knitting

Cords and Knitting

October 25, 2017 zedster66 Comments 20 comments

I haven’t had chance to do much felting lately, apart from making a few ‘spare’ cords for future use.

I just used some colours I had out from when I’d made some felted soap:

I did start on a couple of knitting projects though. I just wanted something to do, so haven’t decided definitely what this first one might be, but a headband was one idea. It’s made with the pencil roving waste from World of Wool:

I also started some other knitting, this is with ‘proper’ pencil roving, I thought I might make it long enough to make a simple bag out of:

I have a nice green version of the wool too:

One thing which has stopped me doing many knitting projects is my first attempt at sewing up. I don’t know if you remember some pieces I made a while ago:

I made them with the intention of sewing them into arm warmers. I don’t think I ever showed them sewn up. I watched lots of videos and could not work it out, so in the end someone at a knitting group did one for me and I copied. Well, they look pretty horrible:

I’d planned to use the same pencil roving waste to sew up, but was told it’d be better to use something thinner. I was even talked out of using pencil roving, like the variegated one, and used Arran or something similar. I have a couple of other pieces I’d made for arm warmers, but they’ve stayed knitted rectangles because I don’t want to ruin them!

If anyone has any suggestions or can point me in the right direction for tutorials (think ‘explain like I’m 5’ kind of thing!!) I’d be very grateful 🙂

Landscapes and Knitting

March 22, 2016 zedster66 Comments 25 comments

Ruth did a post a few days ago about a landscape tutorial on the Start2 website. I hadn’t come across that tutorial before and thought Ruth’s paintings were brilliant, so having been stuck in a recliner for a week and half with flu, I was itching to do something creative so gave it a go. I had some thick but cheap sketchbook paper and also a variety of printer paper samples to try it on. This first one is the sketchbook paper:

And this is the textured printer paper sample:

They need flattening and cropping. I was disappointed they weren’t as nice as Ruth’s, but if I’d seen them before Ruth’s I’m sure I’d have been more impressed 🙂 I wish I had the artistic skills to add to them to improve them. I’m at least going to look for a white gel pen.

Start2 is the online resource for Start, an arts for good health centre. I did a couple of courses there in the last few months, and just a few weeks ago started going to a knitting group there too. I’d only really done knit stitch until I started going, apart from one row of purl I’d tried and wasn’t sure I’d done right. We had a pattern for making a small camera or phone pouch, but of course I had the wrong sized needles and yarn, so I’m making mine a bit bigger. I started with knit stitch then tried alternating knit and purl rows. I’d only done a few when I got confused doing purl and was wrapping the yarn around the wrong way so went back to knit then tried again. Once I got more confident on week 2, I added in another colour, well 2 really because I had blue aran yarn and had to double up some 4 ply.

There’s a speckled beige colour which reminds me of Hob-Nob biscuits and a bluey grey, I think they work well together:

Being ill was a good time to practise my knitting. I thought I’d make a knitting needle holder. I used white aran and doubled up some blue 4 ply:

It wants to curl up so I pinned it down. I like this angle:

I even made holes for a drawstring:

I’m not sure what I’ll do for the bottom, I did try to make a square, but it didn’t seem right so I’ll wait till the next knitting group to decide. And I still haven’t learned to sew seams, so that’s next on the list 🙂

Scarves For Nuno and Knitting

February 19, 2016 zedster66 Comments 42 comments

I bought some gorgeous scarves yesterday for nuno felting. The first two are different coloured versions of a blue peacock one I bought and sampled not so long ago:

The others are from a stall which sells 3 scarves for £5. It does make me feel a bit uneasy because it probably means they were made in some sweat shop in Bangladesh or China, but then a lot of the people who’ve turned their noses up at my extremely reasonable prices think I only deserve sweat shop wages anyway.

I recently finished knitting some pieces I want to make into arm warmers. They’re just rectangles made with pencil roving waste and very similar to a piece I made a while ago when I first tried the roving out:

The reason I haven’t joined the seams together yet is because I don’t know how to. I did ask on a group on Facebook, but I couldn’t really follow the suggestions. So, if you know of a tutorial or video which shows how to join knit stitch seams together so clearly that a cack handed 5 year old could follow it and do it neatly, I’d be really grateful! (no offence intended to left handers!) This is a ‘cuff’ I made by attempting to join seams together. I knitted 5 strands of plotulopi together to make a sample, then used the left over to join it up. This is the front:

And this is the dog’s dinner I made of joining it together:

Any help greatly appreciated!

