Sometimes things work out and sometimes…not.

I taught for a while.  In writing reports we always tried to adhere to the sandwich method.  i.e start and end with a good comment and sandwich the “needs to improve” comment inbetween them.

I think I’ll use that method today.

First.  I am very happy with how my little embroidered Christmas tree turned out.  I stayed with the beads for this one as they were already on there,  (votes were split evenly between beads or no beads), made another one just like it and sewed it together  to make a stuffed Christmas tree decoration.  I edged it with Palestrina stitch.  I’m a big fan of palestrina stitch for edgings.

Second.  Dyeing? Much room for improvement.  I did try my hardest.  Iwas even consious of using blue and yellow to make green so that I wouldn’t be putting colours next to eachother that would bleed into one another to create a brown.

And yet.

So…maybe it doesn’t look that bad in the skein.

How about in the ball?

 

And…all knit up?

Well..it’s functional and it might be to somebody’s taste.  My DH said it was “unusual”.  I will admit that the cream background does nothing to highlight the colours.

Last. Thank goodness for lovely spinning.  Here’s the red/plumish sari silk and merino that I’ve finished plying up.  I really like this.

 

Seasonal scratchings

I received an early Christmas present.  I entered the drawing at Craft Blog to win a fabric pack from The Oz Material girls and I won!  I feel very fortunate and will try to find just the right project to make the best use of these beautiful fabrics using my novice sewing skills.    I’d like to try a simple patchwork project – I’ve never done that before.   I am so pleased with the fabric and they are all my favourite colours too.

I’ve been working on the chicken scratch stitch again and am relatively happy with this little Christmas tree.

I’m not sure if the beads add or detract from it.

But I think it could make a nice Christmas tree ornament.

Just scratching around…

We had a lovely lazy morning, brunching on the balcony and patting our neighbour’s cat who seems to have adopted us as his second humans.  DH has to get his morning coffee and at present his machine is broken, so off we went to a local cafe’ where he got his caffine fix and I ordered a “chill out” herbal tea.  I did exactly that, sipping tea and embroidering some more chicken scratch samples.  Not a bad morning at all!

 

With this one I tried contrasting threads – the base thread “disapearing” into the background.

 

After the first attempt with the orange thread I felt like trying to create a more complex lacing pattern.  I have been so impressed with the balanced complexity that others have achieved – needless to say I’m still working on it.

 

With this I tried working on the diagonal and with some variagated thread.  I’ve been finding it difficult to achieve curves with this stitch – I’ve so admired the graceful lines that others have found in their patterns.

The Humble Chook

As you know I have yet to complete the Take  a Stitch Tuesday challenge that I started two years ago.  Thus I did not take place in the Take it Further challenge run by Sharon B  from Pin Tangle last year.  You can hardly take it further when you haven’t reached the initial milestone.  But this did not stop me wanting to try the “chicken scratch” stitch from this year’s Stitch Explorer.  After all there is only one stitch to explore a month.  Never mind that the Chicken Scratch was offered up in January and it’s already March.

I flicked through all the  remarkable samples on line, and my friend Elizabeth from Quieter Moments , (who blogged many of the remarkable samples I was drawn to)  sent me some lovely gingham on which to try the stitch. 

Now, with a name like “Chicken Scratch”, I was expecting a relatively easy stitch.  When I think of a chicken scratching around in the dirt making marks with it’s feet, I think of a basic and expressive, perhaps even unconsious approach to mark making.   I was fooled!

This stitch required a thought out plan of patterning.  It required discipline and a delicate touch with tension. I was humbled by it.  So, in the intersted of humilty and truth I will display my first attempts at Chicken Scratch!

 

You will see that I only managed the most rudimentaty pattern.  I’m not unhappy with the blue and green samples – they just look naive.  I’m not totally unhappy with the red….I could develop it.  But the Black!  Yuk!  It started out with some interesting looking diamonds and for some reason I thought adding more patterning might help, and because that didn’t work I added some more. 

But I will keep trying to get a handle on this – it’s such a deceptive stich and I’m determined not to let it beat me. Besides which it was wonderfully absorbing to work on sitting down in the sunshine near the sea.  Despite my less than illustrious results I had a lot of fun trying to figure this one out.

 

I’ve also been doing some more drawing with my pastels.  I’ve never thought myself  “good” with colour and I’ve mostly drawn in black and white all my life.  But I’m experimenting.  Life’s too short not to give colour a go.