All in a Day's Work

Well after an evening of felting then a day or claying I'm worn out and still two days to  go until the show. This is a detail of the back of the collar I made, this is the centre back that you'd see if you were standing behind the wearer.

Here is the set laid out on my work table where I left it overnight to dry after tugging it into shape. It's going to be a shawl collar and the little bits are for side seam decoration for small pleats/gathers in the side by the waist. I've got it pinned just now but haven't had a chance to sew them on. Look good though.  Rather a folk art look which I really like, I just see how it's all going to turn out, with a little control.... I'm still really new at this but love doing it. I learn as I go that I've put some yarn in that won't completely felt so I have to put a little roving over it to hold it to the main body of the work.

As I took the polymer clay work I did today out of the oven and picked up the cooled Sweater Sticks I thought they made a lovely bouquet!  I do love making these and wearing them too. I've made three jackets with sweater sticks instead of buttons.
Here's a pic of the day's work, the sweater sticks on their show cards plus some buttons and my little decorations for the Clay Amies swap... not done that before and they're not great but it's a start.

My  Clay Amies swap effort

Well, I've started a new sweater in red and navy stripe. New colours for me as I usually don't like blue unless it's Periwinkle!  Buttons made, finish it tomorrow... then there's brochures, packing,  etc, etc...

Workshop News! 2010

As I knit my way towards the One of a Kind show and Sale ~ in Toronto this year, first five days ~ the phone rings....is it library telling me I haven't returned a book on CD (they found it eventually), a bill I've overlooked or good news?

Great news, I'm back teaching another week at Haliburton Summer School for the Arts next Summer.  It'll be another great week of Machine Knitting and I'm so glad to be going back to the Highlands.

Last year I spent the first two days dealing with sponge bars that had breathed their last breaths long since!!!  Now that I've revived eight sponge bars in my own studio on my machines.... I'm prepared. It's easy to do and this time I'll have everyone prepared beforehand and we'll be away to the races!

Machine Knitting at Haliburton School for the Arts 

August 9th - 13th 2010

Looking forward to seeing old and new faces.

Show Time and Felted Collars

It's two days until the Maker's Hand show in Picton starts, it's three days long with Friday being 10am  to 8pm. That means leaving home (at least I get to sleep in my own bed) at 8:30am and getting back about 9:30pm. If we can catch the right ferry coming home it's fewer miles and a shorter drive.... otherwise it's the highway.

Anyway, here are pictures of my first felting efforts for collars, this one I've put on a grey knit jacket and I've made buttons that go with it. I still want to make some embellishments for the cuffs, but I'm knitting the body for the other collar .... a black base.  Here I've done the fancy stuff on the ends as that is the part of the collar that will show close to the face.

 The back with detail on the centre which will show at the back of the neck.

It was interesting remembering to put the back neck embellishment down first then putting the prefelt on top.

 

This is the darker collar looking at the front (face side).

The back of the darker collar.

The buttons are made for this too, so as soon as I get the body knitted it's a 'go'!  Then I want to do some more felted pieces for the One of a Kind show that starts November 26th....Aaaaarrrgh!!!

Photos of the garments to come... now back to the knitting machine......!

Ouch!

 Why ouch? Because I'm hurting in more ways than one and - forgive me - but I need to vent. My wrist hurts, it's De Quervain's tenosynovitis and its in my right hand. It can be cured...if I stop using my right hand for a while....I'm getting symptoms now in my left hand. Sheesh... where do I go from here? I've thought of getting a firmer wrist brace that I can't take off for a while but that will have to wait until after the Christmas season (shows, family etc).

New Stuff

I recently got a call from an eager potential machine knitter mentioning that my Etsy section on my web site was blank.... that's when I discovered there is a four month expiry on the  listings...oops, I really must read more of their instrucional emails!  No sales yet but my good friend Claire Maunsell has had success so I'll persevere, and it's easier than trying to sell from my site which is really more of a reference site. Well, I spent a day making some more of my buttons and new Sweater Sticks (for buttonless cardis, wraps, shawls.... even hair) and Sweater Pins, and then uploading some of them to my Etsy shop.

Though my buttons are a bit dearer these are only $15.

I just had the Town and Country Studio Tour here in K'town and that was great, I had lots of vistors and if I could hand knit socks one pair a day I would be rich!!  .....but there's the De Quervain's..... Sales were made, friends and the curious dropped by and I had such a grea time I just spent Monday staring at the walls and wondering how I could drag myself upright off the sofa in my studio!




Sleeves need shortening and knitting needs to be done but for that ..... my machines need functioning SPONGE BARS!!!!   So I hit Knittsings for the info and step by step.