Fourth Quarter Challenge

January 10, 2016 zedster66 Comments 31 comments

What happened to the other 2 Quarterly challenges?! As Ruth said, this year we’re focusing on felting techniques. My first thought (rather obviously, most of you will think) was embellishments. I’ve blathered on enough about embellishment fibres in the past year, so I thought maybe something we can get for free or even which might usually get thrown away. So I settled on ‘Threads and Yarns’. They might be ‘free’, but also it might not be something everybody just saves as a matter of course, so I thought giving you a few months warning will help you prepare well in advance.
So, what kind of things was I thinking of? The everyday things we use in felting and fibre art, nothing special, nothing we have to go out and buy, all we have to do is not throw it away. Things like sewing thread, long bits, short bits, natural, synthetic, even silk:

Embroidery threads and floss:

How about all those annoying threads that unravel when we tear some fabric, and have to pull off to neaten it? The bits of cotton:

Threads unravelled from gauze, scrim or cheesecloth:

Shiny and sparkly organza:

The stuff that refuses to unattach from our hands after tearing silk:

And any other scraps of threads unravelled or unwoven from fabrics and scarves we’ve torn, dismantled and deconstructed to use in our fibre art:

And then there are yarns. Any yarns … bought, made, natural, synthetic; neat, chunky, plied or arty. Big or small, it doesn’t matter if it’s a foot or so, or the odd few inches left at the end of a project.

You might even have a pile of knitting you unpicked, save that too!

Other things which come to mind are bits of twine and garden string, that raffia stuff you get wrapped around flowers, the tassels cut from the ends of scarves. All you’ll need now is some envelopes, bags or tubs to save them in and something to label them so you don’t lose track. And I’ll try to come up with a few uses for them in the next 9 months! 😉

A Peek at the Knitting and Stitching Show in London 2015

November 17, 2015 Marilyn aka Pandagirl Comments 22 comments

Our guest artist/author/photographer today is Leonor Calaca from Felt Buddies.

If you’re in Europe and a fibre aficionado, you’ve probably heard of the Knitting & Stitching Show. It happens in a few different locations and dates in the UK, and is probably the largest fabric/fibre event in Europe when hosted in Alexandra Palace here in London.

As it happens, the Alexandra Palace (or Ally Pally as it’s also known) is only 45 minutes away, on foot, from my place; as it happens as well, I’ve been volunteering for the past two years as a member of the London Guild of Weavers, Spinners and Dyers, to work a few hours a day at a booth that serves as a hub for all such UK guilds. Not because I’m such a wonderful and helpful person, mind you, but because this means I get a free pass to come and go anytime during those 5 days (and, at £16 for entry only, I think it’s well worth my time).

Last year I got all mesmerised by the fibres and materials I saw, and almost went bankrupt. This year I decided to be ~~good,~~ more sensible and buy only the things I absolutely needed, which worked to an extent. I also decided to focus more on my energy on the really good exhibitions, and that’s what I’m going to write about.

Let’s start with an embroidery. How lovely and detailed is that?

Art wasn’t just in 2D, the sculptures were very interesting as well.

A glass and wool sculpture by Helen Pailing. She aims to use remnants from the glass and wool industry and incorporate them in a way that makes them not only art, but something you can keep instead of take to a landfill.

The Wishing Tree by Eileen McNulty. Just look at those little details.

I don’t know the author of this one, but here is ‘Palace,’ made with cocoon stripping paper and silk organza. The theme of this booth was vessels.

Elena Thomson embroidered a sieve. Would you have thought of that? I think this would be wonderful to confuse old ladies.

‘Stumpwork’ by Alana Chenevix-Trench.

And a lovely sheep by Margarita O’Byrne.

Then I went to Studio Art Quilt’s Associates (SAQA) booth that just blew my mind. I had no idea these detailed works of art could be made in that technique. The theme was Food For Thought and this is ‘Mushroom Frittata’ by Jean Sredi.

‘Pepitas’ by Vicky Bahnhoff.

‘Yum! Pineapple Upside Down Cake’ by Diane Powers-Harris. Yes, this is still a quilt.

‘Il Mercato’ by Jeannie Moore

‘Elegant Edibles’ by Jennifer Day.

Who doesn’t love dolls?

This one was my favourite: what a grumpy face.

These two sculptures surprised me, as they’re made from a traditional paper folding technique native to the Philippines.

And I saved the best for last: a fishmongers called Kate’s Plaice! Everything you see here is either knitted or sewn, and the details just make it extraordinary.

