Textile fun - printing, knitting and sewing.

I've been printing again. The grey painted fabric was left over from the last session. This time I had made my own little stamps out of cardboard and the expanded polystyrene packaging from a pizza. I went to a meeting of the NWCQ (North West Contemporary Quilt) group yesterday and we were all making printing blocks. Good fun!



This next little stamp has been made out of miracle sponge. I was lucky enough to have been given a small piece to play with since I hadn't seen it before. It starts out looking rather like cardboard, but when it is soaked with water, it becomes a sponge. The fact it is so compressed makes it easy to cut into shape. I used scissors.



I just loved the way the sponge didn't react the same way each time I printed with it. Some images didn't print as clearly as others. Possibly my faulty technique, but I love the result.



I need to add some more printing to this piece when it has dried.

The last piece was just playing around using up the last of the Setacolor Opaque dye I had been using.



I printed using the foam brushes I had been using to spread the dye out on my printing tray. (It used to be the base from something edible I bought years ago.)

A few days ago, I finally got around to finishing off my bag. As you can see from the link, it had been in the UFO pile for almost three years! It just needed sides, handles and pockets. I need to clear more of my UFOs this year.



Continuing with the theme of completing UFOs, I finished knitting Mariah.



I slightly modified the way the neck joins on to the hood, making the hood come close in round my neck.



I also continued the cabling all round the edge of the hood. Next, I am planning to line the jacket with this fabric.



To keep the jacket cosy even with the chill winds we get round here, I shall be quilting the fabric before cutting out the pieces. Luckily I thought to make a pattern for the lining before sewing the jacket together. I bought myself a nice sturdy open-ended zip to complete the jacket.

I also managed to complete the December page for the Traveling Pages project - "The Goddess Within." This one is winging it's way off to Australia. Happily, it is going to someone not directly affected by the dreadful floods afflicting the east coast at present.

I started another pair of socks. These might be for my husband, but I have a horrible feeling they might be a little tight since the cables draw the legs in quite close - more to do with my tension when knitting cables, rather than the design. The pattern came with the sock knitting booklet attached to the September 2010 issue of Knitting Magazine. It is a pattern by Martin Storey.

I had some fun putting this together too. This is based on the delightful weighted pincushion design by Elizabeth of "Oh Fransson". I made the original design some time ago, but gave it to my elder daughter, since she rather liked it. This time I have made the same bag, but made the pocketed area rather bigger. It is joined to a double layer of white heavyweight (pelmet weight) vilene sewn to the top. This is then held in position by standing the sewing machine on top of the vilene. It seems to work quite well. As you can see I have used some of my collection of selvedges to make the bag. I added a couple of silly cat buttons too, just for fun. Elizabeth's excellent instructions make this a very quick item to sew.

Last, but not least. Here are the photos I promised of mum's finished quilt. It is called "Square Dance". There are two reasons for this. Firstly, my mum teaches English Country Dance. Hence the footprints.

Secondly, I was messing around with a square block made up of squares.

This is the back. This is fleece, and yes there are two colours. I didn't have a big enough piece when I had finished messing around with the quilt top. However I did have some large remnants of cream coloured fleece which I was able to piece to the darker light brown backing.

Mum is delighted with her quilt and uses it every day to cover her favourite chair.

Keeping on keeping on.

Its been an interesting week. I managed to complete my Nutkin socks and quilt the sashing of my Black, Red and White quilt. Its ages since I last worked on this.

This is the top, below, you can see the reverse side of the same quilt.

My next task is to attach the binding.

I also started a cowl to go with a fleece jacket I made some years ago. I already have a matching scarf, but the playground at school gets rather too windy for a scarf to stay around my neck. Hence the idea of making this cowl. This is Mary Burr's Aibhlinn design from Knitty.

Yesterday was a gorgeous day. Cold, but sunny. Perfect for some pruning and general tidying up around the gardens. Our little close here gets together to share the work once in a while. Four men complete with ladders, secateurs, cutters, saws and various other implements set to work. My husband was one of these. My job, and that of another wife, was to ply everyone with tea. There was such a lot of laughing going on it was amazing that such a lot got done! Our neighbours make it such fun to live here.

The last photo is of T.C. after his inspection of my garden shed. He was supervising the work going on in the various gardens. His owner was one of the team actually doing the work.

Ice Queen and yarn buying.

Hello again! I've been a bit naughty this week, buying more yarn and beads.










From top left to right - Malabrigo lace weight yarn - violetas, two tubs of beads to match; Lana Grossa Cotton Fun, sock weight yarn; Fyberspates sock yarn in Toffee and Banana. These will keep me out of mischief for a while.











This is a better view of the Malabrigo yarn with the two tubs of beads. The beads are Gutermann Rocailles 9/o colours 6655 and6690. These are intended for a second Ice Queen, the Knitty design. The next photo shows where I've got up to with my first Ice Queen.











The following photos show the Band RR which I mentioned last week. It is now completed and will be in the post in the morning.











For further details on this project, please go to the Stitching Sisters Blog.
The inspiration for this was a wonderful book I found in a Charity Shop. It is so full of exciting photos and illustrations, just perfect for any textile artist.





The photo beneath is one of those I used to base my design on:







The last two show my original design, which got rather altered by the time it was stitched, and a close up of the finished band.

More knitting.

Well, I am busy learning new skills at the moment. Its scary to think that I have been knitting on and off for over 40 years now (actually its 46 years!), but I am still keen to try anything new. Well, new to me........

So I have knitted my very first pair of fingerless gloves. I've wanted a pair of these for ages, but not seen one until a podcast mentioned Knitty..............

The pattern is the excellent "Fetching" by Cheryl Niamath from Knitty, Summer 2006. I have used the Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran, which is gorgeous to knit with.

And I have started my very first pair of socks.

The pattern I have decided to use was sent to me by Charles of the "Stitchstud and his bride" podcast. Sadly, Blogger doesn't like this photo, so I shall tell you about it instead. Charles was very kind to send me a copy of his knitting tutorial, "Design your own toe up socks" after I responded to one of his podcasts. Since the instructions were so clear, I decided to follow this instead of a patterned pair of socks. Because the pattern I am following is plain, it should show the patterning of the yarn to perfection.

This is where the learning new tricks comes in. To start the first of this pair of socks, I have had to learn Judy's Magic Cast On. It took me three attempts to get this far, but then perhaps I have been stuck using the same cast on technique for rather too long.................. I must admit that I started using my usual way of casting on when I got fed up of waiting for my grandmother to help me to start yet another project. She was really clever, my wonderful grandma. I'm now certain she knew that if she kept me waiting just long enough, I would be able to work it all out for myself............

The yarn I am using is Cotton Surf Color by Regia. The actual colour is rather more of a subtle orange than shown in the photo and is so soft to knit with. A delightful surprise, since I ordered the yarn through the internet - I usually like to handle yarn before buying, but couldn't find anything suitable in my local shops.

Since starting to put this Blog entry together, and taking the photo, I have managed to get to the 16th round of my socks. This is so much fun. I love watching the pattern the yarn makes emerging under my fingers.