Triumverate

Hi! Just thought I'd stick my head over the yoga parapet to show you show the tricoloured shrug is progressing. The recent deafening blog silence is due to the fact that I'm up to my a---- (not, not in alligators) in yoga teacher training. This happens in the Buddhist centre. Very spacious and airy and welcoming....but not very warm. For two days on the trot we sit on the floor, a difficult thing to do at the best of times, giving our undivided attention to our lecturers. Not easy when your catching a draft on your thoracic spine. (You impressed I now where that is?)

Anyway, hence the shrug.

I was told off at a yoga seminar once for wearing black. Not nearly life enhancing enough. You can see I've taken this to heart and am using all three cones of my charity shop finds in combination, mixing and matching as I go. The very loosely interpreted pattern is from Amazing Crochet Lace by Doris Chan. An excellent book I would certainly recommend. This is my second garment from this book and I still want to make more. How often does that happen?

Now excuse me, I have triangles to revolve. Namaste.

Yogaga

I've just spotted this lying on a table and it kind of sums up my life right now. I recently began a two year yoga teacher training course which involves gazillions of homework. Meanwhile life goes on as I prep for two up coming velvet workshops in amongst my schools project. Oh yes, and did I mention I'm a shopkeeper? Argggh....................

Corking idea

I'm collecting kinetic bits and pieces at the moment to help me give my science/art kids ideas for making their artwork move. My brother Dave sent me a spring loaded woodpecker that wobbles up and down it's pole on a 'now I'm stuck, now I'm moving' kind of basis.




Here's my version. Mrs. Corky who wobbles up and down her knitting needle in a similar fashion - and no wonder after all the champagne she must have had to drink in order to secure such a curvaceous body!


Her head is a bead from from one of those back massaging car seat covers that used to be all the rage. I drilled a little hole half way through and glued in the spring. I tired lots of experiments with angle and length of spring. The shorter the spring, the faster she goes.It has to be pointing straight out at right angles to the knitting needle if you want her to b-y-o-n-g obligingly both up and down.




Come along now Mrs Corky. No need to loose your head....

Sharmanka

I went with my art/science kids to visit the fabulous Sharmanka gallery. Even they were captivated by the amazing show of kinetic sculpture.

When I came home I made this geezer from some dyed fabric molded with PVA.

New Camera!

Whoopee! I have a new camera! A Panasonic Lumix. Now I have to read the blinking book. Don't you hate that bit? Anyway, here is jacket I made at art college this summer taken by someone so smart he has no need to read the manual. The straggly bits are not me being delibately art, just things that still need hemmed.

Summer school

Just back from my annual summer school at Edinburgh College of Art. Costumer design this year with the wonderful David Wilcox. Only eight of us in class concentrating deeply on our own work so it was a very calm and quiet atmosphere all week. Now that I'm back I realise what a gift it is to be able to concentrate on one thing for days on end to the exclusion of all else.

We began with something called dot and cross paper designed for pattern drafting and a book of basic pattern blocks all written in numbers. Arghhhhh! Maths!!!!! We transferred the numerical information into lines and angles on the dot and cross paper and a pattern appeared as if by magic. I honestly thought I wouldn't be able to do it, but I did.

All the other people were serious students of historical costume who went on to make period toilles in calico but I just wanted to make a jacket, which the tutor knew and was up for. David is an excellent tutor who susses his students strengths and weaknesses very quickly and knows I'm a ram stam, let it hang as it grows kind of gal, not big on accuracy.

I wanted to take a pattern from an existing jacket and had absolutely no idea how to go about it. The way David showed me was very simple and suited my nature. Taking a panel at a time and working systematically I pinned calico onto my jacket, sketched round the pin marks in pencil, unpinned it and cut it out. Then to correct any stretches or mishappings I did the dot and cross measuring thing, straightening up what I knew should be straight, matching angles etc. When I had my pattern I cut it out in calico and make a toille. This is where the fun begins and you can start playing at Project Catwalk.

I took a trip to Harvey Nicks and checked out all the lovely wool coats and jackets around this year with wonderful broad lapels and integral scarf collars. With a few stolen ideas under my belt it was back to the studio to play with my toille until I has something I thought might work. Finally I cut it out for real from the lovely Loch Carron fabrics I found the the scrapstore a few months ago and a jacket was born.....and a camera died. Typical. Promise to post pics soon,

Salt anyone?

I wanted the bottles of salt and soda solution for the schools dyeing project to be clearly labelled so I used red (or black for soda) electrical tape. No chance of it smudging into illegibility.

But why, you might ask, was I to be found caressing these bottles with best baby talcum powder yesterday morning? When you take off the paper labels there is a sticky residue left behind. Latex gloves tend to stick to this making all manner of spilling disasters a distinct possibility. Give them the baby's bottom treatment and they're fine.

Nothing to get bent out of shape about.

