Ideas for the Assisi Stitch

I was pretty enthusiastic about the Assisi stitch when I read about it in Clearwater.  Yes, I confess I dropped $5 at the cyber cafe for 15 minutes of Internet time to read Sharon's blog.   At the time, I thought the stitch had a lot of possibilities.  I had collected some shells while I was walking the beach at low tide and I thought I could work their images into the design.

But I just wasn't getting a contemporary feeling from the shell direction.  One of my wishes this year has been to make my work a bit more free-form and less traditional.  So,  I pulled out a book of postcards I purchased last year at the Frank Lloyd Wright exhibit and tried to adapt one of his designs for my panel.  Here's the diagram that I prepared:

After a lot of erasing, re-arranging, and review of several stitch dictionaries, I just couldn't picture how this would look when all the stitching was done.  I really liked the mix of round, square, and triangular shapes FLW used in his "City by the Sea" (unintentional beach theme going here).  But it just didn't feel right (Wright?) being worked in Assisi stitch.  I felt like the contemporary was clashing with the traditional.

So, I returned to the 100% traditional route and thought about snowflakes.  Here's the layout for the panel, but I jettisoned that idea, too.  Snowflakes, shells - both traditional and not what I was aiming for.  However, for those of you who would like to use snowflakes, may I respectfully recommend The Floss Box (www.blog.theflossbox.com).  The site has at least 25 snowflakes that could be easily adapted to Assisi work, and the patterns are free for downloading.  Blessings on the women and men who offer their work to the rest of us.

So, I tried one more time for a contemporary design using FLW's art as an inspiration rather than trying to slavishly copy from him.  Here's what I think will be translated to the canvas:

Let me explain what I'm after here in case it's not intuitively obvious.  The diagonal lines demarcate fields with different filling stitches; they will be removed when the filling stitches have been completed.  The rectangles will be the blank fields with perhaps some embellishment  - stitched squares, glass seed beads, tiny buttons?

I am really glad to have this particular challenge.  I've always have a hard time using negative space in my work.  This exercise may help me improve the way I think about using the fabric to speak for itself. 

There Goes Challenge #2

I am appalled at myself.  I worked two small trellis stitch blocks on my canvas and then got occupied with other activities and didn't complete the February challenge.  I really don't like signing up for tasks I can't do as promised so this is really annoying me.  But then I realized my agonizing over the February block was taking all the fun out of the challenge so I stopped beating myself up over it - sort of.

Actually, my spouse has had some medical issues of late and I decided my family needed to take him on a trip he has been aching to go on since I married him 33 years ago - Phillies' Spring training in Clearwater, Florida.   Those of you who bail out of this blog at this point have my complete understanding.  I'd have bailed out of the trip if I could have as I am not a die-hard baseball fan.  I had hoped to squeeze in a visit to a quilt shop in Dunedin, which is right next to Clearwater.  But given the schedule we planned for my husband, that wasn't a happenin' thing, as they say.  Oh, they said, "We can go."  But all I could picture was my husband and son standing outside the store shuffling their feet and emitting agonal sighs while I tried to look at fabric.   It's really no fun trying to shop under that kind of pressure.  And needless to say, the trip to the yarn store, which was just down the street from the fabric shop, also fell victim to cancellation.  Well, it wasn't my dream vacation, but it wasn't planned to be so I am not terribly disappointed.  Oh, all right, I'm not disappointed at all because I have enough yarn and fabric to last me for the foreseeable future.  And I did get to spend some time at the beach and the weather was great - sunny and hot.

I did manage to squeeze in a trip to the cyber cafe while I was away and got the third stitch challenge.  I drew out a couple of plans for my panel and I'll blog them as soon as the server lets me upload my photos. I've decided to move ahead with the third panel and go back to the February assignment if time allows. Hopefully I will be able to devote more time to stitching of all sorts in the coming weeks.

The Trellis Stitch

I was flummoxed by the name "trellis" stitch.  The samples I found surely didn't look like a trellis to me at all.  So I did something I've never done for either the TAST or the 2008 challenge:  I did a practice panel.  Here it is, completed just after Valentine's Day when Sharon first posted the assignment:

I watched the videos Sharon provided on her blog and decided to work squares instead of circles.  I'm a linear thinker so it just seemed easier to me if I could try duplicating the rectangular samples offered up in the videos.

I varied the weight of the fiber, because initially I couldn't see how this stitch could be varied very much.  I thought I could get different effects on my panel if I simply changed the type of threads I chose.

Lo!  Spacing the stitches far apart using fine thread clearly showed a trellis effect.  Note:  It's impossible to space the stitches using fine thread close together.  You won't be able to see the bridge stitches in order to work the succeeding stitches.

That said and done, I confess I am having difficulty with this assignment.  If I work the stitches with large spaces between them, it is very hard to control the knotting and consequently the regularity of the fiber length in each stitch.  But now that I've got some ideas, I'll start stitching on the panel and see what evolves.  

