Felting and Fiber Studio

My post this month is another mixture of things.  I have continued my reacquaintance with knitting, and I want to become a more skilled hand knitter.  It is such a comfortable task to sit with in the evenings, and time passes very easily.  I have made another hat, and an asymmetric triangular scarf.  I loved the hat that Carlene wears sometimes, and Ann suggested where to get the pattern.  This hat has a wonderful name “Anemone Hat”, the main body looks so complicated, but is quite straightforward really.

Pattern obtained, then some time spent studying it, especially the rib, or the Moebius half-twist as it is called.  However, I have only just become familiar working with a circular needle, so this form of beginning the hat was a stretch too far for me, or a little like ‘double dutch’ as the expression goes, so I did some plain knit and purl rows instead.  I may try the moebius another time.  The yarn used was from my sister, and is King Cole stylecraft, 50% wool and 50% acrylic.  There is a much wider variety of yarn types today than was available when I was younger.

Leonor connected me to a free pattern for a scarf on her website, that promised to be easy to knit.  I had one skein of wool, from West Yorkshire spinners 70% Falkland wool, 20% lyocell, and 10% Cashmere, in a lovely soft green shade, and is soft to touch.  I was hoping it would be soft around my neck, because sometimes wool can be prickly.

I needed help with a scarf because I could not figure out how the triangular shape would be achieved; in the end this achievement was actually quite simple really.  So I began knitting, starting with a few stitches and ended up with over 150 or so, and I could carry on until I was happy with the length, with enough yarn to continue, and in the end I had a triangular scarf.  Then a cool wash and pinned it onto the ironing board to block it.  I practiced some simple lace pattern stitches to break up the plain knitting.

Early on during the winter, the Dean of Gloucester Cathedral put out a call for some volunteer embroidery people to help repair an altar cloth that has a lot of wear and tear from use over the years.  I belong to a group of women who do crewel work; we meet twice a month for two hours each time, to work on our own projects, or just to stitch.  Four of us decided to help out with this task, and we car share twice a month over to the Cathedral.  The Dean provides use with tea and coffee! Gloucester is about a 45 minute drive from me.

The altar cloth needs repair to many areas.  All of the embroidered motifs have been appliqued onto a base of hard wearing linen.  Many of the motifs have become loose, and some of the motif threads are degrading almost as soon as they are touched.  There is a lot of gold work on the cloth too, much of this is also loose, and takes time to stitch back down, but so worth the effort, and it makes for a lovely sheen on the work.  We are using cotton embroidery thread, and some silk thread.

The cloth will be returned to use as an altar cloth, we are repairing it for use during church services, and not to museum conservation quality.

No one is quite sure how old the cloth is, the embroidery thread is disintegrating in places, and the only thread that is not perishing is the white thread that is couched around each motif.  This is an example to us of how likely it is that the dye used could be the main reason for the coloured threads to perish.

This work will keep us all busy for some months, but I do enjoy it.  A sample of my stitching is the featured image – practice work really.

To finish the back of my jacket, I needed to decide what pattern to stitch on the remaining back panel. I wanted it to have a similar look to the panel on the other side.

I drew another grid to help me with the design; it is a 2cm grid, again drawn with a Frixion pen. I used an egg cup to make the semi circular shapes.

The initial long oval shape I drew can be done in a portrait or landscape orientation, and it can be left like this if using a smaller grid, for example 1cm, and a smaller item to aid with drawing semi circles. I repeated the design in the opposite direction with the egg cup, and now it looks completely different.

The design has a tessellating feel to it, and I think it does look very effective; hopefully you can see this in the stitched pattern. I have taken the design up to the back yoke to match the other side. I have added some further stitching to the earlier patterns I made on the back yoke – two further circles stitched along with a pattern development on the completed circles.

Both side panels together, showing the different patterns achieved with a grid and a pen!

Extra stitching, and another couple of circles to the back yoke.