Would you consider yourself a scissor bird? If so, check this out.

http://bentobjects.blogspot.com/2007/07/scissor-bird-yeah-i-said-i-wouldnt-be.html

What it is, is....

Here is one of the projects I'm currently driving myself daft with while I wait for the school to restart. It's big, fat crochet from Doris Chan's book Amazing Crochet Lace. I also need big arm muscles to lug around the three cones of wool I'm combining to make it. They are shown here stuffed into the foot well of my partner's tiny sports car leaving not a lot of room for feet, as you can see.

This is all very well but what it is, is (ahhh, must just interject here to tell you that in my profession, shopkeeping, any tale preceded by 'what it is, is....' is bad news. This is glaze over time, breath into your back time, make a mental shopping list time and resist the urge to shout yes, yes, what is it? Spit it out but just get ON with it!!!!!!!!! Perhaps I'm in the wrong profession?)

Anyway, what it is, is I want to make tiny, delicate proper crocheted lace but somehow I seem to be going in the wrong direction. A friend was wearing a fab crocheted cardi of this ilk the other day and I have asked for a copy of the pattern. I'll probably produce it in rope and turn it into a yurt instead.

Well seasoned

Nothing like a bit of salt and soda for making your fibre reactive dyeing successful! Here's what should have happened last time. These are the results I want my 80 little would-be dyers to have. Feeling more confident now that it might actually happen for them as planned. The thing that always amazes me is that these three pieces of fabric all had the same red, yellow and blue dye applied to them but in a difference sequence and in different quantities. I'm sure you can guess which was immersed in the red, blue or yellow first because remains the predominant colour. The red one was in a concertina fold, the blue one just scrunched up and the yellow twisted. All were secured with elastic bands.

I dyed some t-shirts for myself to wear whilst explain the process to the children. These will also help me illustrate the fact that fibre reactive dyes don't dye synthetic fabrics. Why is it that our cotton T-shirts aren't stitched with cotton thread? See how the thread remains undyed on both t-shirts?

So that's me, ready to rock 'n roll. I have an introductory dyeing session scheduled with the science teachers on the 22nd of this month.

Pass the salt...

We had a dyeing disaster during our school's trial run but that's okay, that's what trial runs are for. These are supposed to be vibrant tie dye, not muddy mixtures. I knew at once where we had gone wrong during the fibre reactive dyeing process. We had forgotten to add the salt and soda ash. But how? I had written myself reams of notes and instructions. It turned out to be a very useful lesson to learn at this stage in the project.

I was and will be using empty yogurt tubs to contain the children's dye. I began the process with some powdered dye in solution contained in a small, labelled water bottle and my salt and soda solutions contained in large labelled water bottles. In a yogurt tub we made up the recipe. 5 tablespoons dye solution, 1/3 cup salt, 1/3 cup soda, 1/3 cup tepid water. Result, successful dyeing first time round.

DANGER* DANGER* WILL ROBINSON! What follows is where we could have done with Robbie the Robot flashing his light and waiving is arms around.

I decanted my dye solution from the small bottle to a yogurt tub. Dye only. No salt, no soda....but this of course is undetectable to the naked eye! In the heat of the general dyeing excitement I assumed this was recipe instead of the raw ingredient it actually was and I had the children put their fabric in it, hence the messy muddy results.

So, the moral of the story is keep your dyeing raw ingredient and your mixtures in easily identifiable DIFFERENT containers!

Oh James!

I found myself with some free time yesterday and as it was summer in Scotland (approximate duration 24 hours) I took my bike to the neighbouring island of Cumbrae for a cycle. Unbeknownst to me, dearly beloved had taken his boat over too and was sitting in the bay. We found this out by phone and he said if I cycled to the pier he would try to get me on board. This was not something we had done before. This was not folding bike, this was heavy and awkward bike.

While I waited for him to come in to the pier steps I asked a sturdy looking man if he would carry the bike down for me, which he did. Some local kids were paying at jumping from the pier into the water and one tubby little boy was looking on wistfully. The same TLB asked why I had taken my bike down to water lever and I told him I was going to cycle to shore. Strangely enough, he didn't believe me.

DB pulled alongside in the boat and threw the rope to TLB who was thrilled with his new responsibilities. Then DB jumped off. He takes a few hours off work mid-day and had been to a meeting in the morning. Because he was going back into the shop at three, he hadn't changed. So there he was, under the pier with all these dripping and bedraggled children and me and my bike him dressed in his shiny black shoes, immaculately creased black trousers and crisp white shirt looking for all the world like James Bond. He lifted the bike on board and off we went leaving the children open mouthed. I've told him that in future he must keep a bow tie and a box of milk tray on board for just such an occasion.