Depressing Lace

Well, I finished my lace panel on time but I failed to post in a timely fashion.  This was partly due to my Internet service provider not providing, partly due to my disappointment with the overall attempt.

Here's the panel, more or less.

First off, working on the tulle was not as difficult as I thought it would be.  In fact, after the first few minutes of stitching, I hardly noticed it at all.  I back-light the canvas to make the holes more obvious, so that probably helped obscure the surface tulle.  And as long as I did not have to rip any stitches, it was like working on the plain Aida cloth. 

However, I am unhappy with the panel for a number of reasons.  First, I didn't think through the design adequately.  I wanted the panel to look like the corner of a lace curtain.  But I kept trying different stitch variations so the piece doesn't hang together the way I wanted it to.

I am happiest with the top rows, which look most like the chicken scratch stitch.  I also think the large chicken scratch stitches along the right hand side best exemplify what I was trying to achieve with the piece - the look of lace.

The two flowers look out of place because I used only one-sixth of a chicken scratch stitch (or a half cross stitch).   I thought about doing these over immediately after I finished them, but I was afraid I might damage the tulle if I tried ripping them out, so I let them be.  And I thought that I could integrate them into the lower part of the panel better than I did. 

I really dislike the way the woven thread work turned out.  I have curtains of lace with a honeycomb weave, and that is the look I was trying for.  But I think the woven threads are too thick and the honeycomb does not integrate well with the rest of the motifs in the panel.

That said, here's the do over if I ever decide to make lace instead of going to the store and buying it (Ha! Not a chance):  Work the entire panel in one strand of floss using the woven (honeycomb) stitch.  Then, work the top motif along the top and the right hand side, over the base woven stitches.  Integrate the motif that appears on the right hand side throughout the rest of the panel.  Omit the flowers. I think by laying down the base of woven stitches, and then working the motifs over them, I would have gotten the lace look I was trying for.

For the moment, I am letting the panel "rest."  I am toying with the idea of somehow spiffing it up a bit with beads or maybe gussying up the flowers or ripping out the woven stitches... Sigh!  I just need some time to decide what level of fiber surgery is necessary to save the life of of this lace.  Readers suggestions are certainly welcome.

Flowers It Is

After mulling over a modern look for my chicken scratch panel, I decided to consult some of the needlework books I have in my library to see if I could find any patterns for flowers that used cross stitch.  Well, there were a lot of them actually, but I settled on one likely candidate and went to work.  Instead of using the double cross stitch that makes up chicken scratch border, I used a half cross stitch and varied the direction in each petal to give the flower a bit of interest.  I also wanted the flowers to stand out from the borders, so changing the stitch was one way to do this.

After completing the first flower, I realized that I needed to give the petals more weight.  Using one strand of floss as I had for the border resulted in a flimsy flower.  It looked like it didn't belong in the panel.  Not wanting to rip it out and work it again, I went back over the stitches with a second strand of floss and that seemed to fix the problem.  The second flower was done first time around with two floss strands.  I am not sure I am completely happy with them, but I am letting them percolate in my mind before I change them in any way.

I wanted to put a side border on the panel, to mimic what I might see in a curtain.  I toyed with the idea of just turning the top border and working it vertically, but since part of the challenge is to explore, I thought using a different stitch might be interesting.  (Side note:  Interesting is a word used to describe something that 1) doesn't quite work, 2) is outright goofy but the viewer is too polite to say so, or 3) genuinely innovative and so unique the viewer needs time to digest what she's seeing.  Number three is definitely out!)  Here's where I'm at so far:

I am going to finish the vertical border today and then try to come up with some stitches that unify the sections I've completed so far so that the piece works as a whole.  I have not yet done much with needle weaving (I did just one row in the horizontal border), so I will probably attempt to use that stitch as a filler.  However, I don't want to use up all the negative space on the tulle.  In looking at commercially made lace, the netting becomes part of the lace design.  And since one of my objectives was to be man emulating machine, I think I want some tulle exposed.

Oy, My Eyes!

I spent the first part of the week planning out on graph paper a few motifs that I thought might work well on the lace panel.  I realized after the second sketch that I wasn't going to get the soft imagery I was hoping for.  Whether I am too constrained by the stitch requirements or whether I am lacking imagination is up for discussion.  Regardless, all my motifs took on a hard, geometric line.

So, I did what I did best for TAST.  I showed up at the canvas and started stitching, in the hope that my needle would transport me to the desired destination.  I was hoping the destination would be an interesting hand-made lace that looked at first glance like it came off a machine.

All of the lace samples I purchased had a border, so I started with a simple chicken scratch line across the top of the panel.  By the time I got to the end of the row, I thought my eyeballs would fall out.  There were over 200 individual stitches making up the tiny cross stitched stars and it was no picnic trying to stitch with the tulle overlay.  I was beginning to rethink the "delicate lace" concept.

But not being one to throw in the towel quite so soon, I worked a row of one of the motifs I had developed to use in the border.  About half-way through, I decided to split the panel into two sub-panels and altered the motif slightly.  I finished up with some larger stitches on the first sub-panel, and stopped there to consider where to go next.

