When you're no longer sure, but you still keep going!

I've been working on this sculpture for awhile, which is good, as I've prototyped and experimented and made till I'm at the stage where it seems to be coming together.

But there are a few problems yet to be resolved....how do you arrange them?

Does my little crocheted flower look ok, and will it tie all the different islands together?

Crocheting next

Letter to the unknown customer

To whom it may concern,

Just thought I'd drop you a line to let you know that I've finally listed all my current fingerless mittens on Etsy. I know this is a little old fashioned writing a letter, but it feels better to be actually writing to someone, albeit unknown, than just speaking into the ether and wondering who is listening.

So let me tell you about my mittens. There are three different types that I've listed:

These are the last of the handspun yarn crocheted into a simple shape. I need to make more of these, but there's alot of spinning to do. I do have some gorgeous coloured tops in my stash waiting for me.

Then there's my new range:

I've made them with the boys in mind, but they do look good on women too! Currently, they come in black, grey or natural colours. I like addiing something different on the band and down the back of the hand.

Then there's my standby fingerless mittens, the ones with the buttons. They started this whole fingerless mitten making run.

There's the black and cream ones I always have, though I do need a couple of grey gloves, I am from Melbourne!

Then there are the couple of colours I currently have.












And, finally,

the chunky ones! Two are handspun and the other is from a stash dive with amazing buttons.

I have made an aweful lot of these fingerless mittens with buttons, over 150 if my records are to be believed, and the spreadsheet never lies, though I can hardly believe it! What makes it even more unbelievable is that each one is different. Sometimes it's just the yarn and I knit the square in stocking stitch with the thumb and the borders in moss stitch. That's my standard pattern, but alot are diving into the stitch books and playing with different stitches.

Anyway, I hope you like them and if you want to become a known customer head over to the fingerless mitten section of my Etsy shop.

Hope to hear from you,

Cheers, Teresa


I

Catching up!

I've spent this week trying to catch up with all the 'other' work that I had, so I can be the artist for the month. One of the last jobs is a set of hats for a friend. She bought one, black with buttons that she's ordered four more, in the colours of her choice.

As you can see they're a fairly simple hat, it's the embellishments that make it a little different. I've had fun playing around, so much so, I might just make some for the stall.

Oh, and if you say there's only three, she already has one, it is Winter!

Buttons

I've been sorting through my buttons.

I just love buttons!

Trying to find the perfect match.

Now, I have to sew them on.....

Found the camera at last!

I really did think that we could get through this house renovation without much disruption. Yes, I am a glass half full (well, three quarters full!) type person. Subsequently, I'm now in a state! Part of this resulted in my misplacing the camera. Needless to say, I've finally found it!

I've been busy today, sewing on buttons on my latest batch of fingerless mittens - 60, to be precise. I'm off to Rose St. Artists' Market tomorrow, hopefully the rain will hold off for us.

So, I thought I would just show you some of the work of the past two weeks.

These are the articles I finished for last weeks Ivanhoe Makers Market.

1. Blue fingerless mittens made from the beautiful wool roving I bought on my weekend away at Tarndwarncoort.

2. New design of fingerless mittens, very simple but laced up down the back of the hand. Just using the yo,k2tog at the beginning of each row and using the resulting 'loop' to lace up with a twisted cord.

These both sold last week!

3. A funky simple beany using three different yarns together.

4. A black and white, feather and fan scarf, knitted lengthwise. This is the first of the upmarket footy scarves. Know a Collingwood fan out there?

These are the mittens I've just finished.

1. Two more mittens using the last of the Tarndwarncoort rovings. All that handspinning is just wonderful for my sanity.

2. The purple mittens use the pattern 'Stars and Stripes'. The grey mittens use the pattern 'Twist and turn'. Both these patterns are from the No.5 Vogue Stitchonary on Lace, that I just recently received. More on my purches in another post!

3. The hat is using some hand-dyed 12 ply from Morris and Sons. I managed to make their sale and picked up a few more cream wool packets. There's a little feather and fan pattern and the rim is stocking stitch which rolls up. I've got a hat like this and it's fun using the natural curl of stocking stitch.

All I have to do now is put the price tags on and I'm off tomorrow to market!

What I was supposed to do in the holidays, or making friends with my knitting machine

With the long summer holidays and having made the decision to, again, not do any markets in February, I decided that I would try and develop a new product more suited to the warmer months. Upcycling t-shirts by inserting beautiful machine knitting is still thought, by me to be a good idea......

It's an idea that is still in the general swirl of my thoughts, but it hasn't quite made it to reality. I do have a beautiful op-shop t-shirt to work on, and I have been working on my knitting machine, but not on the same project.

