
For my cousin’s birthday, my mom asked me if I could knit a couple of puppets to match a puppet theaters she was making for them. The colors: rainbow. I needed a pattern that was quick and simple, because her birthday was very soon (not that I take an extremely long time for just a pair of puppets, but between graduating and finishing working at the yarn store, I’ve been kept busy!). So I started my first idea. If you’re looking to make a pair of puppets, take a look at both of the different ways I made each of them, and then choose the one you want!
Note, these are more of general “how to’s” rather than patterns. Plus, what may fit my cousins may not fit the recipient of your handmade puppets! What I will do is tell you the construction, and you can play around with the size. If you did a gauge swatch before to figure out how many stitches you get per inch, then you could measure your hand, and multiply your stitches per inch times the width of your hand/wrist (depending on how snug you would like it). For these how to’s, we’ll call this amount of stitches (your gauge x recipient’s hand measurement) “X”. The nice thing about these how to’s is that you can use it for any weight of yarn! Well, enough chit-chat, let’s get started!
Toe Up Puppet
For my toe-ups, I like to use Judy’s Magic Cast On (follow the link to a video on how to do it). My only problem with it is that it’s not very DPN friendly, and I’m a huge fan of double pointed needles! But for this cast on, I would highly recommend the magic loop technique. It saves your project from being thrown across the room, and it saves you the frustration.
Top Portion of the Puppet’s Mouth
Step One:
Using Judy’s Magic Cast On, cast on roughly 1/7 of X stitches. Make sure that you round it to the nearest even number. For example, I did mine in sock weight, and cast on 8 stitches or so. If you cast on fewer, it’s going to be more pointed, whereas if you cast on a few more, it’s going to be a little more rounded. Note, casting on *too* many stitches will result in a flat “toe”, so try to stick close to the 1/7 of X stitches!
Step Two:
Place two markers. One at the beginning of your round, and one at the half way mark, then proceed, working in the round.
Step Three:
Round 1: Knit
Round 2: K1, M1, knit to one stitch before first marker, M1, K2, M1, knit to one stitch before second marker, M1, K1
Step Four:
Repeat these two rounds until you have X amount of stitches. This starts the top portion of the mouth of the sock puppet. Knit in stockinette stitch until you reach the desired length you would like it to be.
Step Five:
Once it is desired length, put all the stitches on waste yarn unless you have another set of the same needles to use for the next part.
Bottom Portion of the Puppet’s Mouth
Repeat the instructions of the top portion, only changing the length of the stockinette stitch in step four.
Joining the mouth
For this, you definitely want to know the kitchener stitch (grafting stitch) well. We will call the top part of the mouth of the puppet part A, and the bottom part of the mouth part B.
Step One: Put half of the stitches from part A on one needle (use the markers to help guide where “half” is). If you’re using magic loop, you won’t have to worry about this, they’ll already be evenly splitter.
Step Two: Repeat step one for part B of the mouth, putting half the stitches on one needle (note: this is not the same one needle as part A)
Step Three: Graft the stitches from both A and B off of the two needles (part A’s needle and part B’s needle).
Step Four: Make a new round by joining the other half of part A and the other half of part B together. Be sure to pick up two stitches from each corner of the mouth and knit them as part of the new round. This will increase your number of stitches, and will help to close up any gaps between the two joined pieces.
Knitting the body
Knit for as long as you would like the straight stockinette portion to be, then switch to “k2, p2″ ribbing for as long as you’d like ribbing.
Finishing
Cast off and weave in all ends
Sew on eyes, maybe a mane, a couple ears, a nose if needed, or whatever accessories strike your fancy.
Top Down Puppet
Knitting the body
Cast on X amount of stitches, do a “k2, p2″ ribbing for as long as desired, and then straight stockinette as long as desired.
Bottom of Mouth
Step One: Knitting on only half of the stitches, knit in stockinette until desired length minus short row toe length (I did a slip 1 at the beginning of each of my rows)
Step Two: Do a short row toe.
Step Three: Knit back up the stockinette you made in Step One, picking up one of its side stitches each row and knitting (or purling) it together with the first stitch of each row.
Top of Mouth
Step One: Now that you have knitted back to where you left the rest of the stitches, join back in the round, and knit for desired length minus length of toe.
Step Two: Make a toe by decreasing two stitches at each side every second row until you get to about 1/7th of X stitches.
Step Three: Graft remaining stitches together using kitchener stitch.
Finishing
Weave in ends
Add desired embelishments
Have fun with your puppets!
Making the Old New: Recovering Chairs
When we left for Spain 3 years ago, we were forced to lighten our load. We had an old, heavy table that we decided to part with. At the time, i assumed that when we got to Spain, we would just buy a used table at a yard sale or thrift store. Unfortunately, the Spaniards don’t do either. Our only option (well, besides cardboard boxes) was a dinette set with fabric covered chairs.
Cream colored chairs.
They were cream colored anyway, until we pulled off the plastic.
Needless to say, when we arrived here in Kansas, recovering the chairs was a priority. I have never recovered anything before, but I figured I couldn’t make them look any worse.
My son and I started on the first chair. In theory, the job should have been very simple. You take a butter knife or staple remover or flat head screwdriver or something and pry the staples out. Apparently the staples were made of titanium or something because they would not budge. A couple of hours into the job and my husband took pity on me and helped us out.
Here’s how he did it:
The seats to the chairs screwed onto the frame. He turned the chairs over and unscrewed the seats from the frames.
After removing the seats, he turned them over and took out the staples. Then he took off the old fabric. We used the old fabric as a pattern to cut out the new fabric. I bought the new covering at Hancock’s…just a fake leather type fabric. I wanted something I could easily wash off after each meal.