Here's the panel so far:

I had planned to develop some kind of flower motif, since all of the lace samples I have use flowers (generally roses or primroses) as the principle design element.  But I am beginning to rethink this objective.  Why do I have to use flowers?  If contemporary embroidery incorporates dead leaves, rocks, and ephemera and is done on burlap, paper, and denim, why should I stick with flowers for my lace panel?

So, before next Friday evening, I have to come up with either a justification for continuing with the flower concept or I have to come up with an alternative inspiration.

Depression Lace?

I don't think anyone can argue that Sharon's choice of "Depression lace" for the first Explorer challenge  wasn't appropriate.     We are all, across the globe, economically depressed right now.   Plus cross stitch is so versatile that I think all of the participants will be able to come up with some novel ways to handle the assignment, so I am anxiously awaiting my fellow stitchers' reports.

Sharon was generous with the examples she provided.  Apparently the cross stitch variation got its name because it looked like lace?  I wasn't seeing it.  Tatted and crocheted laces are beautiful but don't have an elegant quality about them, although I am sure there are others out there in Explorer land who would disagree about the elegant part.  Knitted lace is fine for shawls and scarves, but still not really lace in my mind.  No, lace is that ostentatious stuff on wedding gowns.  Lace has flowers and a satiny feel when you rub your fingers across the bumps that outline the flowers.  It can be appliqued onto a fabric to create drama and richness.

So I decided the effect I wanted to create with "chicken scratch" (what a horrible name for a stitch that can be so beautiful) was actual lace.

So I went to the House of Fabrics in Columbia to see if I could get some inspiration.  Now, the House of Fabrics never fails to inspire me somehow.  It caters to the theater folks and to bridal dress designers.  Quilters need not stop here, although I have occasionally found some fabulous cottons at outrageously low prices.  The House of Fabrics is just across the street from where I work, so it's wonderfully convenient.

Anyway, I shopped their huge selection of laces, and I did have to amend a few of my earlier opinions.  Some of the cotton laces were lovely and certainly could have been selected to provide ideas for my own Depression lace.  And they were elegant - okay, I relent.  But I stuck to my original path and chose three traditional bridal laces.

When I got them home and studied them, one thing I noticed, being machine made and all, was that they were embroidered onto a foundation of tulle or netting.  Since I wanted my Depression lace to look as much like bridal lace as possible, I decided to use a foundation of tulle, hoping (dreaming?) that my finished panel would look like commercial lace.

Here is one of the three inspiration laces.

And here are the other two, set against the tulle.

Thankfully, the tulle almost disappears.  This was important because, in order to work the canvas I had prepared, I had to be able to see the weave of the underlying Aida cloth.

And finally, here is the canvas with the tulle laid across it.  I've stitched the tulle down with a basting stitch and I have spent the last three days or so trying to develop a design that looks like lace.  I am not sure how successful this will be, but the problem sure is stretching my puny brain.  I have a few motifs drawn on graph paper, but I fear they all look a bit modern - too geometric.  I am trying to figure out a way to soften them up a bit before I dive in with my needle.  I will use a single strand of DMC embroidery floss for the stitching to give as fine a feel as possible to the work.  If I'm lucky, I'll find an hour or so today to get at least one row completed.

New Year Plans

In looking back on the past year, I feel pretty good about completing 80% of the Take It Further challenges on time.  I had a few personal criteria: the projects couldn't cost a lot and I had to have fun doing them.  I also wanted to try different techniques across a number of different crafts, and I wanted the monthly projects to be useful in some way if possible.

I can definitely attest to the having fun part.   The only two challenges I didn't complete came at the end of the year when I had some family issues to deal with.  As a result, not much of anything was fun, so I just set aside the final two TIFs for a later date.  I plan to do them - just not in the timeframe of the 2008 challenge.

Most of the projects used both stash and new materials, so on average over the year, I didn't spend much more than the $10 I allowed myself at the start of the challenge.  The exception was the fabric and batting I needed for the Elvis quilt.

The best project from someone else's point of view:  the Barbie clothes that resulted from the January TIF and the Elvis quilt (September).  The most personally wrenching:  the Alzheimer's clutch purse and bracelet from the February challenge and "Fear of Pretending" (April).   The most fulfilling from a design and execution point of view:  the fabric book pages I completed for the challenges in March, May, June, and July.

Only one TIF challenge didn't work out the way I had planned.  It was the teapot block in October.  I eventually ripped about half of the block and re-stitched it to coordinate it with another larger project.  I also haven't done anything with the fabric book pages.  I am thinking that I need to get some color cohesion going, so I'm setting them aside until I determine how best to put the book together.  

I've joined the 2009 Explorer project, and it comes as a relief actually.  I can concentrate on embroidery again and I have decided to make a companion piece to the 2007 TAST sampler.  It will be the same size as the 2007 piece, and the plan is to have 12 panels - one for each month of the project.  I've mounted and blocked out the 14-count Aida canvas and gotten my supplies together so I'm ready to go when Sharon gives us the first assignment.  I've even found the remaining Moleskine notebooks, so I'll record the sampler progress the same way I did for TAST.

