Friday DIY: Five DIY Earrings

Hello and welcome to another edition of Friday DIY!  Today's edition is all about making your own earrings.  They are easy to make with a few simple tools and materials.

What about making these lovely feather earrings out of leather?  La bella ironia wrote up an easy-to-follow tutorial.  This tutorial would also work with felt feathers, wouldn't it?

Or, what about these cutie-patooties?  Using tiny wooden dots and your own nail polish, you can make these super stylish earrings.  In Honor of Design created a tutorial that is not only easy to understand but also lovely to look at!

And, how about these beautiful button earrings?  These are a Few of My Favourite Things blogged about them.  Check out her blog for more simple tutorials.

These floss-wrapped hoops come from Delighted Momma.  Do you have any earrings that are starting to lose their finish or plating?  You know what I mean - they are pitted and discolored.  Maybe they are a cool shape but the finish is looking ugly.  Wrapping them using this technique would be a great way to save them from the trash!

Can you believe this earring is made of paper?  Etcetorize wrote up this tutorial for DIY paper earrings.  They look easy to make!

I hope you have a crafty weekend!  As always, if you make any of these DIYs, I'd love to see them!  Just post a link in the comments or e-mail a photo to kibbles.n.knits (at) gmail (dot) com.

Interested in seeing more Friday DIY?  Click here.  

All photos are property of original owners.  I did not write these DIYs or take these photos.  I collect DIYs and pass them on to you!

Pencil Cozies: Back to School, Knitter Style

Aren't these silly?  I made a bunch of these for the last craft fair I was in.  They were a big hit!  Some are with commercial yarns but a lot are with my own handspun.

I like to say that when you have hot ideas these will keep your hands from getting burnt.  (I know.  Don't judge me.)

Knitters - want to make some?

Cast on 5 - 8 stitches (depending on the thickness of your yarn).  Join and knit in the round to desired length.

They take very little time to make and they put a smile on people's faces.

You might think i-cord is a good idea.  It's not.  It doesn't look good and it's really fussy.

Send me pictures if you make some!  You can link to your own blog post in the comments or e-mail me a photo kibbles.n.knits (at) gmail (dot) com.

Hello Kitty

I found the pattern for this doll on Ravelry. It was a really fun knit and a free pattern! The only change I made was that I made the dress as a "wrap" so my daughter could easily change her clothes.

The dress and the bow snap on and off. I plan to make more "outfits" for her.

Winter Ain't Got Sh*t on ME!

Every year it starts getting cold and I realize I need a new pair of mittens. Because I realize I need mittens when it is already cold (and I'm talking 30 degrees) I go two weeks with freezing cold hands. Not this year! It's July and I have a pair of seriously warm mittens. I knit them with double-stranded worsted weight wool. And I'm not stopping there. I'm knitting another pair of thermal mittens to wear underneath. I laugh in the face of winter!

I knit these mittens from inspiration I found in two different places. They are based on Cosy’s subtle stripes spinning kits and an article about using color I read in Spin-Off Magazine. The article is called, “Blending Colors at the Wheel”. Instead of blending the colors at the wheel, I blended the colors at the needles.

I knit with one color all throughout. To make the stripes I changed the 2nd strand of yarn after knitting 8 rows of color. By keeping one color constant it makes the stripes more "subtle". Incidentally, the greenish stripe is make with some handspun yarn that I didn't really like. So, I found a way to use that yarn! Stranding a color you don't love with another color can make it pop, or calm it down, or bring out certain tones. Give it a try!

Oh, Balls!

I made these little balls the other day. The pattern is available for free. They don't even take an hour to make (probably more like 30 minutes) and they are endless fun. You can throw them inside and nothing gets ruined. Kids can throw them and you don't get an eye full of ball.

These are a good stashbusting project. They don't take much yarn to knit (not too satisfying when you are trying to use up yarn) but I stuffed them with yarn as well. Awesome.

Stash busting: dishcloths

I have a fairly insubstantial stash (compared to most knitters). It's probably only about 3 garbage bags full of yarn. The trouble with my stash is that it's mostly odds & ends from projects I finished years ago. Much of the yarn is lower quality than I want these days (left over from when I first started) and most of it is in colors that I find less than fabulous.

Even though I don't have a huge amount of yarn, the fact that it's there bothers me. I don't like a lot of clutter. And, little odds & ends of yarn is clutter. I wouldn't mind a stash with sweater's worth of yarn just waiting to be knit. What I mind is a bunch of stuff I don't really want to knit with sitting in my basement.

Enter the dishcloth! I found this pattern from Maggie's Rags and really liked it. It's much more substantial than most knit dishcloths and it doesn't stretch the way they do when they are knit on the bias. It's very thick and a little nubby so it scrubs dishes really well.

My only mods were to cast on fewer stitches (I cast on 35). And for the red cloth I thought I'd try to eliminate a wrong side. (The yellow cloth has garter stitch on the back.) To switch the right and wrong sides I simply knit for about 1.5 inches and then knit two rows before starting back into the pattern. By doing that, I alternated from garter stitch to chinese waves and back again.

Dishcloths are great for stash busting. They are also very portable. And, honestly, they are dishcloths and I felt no need to correct my mistakes. Perfect projects for a car ride or visiting with friends and family!