I have created this.

A combination of my favourite machine knitting stitch, the tuck stitch, and long floats has worked out beautifully. I haven't pressed all the kinks out of the floats, I do like them.

I added 9 pearl buttons to each end, just to give it a bit of weight. (it weighed just 50gm with half the buttons on!) These were obtained from the lovely Anne in a swap, perspex for pearl buttons...I think I am very lucky. They finished it off just right, giving just enough of that weight to be able to tie the ends if wanted.

I'm about to start on the next one, having done a sample in what is likely to be the last of some gorgeous red mercerised cotton, that I've used in lots of projects. It's a stunning shiny red and I hope the pattern will work out right for this one. Yes, each shawl will have a different pattern. My knitting machine and I are friends, so I'm going to try all sorts of different patterns.....

On the art of selling textiles

Selling textiles is a very seasonal pursuit. (And let's not talk about selling woollies in Australia....think hot climate, short cold winter...) In the warmer months, it's enough to try and get people to talk to you. On a hot day, they just walk past. This is one of the reasons that I've taken October and November off from the market. December is Christmas, even this has it's problems, as you have to give a present that will not be useful till the winter, but I am ever optimistic.

That's one of the reasons that I have an Etsy shop, to try and break into the Northern Winter. This is not having the desired results, at the moment. The GFC, high value of the Australian dollar, postage costs and this is starting to look like a long term assignment. Four sales, of which two have been cancelled is starting to make me less optimistic than I was last year.

Anyway,

One of the good things is that I've had two months to think of what I might to that could sell during our Australian summer.

I always think that it should be something I'm interested in. And I think earings! I didn't get my ears pierced till my 40th birthday, but my love of earings goes back to my college days. Every party was an excuse to buy an even bigger, more outrageous and cheap (I was a student!) clip-on earing.

Finally, I think I've got a good idea and here are the first complete set:

They're a little rough around the edges, but these are mine! They're handspun silk, handknit and finished with the buttons.

Hopefully, I'm on to something!

A busy weekend

Yes, it's going to be a busy weekend. Saturday is the Ivanhoe Makers Market, new name, bright new logo and hopefully a busy day to celebrate the end of Winter and the start of Spring. I'm going to have a 20% off everything sale, to celebrate. I hope that everyone comes and says hello.


These are the latest neckwarmers that I've been working on. Handspun, dyed, knit and finished with a button (of course).









And a few more fingerless mittens.









Then on Sunday, I'm part of a team that will be competing in the Sheep to Shawl competition at the Royal Melbourne Show. The competition starts around 10.30am and finishes when all the teams have spun and knit a shawl, however long that takes.

I've always wanted to have a go at competing, should be fun. It would be nice to have a cheer squad?

Rhythms of the day

Having embarked on studies again, committing somewhere around 3 days a week has meant that I've needed to rearrange my week. Having had particular rhythms to the week for so long, it's been difficult to change my habits and enlist the help of the household. It's slowly getting there, but it's been an interesting challenge.

This might explain why I've only finished two fingerless mittens this week when I need to make quite a few for the next market, but here they are:

City Library

I'm so far behind in my posts, so much to tell you, so little time! However, I thought I'd let you know that my sculpture 'Windfall' can be seen at the City Library in Flinders Lane.

Richard, my sculpture teacher has been putting various student works on display and this week He chose mine.

It's always an interesting process seeing your work in a public place. I always want to stay there for the entire time and see what peoples reactions are. It's probably why I like having a market stall, getting direct reactions. I don't like phones for the same reason, you can't see people on a phone.

Anyway, if you're in the area, have a look, tell me what you think!

What did I finish this week?

I've decided that I'm going to document the articles that I finish each week.....just in case you're interested in anything. Most will end up in my Etsy shop, but not always. I often don't put things on for a variety of reasons: the main being time, however, photographs are often the reason. If I don't feel that I've managed to give a good indication of colour, texture or form, I'll leave them to my market stall, so people can see them for real. Occasionally, I have articles that I need people to feel or try on because they're a bit odd!


So here they are for this week:




Red Onion with Alum mordant dyed silk scarf with folds



2 skeins of chocolate centres yarn (100gm and 90gm)

Purple fingerless mittens with bobbles down the edge of the buttons. (sold)

Doesn't feel like alot of stuff, but there is a pile of fingerless mittens still to put buttons on and more chocolate fleece to spin!