My personal goal for this challenge is to be less constrained by how a stitch was used in the past.  I want to explore and experiment more.   I am going to use the panel size as a suggestion and see how each assignment develops as I work the stitches.   To help me get my mind ready, I'm reading Constance Howard's "Inspiration for Embroidery" (Anchor Press: Tiptree, Essex, Great Britain, 1976; first published 1966).  There are so many great examples of how to use stitches in designs that it's definitely getting me in the mood to get down to business and play! 

No Progress for TIF

It occurred to me last week that I had not posted my progress on the TIF challenges in almost three weeks.  This has been due to the fact that there has been no progress.  So, there.  Which is not to say that TIF has not been on my mind.

I looked at the December challenge and thought, "Well, I can always buy something for the 'Toys for Tots' campaign."  I could say I addressed generosity and be done with it, leaving me only the November challenge to catch up on before the end of the year.  But I jettisoned any thought of spending money on non-essentials since my husband lost his job two weeks go and probably will not find employment again until well after the presidential inauguration.

Needless to say, it's not been the happiest of holidays around here.  But I've forged ahead on some projects I dragged out of my stash.  With apologies to my Tulsa sister, I have my "hairy" sweater almost done.  My sister hates sweaters that have eyelash fibers, glitter, and other thingies hanging off of them.  I, on the other hand, love them.   So, I started the Concerto sweater I blogged about briefly on November 23, and now it's substantially done.  I just have to sew the sweater pieces together and finish the edges. (Okay, I can hear some of you laughing, given my November posts, but really, I do plan to get it sewn up by the end of next week.)

I've also been busy with other craft-related activities.  This is the time of year I always want to clean my house and change the decor around.  Starting the new year with an orderly living space has always been a sort of tradition with me, and in the last couple of days, I've been occupied with a sort out and throw away.  I actually can see my work tables, I have found some UFOs that got buried under new projects, and I have been reminded of projects not yet undertaken but for which I once held a great desire to do.  The latter was like meeting up unexpectedly with an old friend - we got reacquainted, paused for a few minutes to reminisce, and parted with promises to do it again soon.

Which led me to thinking:  When will I have time to do some of these formerly-buried projects?  How do I see 2009 shaping up for craft projects?  So, I am off to ponder my goals for next year in light of the materials I have on hand, the projects that arose from the dead, Sharon's plans for the 2009 challenge, and the time constraints I face given that I'll be working full-time for the foreseeable future. 

SOX, not TIF

I must now officially confess to the TIF community that I have not done one thing on the November challenge project I developed, other than to plan the design and gather the materials.  Normally, I would feel very guilty about this state of affairs, particularly since I am just two months from on-time delivery of the entire challenge.  Last I heard, though, Sharon is not giving out medals, imaginary or otherwise,  for getting to the finish line, so "winning" is all about my personal victory in this, not some certificate of completion.

However, looking back over the month, I have been more productive in November than in any other during the challenge.  Having several days away from my paying job contributed mightily to this.  But if I have to blame someone for this state of affairs it's Jane.  You see, at the start of the month, Jane had this fabulous idea to draw up a monthly to-do list for projects.  It was such a good idea, I copied it and drew up my own list.  Trouble was, the TIF project never made it to the list.  Oh, all right.  It was totally my fault and not Jane's.

But don't for a minute think I didn't try to get the November challenge out of the starting blocks and down the track.  I carried that foolish quilter's hoop and the rest of the materials between my home and the capitol all month.  This alone should have kept the project on the front burner as they say, since given its size it always needed to be carried in its own bag.  I even placed the bag in my line of sight when I arrived at my destination so it was never out of sight.  I just put it completely out of my mind in favor of other projects for the last two weeks.

One of these projects was a fabric basket.  I took a class on November 16th to learn this technique.  The basket is substantially done, except for embellishments to gussy it up a bit.  I am thinking of making a few more to give as Christmas gifts.  I also made my husband some socks, also for Christmas.  So, see?  It's not like I was just sitting around eating bon-bons.  I just wasn't working on the TIF challenge.  Plus, I started a sweater using fiber I purchased eons ago in keeping with my stash-busting resolution.

So, now I am conflicted.  Do I just give up on the November challenge and start fresh with the December one?  It would sure be a help if Sharon selected a challenge like "warm feet" or "organization" or "pick one on your own" for December.  Then, I'd simply swap out one of the November projects I've already completed for December's and do the November challenge next month.  I guess I'll have to wait until tomorrow evening to see what she's got planned for us.  I can't see how I'll get two challenges done in one month, but then stranger things have happened.

Just thoughts

All of the economic news is bad, not just for my own little corner of the world, but for most of the rest of the towns and countries across the map.  So, my thoughts naturally turned to the value of my IRA - my craft IRA that is.  I figured it was time to take stock of what I had in savings, otherwise known as stash.  I suspect that there won't be a lot of unrestricted money in the coming weeks and months to fund purchases of fabric, yarn, and notions so it would be useful to itemize the materials on hand and get down to actually using them.

