When I knit, I never laugh. I frown when the yarn tangles. I say, “Hmmm,” crossly under my breath when I encounter pattern directions that “don’t compute” in my brain. Still, I sit contentedly, despite knots in my yarn and snags in directions, knitting whatever it is I’m knitting — mittens at the moment and tiny socks. But I don’t laugh.
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Think red. That’s what Betsy Doherty of Brooklin wants knitters and crocheters to do as they fashion scarves for the Heartscarves project, designed to bolster the spirits of women with heart disease.
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The Irish tradition of lace making staggers the imagination. This was not needlework for the faint of heart. It took a great deal of time, infinite skill, keen eyesight, fine dexterity and great patience to create.
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Women who sew and have a yen for domestic elegance, a la Francais, will find much to delight them in the book, “French General Home Sewn: 30 Projects for Every Room in the House” by Kaari Meng.
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The National NeedleArts Association conducted a survey, “The State of Specialty Needle Arts” in 2007 to determine what’s going on in the world of needlecraft. It was the third such study the …
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Happy haunting.”“Let the ghoul times roll.” These are just two of the greetings you’ll find at Web sites offering ideas and instructions for making Halloween costumes and decorations.
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Stitching a fine seam is something Dana Lippitt of Bangor and Kathy Cook of Amherst do with ease. They create the period clothing they wear at local museum functions or as reenactors of historic eras.
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The fact is, most of us need to work. No matter where we work, thermostats are likely to be turned down this winter to keep fuel budgets in check. No doubt we’ll experience cold hands. Time to plan ahead and think about wearing mitts, at work and at home.
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When the Wednesday Spinners get together, as they have since 1975, they are participating in Maine’s fiber economy, a farm-based industry, with roots in the rock, that raises fiber animals such as sheep and alpacas, and produces yarn spun from the fleece of those animals.
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The current buzzword among those who buy fabric and sew at home is “sew green.” This is code for using textiles made of natural and renewable plant and animal fibers grown without pesticides, manufactured in a way that produces a minimum of polluting waste products and leaves a smaller carbon footprint on good old Mother Earth.
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Fall is the time to gather in the fruits of one’s labor. Nowhere in this many-splendored season is there a better time or place to celebrate that concept than at the Common Ground Country Fair, Friday through Sunday, Sept. 19-21, at the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association fairgrounds in Unity.
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It’s time to go back to school — Fiber College, that is — where “students” can “major” in knitting, felting, weaving, embroidery, spinning, quilting, basket making, rug hooking and related arts.
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Many of us who were brought up by mothers who sewed remember them engaging in what they referred to as "making over" a garment. This usually meant that an adult-sized dress or coat had been taken …
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The minute I saw Butterick Pattern 4740, I knew the time had come. I was ready to do something with the three yards of silk shantung given to me more than 20 years ago by a friend who was moving to another state.
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Most of us are inclined to use whatever is handy for a bookmark - a bit of paper torn from an old envelope, a tissue, a gum wrapper, a small photograph or even a $1 bill. But I prefer handmade bookmarks, which surprise me with their beauty each time I open my book to the page I left off reading.
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The art of cutting and curing a quill pen wasn' t entirely lost with the advent of metal nib pens, fountain pens and ballpoint pens. Calligrapher and book artist Nancy Leavitt of Stillwater possesses that knowledge and uses it to create her art.
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