Again, I have used a variety of embroidery floss to stitch the design, and I feel that both sides compliment each other very well. Some of these patterns do look complicated to sew, but are really just a wavy line, and stitched on the diagonal. The tricky bit is where the lines meet, or cross over.

The inside of the stitched area is not too untidy, so I will leave it for now while I think about it for a little longer. I may add some lining to the yoke area especially, and I will probably sew that to the seams.

I will probably add more stitching to the jacket as time goes on, mainly to the front yokes, but I feel that it is fine for now, and time to look towards something else.

I am really glad that I made the decision to do some stitching on this jacket. I am having second thoughts about whether I should have used just one colour to stitch, but this is not classic sashiko, it is just some decorative stitching in the style of sashiko. I wear it out too.

My photos have turned out a little better I think? They look ok on here as I am typing this, and inserting them into the text, but what they will look like when posted is another story. Probably huge again. Pale denim with some stitching on does not make for good photography I feel. One photo looks a little blurred as I am writing this, but that may possibly be due to the remnants of the ‘seasonal cold’ that I have had for the last 2 weeks, but I am gradually recovering.

Until recently, a denim jacket has not featured in my wardrobe, but one is never too old for a style change! I spotted a denim jacket in my local charity shop, it felt like a good quality cotton, and in a nice muted shade of blue. It was a good fit, so that was a bonus, and it came home with me.

I had been adding stitching to my patched jeans for some time, and I wanted to try some stitching or embroidery on a jacket, but without the jacket costing a lot of money. I like the effect of the stitching on my jeans. They are my gardening/diy/decorating jeans really, but they also look rather nice when washed. There are a few different fabric patches used in the photograph of one leg below, and in the other jean leg – no photo. The jeans (in photo) are just washed – the stitched area looks very rouched, but is flat when ironed. So, these jeans have quite a bit of life left in them, and the stitching will add strength to the patches and the cotton fabric.

I drew a grid type pattern on the back panel of my jacket at an angle, and a smaller portion of the pattern on the lower part of the panel. I have stitched both of these in a sashiko style of sewing, but it is not sashiko. I have used coton a broder embroidery thread; the whole thread is used – it is a single strand, and it behaves very well. The shade is a a muted green, and I like it very much

I used a water soluble fabric with a design on to aid me with placement of the grid. There are lots of online sellers offering these designs to make repairs and patching of garments more attractive. I had two pieces with different designs on them, and my simplified change to this one worked well for me. The water soluble material dissolves easily, but needs a couple of rinses to clear properly. It is not as easy to stitch through as some of the blurb portrays it to be. Drawing on the fabric with a heat erasable pen is good, but care is needed with any graph/lines or design, and it is easier to pass the needle through to make several stitches, than it is on the printed design.

I will add more stitching over the next few forum posts, and probably more colour too.

I do like adding stitching as a decorative effect, this photo below is from on a forum post in 2022.

My blanket is now complete too. I have added  a backing of french terry fabric, it is very soft to touch now. The youngest grandchild said it was a bit scratchy, so I decided to add the backing. I did not wish to cover the lovely blanket stitch along the blanket edge; I had to fold under an edge and sew it down using the sewing machine. I think it turned out ok – even the corners – they were more tricky than I imagined.

I used some embroidery floss with a stitch to tie both together. I am hoping that these ties will escape from searching little fingers.

I had a viral illness all over the Christmas period, or perhaps, a severe bout of ‘man flu’! I really only began to feel better mid January. Mostly, sneezing, runny nose and, tired all the time with little energy for anything, and that included any productive thinking about my blanket and this post.

I eventually managed to heave myself out of the doldrums, and I began to think about what I needed to complete the stitching design on the blanket top. There are quite a few small areas that are a little threadbare, and some areas that have provided comfort for the odd moth or two as well. So, a plan was needed to cover as many of the holes as I could, while adding to the overall decorative effect at the same time.

