Cora
Feathering the Nest
By Marianne Lettieri
You can create beautiful, whimsical, and even thought-provoking nests with gutter screens from the hardware store and strips of any weaveable material. Let your personal aesthetic and interests be your inspiration.
Use these charming vessels to display a family photo, as individual place settings for a spring luncheon, or to hold a cache of papier-mâché eggs with your life goals written on them.
In the same way birds use whatever they can find to build their nests, feel free to choose materials from what you already have. Old silk neckties, scarves, luscious yarns, brightly colored fabrics, raffia, ribbon, lace, shiny audio tape, and small sticks are all possibilities. Think of interesting papers that can be shredded, such as foreign currency, sheet music, romance novel pages, even a copy of your master's thesis.
The only must-have is the correct gutter screen. The one you want is a simple bulb shape that retails for less than $5. I’ve had success with model #29059 manufactured by Amerimax Home Products.
Materials:
- Gutter screen
- Paddle (florist) wire
- Utility scissors
- Wooden skewer or tweezers
- Gardening gloves
- Fabric, ribbon, fibers
- Embellishments (feathers, beads, buttons, flowers)
- Spray paint
1. Wearing the gloves, stretch the gutter screen into a nest shape, keeping its curved bottom intact.2. Turn down—toward the inside—about 1/2” of the top edge.
3. Lace the open sides closed with paddle wire, looping the ends tightly to anchor them.
4. Spray paint the wire armature if you prefer a color other than the silver of the screen.
5. Cut or tear the fabric into 1”–2” wide strips. You will need about five 36”-long strips or ten 18”-long strips.
6. Starting at the bottom, and using a pointy stick, weave a strip of fabric in and out of the screen holes. Make the weave as tight or as loose as you desire.
7. When a strip ends, tie it to another of a different pattern and continue weaving. When the top of the nest is reached, begin looping the fabric strips over the top edge.
8. Add small fibers, ribbons, or shredded paper. Attach embellishments with paddle wire.
Crocheting in the front loop only (flo) makes a fabric that is smooth and taller than regular double crochet. And, in an almost magic way, the fabric is both looser and provides better coverage than double crochet worked through both loops. This happens because the new row pulls the previous row's front loop up, covering the wee gap produced at the base of a double crochet worked through both loops.
Going with the flo can feel a bit odd at first, as you work your hook under the front loop. To make the crocheting easier, tilt the fabric backward slightly so that the front loop stands up. This all gets easier as you move along.
You can shape the fabric to fit you even if it's not in the pattern! To change the shape, you work increases or decreases in the middle or at the edge of the fabric. It's that simple! Start by working the bottom of a larger size that fits your hip measurements, then decrease to your waist measurements, and increase to the size that best fits your bust.
Darts are a more tailored way of shaping. Darts create gracefully defined shaping on the front, or back, of a garment. For a bottom-up sweater, work as written to about an inch below the waist. Mark a stitch about 1/3 of the way in from the left edge of the piece and a second stitch about 1/3 of the way in from the right edge. To make the dart, decrease at the marked stitches by working 2 stitches together; move the marker up each row. Decrease each row until the waist measures your desired size; note that decreasing more than a few inches will distort the fabric. Then work even to just above your natural waist. Now increase by working 2 stitches in each marked stitch until fabric is wide enough for the bust.
