Funky Lamp Out of Reused Materials

This is a project I did several years ago. I found these old pictures on my hard drive and thought I'd share this idea.

Ingredients:

• One strand of Christmas lights
• One wire hoop (the kind used for making a wreath)
• An old curtain.

I had these funky old curtains from my college apartment that were really beat up. They had some cool bead work on them, so I didn't want to get rid of them. So, I thought of re-purposing them to make some funky hanging lamps.

Basically, I cut the curtain to the length that I wanted the lamp. I sewed the two long sides of the curtain together to make a tube. Then I sewed a hem on the top and threaded a string through it. Then I placed the curtain around the hoop and cinched it, to keep it from falling off the hoop.

Then I strung the Christmas lights through the hoop so they hung the length of the curtain.

Here is what the final product looks like:

Since there were two curtains to begin with, I ended up making a matching pair of lamps. I currently don't have these hanging up in my house, now that I have moved. I just can't think of a place that they will look right. Suggestions welcome!

Knifty Knitters

Knifty Knitters have been my obsession since I discovered them this past fall! I teach an after-school craft class for middle schoolers and was looking for something easy for them to do. At JoAnn's, I found these hoops with pegs that can make hats, scarves, blankets, leg warmers, and basically anything else you can think of. For my average seventh grade student, it takes about 5 minutes to teach them how to use the loom.

Here's a scarf that one of my seventh graders made:

For the knitting purists, this would be considered cheating. But what I have found, is that I am actually more interested in learning the real thing. (My students have also expressed an interest in learning how to knit and crochet.) So, I think of the Knifty Knitter as a gateway drug to the more artistic and skilled craft of knitting.

I made a whole knifty knitted set for my new nephew...including a hat, mittens and a blanket.

(Sorry for the picture quality.)

My nephew enjoying his new hat and blanket.

Everybody got knifty knitted hats for Christmas this year! I made four for the nephews and niece on the other side of the family. My husband got a hat and scarf. And my sisters and mom all got hats too, with fancy little flowers that I'll blog about later.
For those of you interested in making some of these, here are a few things I've learned along the way.

• The smallest (blue) hoop loom, fits newborn babies. My nephew outgrew his hat by 3 months!
• Use two strands of yarn rather than one, to get a more full and professional look. (This is easiest if you are using two separate skeins of yarn.)
  
• The kid sized loom (red) fits kids from about 3 months to a year or so. (I made a hat this size for my 4-year-old nephew and it was too small.)
• The adult sized loom (green) is the most versatile size, which is what I used for the 4-year-old's replacement hat and all the adult hats I made.
  
• The biggest loom (yellow) would be good for a more loose fitting adult hat or for someone whose head is bigger than average. (This is also good for making scarves...I'll put up a tutorial later.)
  
• Newborn hats take me about 30 minutes to finish.
• Kid hats take about an hour.
• Adult hats take about 2 or 3 hours depending what style of hat you make. (more about this later.)

Finally blogging

After much persuasion I am finally starting to blog my crafty creations. My sister has an awesome blog that I've been thinking of emulating for years. (check it out here: www.craftyrachel.com) So here it goes....