Vol-079 Christmas Sweater Cane PcT Tutorial (Intro)
Video #597: A classic knitting or needlepoint pattern that never gets old. It just gets more nostalgic with each passing year.
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** This post is an introduction to one of our paid tutorials.
Is there anything more nostalgic than a cozy red and white Christmas sweater, knit with awesome borders, poinsettias and deer with antlers? I mean really! The Holiday Knit look is so hot right now that everything from paper, stencils, cell phone cases and of course jewelry and decor items are adorned with these types of patterns.
So I thought this would be the perfect time to show you how you can make your own Christmas Sweater Cane, using micro-caning techniques and my own Christmas Sweater design out of polymer clay… of course!
What is so great about this micro-caning technique is that you can get a highly detailed cane that doesn’t need a lot of reducing (which means there is very little distortion) and all you have to do is follow the pattern.
Included in this tutorial is my own Micro-cane pattern in PDF format for 4 individual cane design that you can use separately to make your own pattern, or in the combination that I show in the tutorial, to make the Christmas Sweater design. The four patterns include two border designs, a Deer’s Head with antlers and a traditional Poinsettia pattern.
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Yay, I love your new Christmas cane idea. So many uses, this is another timeless tutorial! Thank you Cindy.
Sherry L
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Gosh I am right! I saw you wearing this bangle Cindy in a previous video, and just knew it’s going to be our next tutorial. I was kind of hoping it would be, because I fell in love with the design. I love the Christmas knit sweater look. Thanks Cindy for an awesome tutorial!
Cheryl H
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I am so excited about this project! When I saw your bracelet in another video, I also was hoping that was going to be our next project!!! It’s just beautiful :)
Ginny M
Transcript coming soon...
Transcript coming soon...
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Thank you for the very helpful videos! I’m really enjoying making these canes.
Something that I found helps me is to tape a square pane of clear acrylic to my glass cutting board with a 1″ piece of white artist’s tape on each side. (I guess it could be anything about 1/16″ thick with a nice straight edge and longer than the cane you’re making.) Then I start each row with the first strand pushed right next to the acrylic. It keeps it straight and in place and I can take my blade perpendicular to the glass and push against subsequent rows to assure they’re straight without worrying about the whole thing coming off the glass.
When I’m done with a row, I peel up one piece of tape and flip the acrylic out of the way until I’ve flattened and trimmed that row and am ready to start the next one.
I also put a piece of white tape on the glass cutting board just outside my working area to give me a guide to where the row should end so I don’t accidentally add or forget a strand. This has happened!
Wow those are excellent tips Phyllis! Thank you so much for coming in here and sharing those with everyone. This kind of sharing of knowledge is why this community is so great. We all can learn from each other. Thanks again!
I made a couple of sweater canes last week, and just wanted to drop and say that I have a whole new appreciation for the level of patience you have Cindy! I had plans on doing all the patterns, in red and green. But after doing a red reindeer and poinsetta, I tucked my extruder away for the time being (there’s lotsa time left till Christmas right?!)
The tips and tricks you shared helped ever so much. I got to exercise my Lucy extruder and vise, definitely made it easier.
I haven’t tried reducing the canes yet! I’m scared to! I’ll probably cut off about a fourth of it and try reducing it and if it doesn’t work out, I’ll just admire the large canes!
Hi Krithika, that is great that you have been working on the Christmas Sweater Cane… it is definitely a fun one to do! Don’t be afraid to reduce it… just do a little at a time, it should go fine. You are smart to save some big pieces though. That will give you more options. The Lucy Clay Extruder sure would make the job go easier and quicker! I wish I had it when I was making that cane. Next time it will be a breeze! :)
Love this project, Cindy. So much information and beautiful pieces. I’m definitely not putting this off. I’ve been wanting to make something for a friend’s young girls and I think the bracelet would be perfect. And, I know I say it a lot but there are so many possibilities for this technique!
