Tiny Timesuckers

I like embroidering small projects, I’ve decided.  It’s interesting to see how one stitch behaves as a feature.  Below are some small pendant/brooches that I’ve finished.  Their size is somewhere between a 20cent and 50 cent coin – perhaps a 40cent coin?  I’ve called them time suckers because they take quite a bit of time to complete, considering their size.  But I’m trying to back them nicely, cover the seams with a decorative stitch and not use any glue.  Just the self imposed limitations that seem entertaining to me.

 

Purple snowflake bag

My brain is soggy from a summer cold so you’ll have to forgive the very uninteresting title for this post.  I finished the 3rd bag for Vivian of Ecoyarns and have now posted it to her.  Vivian has been very patient with me and understanding about how long embroidery actually takes.

Each side of the bag is different but both are made using a snowflake template for some applique and then embellished with embroidery.

By snowflake template, (for anyone who never had a childhood where they made these in pre-school), I mean that I drew a circle on a piece of paper, cut it out and folded it along the centre to make a semi-circle, then folded it in half again, and again.  So that I ended up with a little cone shape.  From here you can cut various shapes along the edges, making sure that you leave some connecting folds. Open it up and you will have a pretty snowflake…or a pile of scrappy bits of paper if you’ve cut the connecting folds.

I cut out the material in the same manner, using the paper template folded into its cone shape as a guide for cutting the material.  I affixed the material to the bags with some iron-on double sided fuse. Then embroidered around the edges of each snowflake.  On the purple snowflake I used buttonhole stitches around the edges and on the red snowflake I couched down some gold thread along the boarders.  This didn’t seem quite enough, so I finished them off with some embroidery inside the shapes.

To me, the negative shapes formed by the red snowflake looked like a vase or urn, so I chose to fill them with foliage-like embroidery, using fern stitch.

The purple snowflake was obviously celestial, so I exaggerated the moon shape, and used a spider web star/wheel for the centre.

I wish I had a better camera for photos – still using the one on our video recorder – because they do look better in person.  Each appliqued shape is about the size of a dinner plate – because that’s what I drew my circle around!   I hope you like them Vivian.

OWOH WINNERS

My computer fried so it took me a little bit longer to get this post up, but I’ve emailed the winners of the OWOH door prize drawing and am awaiting their replies.
The knitted and felted red children’s had was won by Michaele from Kindergarten’s 3 R’s

and the winner of the embroidered brooch was Laetricia from Mom of 3rd culture kids

Thanks to everyone who dropped by and said hello – I now have a lot of lovely new blogs to visit.

eta: Despite some computer hiccups where I lost the recipients addresses, both packages are winging their way across the pacific now.

One World One Heart 2011

Welcome to my little piece of blogland. It’s rejuvenation time!   It’s time to reconnect; with people, with fibre, with the artistic spirit…but primarily it’s time to have some fun.  If I had made New Year’s Resolutions those are some of the things I may have committed myself to.

But I don’t make New Year’s Resolutions, however for the past couple of years I’ve participated in “One World One Heart “- a blogging event run  for bloggers by Lisa of A Whimsical Bohemian , so I’m going in for the ride again.   You might like to join me and check out the list of bloggers participating and giving away unique door prizes on their equally unique and varied blogs.

My own blog is just a little expression of one part of me – it’s something that I do for fun and as a record of my arty/crafty explorations.  Not many people in real life know about this blog – it’s a secret that I share only with others who might be young-at-heart and non-judgemental.  For as I get older, (I can’t believe I’m considered middle – aged!), I seem to feel younger and somewhat more introverted.  The world seems larger and more complex and I am more interested in it’s workings, and the inner workings of its inhabitants.

I haven’t settled into the world yet. I’ve had a variety of jobs over the years ranging from actor to teacher, social worker to telephone cleaner.  (In case you didn’t know,  there are companies that hire out people to other companies for the express purpose of wiping down and disinfecting office telephones – I lasted about a week in that one).   As you can see I’m still searching for a job that values my special skill set!