It's been a useful exercise, this inventory taking.  I found a Concerto kit I purchased at Stitches East when the conventions were still being held in Atlantic City,  some hand-dyed merino I bought to make a kimono jacket, vintage Banlon I picked up at Tuckers (Allentown) to make a retro sweater or two, plus all the wool I still have left from the Harvard sheep (town, not university; enough 100% wool for at least 10 sweaters, from fingering through bulky weights - maybe I was waiting for heather shades to come back into fashion?)...  Well, you get the picture.

All of this taking stock was further spurred by my husband's birthday gift to me - all four volumes of Barbara Walker's "A Treasury of Knitting."  As I sat Friday night paging through volume 1, I realized how many beautiful stitch patterns were available to create one-of-a-kind garments if I just took some time to be creative and write my own patterns.

Now, I am terribly remiss when it comes to actually reading the craft books in my library.  They generally end up being eye candy, good for inspirational viewing.  Sometimes, they serve as a quick reference when I hit a snag on a project.  What would happen if I actually treated these volumes as textbooks?  What if I actually stopped being Plow-ahead Peggy or Little Miss Know It All?  What if I take Jane's idea of a monthly project list and make a year-long list?  A New Year's resolution to read one craft book a month and work up one item from stash related to that craft book?  Heaven knows I have craft projects I'd like to do lined up since 1975.  If not now, when?

This plan will do little to help the economy.  But it certainly makes more sense to use the fibers now  rather than have my family put $250 worth of merino hand-dyed yarn in a yard sale for $10 after I'm gone from this earth.  I can just see that yard sale table now!  The mental image alone is enough to make me seriously consider this de-stashing plan for my New Year's resolution.  And it will be a lot easier to do than giving up chocolate.

I Am Not Cleopatra

My TIF challenge for the month remains undone and this weekend blogging exercise reminds me that I had better get going if I want to get even one letter done on the piece I designed.

What I did spend time on was the layout of the teapot squares for my lap quilt.  It turned out the concept was interesting - teapot, teacups, and dishes of petit fours all from different fabrics, but the result was less than satisfying.  Oh, all right.  The results were horrible.  Each block was just darling all by itself, but together, they fought with each other like mad.  I spent a total of ten hours over the course of a week moving the completed blocks around, trying different fabrics for the blocks still needing completion, and generally trying to get a cohesive whole using the five finished blocks.

At some point in this futile exercise, I remembered something an instructor in a knitting class once said.  The class's topic was correcting knitting mistakes.  The instructor asked us how many times we reached a point in our knitting where we looked at the evolving garment and thought it might be too big/too small/pattern off/etc.  but we keep going thinking things would work themselves out?  We all raised our hands.  Now, this is a hilarious state of affairs.  If you think something isn't working, why forge ahead?

So, since my name is not Cleopatra (Queen of Denial), I ripped out most of the work on the first five blocks and started over after accepting the problems and fixing them.  They were:

• too many fabrics in each block and in the nine blocks together - Each block is more effective if the teacup and saucers are cut from the same fabric and the trim of every item in the block  is the same.   The blocks work together if a least one of the fabrics is repeated in either the teacup or the teapot section;
• two palettes too many - Some rose shades were blue and others brown.  They needed to be in the same color family to tie the blocks together.  And some "pop" colors (purple, for example) were just too strong for the quilt as a whole.
• too many embellishment types - I jettisoned the multicolored beads and funky flosses in favor of gold beads (to echo the gold in the "wallpaper") and floss and tiny ribbon rosebuds in the same color palette as the fabrics.  I have a bit of lace on hand, and will see if that can be incorporated without making the design look junky.
  

Here is one of the blocks waiting to be appliqued.  The only thing remaining from the original block is the petit fours.

And here is another block, with just the teapot remaining.

And finally, here are the nine blocks together.  In this photo, the corner left and top center blocks need to be cut, but I completed that step on Thursday evening before I packed up to head back to Aiken. 

 

I suppose I should accept the need for more do-overs in mid-project because my knitting instructor was right.  Why waste time forging ahead when you have a gut feeling that a project is not working out?  I am much happier with this layout.  The fabric content isn't quite what I wanted, but I don't have enough fabric in my stash to bring my mental vision to fruition.  This is a good compromise because I think the blocks look like they all belong in the same quilt and  the design isn't so busy that your eyes can't settle on a block without being totally annoyed by neighboring blocks.

As to the sashing fabric I purchased for this quilt?  That will be set aside in favor of a solid fabric or one with a very small print.  But I will not make any more purchases until I get all of the blocks assembled.  That will be the time to decide what will go best with the design.  I will be working on this project over the course of the coming six months.  Now that I am done with vacation days, I will have less time to devote to my fiber activities so my output will slow down considerably.  Too bad, too.  I was having so much fun!

Un-fiber, Un-TIF

Ah!  So many comments on recent posts that it's scary.   I am beginning to feel pressure, not only to complete my challenges but to post regularly.  So, since I am still working on that Hanne jacket and I am home for one last weekday, I will blog on another topic:  perfection.