I’ve tried canes using square extruded clay (a kimono) including some of the extruded flower canes you showed us, but it came out just a little too “boxy.” I also made an argyle pattern with extruded squares and triangles (half squares), but got way to much distortion. I think round would be the way to go for that one now that I’ve seen you do it. Especially since I was trying to match a sweater! (LOL)
Thanks again Team Lietz!
You are very welcome Dawn! I would love to see what you make with the cane if you get a chance to take photos. Thank you so much for your support and have a wonderful Holiday with your family! It is going to be an exciting New Year!
this looks great and like everyone else, can’t wait to try! I do have one question – not sure if you covered and I just missed it – but is there a reason to use the round extruder instead of a square? thanks!!
Janet, I would think the only reason to use the circle die instead of a square would be mainly, as Cindy mentioned, to give the pin-sized “holes” left in the reduced cane that mimics the holes in a real cross-stitched item on fabric. A square extruder disk may not provide those pinholes, but I would think you certainly could use one if you have one small enough. If not, you’d have a huge cane!
That’s weird, Becky’s answer was perfect but I can’t see it here anymore… Here is what she said if it doesn’t show up here again:
“Janet, I would think the only reason to use the circle die instead of a square would be mainly, as Cindy mentioned, to give the pin-sized “holes” left in the reduced cane that mimics the holes in a real cross-stitched item on fabric. A square extruder disk may not provide those pinholes, but I would think you certainly could use one if you have one small enough. If not, you’d have a huge cane!” ~ Rebecca Chisenhall
Rebecca’s comment was not showing because of the website address that was added to the “URL” field. Unfortunately, Becky, the commenting system has an issue with that url because it contains the “@” symbol. Some Flickr web site URL’s have that “@” symbol as well and for some reason it triggers some weird code issues that cause the text part of your comment to disappear. I removed the website reference in the code and now, as you can see, the original comment from Rebecca is showing up.
What a lovely Christmas pattern! Appreciate the tips for making the extruder easier and more stable to use.
This pattern following use of polymer clay also opens to door to following patterns for beadwork, specifically loomwork, but, peyote is possible as well if you use transparent or a neutral color to get the offsets going.
A trip to the copying machine at Staples with some graph paper will allow you to use clear acetate to copy the grid pattern to it. You can enlarge or decrease the graph sizes before you print the gridwork on the acetate.
Using the clear acetate grid over a picture or piece of art allows you to follow Cindy’s technique to make just about any pattern you wish.
Pinterest.com is loaded with bead loomwork and cross stitch patterns that would make gorgeous polymer cane canes, as well.
I don’t think i will get the time to do this for this year as it does take a lot of time to put the cane together and I have finished my jewelry sale and completing a few orders. After that I’m busy accompanying at the school Christmas concert, Masses, senior ‘s home so will be busy with practices.
I will do it next year and also try other designs too! thanks Cindy for an awesome tutorial!
Great canes ! It really looks like Christmas!
Oh my gosh!! My head is spinning (again-LOL). It is too late for me to make the Christmas swater cane -this year. BUT ( as a knitter and weaver) I can see so many other patterns to use. Sooo, off to gather some goodies for future use.
What a great tutorial this is.!! I can’t say enough about it. I learned so many new tips and tricks. Each tutorial, you teach us, is so filled with information – to use now and later. TY for all your patience and time spent. This tute is an easy one, but tedious ! And you MUST use precision .Not my long suits, unfortunately. But I do love it, so will tackle it after the holidays…………
Just finished watching the whole tutorial & wanted to pop in and say how wonderfully you explained everything.
It’s a bit too late for me to use in making this years ornaments for our 3 nephews (shipping overseas and all)…
But like I mentioned before this is a timeless design and I must admit I Love this type of cane building cuz I’m a ”fiddler” lol (read: obsessive/compulsive). Hmm, now I’m wondering if this is a good or bad trait — I guess as long as this behavior doesn’t bog me down and lead to never finishing a project or experimenting it will be okay ;)
While I’m sharing things, I want to tell you guys that I have a health update to share, this past summer the local Pain Center did something called Neurostimulation. I now have 2 leads in my spine and a battery pack in my left hip, pretty cool I think. I’ve gone through some major detox and I’m down to one pain pill a day, where I used to take 9 or 10 ( of course that amount of medication was due to 15+ years of chronic pelvic pain and the management of it). The prayer is that over the next few months I will continue to decrease that one pill to a half…yada yada… It’s not a cure But it is better than all that morphine.