Triumvirate

Here I am ready to start a new crochet project. I have a mad notion to use my three charity shop finds together. Wouldn't be my colour choice if I have the rainbow to choose from but I like the serendipitous idea of them being found together and used together. Can find it in my heart to break up the triplets. This is a bit of finger knitting that I chucked in with the washing to see what would happen every time I remembered. Nice foil for my money puzzle thingie isn't it.

The amazing shrinking jacket

I chucked my crocheted jacket back in the washing machine along with the swimming thing this morning and gave it what for. It came out looking like a dolly's jacket. It's not too small but I don't want it to felt any further. The sleeves that were hitting the back of my hand and now 3/4 length and the jacket itself has turned into a bum freezer. But worry not, that's was the way I wanted it. It's a nice thick texture too. A good experiment.

Crochety

Hellooooo! No I haven't disappeared. I've just been experiencing creative inertia. As I live in Ayrshire this is actually quite a humorous play on words....honest. Well maybe it's a Scottish thing.

We were away on a buying trip for the shop and I'm not allowed to drive. I'm a woman for goodness sake! This is also a Scottish thing. A Scottish man thing. Anyway, it meant hours of endless crochet and here is the resulting jacket. The photographer wasn't in residence last evening and photographing your own back is a difficult process. My best advice to anyone attempting this would be make the bed first.

....or take the jacket off. Now why didn't I think of that? This is day two after one wash in the machine. Much better texture and very minor shrinkage. Had hoped for more. I may wash again.

And here I would like to introduce you to the most annoying crochet phenomenon I have come across so far. (If you are about to glaze over, call back later. Normal creative service will be restored shortly).

I came across reverse single crochet edging for the first time. You just do it backwards. JUST, she says, JUST! I hold my wool in the wrong hand usually, a la knitting, but for this process you must have yarn in left, garment in right. I mastered it and was very pleased with myself........... until the sleeves came along. One was fine, the other had one fancy edging on the inside rather than the outside. I tried turning my work, not turning my work, turning the sleeve inside out and then turning off from the whole thing and deciding enough was enough. I don't experience the kind of intimacy many with people which allows them to look inside my cuffs. You are the exception.

Ever do that thing where you leave your camera switched on and you haven't recharged your spare batteries? Uhhuh!

Dyeing preparation continues. Teacher comes to visit a fortnight yesterday bringing her two pre teen daughters as dyeing Guinea pigs. Not that I would ever dye a Guinea pig you understand.

I've been tidying( arghhhhhh! eughhhhhhhhhh! and other cartoon noises that indicate distaste) and working on different ways of linking units with wire to make mobiles. So I do have some thing to photograph, honest injun, if only I had a camera.....

Later.

Back to old clothes and porridge

The garden party was a bit of a non-event but the rain stayed off, the sun shone and it did make me smile to see dearly beloved in his kiltie outfit. Here's his impression of a living advertisement. Unfortunately I forgot to issue smile instructions for him.



Aren't his kilt shoes amazing? Very uncomfortable I'm told. Now he knows what women have to put up with!

Detained at Her Majesty's pleasure

I've been having a hat made. Don't usually wear hats and do feel like a bit of a chookie but we've been invited to a swanky garden party where hats are obligatory. It's also liable to be muddy underfoot so no high heels. This does make my feet look like size 10 and it's a pity about the white legs but I don't think I could bare to wear tight. Guess this is as good as it gets.

The missing link

Here are the most successful of yesterday's wrapping and molding experiments. Some plastic tubing and a polystyrene pear tray. Does PVA stick fabric to polystyrene? See the black inside the shapes? What do you think? A separating layer of cling film is called for when molding.

This exercise is really all about linking and balancing but then, when we are supposed to be making mobiles, what else would it be about? Each joint is two little interlinked jump rings and each shape was balanced on the head of a needle to find it's fulcrum point before attaching. It's very wind sensitive, which is a good thing. Another tiny step forward.

Tumbling your wilkies

Well that's what we called it in my Scottish childhood. Turning head over heels like Pooh here whom I found amongst my collection of inspirational ephemera.

Kit cars no longer hold any fear for me . Look out Lotus, here I come! Made me think maybe the whole linking, connecting thing is the way to go with these kinetic scultpures.

...and where/ how exactly does the dyed the fabric fabric figure? Still working on that one. Tried wrapping various objects with PVA soaked fabric strips. The plastic tubing is my personal favourite. Cut into wired section there is no limit to the number of ways this can be joined together.

Do you remember those cardboard circles with two holes and a string through the middle we used to spin between out hands as children? Here is my plastic tube and wire version. Fabric can either be attached sail fashion or the tubing pre-wrapped. This is not the best photo of one in motion. I included it so that I could draw to your attention to the lipstick on my workbench. Just because you are in an inspired frenzy of creativity there is no reason to let your standards slip girls. Now here are the snaps the photographer took while I smiled at him with my perfectly made- up lips. Kissy kissy.