I've done five sponge bars so far with a couple more to go, from both Singers and Brothers. I had most of the equipment and found iron on laundry tape was already cut width wise and ready to go instead of iron on interfacing.


Now I'm ready to knit again .....  well later after I take my Mum out while our wonderful cleaners are in.  We'll run around and do errands, maybe grab a coffee. When these visits are over I hate to leave her as she asks if I've seen around the house she's lived in seventeen years. Mind you, not remembering much means that you don't remember that you've just spent the day at the hospital for a cataract surgery with your husband and eldest daughter nattering away while you sleep off the woo woo drugs!

Hitting the studio means facing the bills, show fees uppermost and wondering where the money went...  then I remember that I spent six unproductive weeks not using my arms after my double mastectomy and reconstruction, only to make a mad dash to make stock for a less than successful One of a Kind Spring show....the economic times being what they are.  And after twelve years of having the Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition (and I'm not linking this because of the sour grapes I'm allowing myself!!!) which was always really successful for me, I was juried out this year (it happens to all of us) and have none of those nice sales to pay my Fall '09 and Spring '10 show fees etc. That along with the residual debt from my couple of cancer years has left me owing all over the place and working less because of trying to take some time for myself (stress being found to be a contributing factor in breast cancer).

What happened to the days when I schlepped my wares to a show in green garbage bags in a taxi, didn't need a computer for web sites, email, client contact, printing hang tags, brochures, show application, advertising blah, blah blah???

On the up side there is my grant (doesn't pay booth fees though), and another free knitting machine I was graced with this week!!!! A Singer 850 plus ribber! Now that gets me all fired up.... I'm also repairing it's sponge bar.

Well, I'm off to run errands with Mum it tow and we'll have a giggle as she still has a wonderful sense of humour. I do however miss the woman who, when I called her in tears over something falling apart in my life, drove over and took me out for  a drive and let me cry it out.

Love you Mum, thanks for teaching me to knit.

Fashion Blitz

Just For Us Originals - my booth.

It's been a busy few weeks recently, on returning from Cleveland I had to prepare for the Just for Us Originals a wearable art show in this year in Oakville tacking onto the coattails of the World of Threads show. Unfortunately I was unable to see any of the World of Threads but as it happens every two years I'm bent on seeing it in 2011, I had colleagues showing in that show and I'm so sorry I missed it.

                                  

Dale Cox, me and a cloaked form!

A wonderful part of that weekend was that old friends Dale and Dave Cox were helping out. They are both great amimators and artists who have worked on many movies and animations including Care Bears. We got to play a bit of catch up, as we used to hang out waaaaay back in my first marriage ('70's) I got to find out what some of the folk from that other life are doing now.

After the show closed on Saturday evening I got to drop in on  my step daughter Alana Kurtis, a musician and music teacher and pat her five and a half months along belly. Also to present her with the rest of the little outfit I made, the 'Yoda Coat' and  little hat with a twirl on top. When I popped into my local Wool Tyme they had about three little Yoda Coats knitted and on display. There's no pulling anything over baby's head and with this soft machine wash and dry Merino wool it should keep my first grandchild warm when 'it' arrives in February!

This was a pattern for an apple hat but  I left off the leaves and just curled the 'stem'.  I do hope these are gender neutral enough as we don't know the little one will arrive wearing pink or blue booties.

                                    

 Judith and me.

I got back from Toronto late Saturday night and got up early for the CIBC Run for the Cure which went along the lake and past our house this year. My sister Judith and I walked on the 'Sue's Care Team' for Dr Sue Hendler a neighbour of mine for many years and head of Women's Studies at Queens University. She was diagonsed (after a lot of false starts and palava) with breast cancer but it was already far along. Chemo and radiation and many drugs made her very ill but didn't cure her cancer and knowing her days were numbered she put together a marvelous group of her friends to see her out of this mortal coil as comfortably as possible in her own home. She passed away a few hours after entering hospital.

 

Pix of Judith and me walking with our friends Erin and Yvonne and Nuggett the dog.

Sue arranged her memorial service (which I was unable to attend being in Oakville but my sister went) and also a bit of a munchies 'do' back at her place after the run. Not only was it really good to meet the women who took care of her but I connected with the brother of a girl whos house I used to go to to listen to Bob Dylan records back in the late '60's!!!!  He said that as the big brother those had been his Dylan records. We really dug up the past and that was absolutely super.... thanks Sue.

Grant at Work

I've been having  fun with my gant money, it's enabled me to take classes, buy materials and do things I didn't think I would be able to do for a long time.  Spending a day with Andrea Graham in he studio felting was wonderful and really opened a brand new door for me creatively.