In the meantime I craft, create  and write down stories

I have a couple of  items I’ve made as  door prizes for OWOH 2011

First up is this baby/toddlers/dolls  felted hat.

I  knitted it last year, from a pattern that I wrote myself.  I loved it but it just didn’t look right.  I decided to felt it, (or full it – to be more technically correct)  and I think it does work better as a child’s hat.  Now I don’t have children so I don’t know exact sizes but the circumference inside the brim where it would sit around the head is  around  38cm/15inches . It might also make a good dolls hat – for those among you who make art dolls and such. As it’s felt, you can cut it to make holes for ears and pigtails too.

Secondly, I’d like to offer this hand embroidered brooch. If you don’t wear brooches – it might look good as a badge on a hat or bag.

So all you have to do to be put in the drawing is leave a comment on this post with an email address or link back to your own blog – just some way that I can contact you.  You can leave a comment anytime up until 17th February midnight.   After that comments will close and I’ll do a drawing for the hat and brooch.  Please indicate in your comment if you don’t have a use for the hat  and I’ll just put you in the drawing for the brooch.

Best wishes and roamings through blogland.

Hopping mad – as in “crazy”

I’ve finished bag no. 2 of the ecobags for Vivian of Ecoyarns.  I’m pleased with the way it turned out, though I have to say that I hadn’t realized it would take quite so long to complete.  Rather than timing every session I worked out roughly how many lazy daisies I could complete in 15 mins.  Turns out I can stitch about 5 daisies in that time – if I’m having an energetic embroidery session.  So I counted all the flowers and did an estimate from there.

On the pink side there are just over 300 flowers.  That’s about 15 hours of work stitching Lazy daisies!

On the yellow side there are around 160 flowers.  That’s about 8 hours work stitching lazy daisies.

I’ve also been doing a bit more drawing and painting.  I drew/painted (drumroll, please! This is all very exciting), some leaves!

I used Inktense pencils and derwent watercolour pencils.  I was a little inventive with the colours.

Blue Funk

I haven’t felt like writing for ever so long, and am questioning the reasons behind blogging for me.  But I was happy with this jumper.  It’s a great pattern, the wool is soft and it’s really comfortable to wear.  So , what the hell, I’ll post. It’s the cable down raglan by Stefanie Japel that I mentioned a couple of posts ago.

Sparkle

Well, I thought the green bag was finished but then I visited The Crewel Goblein and they had some gorgeous sequins.  Not the normal type you find in craft stores, but ones made by colourstreams.  They are shaped like little pinwheels and flowers.  I couldn’t resist dotting a few on the green bag.  It makes it look a bit more delicate,  I think.  Which is what I was after in the first place. I’ve secured each sequin with a small translucent bead.

I’ve begun work on the Blue Bag.  I found a photo of a rabbit, sketched it and created a transfer from it using baking paper and a transfer pen.

I don’t usually do cute, but this is cute, I think. 

Finished…but wait, there’s more.

I put in a 3 hour embroidery session a week ago so I could finish the green bag and start moving on to the next one.

Here it is…but hang on just a minute…what’s that in the corner?

A half buttonhole wheel! I had initially decided to divide the repeat of the pattern down the centre at each end of the panel…but then changed my mind after I’d completed it and realised that a more complete repeat would look better.   But this little buttonhole wheel got left out. Luckily I caught it as I photographed it.  It felt like a spelling mistake – one of the ones that you miss because you’ve read over the page you’ve written so many times that your brain just fills in the blank.

That’s better!

So the final total of hours spent on the bag?  9 and 1/2 hours.

I’ve also completed a Koolhaas hat by Jared Flood.  I really liked the pattern but had trouble reading the instructions when it came to the decreases at the crown.  Errata is available at Interweave, but I discoverd that after I worked on it.  Instead I let the knitting tell me what to do and I think it ended up ok – though I may have made some adjustments unawares.

