Here’s another of my, “While I was in Las Vegas at Glass Craft” posts. What can I say, there was a lot to see. So I picked up some project sheets to share with all of you from Spectrum Glass. It’s part of their System 96 Glass Craft Program and this little fusing project is a glass coaster called Mediterranean Mosaic. It’s a simple beginner’s fusing project that can be done in a small kiln. Over at their web site they have this project and as well as a number of others. Here’s something to keep in mind with this project. You can use other glass for it but you must make sure the glass you use is compatible. System 96 has a COE of 96 and if you use COE 90 you’ll need to use that. I’m not saying you can’t use 96 but you can’t mix 96 and 90. The glass must match. But other than that have fun with this cute little tutorial.
Have you read?
Gather Your Scraps for a Fun Wrap
Are you all tired of scrap knitting projects yet? I hope not, because I probably never will be.
This is one of those that was actually designed to be worked with scraps, though I’m sure you could use whole or partial skeins of a few different colors if you want a less scrappy look.
The Rock Salt Wrap by Nick Davis is mostly made with mitered squares (which is a fun technique to learn if you don’t already know how to do it). Make each square a different color, or alternate colors, if you don’t want to make it fully scrappy. The pattern actually suggests places where it would make sense to change colors and includes line drawing you could color in if you want to plan it out more carefully.
Because it’s mostly made out of squares you can easily alter the size by working more or fewer squares, or making them smaller or larger. The borders are worked in garter stitch and you could also make those wider, narrower or add more of them depending on the size of shawl you want and how much yarn you have to use.
Nick says their version took about 520 yards/475 meters of worsted weight yarn to make a shawl that measures 58 inches or almost 1.5 meters long and 14 inches/36 cm wide. This same technique would be fun for a scarf if you made it a bit narrower, or you could make a bunch of strips of squares and make a blanket.
Another thing I love about this pattern is that it calls for worsted weight yarn. So many scrap projects are made for lighter weight yarn, which is fine, but the vast majority of the knitting I do is with worsted weight so I always love seeing options that are made for using those leftovers. Of course you can also use lighter weight yarn if that’s what you have on hand.
You can get this pattern from Ravelry.
[Photo: Nick Davis]
Take Your Scrap Yarn on a Voyage
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