Thinking. Experimenting

 

 

I am starting a couple of new pieces. The first one has been arranged for a week or two and I finally finished the foundation work. Now it is time for the fun. The blue one came together yesterday in it's preliminary form. I woke up with it in my head. It even has a title.

 

I am not sure where either of these pieces are going, but that is the exciting part!



 

 

 

In Play

Ragamuffin

Ragamuffin

24"

 

This doll was inspired by Indonesian shadow puppets as well as ethnic African dolls. She is made of loosely woven fabric sewn into a tube and stuffed. A dowel rod was inserted into the center and dropped into the hole of an upside down clay flower pot. Once she was "standing", I added her garment which consists of every scrap I could find, fastened on with a crochet hook in "Rag Rug" fashion. Along with yarn and fabric, her garment also includes trinkets, such as tiny baskets and clay cups. On her head, is a small needle woven basket, which holds a tiny Bee (Bee in her bonnet?). Her arms are made of knitted I-Cord and they are manipulated by Vintage plastic knitting needles that belonged to my Grandmother. Ragamuffin will be in an up-coming Fiber Arts Show and is mounted on a rotating turntable so she can show off her dress!

 



Not The Sharpest Pencils In The Box

Not The Sharpest Pencils In The Box

11"x 18"

 

Fabric construction using embroidered, hand dyed fabric

It makes me laugh. I hope you laugh too!  

More Felted Baskets

I made more of these baskets. Now that I have the hang of it, I can zip right through one. Everyone seems to like them. The dark red one has knitted in polka dots and then pink Embroidered French Knots. I really like the red one. It has a nice round shape and I like the way I did the rim in different colors. What color next? Maybe turquoise?

Green Basket

I knitted and then felted this basket using a pattern by Cat Bordhi. It has a Mobius handle and the basket and handle are knit all in one piece. I love the size and shape of it. Last night, I knit a red one with stripes. I will wait to felt it though until I have a few more. It felted up easily in the washing machine. I threw in a few tennis balls and some hard rubber dog toys (which needed a good wash anyway) and set the machine for low, hot water and heavy agitation. I added one of the flowers I have been making, but it is just pinned on. I might like one with more contrast and I am thinking about a curly vine as well. I can think of lots of fun decorations for a basket like this, but it was quite attractive on it's own.

Water For The Elephants (socks)

I finished these socks last Sunday, or rather I finished the second one. I finished the first one in January and then messed around with other projects. The pattern is Water For The Elephants by Rose Hiver. free on Ravelry. They look complicated, but they are actually an easy and fast knit. Honestly, they just flew off the needles.  Part of the reason for that is good prep. I have one of those folding table easels with magnetic strips to hold the pattern and mark your place. I never lost my place (well maybe once or twice) and that saved a lot of time. I like the heel on these socks too. I may have to make another pair in a different color. But there are so many others to try. Maybe the Seahorse ones should be next?

Smoothie Gloves

I finished the last finger of these last night. They are knit in an Alpaca wool so they are fuzzy and warm. Now I will put them away until next year. It will be in the 80's here today. I feel like I am knitting for a Hope Chest. It's a little late for that, but maybe I should embroider some pillowcases just in case.

A Little Embroidery and Some Knitting

 



This is a sample of Sliver piecing. I really didn't like "sliver" piecing. It is just not the thing for me and so I gave the book away, but kept the sample that I made as it was a good surface for some embroidery. This is quite small (about 3"x 5"). Some of the ridges are stuffed with cording and the scrap of text, is from a Fortune cookie.

And for fun, I made these mittens from some left-over yarn. The basic pattern is from Kristin Nicholas, but I ran out of yarn in each color before I reached the top of the mitten. I finished them off in white and I like the effect. I am calling these :

HOT CHOCOLATE AND MARSHMALLOWS

Pom Poms

 

 

Sometimes I spin a yarn that I have no use for or I use some of it but not all. Maybe it is too irregular. Maybe it is too bulky. Even if it would make a nice Cowl or Scarf, maybe I just don't want another one and have run out of people who might want one. This morning I thought, why not make big Pom Poms. So I did. I think it will be fun to have a basket of these in different sizes. I can think of lots of things to do with them. I wonder what would happen if I sprayed them with water and put them in the dryer. That should make them fluffier. I will let you know what happens!