I found an old woollen tea cosy on one of my charity shop trips, and this had some areas that were embroidered with a pretty floral design. Some areas had a little moth damage, and the wool embroidery area was really pretty, but was very grubby. I washed the tea cosy by hand in very cool water with a little liquid soap and some washing soda, with very gentle movement in the bowl. Following a little soak it was much brighter – same colour as my blanket! I was unsure how fast the dye of the embroidery wool would be, but it was ok, and only a very little dye run was visible.

I cut out the embroidered areas of the tea cosy, two large, and three smaller, and positioned them in place on the blanket, and moved them about until I was happy with the overall look. They were stitched down with a blanket stitch, and most of the threadbare areas of my blanket were covered.

Then I embroidered some random groupings of flowers in other areas on the blanket using different colours of floss. These were done in a lazy daisy stitch. I added french knots, or a satin stitch to the centre of the flowers. The floss I used is quite old, and it did not always agree with french knot making! Then I added some green stems using fly stitch.

I think the whole effect is quite pretty, and the overall effect of the felt and stitched corners works very well with the embroidery. I think I can call it done now, but I still need to put a backing on it to cover the workings on the reverse.

My photos are awfully large still, I have tried to make them smaller, so apologies.

I have chosen to decorate the last corner of my wool blanket with some winter greenery in recognition of the season and Christmas, and I think some holly and mistletoe is an appropriate choice.

Holly and ivy were used as traditional decorations for the home at Christmas, it was a part of my childhood, and we all loved trying to find the nicest and shapeliest sprigs of each for our Mum. I have carried this on in my own home. I don’t remember seeing any mistletoe growing in the area of my childhood home in Ireland, nor in Yorkshire, where I lived for some time, but there is an abundance of it where I now live in Herefordshire. I did try to grow some last year on the crab apple tree in the garden, but no joy from all the seeds (about 50) stuck to the branches. I may try again early next year.

The tree on the left is a large maple and you can see the ‘balls’ of mistletoe around the top very easily. The photo on the right is of a large mistletoe ‘ball’ (different tree), the berries are just about visible. Both trees in the local park.

There is a national mistletoe day, and this year it is on 7 December. Each year there is a mistletoe and holly auction in a town/rural area not far from here (Tenbury Wells), the auction dates this year are 26 November. and 3 December. A Mistletoe Festival is held each year – 7 December this year – when the druidic myths and traditions around mistletoe are celebrated.

A certain amount of mistletoe is harvested for this auction, but future harvests needs to be protected too.  Many people will gather some of their local mistletoe, or buy a bunch from a garden centre. It keeps well, and I generally collect some for my home the week before Christmas

My post is due on 9 December, quite close to Christmas, and around the time when I would be out looking for some greenery to help me with my Christmas decorations. So, a timely post!

I have a holly tree in the garden with lots of berries on it this year, so it is very easy to pop outside to collect a sprig. Mistletoe grows practically on every tree here, unfortunately quite high up on the trees and therefore difficult to reach. But occasionally there will be some that is within reach to snip a piece off.

Once again, I have free machine stitched the holly sprig shape onto the wool blanket, along with the some leaf shapes. Not all holly leaves are sharp and prickly, which is lucky when trying to find a nice sprig. I have also free machine stitched the mistletoe sprig shape.

I have stitched some pre felted leaves to the blanket to add a little extra dimension. I made these some time ago, and these I have hand stitched using a blanket stitch. I compared which shade of red floss is the closest colour for the berries, and then embroidered these in place.

The colour of mistletoe berries are more like small pearls in colour and shape, quite white/opaque, and difficult to show up on the wool cloth; so I have used a pale golden colour floss to embroider these berries so that they can be seen a little easier than a white colour would be.

The blanket will need a little more work I think. I will add a decorative feature to the centre, probably a little more stitching, and then I will find a soft backing to complete, this will make it more comfortable next to the skin.