Congratulations to Duane!
First off, let me say that June was spectacularly crazy for me, but things will be getting better after this week. So if you’ve won a giveaway and haven’t received your prize yet, or you’re wondering why … Read More...
How to Use Movement to Help Teach Math
Anything that gets kids up and moving is a great thing, and connecting learning and moving is even better because it helps make connections in the brain that might not happen when learning at a desk. Plus, it’s just more … Read More...
How to Cross Stitch on Crochet
Most of the time most people cross stitch on Aida or other fabric, but there are lots of other ways to add cross stitch to projects that started out with a different craft.
For example, you can cross stitch on … Read More...
Kniterate: Like a 3-D Printer for Knitwear
If you’ve ever used a knitting machine designed for home use you know how laborious it can be. You still have to do a lot of the work by hand, such as ribbing, increasing and decreasing, and of course all … Read More...
Do You Know How to Knit Backwards?
Knitting backwards sounds like a cool trick, but it’s more than that. It can actually be quite useful when working entrelac or short rows or even just narrow rows of knitting where you don’t want to have to take the … Read More...
Stitch Up Some Star-Spangled Fun
Americans are celebrating their independence with a long weekend this weekend, and it’s a perfect time to start a new cross-stitch project in red, white and blue.
This Star-Spangled Happiness Chart from Stitching the Night Away is a great choice … Read More...
Printable Building Challenge Cards Take Blocks to Another Level
Most kids I know like to build with blocks, but you can turn that basic play into a lesson in science and engineering with these awesome printable building challenge cards from PickleBums.
The idea is to set out a challenge … Read More...
Knitty Enters Fall with a New Look
Yeah, I know, it’s not really fall, but the First Fall issue of Knitty was just released, and it’s big news because the online knitting magazine now has a responsive layout, meaning it automatically resizes whether you’re looking at the … Read More...
Knit and Crochet for Kids with a Free Ebook from Red Heart
To celebrate the company’s new Baby Hugs yarn, Red Heart has released a free pattern ebook with 11 knit and crochet patterns for babies and little kids up to age 8.
The yarn Baby Hugs is a medium weight, extra … Read More...
Pattern Inspiration: Cross-Stitch Constellations
There is no pattern to go with these lovely stitched constellations from Miniature Rhino, but it wouldn’t be too hard to find a star chart for the constellations you want to stitch and make them freehand.
Hers include things like … Read More...
Do You Know the Velvet Acorn?
If you’ve ever looked at knitting or crochet patterns on Pinterest, you’ve probably seen patterns from the Velvet Acorn.
Designer Heidi May has hundreds of patterns she sells on etsy, which are inspired by nature and styled beautifully and usually … Read More...
Giveaway: Customize Your Knitting
Lori is the winner!
If you want to learn how to take control of knitting patterns and make projects that better suit your body type, you should check out Margaret Hubert’s Customize Your Knitting.
The book covers the basics … Read More...
Teach Kids Fractions with These Fun Flowers
Fractions are sometimes a hard concept for kids to understand, and the more visual we can make things the more we can help them get what fraction equivalents really look like.
These cute fraction flowers from Teach Beside Me are … Read More...
Check Out These Cute Cross Stitch Sea Creatures and Pirates
I’m really starting to love the DMC blog, Common Thread, which not only has cute, free, downloadable cross-stitch charts, but lots of other cute projects using thread and yarn as well.
They recently posted a set of sea creatures and … Read More...
How to Control Tension with Arm Knitting
Last week I taught a fiber arts class at my daughter’s school, and one of the students was really taken with arm knitting. She made five or six little scarves (which was great for me, because part of my reason … Read More...
Help Your Kids Learn about Shadows with this Free Unit Study
Kid Minds has produced a great, free to subscribers, resource for kids ages 4 to 9 to learn about shadows.
The unit study has information on what a shadow is, books, videos, songs and poems about shadows and a … Read More...
Free Cutie Bear Cross-Stitch Chart
This is a rather old one, but I really love the Cutie Bear cross-stitch pattern that’s a free download from Crafty Guild.
It looks sort of like a ballerina panda, which my daughter no doubt would love. It’s worked with … Read More...
These Knitting Fails Should Make You Feel Better
We all have craft fails from time to time, including and especially in our knitting.
Sometimes the only thing that can make you feel better is remembering that other people have failed at knitting in the past, often spectacularly, and … Read More...
Great Science Experiments for 3-4 Year Olds
Little kids are naturally curious, and it’s lots of fun to do science experiments with preschoolers because so many science concepts are new and amazing to them.
But what to do with little ones?
Go Science Girls has a great … Read More...
An Easy Way to Make Your Bind Off Neater
I’m sure you’ve noticed how the very last stitch of binding off can look a little messy. It’s usually bigger than the others and you can easily tell which end is the end of the bind off for that very … Read More...