I bought at the flea market 2 lamps with not so attractive floral print shades. I wanted to play, experiment and see what I will come up with. I used thick white yarn and just weaved it around the spokes. I didn’t use any glue but I think I might use it with the second lamp to anchor yarn strands and prevent them from slipping.  I’ll try to decorate it further with some pom poms but here is what I ended up with for now.

This is how it looked before makeover and how I weaved the yarn around the spokes.

I’ll post some images of the lamp with pom poms once I make them.

Amigurumi Moose Head

I had an idea of crocheting big amigurumi head some 2-3 years ago, while working on Amigurumi Fawn pattern. By the time I finished little fawn I was so fed up with all fawn/deer/moose/reindeer-like creatures that I forgot about the idea. It came back to me just recently and I decided to give it a try. It turned out great, I love the way he looks at me over my entrance door. It’s been there now for the last 3-4 days and I’m still quite (pleasently) surprised when I see it hanging there. It adds such a personal touch and charm to any corner of my home, wherever I hang it.

I enjoyed working on this piece so much that I can’t imagine anything else on my list of future projects than another animal’s head. I’m just not sure which animal it will be………… A mouse? A bunny? An elephant? I’d love to make them all… and maybe I will, I can never be so sure what will inspire me next.

You can see below some more images I took while working on the pattern. The second one showing how to attach ears.

I already wrote about how I like the thrumming and about my little lamb pattern. The pattern is nearly finished… it’s in the testing phase but I’m now not sure if it’s a lamb or a sheep that I made. Anyway, whatever it is,  it’s really stylish … thanks to thrums which made her look so cute.

Anyway, I wanted  to explain more how to make thrums and how to crochet with thrums. First, I have to say that all I know about thrumming technique I learned from Marlaina Bird and her instructional video she posted on YouTube ( the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQ5Qxxsd4LQ). You might also want to visit her blog at: http://yarnthing.blogspot.com/

Anyway, thrumming is not as difficult as it looks. You just need to prepare the thrums beforehand as it can be annoying once you start to crochet to pause in order to make them.

You will need a fleece or wool roving (combed, unspun wool) and you start by pulling off  an 18 cm (7-8″) long piece of wool. From the side of that chunk, peel off thin strips lengthwise.  The strips should be the same thickness or slightly thicker than the working yarn. I tried to work with 2-3 times thicker thrums and it’s working nicely as well. Maybe it’s a bit more difficult to work with that much thicker thrums but it’s doable and the final result looks ok. So, don’t bother that much about the thickness of your thrums. It’s also not a big problem if they are not all the same thickness.

Now, for each thrum, fold the both ends to the center and press them in.

Hold the middle of the thrum between thumb and forefinger and gently roll – that middle part is the part that you put on your hook. Store all your thrums in a glass jar or any kind of container so they are easily available once you need them.

Watch short video of how to make thrums: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8IpBoiPYqk

Now, to crochet with thrums, you do the following:
Yo, insert hook in next st, put the thrum around the neck of the hook (with your index and middle finger grab the ends of the thrum to tighten), yo and draw the yarnover and the thrum loop through the stitch (4 loops on hook: 3 yarn loops and a thrum loop). Wrap the ends of the thrum around the working yarn (bring the ends from behind, in an anti clockwise direction, and wrap it around the yarn),  yo and draw through 3 loops on the hook (through 2 yarn loops and a thrum loop), yo and draw through remaining 2 loops.

Watch video on crocheting with thrums at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1m1ZhkTkVL8&feature=related