I did crafts even in my childhood. My mom taught me to knit, embroider, tried to teach me to sew. For me it was almost the only types of needlework. But when I became a mother myself, during my first maternity leave I decided to recall my mother's lessons on knitting, I realized that there is a lot of areas only in knitting. I was wondering what are various types of needlework. Browsing through a huge number of websites, blogs, articles, I was struck by the abundance of creative directions. I realized that I wanted to learn all of them. I wanted to know how to do all of them. And I began to experiment. Something worked, something was boring, but something has stayed with me ever since. And though many people say that to become a pro it is necessary to define your style and hone your skills. I can't decide.

In this article I want to introduce you to the abundance of handmade creativity. Maybe you will be inspired by a particular kind of art, and you will decide to try it. All information is taken from the Internet. And you can easily find more information on any kind of crafts.

Crocheting.

The earliest written mention of this type of needlework is recorded under the name of "shepherd's knitting". First patterns for crocheting were published in the Dutch magazine Pénélopé in 1824.

Knitting

Knitted socks found in Coptic tombs date back to the 4th-5th centuries, the most ancient (the 3rd century, the era of Prato-Nazca) knitwear of the New World were discovered in Peru. High quality of items from the graves of the Copts suggests that the technique of knitting was known much earlier.

Embroidery

It is a well-known and widespread needlework art of decorating various fabrics and materials with a variety of patterns, from very coarse and dense, such as: cloth, canvas, leather, to the finest fabrics — batiste, muslin, gas, tulle and so forth. Tools and materials for embroidery: needles, thread, a hoop, scissors.

Chenille embroidery.

Cross-stitch embroidery.

Half cross-stitch embroidery.

Damask embroidery.

Richelieu embroidery.

Ribbon embroidery.

Silk embroidery.

Amigurumi

The Japanese art of knitting or crocheting small, soft animals and human beings. Amigurumi is more often cute animals (such as bears, bunnies, cats, dogs etc.), humans, but it can be inanimate objects endowed with human qualities. For example, cupcakes, hats, handbags and others. Amigurumi is knitted with needles or crocheted with a hook. Lately crocheted amigurumi has became more popular and more common.

Temari

A national Japanese technique of embroidery on balls.

Macrame

A technique of knot weaving.

Ganutell

It is the art of making flowers out of thin spiral wire and silk threads, seed beads, beads and pearls.

Batik

Hand painting on fabric using reserving compositions.

Patchwork

Quilting, patchwork technique, patchwork mosaic, textile mosaic is a kind of needlework in which according to the principle of mosaic a product of pieces of cloth (patches) is sewn. In the process, the canvas with a new color scheme, pattern, and sometimes texture is created.

Chirimen

This technique is a traditional Japanese craft of making fabric figures.

Oshibana

This is a type of floristry, the art of making pictures out of dried natural materials under pressure — flower petals, green and yellow leaves, stems, and grass seeds.

Stained glass windows

The form of monumental art, a work of fine decorative art or of ornamental nature made of colored glass, designed for through-lighting and to fill the opening, most often it is a window opening, in any architectural construction.

Lampwork

Artistic processing of glass with flame.

Quilling

It is also known as paper filigree. This is the art of making flat or three-dimensional compositions of twisted spiral long and narrow strips of paper.

Kirigami

The art of making figurines and postcards of paper with scissors.

Kusudama

A paper model which is usually (but not always) formed by stitching together the ends of multiple identical pyramidal modules (usually they are stylized flowers folded from a square sheet of paper) to get a spherical shape.

Scrapbooking

A kind of handmade art for manufacture and design of family or personal photo albums.

Iris folding

It is rooted in the Netherlands, where local residents with the help of colored paper and cardboard learned to create three-dimensional works with a spiral image. The products were similar to the diaphragm of the cameras used in those years, and partly resembled the iris of the eye.

Paper cutting

The art of paper-cut.

Topiary

Manufacture of decorative miniature trees in the form of a ball of ribbons, coffee beans, beads, cones.

Felting

Beautiful decorations, toys, panels on fabric or on felt with a felting technique of loose wool.

Kanzashi

Traditional Japanese women's hair ornaments.

Encaustic

A painting technique, in which the binder of paints is wax.