I am waiting for my kitchen floor to dry.  While I was mopping, I got to thinking about Jane Brocket.  Ms. Brocket writes a blog called Yarnstorm.  My Tulsa sister put me onto this blog about two years ago when she said, "You've never read "Yarnstorm?" (in a tone that implies everyone involved in fiber must be reading this blog.)  So, I wrote down the address and got officially hooked.

Ms. Brocket is, I think, England's answer to Martha Stewart, only she is far more insidious.  Martha Stewart complicates every household activity beyond belief and has no shame in hiding that fact.  Ms. Brocket makes it all look easy.  And that is what is dangerous for us "normal" moms.

Whenever I want to visit a foreign land, I plonk in Yarnstorm on my keyboard.  For a few minutes, I get to envision a perfect life in a faraway land.  And not just far away in mileage.  No, far away in lifestyle.  A lifestyle that is so unlike what my son experienced, I wonder if he will sue me and his father one day for the cost of psychotherapy.  He never got homemade blueberry muffins to take to school; he got store-bought cupcakes that I rushed to the store for, cursing all the way about how I was going to be late for work.  Ms. Brocket's children get not only homemade cupcakes, but beautifully hand-decorated ones to boot.  She even takes the time to photograph them!!!!

In fairness to my own competencies as a mother, my son's childhood photos show a smiling face.  And that is why I will not allow into my house Jane Brocket's new book, "The Gentle Art of Domesticity."  Best my son not know there are functional families out there, where the mother not only has time to blog and write books, but make fabulous sweaters for her kids and take them abroad on wonderful vacations.  Better that he thinks he comes from a typical American family that is quirky but normal.  I suspect that, after four years in college, he knows this, having visited enough friends to see how they live.  But why take chances?

So, I guess what I am trying to say here is that I appreciate Yarnstorm and Jane Brockett.  I may actually purchase her beautifully written and photographed book, but I will keep it in my travel collection.  It's a nice place to visit but, all in all, I think I like where I am and where I've been and am not particularly anxious to leave just yet for a town called Perfect. 

The Filatura Sweater

I unearthed another un-pieced sweater yesterday afternoon and had a bonus moment - the shoulders were already seamed and the neck edge finished.  So it was just a matter of stitching up the side and arm seams.  Here's the finished sweater, knit in Filatura di Crosa's "Cambridge" palette #2, lot 0010.

The stitch pattern is a simple stockinette with a twist every five stitches, offset every four rows.  It was just enough of a pattern to keep things interesting but let the beauty of the fiber show through.  Here's a close-up of the fabric.  By some act of the Fates, the colors in this close-up are accurate.

Some of you may be noticing that the design of the three sweaters I've written about is the same for all.  Well, I got tired of making sweaters with commercial patterns and ending up with garments that didn't fit correctly.  So, now I don't use a pattern.  Instead, I select a sweater I like that fits me well and use the dimensions to calculate the number of stitches, bind offs, and yardage based on my selected fiber and gauge.  I make a large swatch (one ball, usually) in the stitch I plan to use for the garment.  I only manage to get ill-fitting sweaters these days when I fall in love with a pattern and slavishly follow it.

Hence, my Hanne Falkenberg disaster.   My Tulsa sister knit a fabulous "Lastrada" sweater using Hanne's kit.  Can't be too hard, I thought, since my sister was a novice knitter at that point.  It's garter stitch and the hardest part would be mitering the corners.  Well, call it the curse on someone using another person's pattern, but my sweater, made with fiber I had on hand from 25 years ago (no, there's no typo), was fit for a very womanly woman when it was finished.  I looked like a little kid wearing her mom's clothes when I tried on the finished garment.

So, I did the only thing I could under the circumstances.  I threw the sweater into hot water, spun it to damp dry, and then put it in the dryer.  Now, if this had been a sweater that fit me perfectly and that I loved beyond measure, it would have shrunk to postage stamp size and at least partially felted.  But not my Hanne disaster.  It shrunk a bit, I'll admit, so that the body wasn't too objectionable, but the sleeves were still down to mid-thigh.   Here's the sweater before alterations:

And here's the sweater after I inserted a lifeline across row 6 of the red sleeve stripes, cut the rest of the sleeve off, picked up the live stitches from the lifeline, and added a few rows to finish off the sleeve to an appropriate length for a pygmy.  

Here's the detail of the revised sleeve.

I guess this is no longer a Hanne sweater - not her fiber and not her pattern, strictly speaking.  But it's wearable now and I will use it on days when I need a lot of color in my life.  Now, I'm off to put a lifeline in the other sleeve while I still have some daylight left.  I only have one more day of vacation and I am trying to make the most of today and tomorrow for the crafts I love.

