Just a little 'armless knitting

 

I think this little number may be destined to spend it's life as a sleeveless shrug.

 

Whadda ya mean I've made a mistake picking up the sleeves AGAIN!

 

Real shame because I like it so far. The creator of the pattern is very generous with her email assistance as is one of my kind Ravelry buddies so we may get there yet. I sure hope so. Winter is coming.

Playing with colour

I'm at the exciting stage of choosing roving to felt back into my deconstructed textile. I choose to use Wingham Wool Work who, if you live in the UK, lend you their colour chart for free provided you return it within two weeks.

This project really excites me because I have not the faintest idea what I'm going to do. Projects where there is the possibility of going 'wrong' discourage me and I loose heart. But no plan = no possibility for error, only fabulous discoveries.

Wow - I've made a giant thing! I don't know what on earth it is, but it's almost eight feet long. It's a bit like an animal's pelt. I guess I was thinking if I could make yardage, maybe I could make garments.


I love the reverse of it where you can see the colours and textures of the bandage I felted it onto.


I deliberately left these gaps every now and then that are just bandage.

It's a bit heavier than I would have liked but as the last one fell apart I was kind of piling on the roving. A good experiment though. Very pleased with it. The learning continues...

magnum feltus

Here it is. My latest magnum felt opus dripping over the bath. I've covered all three metres of my dyed bandage with a grid of tops and given it a quick initial sand with the sander. Loosing patience is my downfall with felt making so I'm just doing a little each day. It's taken me two days just of lay it down and wet it out.

Trying to avoid the Grrrrrrrrrrrrrr......scrumble it all up and fling it in a corner - alas too soon stage.

unravelling

I'm pleased with the way the unravelling is breaking up the pattern. I'm keen to preserve the still knitted strips and am thinking about stitching down then or felting that little strip very specifically to make it stand proud.

Rip it, rip it

The deconstruction of the dyed car polishing cloth begins to make a suitable base for my next nuno felt experiment.

success and learning experiences

I had a nuno felt experiment today, laying out out a variety of scraps for my base
I teased out my merino tops and rolled it onto some foam pipe insulation before unrolling it over my selected fabrics.
I had envisaged a fabulous, floaty felt wrap....duh..............! I didn't use enough tops to 'grab' the fabric and many of the fabrics were to heavy to be grabbed with tops on one side only.
Cotton lawn, haboti silk, silk chiffon and scrim were the successful fabrics.
Can you imagine this is the shoulder of a fabulous jacket with a fascinating textured lining...can you?


Taking on board the lessons I'd learned I dyed some more base fabrics. I used some reactive fiber dyes that I'd had hanging about for years, literally. They were left over from a schools project. Although they were stored in solution, I always believed if they didn't have they salt added to then, they would survive with no limit of time. I guess not. The colours are very ethereal but I'm just not an ethereal kind of gal.
So I over dyed using information generously shared by my online bud Helen Cowans. Helen introduced me to the idea of replacing the salt with urea with lovely strong results. Much more my kind of thing. Thanks Helen!

Weird and wonderful

Did some more crochet on my weird experimental thing using the sock yard I dyed with Lilith.


I actually like it best when it's all twisted up like a maypole. Going to see if crocheting straight down the outside of the twist will hold it in this shape.

Good vibrations

For the felting with a sander experience, replace the sandpaper with some bubble wrap. Please take great care with any activity which combines water and electricity.
It is sooooo much faster. I do believe my holey felt has garment potential.

Are you a crafty saver of net bags? At last, a use for them! These fetching fingerless gloves are an adjunct to any felting day out.

I've been preparing for my next felting adventure by dyeing some bandage and some polishing cloth. From Boots the Chemist you can by bandage a meter wide by three metres long. That would be some colourful wound!

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A thing of beauty

What on earth is this thing of beauty that has appeared adjacent to my favourite knitting area? Is it a pole for a very skinny pole dancer? No. It's a water feature. An unwanted water feature and definitely not a joy forever.
I live in a building with a flat roof. Not sensible architecture for a country gripped by its very own global warming induced monsoon season. There is no way I could sit here night after night listening to drip, drip, drip so I stitched a piece of thread into my now peeling ceiling and left a tail long enough to reach the bucket below. The drip now obligingly and silently rolls down the thread an into the bucket. It would be quite beautiful and fascinating anywhere other than in my flat! For the pragmatic amongst you who ask 'why don't you just get the blinking thing fixed?' I have had a man up. 'We'll do it when it's dry,' says he. But by then it won't be problem..............because hell will have frozen over.

You have to hand it to them...

Take off your fish and get out the face paints. Wouldn't this be a fabulous art project for children?

Rumple who skin?

A few doors down from the workshop of belonging to the lady who taught me to dye yarn meets a knitting group. I joined a few weeks ago and this week two of my new buds, Knotty Artisan and Knit1girl1 on Ravelry, taught me how to use a drop spindle in a Rapunzel like fashion to turn my dyed merino straw into gold. Well, into lumpy, bumpy yarn at this stage.

I made myself a spindle by gluing a wooden knitting needle with a cup hook screwed into its top onto an old cd. I was copying KA's design only she had used a jam jar lid. They both seem to work like a charm. Any minute now I'll be able to let down my hair and escape. Or am I mixing my fairy tales? Either way, better put some clothes on first.

finished projects and WIP

Yes, this is a picture of my chest. This cardigan drove me nuts but it's finished and I actually wear it. The yarn was a donation of cotton ribbon. Would not be my material of choice again. Does not hug you in a warm embrace. Instead, kinda pokes you with it's jaggy edges.

The vast aran becomes more vast with each passing day. Almost ready for the armhole experience.

First felt experiement

A bit of embellishment on the sander scarf. Not totally convinced yet but will experiement with the sock and laceweight yarn I dyed at a workshop with Old Maiden Aunt.

Felt without tears

This is felt making for people who hate making felt....like me. Gone is the effort, in comes the sander! The picture shows my friend who can felt beautifully with and without the help of modern technology. I need all the help I can get was delighted at the results the sander achieved combining some deconstructed fabric and merino roving dyed at a workshop with Old Maiden Aunt

Acid dyeing

I recently went to a great dyeing workshop where I had the opportunity to play with acid dyes. These are required to dye wool or roving and silk, if you so choose. It was in my mind this was a complicated method but it's wasn't at all. Dye, water, vinegar and heat is all that is required.

The shawl-like object is a piece of tubular knitted car polishing cloth I dyed with Procion on my recent crafty holiday with my internet chums. The dyeing was facilitated by this talented lady. I chopped my tube up when I came home and had a clapotis moment, deliberately ripping out columns of stitches at intervals. I'm going to experiementally knit/crochet back into it with my lovley hand dyed yarn samples.

Is anything worn under the kilt?

....No, it's all in perfect working order, or so the old joke goes. Sadly I didn't manage to find out on a recent visit to a fab tea room in Luss with very tasty serving staff.