Covered Buttons

 

These covered buttons are like Dorset Buttons only they are made on a template instead of a ring. They are gathered around a regular button, but I imagine you could use a ring just as easily. The tutorial for making these is on Kate Davies' website:

http://katedaviesdesigns.com/2014/02/20/covered-button-tutorial/

Beware. It is quite addictive..................

Thanks to daughter Bonnie Broussard for pointing it out to me.................

A Pair--one of these is not like the other

 

Yes, I finished the second glove last night, just in time to wear them this morning. It was below freezing and I don't imagine we will have too much more winter weather, so it was nice to have a chance to wear them.

Throwing Down The Gauntlet

Yes, I am still knitting. Maybe it is the cold weather. We had some Spring days this week, but now it is cold again. I have only made one glove, if I make the other Gauntlet quickly, I may be able to wear them once before it gets warm. This glove is not my pattern. It is from Color By Kristin, by Kristin Nicholas. If you follow my blog, you know I have been making design-as-I-go socks on small needles. It was relaxing to work on a design by someone else using bigger needles and yarn.

Green Grow the Lilacs

I finished these Crazy Mixed-Up Socks. I started them on the 18th and finished them today, the 27th. These went faster than the others, but I am still having trouble inserting the heel. It is easy enough to cut into the tube, but the stitches are small and so, very hard to pick up. It takes me forever to do it. I woke up this morning thinking of a different way to do this. What if I start and knit a few inches of the tube,  knit in a heel, do some more tube knitting, some waste yarn, more tube knitting and then another heel. Hard to explain. I will have to try it next time and show you.......

This is the plan I had for the crocheted flowers! It would be better if they were Lilacs, but crocheted Lilacs don't do much for me!

 

A New Project

It has taken me most of the day to get this free-form knitted piece arranged on the design wall. It is 51 inches long. I tried it every which way and finally decided to use it horizontally and connect it to a piece of a felted sweater. That took a while and I broke one needle on my Felter so I stopped and ordered some needles just in case things get critical! At any rate, it is now ready for embroidery, so I am happy.......

What I did last night.....

Crazy Mixed-Up Sock--Green Grow The Lilacs

Do you think I am a bit obsessed? This is my third Mixed-Up Sock, about 12" long which means it is half done. I need about 24" to really have options for where to but the toes and heels. I am getting better at it. I am not sure where this is going. Don't be fooled into thinking this knitting is just about socks. There is something going on in the back room. When I find out what it is, I will let you know!

Paper Doll Dresses

 

Don't you love this paper? I found in the local craft store a year ago. It is printed and machine stitched. My store doesn't have any more of it, but I am sure it is available elsewhere.

Another Crazy Mixed-Up Sock

I have started another Crazy Mixed-Up Sock. As it has continued to be cold, it seemed like the best thing to do. I went ahead and added ribbing to one end of this tube because I had knit in some bobbles and I certainly don't want them to end up on the sole or on the back of the heel. A challenge in this project is deciding where to divide the tube for the second sock, or the heel. That is also sort of fun and I can elect to eliminate sections that I don't like or where I made a few mistakes! I am feeling my way through this process. The yarns in this sock are of several different weights and although it makes it interesting, I am not sure it is a good idea. It might be better to use various colors and one kind of yarn?

Ledger Page

Here is a completed double page spread in my ledger/sketchbook. Earlier, I posted a photo of the drawing on the right hand page. Since then, I have added an overleaf on the drawing--some embroidered circles on net--as well as the two large circles with petals. These large circles are made from two coffee filters, naturally dyed with Poinsettia petals, sandwiched between sheets of waxed paper, and then stitched by hand and machine.  All of these over-lays will lift up.......  