It’s knitted from one of my first spindle spun yarns, which is why it’s a bit uneven.  I didn’t quite make it in regard to yarn meterage either. 

Which is why it has a complementary coloured top.

I’ve also been doing some spinning.  I have a huge bag of merino/silk roving to get through. It’s beautiful. 

 I’m spinning it fine and when I’m finished I’ll ply up some mini skeins to knit.  I’ll try a navajo ply, a 2 ply and a 3 ply from 3 diffent bobbins,  to see which one looks the best.  It will be interesting to see how each knits up.

I’ve also been knitting a top down cabled raglan by Stefanie Japel.  It’s my commuter knitting.  I’m on to the body now which is going pretty quickly. This is my first top down jumper and I’m enjoying it immensely.

Flu Brain

Yes, it’s been a while.  I’ve been ill with this flu bug that’s been going around, and around.   I have been doing some crafty things but  I couldn’t manipulate my brain to form complete sentences,  so  I decided not to post until it was  funtional once more.

I knitted a quick, easy and nicely fitting cowl for my Mum.  It’s the Abstract Leaves Cowl by Deb Mulder.  I was really pleased with the result. 

I used my merino and sari silk handspun.  I really like how this cowl stays around the neck without too much trouble.  I’m not overly fond of the ones that flop down to rest on the shoulders.

I’ve continued to work on the green embroidered bag, but with my flu-foggy brain forgot to keep a time score.  But I guess it’s another few hours.  I’ve almost finished the second side now too, so it’s almost done. 

I’ve also completed a pair of socks for me with the remainder of the sock yarn I used for my sister’s entrelac socks.  I just did plain ones this time.  I really liked slipping my sock clad feet into my boots last week when the weather was cold and rainy.  Most of my bought socks are cotton.  The handknit wool ones are so squishy.

Tricky Bits

I have been working on the green embroidered bag for Vivian of Ecoyarns. (Thanks for your patience, Vivian).  I am quite pleased with how the design has turned out.  There have been some tricky bits though,  such as working close to the side seam or bottom of the bag – there’s not much room to manoeuvre there.  There have also been a couple of interesting manoeuvres that I’ve completed all by my little self – such as looping the thread around the handle on a return pass.   Tricky questions have also arisen as I’ve worked on this repeating design …when to cheat it so that more of the design appears to make the whole “feel” right, and when to stick to the “logical” and correct version of the repeat.  I’ve mostly fone with what “feels” right.   When I took the photo below I also realised that I’d missed a tricky leaf on one collumn.   Nearly done though. There are still some purple markings on it from the transfer pen, and of course it wil look better when washed and blocked out.

Time Count

I have tried to keep a time record for this.  I haven’t been as diligent as I would like.  But it’s taken about 6 mins per cirle and about 20 mins per collumn of leaves.  So that’s 14 more circles = 84 mins.  And 4 collums of leaves = 80mins. So that’s about another  2 hours and 45 mins, roughly.

Subtotal for this project so far: 6 hours and 25 mins.

And now for some tricky knitting…

I’ve been working on the Te Rosada jumper by Pam Allen.  I used two different handspun yarns for this.

The red is a merino/sari silk blend and the purple/green/blue one is  Kareoke soysilk and merino. I think they worked together really well  and the pattern was very forgiving as they are not exactly the same weight yarns – almost but not quite. I worked two row stripes.

 It’s a really simple pattern but I did find the measuring as you go quite tricky as the fabric stretches a fair bit.  I had to block it into shape quite a bit as you’ll see from the photo below. 

Both these arms are the same size!  They blocked beautifully – though they were too long for my little arms, even though I’d made them shorter than the pattern called for to compensate.  So I had to go back and chop them off, pick up stitches and redo the edging. 

 My DH, though commenting that the drop shoulders are not the most flattering style on me,  still agreed that it’s a nice jumper.  It’s really comfortable and light.  Good for this unseasonably warm Autumn we are having.