Fingerless Mitts—Adventures in Designing
March 29, 2009 at 6:20 pm | In Knitting | Leave a CommentA friend of mine asked me for a simple pair of fingerless mitts, nothing too fancy. I wanted to have some fun knitting, so I needed someting with a pattern. Every pattern I looked at had too much patterning, though, so I decided to make up my own as I went along. Here’s the result:
The mittens have a small cable on the back of the hand that’s positioned asymmetrically towards the outside of the hand. The cable grows out of the 2×2 ribbing and is a bit asymmetrical. The effect isn’t as strong as I’d like, since I wanted to emphasize the asymmetry of the design by making the cable asymmetric as well. You can see it a bit better in this progress picture:
So, while I like the result, I’m taking notes for the next time. I’d like to make the asymmetry within the cable stronger, so it really looks intentional and not just a bit wonky. Having the cable pattern run through the ribbing might add some further interest to a fairly plain pattern. Maybe I’ll make another pair, I’d like to have some for myself!
Knitting Swatches
March 22, 2009 at 7:24 pm | In Knitting | 1 CommentUntil now I’ve pretty much successfully avoided projects that needed to match a certain gauge to work, so I never knit any swatches before diving into the project proper. Now, while currently trying to finish up all those wintery projects so I’m prepared when spring finally comes around, I’m dreaming of summer knitting.
After some browsing of the magazines at my LYS I think I made a decision for a cardigan from the current Verena. The model I’m thinking about is the one on pages 6/7. Since this model isn’t available in my size and I want to use a different yarn, I needed to knit some swatches. I’m simply amazed how much difference needle size can make!
The upper swatch is worke with a 3.5 mm needle, the lower one with a 4.0 mm. The lower one hits the target gauge precisely on number of stitches, although the row gauge is still off. But I think I can work around this. I like the way the yarn (Online Linie 214 Senta) knits up with the larger needles, so although I’m currently doing another swatch in a different yarn, I think I’ll go with this. I think I might hate myself for ever deciding to knit something with that many cables before finishing, though.
Now I just need to do the mathematics to make the model fit my size, which will be an adventure for sure. But nothing a few hours with a calculator can’t solve, I guess!
Book Review — Art in Needlework
March 15, 2009 at 8:11 pm | In Book Review, Embroidery, Project Gutenberg | Leave a CommentAs promised last week, I want to tell you a little bit about one of the sources I’m currently getting ideas for my crazy quilt project from. Art in Needlework by Lewis F. Day and Mary Buckle is basically a stitch dictionary, systematically exploring the different types of embroidery stitches and presenting them in samplers. At least that’s what makes the book useful today. Have a look, here’s the Herringbone Sampler:
For almost all the samplers the backside is also shown:
There are explanations on how all those stitches are worked, with drawn schematics where necessary. Great to look through and get inspired. In addition to traditional embroidery stitches there are chapters on appliqué, quilting, goldwork and others.
In addition to the samplers, there are also quite a few images of embroidery pieces worked in the different techniques in the book, for example this one in Satin Stich from a Chinese work:
All in all a book well worth reading. While there are a few places where the author falls into the gender stereotypes prevalent in 1900, as here in the chapter on Appliqué:
Appliqué must be carefully and exactly done, and is best worked in a frame. It is almost as much a man’s work as a woman’s. Embroidery proper is properly woman’s work; but here, as in the case of tailoring, the man comes in. The getting ready for appliqué is not the kind of thing a woman can do best.
there are also quite unexpected gems of wisdom in the book, that I can agree with in the 21st century as well:
Let the needleworker study the work of the needle in preference to that of the brush; let her aim at what stuff and threads will give her, and give more readily than would something else. Let her work according to the needle: take that for her guide, not be misled by what some other tool can do better; do what the needle can do best, and be content with that. That is the way to Art in Needlework, and the surest way.
I really enjoyed preparing this book for Project Gutenberg with the help of lots of volunteers from Distributed Proofreaders. I hope you like the result, and will get some good use out of it!
Crazy Quilted Box — Update
March 7, 2009 at 5:28 pm | In Embroidery | 1 CommentTags: Crazy Quilt
After checking that my little box is still sleeping and dreaming (luckily boxes seem to be able to sleep soundly for weeks on end, or my surprise would be totally spoiled by now), I can show you the progress I’ve made on embellishing the box. Although I have to admit, even getting the one picture I now have was far from easy. This seems to be one of the colour combinations that is fiendishly difficult to photograph. First I couldn’t get any focussed picture no matter what, and when the sun came out for a few minutes this week I managed to take one that’s at least sharp, even if the colours are less than optimal:
The reds are much more vibrant in reality than in this picture, which looks far more yellowish than intended. But at least you can see the detail here. Lots of embroidery, lots of beads, a piece of bobbin lace I had lying around from an experiment intended to get away from my white only upbringing with bobbin lace. I had lots of fun trying out different stitches and varying them.
A brillant ressource for this is Sharon b’s Stitch Dictionary. Lots of stitches to explore, and in the sidebar on the left, under “Crazy quilting and needlework”, there are several crazy quilts to drool over, and a brillant series of articles about Crazy quilt seam treatments. Lots of inspiration in there.
I also got inspired by the newest addition to PG’s Crafts Bookshelf, which I finished preparing this week. It’s also a kind of stitch dictionary, just a few years older (100 or so), but you’ll have to wait for more details until it’s actually posted, which should be today or tomorrow, hopefully. I’ll write a full review on it then, I’m sure you’ll like it as much as I do!
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