Another Noro Sweater Done

I spent yesterday morning stitching together another sweater I knit from Noro yarn.  The first one I posted earlier this month was done with Kureyon.  This one was knit with Aurora.  Aurora has some sections of the yarn wrapped with polyester.  Hence, the shiny stretches of varying length that pop up randomly on each row. Here's a close up.  The fiber is 55% wool, 20% kid mohair, and 20% silk, and 5% polyester.   The polyester sparkles in the sun.  The color palette is #8, Lot #A for those of you who are die-hard Noro fans.

And here's the whole sweater, done in K1P1 rib and simple stockinette.  I always toy with the idea of throwing in some cables or doing a fancy stitch with Noro yarns, but since the fibers are so colorful, I always end up letting the yarn stand on its own.

I made this sweater last year with yarn I purchased in Baltimore at the October Stitches East knitters convention.  I went Noro-nuts at a retail booth that had bags upon bags of all kinds on sale.  My initial plan was to have this sweater done by the Thanksgiving/Christmas holidays, and the not-sparkly sweater done by January.  I made my deadline - sort of, being only a year late and all.

I don't usually block my sweaters.  After waiting months and years to wear them, blocking seems like one more hurdle I have to get over so I just ignore it.  But the pieces of this sweater were jammed into a small bag for about 12 months, so the fabric looks like, well, like it's been jammed into a small space for a year.  Wet blocking will definitely be needed here.  I guess that will teach me to store knitted fabric flat until the piecing is done!

Today, I must do some housework, but I will devote a bit of time to begin sewing up a Filatura di Crosa sweater that I finished knitting about six months ago.  At this rate, I will have a whole new wardrobe by next weekend.  Thank you again, Jane.

Another Sweater Completed

In keeping with two challenges this month - Jane's lists and TIF, I can proudly report that another sweater has been sewn together.  I started the cotton sweater shown below in March of 2008.  The fiber was purchased before I left New England from a yarn auction my local knitting guild sponsored to raise money for its speakers and trips.  One of the members donated enough organically-grown cotton to make a sweater and I was the highest bidder.  The fiber sat in my stash for about three years until I moved south and found the climate more suitable to fibers less warm than wool.

I chose the caterpillar stitch because I wanted a mindless stitch that was relaxing but that looked good with the fiber.  One thing I particularly like about the sweater now that it is done is the side seams.  I did a three-needle bind off for the shoulders, but left a slipped-stitch selvedge at the other seams.I decided to try stitching the seams together from the right side of the fabric to create a raised rib.  I really like how it looks on this particular sweater, but I am not sure how well it would compliment fancier stitches.

Here's the completed garment:

I have to confess that I have not picked up the hand quilting hoop for the TIF challenge, but I hope to get to that this weekend.  And the teapot quilt blocks?  Totally disassembled and... But that is a story for later.

Lists and Other Ideas

Since I have had two days of vacation this week, I have had time to catch up on other TIF-ers' blogs.  I have a list of fifteen or so I visit when time allows and yesterday, one set me to thinking.  Jane of Loopy Lou's Adventures into Handicrafts prepared a project to-do list for the month of November.  It made me revisit the times in my life when I scheduled at least one task each day, every day, for completion.  Incomplete tasks got carried over to the following day until they were done.  I was really productive when I did that, but I gave up the process after my son was raised and I had more free time (time to waste?)

Since work expands to fill the time, as the saying goes, I decided to make a stab at efficiency and compose a list of projects of my own to complete this month.  This is not a tough thing for me to do.  I have five sweaters that have been knitted but are still in pieces, waiting to be sewn up for wearing.  Two of them, both of Noro yarns, have been sitting in my knitting bag for two years and one, of a no-name rayon, for three years.  Two are cotton sweaters that I wanted to wear this past summer, but they never quite got pieced.  I also have a sweater that needs altering.  My Tulsa sister told me on Saturday that this was a "disgraceful" (her word) state of affairs.  These UFOs, of course, are in addition to the new projects I'd like to tackle: the TIF challenge piece, plus the two pairs of socks I want to knit for my husband for Christmas.

So, I spent yesterday morning sewing up one of the Noro sweaters I knit last Winter.  It is the lead photo in this post.  I have four more sweaters to go.  I also managed to rip out the cuffs and four inches of sleeve in the sweater that is too big and needs altering.  The live stitches of one sleeve are loaded onto a needle and ready to be re-knit to the proper length.

As to the TIF challenge piece, I also squeezed in a trip to Wal-Mart and bought the thimble and hand quilting thread.  I hope to devote a few hours on the weekend to practicing on the design I chose.  But tomorrow, I head back to work and that will limit my fiber time in a big way.   I think, though, that as long as I chip away at the projects, I may actually be able to have no UFOs by November 30th.   Thank you, Jane!

Choosing a Design

I played around with some design ideas last night for the November TIF challenge.  There were a couple of things I wanted in the finished piece:  I wanted color, not the traditional white-on-white stitches, because I could see more easily if my stitches were even or not; I wanted long enough "runs" of the stitches and repeated lines in order to get in enough practice to master the technique of hand quilting (oh, all right, begin to master the technique); and I had to somehow use typography in the piece. 

Here is one design.  I was going for mini-quilts with embedded letters. 