Crazy Mixed-Up Socks

It has been unusually cold in Texas and the Cedar Pollen has been heavy. Consequently, I have spent many days in the house by the fireplace sipping warm beverages. Work in the studio has come to a temporary halt. Unfinished projects are languishing on various surfaces right where I left them. But I have been doing something. It is not like me to just sit. My hands like to be busy, so I worked on these socks.

I had about a seven inch tube of knitting done in a pattern called Goldengrove, but I thought the pattern was a little subtle for MY socks. So, I continued knitting the tube (from both sides of the patterned section), but I started making stripes and patterns in different colors, making it up as I went along. When the tube was long enough, I cut it apart in the middle of the Goldengrove section, added "Afterthought Heels" and then toes. And here they are. Crazy Mixed-Up Socks. I feel happy when I look at them. I have been wanting to try this cut up tube thing since I read about it in The Twisted Sisters Sock Workbook. I had a good time knitting away doing whatever I wanted and not worrying about both socks matching. I don't believe in that anyway. Think about how many more patterns you can try if you are not repeating the ones you have already knit!

More Ledger Work

Here is another design page on top of a drawing of a dress in the old sketchbook. The new drawing is done with a black fine-line marker, watercolor, and brown pen and ink--stich and buttons added.

New Ledger, Old Sketchbook

In another life, I designed and manufactured women's clothing. I have a stack of those black, bound sketchbooks, dating from that period. They are fun to look through once in a while but they are "working" sketchbooks, not "art" journals. There are some nice drawings in them, but there are also lists of supplies and notes on construction. Most of them are 8 x 10, but one is 11 x 14. Looking through it today, I was struck by how little is in it. All of those nice big pages and some of them are practically empty. Meanwhile, I have been toying with the idea of starting a new ledger. My others are getting full and I like the idea of beginning something new. So I made this ledger page this morning, then got distracted and started looking for something in the sketchbooks. Somewhere along the way I had a brainstorm. Why not put new ledger pages in this old sketchbook? Brilliant. ...

The Small Patterns Drawstring Bag

 This is what I made with the small patterns gauge swatch. It was already a tube, so it didn't take much effort to turn it into a bag, but from there, it got more and more time consuming. The stitch around the top (I believe it is called a Crown Picot Bind Off) took forever. It was way more work then I anticipated, but I did learn how to do it and had a fair amount of practice as well. I crocheted the bottom, did a knit-on I-Cord around that and Navajo plyed the cords for the drawstring on the spinning wheel. I have a lining cut out, but haven't put it in yet. What a lot of work for a Gauge Swatch! And I can't even give it away as a present because I put my name on it..........

Small Patterns

I am continuing to play around with stranded knitting. These patterns are from the Clara Barrows's Mittens in the Nov/Dec 2013 Piecework magazine. And before you marvel at my ability to knit these two pieces so quickly, I must tell you that they are the same piece. I photographed both sides and collaged them together. I have actually knitted this single "tube" as a gauge swatch. The child's mitten pattern calls for size 00 needles and I don't have any. I do have size 0, so I decided to try those. I could see right away, that with the size 0 needles, this would be too big for a child, but I just kept knitting away as it was fun to knit the little patterns and the letters and numbers. I messed up the border of the cuff, but ignore that. Remember, this is a gauge swatch. Last night, I knitted some hearts at the top. So now what? Here are some possible options:

1. Add ribbing to the top edge and use it as a wrist warmer (no, I won't make another to match)
2. Continue on, using it as on-going gauge swatch (as in "The Twisted Sister's Sock Workbook")
3. Close up one end and use it as a bag.
4. Close up both ends, stuff it and use as a pin pillow.
5. Throw it in the basket with other knitted fragments.........
 
What do you think?

Sick In Bed

Not a good start for January 2014. I picked up some sort of nasty cold or flu or something. Misery. To cheer myself up. I started on these and finished one of them........I wonder how long it will be before I do the second one?

Water For Elephants by Rose Hiver

 

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/water-for-the-elephants

My Helpful Assistant

 

My dog Tess is assisting with the sock knitting by holding the yarn.......