Father's Day Present

Last Father's Day, it was brought to my attention that my husband's favorite gun (a bolt-action rifle he had inherited from his grandpa) didn't have a sling. It had the holes bored for the stock end, and the hardware was installed on the barrel end, so all I had to do is get the hardware for the stock end, and either make or buy a sling. While I could buy a sling, It would not be custom-made for him, and I wanted him to be as proud of the sling as he is of the gun.

I bought the hardware, then decided that I wanted to make the sling. I wanted the sling to last as long as the gun, not be harmed by the weather it's exposed to, yet comfortable to wear. I decided that paracord would fit the bill nicely. Since the barrel end would carry the weight of the gun, I decided to put the knot on the stock end. The sling is made of four strands of paracord doubled over. The shoulder pad is made of box knots (aka cross knots) with two paracord strands together. Because of the construction of the knot, the back side of the knot is parallel to the gun, so it is more likely to stay on the shoulder.


The middle of the sling is constructed like a four-strand braid, with two strands of the cord put together as though they were one strand. This makes the sling slim to fit under the arm more easily, and more comfortable to carry for a long time.

The final section was constructed with the cords being pulled through the hardware, then constructed into cobra knots, and then melted into the knot at the end. Since the sling at this end is used mostly for stability, not to carry the weight of the gun, it is not as important that the sling be as strong on this end as it is on the barrel end. However, as you will note, there are three cobra knots between the end of the cords and the stock. The hardware I bought is quick-release, so if my husband wants to switch this sling to another gun, it is easily removed. This was a challenge to design, and a lot of fun to make. My husband says he loves the sling, and he was surprised at how comfortable it is.

Water Bottle Lanyard

Whenever I attend a practice for a singing group I belong to, I take a water bottle. I don't always have a place to put my bottle on the risers, and I drink a great deal. I have a variety of bottle sizes, mouth sizes, bottle throat sizes, so I needed something that was adjustable, and that wouldn't wear out/break in about 2 minutes. Do you think I could find something like that? HAH!!! So I created my own. The throat holder is adjustable, and the cobra knot is very tight, and holds the throat cord secure. The weight of the bottle helps hold the cord on bottle. The knots on the cord that goes around my body are a box or cross knot, which makes the cord look like a chain. A very effective affect. I made a similar one with a rainbow colored paracord for my son's bottle. He loves it, too!

Glasses Case

I found a glasses case at a craft shop in the clearance section. It wasn't hard to see why it was there...I don't think the people that designed the case actually does needlepoint, and/or doesn't wear glasses. In the instructions, the designers indicated that the back of the needlepoint should be unfinished. REALLY??? All those threads and ends to catch on the glasses? Pure insanity! Not to mention the ugly colors. So I bought it for a couple of dollars, got a couple of new embroidery floss colors, added some glass beads, and pulled a scrap of velvet out of my scrap bag to sew on the back of the needlepoint. Jacob (my son) had a great idea that some of the spots looked like stars, and I decided to enhance the illusion with the glass beads.

 In the left picture, I have the picture of the original colors, and then the finished product. In the right picture, I show how, even though my work is very neat, there's still a lot of loose threads to catch on glasses.

Oval Doily

Near the end of May, I finished a doily for a dear couple that got married in the autumn of their lives. They are so cute! They didn't want any presents, but I knew that she would appreciate this gift so I made it for them. It's not a large doily, so it won't get in the way. The pattern I got this from left the edge with the picots loose, and with three more motifs. I decided that I wanted a smaller doily, and then designed the edging.

Weekend Projects

I had some odds and ends of paracord, and some brand-new thumbnail drives. Since I didn't want to lose these drives, I decided to make a paracord attachment to keep track of them, and to differentiate who they belong to.

On the far left, out of the scraps, I made a key fob, which I gave to a friend. I made it using a tatting technique, which turned out to look like a double helix somewhat like a DNA strand.

These projects were all completed within a weekend.

2011 Christmas presents

In 2011, I dabbled in paracord crafts. I had fun making some bracelets for my son and his family. The three shorter bracelets had cord colors chosen by the children. I put the chains on so that the bracelets would grow with the little ones. In the two longer bracelets, I incorporated the colors from the children's cords into the parents' bracelets to tie the family together. It was a fun project that I literally wore blisters finishing on Christmas Eve. It was fun, though.

Round doily

This is the first doily I made. It was from a tatting pattern book. It was not very difficult to block, but it was more difficult to mount. It will also be made into a pillow. Below you will see the mounted doily.

Square Doily

I made a tatted square doily from a pattern in a tatting book. It turned out quite well, and I mounted it on a piece of material, which will be made into a pillow. I'm quite pleased at how it turned out, but the blocking and mounting were a real pain. Very well worth it.

I love tatting, and I made a bunch of earrings last year to give as thank-you/Christmas presents to women who have served in our local Special Needs youth group. I also made a pair for myself, then finally took a picture of them last summer. They're fun to wear.

My crafts!

I wanted to share all my crafts with my friends and family, so I decided to make a simple blog to do so.  Here are the pictures I took when I first started taking pictures of crafts I made I created a blanket to celebrate the birth of my granddaughter, Eliana. It was large enough to cover her carseat/carrier, and the turquoise ties were to tie onto the handles, and keep it off her face. It had a large tie around the edges to sinch it down, so the wind wouldn't blow it up and make her cold. It was really fun designing and making this one!

I put a hoodie on all my grandchildren's blankets. It's fun for them when they're older, but  it's also useful when the baby's out of the carrier, and the baby needs to be wrapped up in the blanket, and a tiny head needs to be covered!    

 

Here's how it attaches to the carrier.

 Here's a close-up of the tie. It was made with one of those circular knit tie makers. It was really quick and easy to make. As you can see, the blanket has a zig-zag design. It's warm, yet there's plenty of holes for the fabric to be breathable. Each of the afghans I make for my grandchildren are unique, so all you have to do is look at it, and you know which child it belongs to. It seems that the children like it that way.