Fun to String Beads! – Craft Gossip

This wonderful craft kit is sure to keep your little one’s hands busy for hours! It’s called Paper Bead Fun from Hearthsong. These are large (3/4″ diameter) paper mache beads in bright solid colors Your child can decorated them however they wish with the five color markers that are included in the kit. After they have decorated the beads, they can then string them and create funky cool jewelry. This craft is recommended for children ages 5 and up because the beads could be a choking hazard.

If you are shopping around for an older child try Paint Ceramic Beads by Alex Toys. It is an Oppenheim Toy Portfolio Platinum Award winner. It comes with two large heart ceramic pendants, 16 square ceramic beads, 10 other shaped ceramic beads, seed beads, paints, brushes and cord. Because you do need to bake the pieces once you have painted them, adult supervision is required.

And Mom, if she makes something for you, please wear it with pride. We want to encourage our children to be creative and to enjoy themselves, even if that means wearing a chunky bracelet with smiley faces all over it. 🙂

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Just about anything you can make in fabric you can make in knitting, but there are some styles that you just don’t see that often translated into knitting.

For example, a button down collared shirt. This is a classic design, of course, and it looks great in a knit version, but it’s just not something you see much of.

Noma Ndlovu’s Guglethu shirt is the pattern to try if you want to knit your own button down shirt. This one is inspired by cashmere tops (though the sample was made out of yak yarn, not cashmere, and uses two strands of lace weight yarn held together) and includes lots of high-fashion details like double-knit cuffs, collar and shoulder seams.

It has a patch pocket on the front and 10 buttons including the button band and the cuffs.

The designer says you can also use a DK weight yarn held singly if you’d rather, and that the shirt looks good in a variety of yarns. There is another version on Ravelry that uses Berroco Remix Light, which is a mix of nylon, cotton, acrylic, silk and cellulose fibers. It has a more relaxed look but it still really pretty.

The pattern has 12 sizes, with a full bust measurement ranging from 32.35 to 72.25 inches, or 82 to 183.5 cm. The designer suggests 2 to 6 inches, or 5 to 15 cm, of positive ease when you pick your size. I could totally see knitting one that’s even bigger to wear more like a jacket, because I do that a lot with button down shirts I already own.

I love all the details on this shirt, which isn’t necessarily difficult to knit, but might introduce you to some things you’ve never knit before (like those cuffs with the plackets, or a shirt collar like this).

To learn more about this shirt and grab a copy of the pattern for yourself, head to Ravelry.

[Photo: Noma Ndlovu]

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