One last point, this community has been a true blessing for me. A place to come learn and connect with others that have common interest, goals and/or set backs in life, whether physical or emotional, ourselves or our family — doesn’t matter, someone here will ‘get it’ and respond with kindness.
Wishing all of you many blessings, Sherry
Thank you Sherry for your wonderful comment. You are a such a lovely person and it means a lot to all of us to have you open up and share your feelings and your challenges with us all. I hope that your pain will improve quickly and that you will be able to reduce your medication right down to zero! Have a wonderful Christmas with your family! Take care.
Just thought I would pop back in here CINDY, after watching the first video.
The die you are using has (in fact) twelve little holes, not ten as you stated. I expect if you used a ten hole die the scale would come out different? Just printed out the pattern, so really excited about making this great festive cane…..cheers xx………
Good eye Elaine! You are right! If it were easier to do I would fix it in the video but it is all but impossible without a ton of effort. Hopefully people will go by what they see and not what they hear, and it should work out ok. I don’t think there is even one with 10 holes but if there were, it would still work… just be a tiny bit bigger. Thanks for letting me know.
Couldn’t sleep last night so I looked and saw that these videos were posted already! I watched the whole series and was very excited, so, now, I really couldn’t sleep!! Lol! I almost got up and went into my studio! I just wondered where we get the pdf file? Is it in the newsletter? I didn’t see it posted with the paid videos. Unless, I’m blind!
Hi Catalina, the PDF link is just above the links for the Pt2 to Pt 6 videos, in the paid membership site. Maybe if you go back and look you will see it there? You probably were too excited to get watching the videos and missed it!
Yes! I flew right by it! Thanks! Had a funeral to attend, a dear family friend, so I may not be able start this for a couple of days. I can see many different options with this one.
WOW Cindy, wow wow wow!
Just adore your sweater cane and am hunting out my tools again as just “gotta” make this one! I bought a set of T- towels and tea cosy to give as a gift. It has the a red and white “Scandi” design with Christmas trees and hearts, so after attempting your pattern I will get out my graph paper to figure out this different design. Just hoping I have enough red and white Premo.
Just wish we had a Dollar store here in the UK. We have “Poundland” which is nearly the same but probably twice as expensive but still great value. I also managed to find the glass baubles to do your Mistletoe baubles, after failing to find them until now.
I did a Craft Fayre in our local Church Hall and made your cute little Owls as tree decorations (sold all twelve). As my theme was Birds I designed a fabric Owl perched on a Cinnamon Quill like he was sitting on a swing, then a few Penguins as paper weights again from fabric standing on a piece of slate (iceberg) and was kept busy using my Pyrography machine to personalise wooden items. Spoons, keyrings bookmarks etc.
Not super fit at the moment but Art as Therapy keeps me going. Happy Holidays to you all………………..cheers xx…………
Love this cane. It is so beautiful. I love Christmas anyway. The feeling you get this time of year. Everyone have a Wonderful Christmas and Cindy keep up the good work.
I am so excited about this project! When I saw your bracelet in the last video I also was hoping that was going to be our next project!!! It’s just beautiful :)
This is a fantastic idea Cindy! I was just wondering what to make for my sister-in-law’s Christmas present, now I know! I just love the napkin rings, and I know she will too!
Yay, I love your new Christmas cane idea. So many uses, this is another timeless tutorial! Thank you Cindy.
I’m really looking forward to learning all about it:)
Gosh I am right! I saw you wearing this bangle Cindy in the last video and just knew it’s going to be our next tutorial. I was kind of hoping it would because I fell in love with the design. I love the Christmas knit sweater look.