Wednesday, January 22, 2014

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.

Thursday, January 16, 2014

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. ...

Monday, January 13, 2014

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..........
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Friday, January 10, 2014

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?



Tuesday, January 7, 2014

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
 

My Helpful Assistant

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