And here's the second design with the typography more obvious.

Then again, I could stitch some mini-quilts and go with typography that includes symbols, like the example from my inspiration book.

So, my tentative plan is to stitch the mini-quilts in the layout of the first figure and then decide later how I will apply the lettering.  Tomorrow, if the lines at the polls are not too long, I will have time to shop at Wal-Mart for the thimble and thread.  If I'm lucky, I'll find the supplies I need.  My LQS doesn't carry either the metal thimble Alta recommends or hand quilting thread.

I might mention here that the thimble Alta uses has a top or dome with a lip around it (almost like a saucer).  The lip keeps the needle from slipping - a constant problem I had in the class.  The key to small, evenly spaced stitches is simultaneous control of the fabric and the needle as well as holding the needle as close to the tip as possible.  Having a bottle of Advil or Motrin on hand doesn't hurt either both for the headache from eye strain and the cramped fingers.  Alta asked us if we didn't find the stitching relaxing.  Not yet, Alta, not yet!

Letters and Stitches

I was really happy to see Sharon's November assignment.  The only thing I have more of than fiber is books, so I am really glad to be asked to somehow work the printed word into a graphic design.

One thing I had fully intended to do, no matter what the challenge, was to use hand quilting in the project.  You see, yesterday I took a hand quilting class with Alta Miller, a lovely lady from our local Mennonite community.  Her handwork is absolutely stunning.  Her stitches in a completed project are probably about 1-2 mm long.  And her stitches are so even that some people who view her quilts ask her if she did the quilting by machine.

You might think a perfectionist like Alta would make for a stern teacher, but she is definitely on my short list of saintly people.  Her patience with all of us was nothing short of miraculous.  I never heard a discouraging word all morning from her, even though a couple of us (like me) certainly had work worthy of lots of criticism.  Her only themes:  "Keep going.  You will get better.  It's hard at first, but you'll see by the end of the morning that your stitches will get smaller and more even." 

The assigned project in the class was a pineapple - you know, in preparation for one of those beautiful pineapple quilts?  Yeah, right!  Here's my 12 inch (31 mm) hoop with the quilt sandwich loaded.  It's hard to see the pineapple, but I assure you that it's there and about 3/4 of the way done.

And here's a close-up, sort of.  The leaves were worked first and the stitches in that section are about 5 mm long.  The scales were worked later in the day and the stitches on that part of the pineapple are about 3 mm long.

Only one woman in the class of 7 finished her project and Alta allowed as how it was the best one any student of hers ever produced on a first try.  Let me tell you that hand quilting is hugely difficult.  I may never get the teeny stitches Alta achieves, but I agree with her that, with practice, I can at least get passable results.  It's all about controlling the fabric and the needle.  So I am off to Wal-Mart later today to find the thimble Alta recommends as well as some hand quilting thread.

So how does all this fit into November's TIF?  Well, I am going to rip out the pineapple and work a graphic design in hand quilting.

A year or so ago, I bought a book called "ABZ:  More alphabets and other signs" at Barnes & Noble.  The 221 pages are full of graphic designs, about half of which could serve as an inspiration for this challenge.

I have not yet settled on a design, but I'm thinking it will have the following characteristics:  there will be letters, not words; the quilting will be done in as many straight lines as possible (after working the curved pineapple scales, I know my limitations at this point in the learning process); and I'll use colored thread in order to see the design better.  Here's an inspiration page so that you get a feel for where I'm going with this.  And now, I'm off to do some housework before I rip the daylights out of that pineapple.

Final photos for TAST

First off, let me thank everyone who left comments on the TAST 2007 sampler I worked as part of last year's challenge.  I am always amazed at the generosity of the needlework community when it comes to taking time from their own work to offer advice and praise to others.

After fiddling a bit with my camera and waiting for daylight, I managed to get a few additional photos of the sampler's panels.  This is about as good as my camera allows, so I thank you for your indulgence.   The white dots are all white glass seed beads, except for the French Knot panel which contains no beading at all.

One additional note on how this canvas was worked:  I used a back-light to see the grid properly.  Even in daylight, it helped to have the canvas illuminated from behind.  My only do-over would be to use perle cotton thread throughout.   I completed the first four or five panels with 2 strands of DMC white floss, and these came out just fine.  But as Sharon assigned more complex stitches, DMC #8 perle cotton worked much better.  The difference in threads is not noticeable in the finished canvas fortunately.  For some later stitches in the challenge like French Knots, I returned to two strands of floss because of the flexibility of the thinner untwisted threads.  But overall, perle cotton was superior.

As to the disposition of the teapot blocks: they are all ripped out - talk about a do-over!  I will report on that project throughout this month, as well as the November challenge, as I have three days of vacation coming up.  That plus the November holidays will give me the opportunity to do a few more entries that I am usually able to produce in a month.

Having to do these blog entries certainly keeps me on top of my projects!  I am beginning to see why some fiber artists rely on blogging so much.  It's kind of like Weight Watchers, only there are no annual dues and you can eat all the chocolate you want.