The artist herself.

Did you go to the K&S? What caught your eye? And am I going mad for taking more time to look at art instead of yummy yarn?

Thank you Leonor for taking us on this great fibre adventure!

September 12, 2015 zedster66 Comments 25 comments

I know you’ve been dying to know how my handspun yarn knitted, so here’s the little rectangle I made:

Here’s the other side:

And here’s a close up:

I still can’t do the cast off so it doesn’t pull and seem tight compared to the rest of it. I plan to felt this piece when I get the chance, by hand, not in the washer. This is another piece I’ve made specifically for felting, I promised Nada I’d make a piece with the pencil roving to see how it felted:

It’s quite chunky:

Another piece I made recently turned out really nice, the colours and shine are gorgeous:

This has a really nice texture:

When you open the yarn out, it’s actually a kind of netting, I bought it with felting in mind before I could knit:

I’ll show the photos when the top pieces have been felted.

Knitting and Roving

August 27, 2015 zedster66 Comments 22 comments

Last time I did a World of Wool order, I got some ‘Pencil Roving waste’, it’s a the bottom of this page here. I very recently learnt to knit and it is really nice to knit with. I was going through my commercial yarns recently, they’re pretty much all tassley, eyelash, loopy things for embellishing felt, but right when I first discovered felting, I bought some thick and thin acrylic ‘fake’ pencil roving. :

I’ve needlefelted and wet felted with it, and made a tiny knitted square when I first learnt and thought it would be perfect to use with the pencil roving to make something thick and soft and texturey. I used a multicoloured ball, and added in the pencil roving lengths as the previous one ran out. I think it’s about 10 inches square:

I did neaten the ends a bit, and poke them through to one side, so this is the back:

I think the texture is really nice:

It got me thinking about making my own pencil roving, I kind of made some a while back when I was having my kitchen done, I spun some Merino on a drop spindle then knitted it straight from there a day or two later, but the drafting is such a pain from wool tops. Then I remembered Ann did a video right when we first started the site about drafting roving using a diz. So, I blended a drum full of browns and turquoise/spearminty colours, found a button with a big hole and made myself some roving. I was impressed with myself, it only went thin a few times:

A few shorter lengths:

I thought this could be useful for making wet felting kits because I noticed people who’ve never seen wool tops before find them hard to pull off, and hand carded/drafted roving is much looser. I made a short video of the next lot I drafted. I made a new diz from a film tub lid, because I wanted it a bit wider and also made a little ‘tool’ from bent wire to help pull the wool through the hole.

Lincoln, Soy, Bamboo and Knitting

February 24, 2015 zedster66 Comments 19 comments

This is the back of a piece of felt I made from Lincoln wool tops:

I love the way the characteristics of the different breeds reappear with felting, when they’re not very evident from the wool tops. And you get such gorgeous edges with the curly breeds. On the front, I used a blend of Soy top and black bamboo tops. I just blended the tops by hand and laid them on the top:

The shape, texture and colours reminded me of finding oyster shells on the beach. This is the bottom left corner:

This is a close up of the texture:

And a close up of the back:

I still haven’t had chance to even look at the wool I ordered from Wollknoll because I’ve had builders in … for fibre addicts in the UK who don’t already know, the Euro is really low against the Pound at the moment (about 73p to €1) so have a look at their site, 100g of wool is starting around 72p… don’t be alarmed at their prices though, they’re usually given per kilo! I did manage to sneak a ball of rainbow Merino out of the box though and do a little bit of spinning, I also used the tufts I’d used for my colour wheel a while ago. I left it on the spindle for a couple of days then knitted a square from it:

Here’s a close up

And because I love them, a supermacro:

I’m not convinced I’m casting off properly though, all my squares look like they’re one stitch too short!

Knitting

February 8, 2015 zedster66 Comments 20 comments

I haven’t had chance to do any felting at all recently. With working on the Wet Felting workshop and trying to work out all the details for outside tutors, not to mention having to move the entire contents of my kitchen into the living room, I’ve barely had time to sit down with a cup of tea! Last week during a well deserved tea break (Russian Caravan) I thought I’d look up some How to Knit videos. I’ve been wanting to learn how to knit for ages. I have tried in the past, but always found it hard to keep the stitches loose enough to force the needles through 🙂 I don’t even know how many videos I watched about casting on, but none of them made sense, it was like watching close-up magic or something ‘so you get this, you do this, and … shazam!’ I almost gave up, but then I found Kristen ‘GoodKnitKisses’ and her How to knit videos. This is the Beginner’s Cast on Video:

I did it first time. I couldn’t believe it! So then I watched the ‘How to Knit’ video. That took a few tries for me to feel like I’d got the hang of it, maybe if I hadn’t used some synthetic version of thick and thin pencil riving, I might have been better 🙂 So, being a ‘master knitter’ now, I thought I’d make myself some needles out of dowelling:

Then I went hunting for something to use, and found a bag of raw Jacob I carded not so long ago. I made it into rolags and spun it on my drop spindle. The next day, I knitted it up straight from the spindle. Luckily GoodKnitKisses has a casting off video too. I’m not sure I did the last stitch right, but it isn’t coming undone, so I must have. I was really pleased with my knitting:

I had an electrician in the other morning, so while all the electric was off, I found some spare ends of white wools and mixed fibre batts and started some thick, nobbly yarn for my next knitting attempt:

If you want to start learning how to knit, I would definitely recommend those videos!

Introduction to Wet Felting at The Fold

November 6, 2014 Marilyn aka Pandagirl Comments 20 comments

A couple of months ago while shopping at The Fold in Marengo, IL, owner Toni Neil asked me if I’d be interested in teaching a wet felting class. Many of the people who shop there are knitters, crocheters and spinners and she said they were curious about the felting. I agreed and we settled on November 1, class size and I provided her with a class description and supply list along with a list of the items I would be supplying.

I always think when taking a beginners class it’s nice to come home with something you can either use or show people, so I chose to make a place mat. In preparation, I made a couple as examples and gathered some other samples to show how embellishments can be used. I also brought along, yarns, prefelt, and some silk for embellishments.

I provided a pool noodle, bubble wrap, a template, a piece of polyester curtain fabric for each student and gathered up my samples and other tools to discuss as we worked. In addition, I printed out flyers for the forum, a resource list and a general step by step guide to basic wet felting for future reference.

The class was held in Toni’s kitchen at The Fold which was comfortable for four people. Unfortunately, they had to turn away a fifth, but I don’t know where we would have put another body.

I was surprised to learn that a couple of the ladies had come from as far away as Beloit, WI and Highland Park, IL which is an hour and half away. The other two lived closer to me.

The kitchen was nice and bright. So sunny, pictures were a little hard to get.

The one thing I learned is that they would have preferred to not have choices as to design. However, I’m never one to squash the creativity of a group and as it turned out they helped each other and while they followed basic designs they added their own creative touches.

Toni M (not the owner) finished first and was pleased with her first project and decided she liked her organic edges.

Dana brought some beautiful Churro yarn she’d purchased from New Mexico and made her mat a bit more abstract with a lovely turquoise background.

Carolynne purchased her roving and yarn to match at The Fold with the intention making an additional five mats of the same design which featured the stripes and abstract yarn design.

Since Candace had just purchased all the merino sheep from The Fold, she chose to feature a sheep on her design that she cut out from prefelt and used yarn for a fence, silk for clouds and some roving for grass.

They were all pleased with their place mats. We worked hard, but had a good time. Now these knitters, crocheters, spinner and weaver have a new tool in their fiber kits! I hope they will continue to experiment and join us on the forum. For more information on The Fold check out their website http://www.thefoldatmc.net

I haven’t taught a class in a long time. I was tired, but a good tired and had fun meeting new people and sharing my passion with them.

Felting and Fiber Studio

An International Collective of Felt and Fiber Artists

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Tag: knitting

Cords and Knitting

October 25, 2017 zedster66 Comments 20 comments

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Landscapes and Knitting

March 22, 2016 zedster66 Comments 25 comments

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Scarves For Nuno and Knitting

February 19, 2016 zedster66 Comments 42 comments

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Fourth Quarter Challenge

January 10, 2016 zedster66 Comments 31 comments

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A Peek at the Knitting and Stitching Show in London 2015

November 17, 2015 Marilyn aka Pandagirl Comments 22 comments

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Knitting

September 12, 2015 zedster66 Comments 25 comments

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Knitting and Roving

August 27, 2015 zedster66 Comments 22 comments

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Lincoln, Soy, Bamboo and Knitting

February 24, 2015 zedster66 Comments 19 comments

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Knitting

February 8, 2015 zedster66 Comments 20 comments

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Introduction to Wet Felting at The Fold

November 6, 2014 Marilyn aka Pandagirl Comments 20 comments

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