Here is a photo of my second felted piece, working with prefelt and some fun stuff from around Andrea's studio.  Here it is soaking wet and lying on the bubble wrap that I 'felted' it on. I learned that first you very carefully felt under another surface, old nylon curtain 'Grandma's Curtain' as Andrea calls it, or plastic. We didn't use tons of water as I had thought so it was not messy.

This is a photograph of my finished piece on my back deck. It has some crazy knitting in it, some silk fabric, a long tail thing that Andrea made as a demo for me. Some fancy yarns, silk roving and pieced prefelt.  I love it and am so proud!!!!

 This mini collar was my first piece made with roving, I learned the difference between roving and batt. For me, really not a felt maker I will use prefelt to made pieces to add to my knitted jackets. I aiming for the Maker's Hand show and for the One of a Kind in Toronto (I'm in the first five days).

I was so proud of this too as my first real felted work.

Detail of my 'art' piece.

 

Sweater Sticks

 

In making a wraped jacket for the Art After Dark, not making a button or buttonhole meant I had to think of another closure for the front. I had knit it to allow for a good overlap so decided to try 'sweater sticks'  of polymer clay and bamboo knitting needles.  Here's what I came up with and so far they have been well recieved, I'm selling them at $15.

Here are my first five, I have fun making them too so it's unstructured work unlike the knitting, especially custom orders!

I have one for the purple coat and one for a wrap I made for myself a year ago.

The big trip was to attend Inspiration '09 in Cleveland put on by BT Yarns. Sue does a wonderful job each year since she took over from Bonnie Triola in Erie PA.

The main draw for me was Susan Lazear of Cochille, the software I use to aid in the technical//numbers side in my pattern making and executing my designs, much less paper and pencil stuff thank heaven. 

She had classes in knitting and fabric, combining the two, knock offs or how to make a pattern of some store bought garment you already have. We also worked on our laptops with Garment Designer... I really needed some brushing up, especially as I teach it.  And Stitch Painter. I got some nagging questions answered.

I picked my friend Sonja up in Toronto and then inched toward the border (awful traffic!!!). Nine hours there and nine back but I found that driving sitting very upright in my PT Cruiser (the 'Knitmobile' bought because a. I've always coveted them and b. with the  back seats out and the box on top I can load her up) was great for long distance and not tiring at all.

 

Susan talked about taking notes and even photos of things you are interested in while out clothing shopping. So here I am wearing a really neat coat in Saks and taking a photo of myself!

Now I'm back from that weekend, a show in Oakville (future post) and am turning my studio upside down to clear out some 'stuff' and make room for creativity! My DH has bought himself a new dresser for the bedroom and I get the old one for my studio ... more storage than the antique dough box I had in there.

This just in: I've found the floor!!!!!!

Free Woolly

 

This lovely puddy tat was captured taking his afternoon (and if I know cats - his morning and evening..) nap under a price tag of $5. This was at a fruit and veg stand on our way to Picton one sunny afternoon and we stopped to pick up some fresh produce. The whole time we were there he never moved a wisker!

Anyway, instead of hitting the beach my DH decided it was ok for him to hang around the book shop Books & Company while I hit the yarn shop I had discovered on our last trip through to the Sandbanks for a day at the beach. Rose Haven Farm Store is now on Main St, Picton and I spent an hour and a half there. Well the owner is really chatty but we got to know who we both were and focused more on different yarns I might really be interested in. I told her I would be taking a felting class with Andrea Graham soon and she told me Andrea shops there too.

These are the two skeins of Sari Ribbon that I picked up, I fell in love with it and vowed I would find a design for this. So far I have cut out all the joins so I have lots of strips of differnt lenghths and am working them into a jacket.

 

I haven't  used the Habu Rayon Sized yet, thought I've worked up a swatch and pressed it. It loses a bit of it's sizing with the steam and starts to become a bit more pliable, a good thing to know.

What drew me back to Rose Haven was the Habu Silk Stainless yarn. It is barely visible stainless steel bound with two strands of beautifully coloured silk.  The swatch I knit for that proved it can be manipulated when a fabric, it's very fine and expensive so I pulled out my swatch having never cut it from the cone.

I got some yarn from Gwyn Griffin yarn shop here in Kingston, some Rowan Biggy Print that I might use with some fulling projects as I loved the colour, and also some machine wash Merino for my future step grandchild due in February!!! No we won't know what it is until then so I'm picking neutral but nice colours to keep this little one warm.

This is machine wash and dry Merino from the Wilton Road Yarn Mill in Odessa, though I purchased it while I had a booth at the Sheepdog Trials in August and roamed around the crafts tent looking at yarn. This is so beautifully soft and of course you can wash the baby sick out of it!!!

Jacket and hat to follow.....