BTW, if you are a homeschooler, ask for a teacher discount card. They let me combine the discount card with a coupon for a really great deal!
Once we cut out the new fabric, one of us would stretch the fabric over the cushion while the other stapled it down.
Once the seats were recovered, it was just a matter of screwing them back on to the frame.
A look at our “new” chairs…
Learning to Embroider
Remember earlier this week when I shared how to make your own vintage tea towels. I decided a great follow-up post would be a lesson on embroidering. So if you are making your own tea towels, or anything that needs a cute embroidery motif, join me at Titus 2 At the Well where I am sharing a few tips on learning to embroider!
Make Your Own Vintage Tea Towels
Several years ago my daughter made me some beautiful hand-knitted dish clothes. They sat in a kitchen drawer for over a year because I just couldn’t bear to use something so pretty to clean my dishes. One day she opened the drawer, pulled out a dish cloth, and made me wash dishes with it.
It is amazing how much more enjoyable washing dishes became. From that moment, I decided I wanted to use more beautiful handmade items in my daily life. These simple vintage tea towels bring me back to the days when handmade items were a part of every homemaker’s daily life.
Want to make yourself a vintage tea towel? Join me at The Happy Housewife where I am sharing how to Make Your Own Vintage Tea Towels!
Make Your Own Hair Bows
The younger two girls in our house are girly girls. This past summer we were able to spend some time with my mother and grandmother. The girls had a blast with my grandmother because she is a girly girl too. The three of them put on make-up, painted their nails, and picked out jewelry to wear. And the girls loved it because Mamma would let them “do” her hair. What sweet memories to have as they get older!
Recently, my two girly girls asked if they could make some hair bows. A couple of years ago I had purchased some ribbon and headband pieces online, but because we moved five times in the last two years we hadn’t had time to make them. It was time to pull out our hair bow making stash and get to work!
We practiced making both headbands and clips. The process is essentially the same, except the headbands need to be covered first.
To find out exactly how we made our hair bows, join me over at Titus 2 At the Well, where I am sharing how to Make Your Own Hair Bows!
9 Great Items to Make from a Knitted Square
I have done several projects that require sewing. I thought I would change things up a bit and talk about knitting. I personally don’t know how to knit, but I have a heart for knitters. My oldest daughter Kendra has been knitting for about 7 years now. She is designing her own patterns and dyeing her own yarn. It is amazing to see the projects she creates. But before she became an amazing knitter, she practiced — alot!
So what is a mom to do with a kajillion little knitted squares and long knitted “scarves”? Each one is precious and you don’t want to discourage your budding knitter. With my daughter’s help, we have come up with:
9 Great Items to Make from a Knitted Square (or Rectangle)
To find out about these 9 Great Items, visit me over At the Well today!
Tutorial: Quilt Binding (Video)
Having trouble binding your quilt? In this video I walk you through binding a quilt. You may also want to check out my earlier post on quilt binding here and here.
Quilted Bible Cover Tutorial
Just in time for Christmas…learn to make Bible covers for your little ones! This tutorial walks you through step-by-step, teaching you how to make a custom fitting Bible cover.
Watch the video, print out a copy of the sizing directions, and you are ready to start sewing!
Need help with the binding? Check out my binding tutorials here and here!
Need some more gift giving ideas? Visit the other High Five Moms and see what they have come up with!
Keri Mae @ A Happy Home
Brandy @ The Marathon Mom
Stacy @ A Delightful Home
Andie @ Happy Andersons
Beautiful Handmade Journals
Last month I was able to snag a deal on composition notebooks at Wal-Mart thanks to Money Saving Mom. Several years ago a good friend taught me how to cover and decorate these notebooks to create beautiful journals.
Want to learn how?
Jump on over to At the Well where I will show you how!
Half-square Triangle Quilt
I just finished up a wall hanging as a thank you gift for my aunt and uncle. They were so generous in letting the kids and stay in a house they own while Cooper was getting treatment in Houston. We stayed there for almost 8 months (actually, we aren’t completely out yet). How do you thank someone for giving so much? It is really humbling, that’s for sure.
I chose to use hand-dyed batiks to make the wall hanging. My uncle is a geologist, and their home is filled with colorful rocks from all over the world. The jewel toned batiks will complement the colors in their home. My aunt is very modern, so I tried to go with an abstract look. I am not an abstract artist myself. I told my daughter that the quilt was either a great abstract interpretation or the look of a crazy lady’s work.
The quilt is made up (almost) entirely of half-square triangles…216 to be exact. Sounds like a lot, but really it went very fast and simple.
Getting Started
For this quilt, I cut 4 1/2 inch squares of both a dark batik and a light batik. I placed them right sides together. On the back of the light colored batik, I took a pencil and marked 2 lines 1/4 inch from each side of the center of the square (diagonally). These are my sewing lines. The center is the cut line. Once the 2 lines are sewn, place a ruler down the center (diagonally) and cut with a rotary cutter. You now have 2 half-square triangles.
Note: If you prefer to do several at once, you can use my half-square triangle templates. Make sure and watch the tutorial if you need help with the templates.
Layout
Once you have the desired number of half-square triangles made, lay them out in different arrangements until you find one that you like. I laid mine out several times and even tried different colors until I found something that worked. I am planning on taking my leftovers and making another wall hanging. You could also use the extras to make a table runner or a quilted notebook cover.
Here is the final block I ended up using. These blocks are made from 9 squares each (8 half-square triangle squares and one dark square). I then took the larger blocks and arranged them into the quilt, putting 2 border strips on the edges of one row, then turning it sideways.