So, if you're interested in anything, don't hesitate to contact me: tsbtextile@yahoo.com.au

Surprises

Isn't it lovely to be surprised? Surprised by the sudden view out of the kitchen window or the generosity of a friend.

In my letter box a gift from a friend, and lots of fun sorting them all out.

A thankyou gift is required.......

These crows and more of their friends settled in our big tree. Against the sky a perfect black and white study.

Gratitude all round.

Past midnight

Sometimes you just have to finish things. Not for any particular reason, except perhaps, that if it goes on much longer I'm going to start disliking this!


So, last night, I finished spinning the 2nd single in a slightly fluffier, heavier way and plyed it with the buttons, finishing just past midnight.



Note: it takes a long time to add buttons to the yarn, but is surprisingly satisfying.




I'm now washing the yarn and am looking forward to finding out what it weighs. Not usually a big issue, I'm guessing 150gm, but what will the buttons add?



I've now got enough fleece left for a chocolate wrapper yarn, if only I can find where I left the wrapping!

PS. It's call 'Chocolate centres'

I need chocolate!

What a difference a day makes. Yesterday, I managed to sell a record amount, enough in fact to meet my, very loose, target for the month. I'm particularly pleased as it was a variety of work that sold to new, returning, friends and fellow stallholders. I met a fellow Etsy traveller whose work is amazing (http://www.gitte.etsy.com/) and I think made some new fans.

Unfortunately, all the delight of the day was tempered with the performance of the market. It was much better than last month, so must be put in the work-in-progress basket. Next month we relaunch with a new name 'Ivanhoe Makers Market', hopefully with sufficient publicity to make it a wonderful market. As usual our visitors remarked on both the beautiful space that we inhabit and the wonderful work it contains......fingers crossed.

I've come home to more spinning. I managed to finish my 'chocolate drop' yarn for the market and it was renamed by a lovely friend of the market as 'tim tam' and I think it might have to have a identity change.

I'm now spinning 'chocolate centres' which consists of spinning a fine-ish single and threading buttons on as I go. A little bit tedious and there are other methods, I just wanted the buttons to be a well integrated as I can. I'm going to spin a fluffier single to match. I am enjoying the play of worsted and woollen spinning and the change in texture and colour you can get just by employing a different spinning method.

The naturally chocolate coloured fleece that I'm spinning should have enough for another yarn, so 'chocolate wrapper' springs to mind. In my compost bin (full of bits of leftover yarns, etc) was some silk fabric that was leftover from my silk scarves. If I have enough I'll add it as I ply.

Now all I have to do is see if I can find some real chocolate!

Small surprises

When your own troubles and triumphs seem trivial compared to others' maybe it's in the small and insignificant where we can find simple pleasure.

While looking for buttons, I came across these two. I don't know where they came from but are quite a surprise and puzzle.

This, I'm pretty sure has a very thin layer of opal sandwiched between, what seems to be, plastic! I didn't know that they made buttons with opal, and I wish I knew where it had come from.

This second one I'm less sure about. Having found one in my stash, I then went looking to see if there were any more. It's harder to tell, there doesn't seem to be any layers in the construction, but it's just uneven enough to raise some doubt.

I'm not even sure where to go to find out more.....maybe Buttonmania. (www.buttonmania.com.au)

The Art of Gardening Sustainably

What have I been doing in all this heat? Nothing you might say, but you would be wrong....I have been weaving some pieces for the above exhibition. The exhibition is to support Sustainable Gardening Australia, and is being put on at my local gardening centre, which, instead of the usual coffee shop, has a gallery, run by Meredith Plain who is a ceramicist. One of her amazing birdbaths (with frogs) is in my garden and I would have one of her dragons, but that is a long story.

I've chosen the theme of recycling, so all the knitting needles are orphans from the opshop, which is where most of the buttons have come from, recycled plastics, and the neverending spool of nylon wire. Who knows what I'm going to do when that runs out.

I've given you a little sneak preview of the six works. I'll post the full lot when I have pictures of them hanging, but if you want to see them live....



The Art of Gardening Sustainably

An Exhibition to spread the word about sustainable gardening and raise funds for SGA (Sustainable Gardening Australia)

7th February to 8th March 2009

Exhibition opening: 6 to 8pm, Thursday 5th February
To be opened by Mary Trigger, Chief Executive Officer, SGA.

Bolin Bolin Gallery at Bulleen Art & Garden
6 Manningham Rd W., Bulleen. 98505155.
www.baag.com.au

SGA (Sustainable Gardening Australia) is a not-for-profit, non-government organisation whose mission is to promote the benefits of sustainable horticulture. (For more information about this ground breaking organisation and gardening sustainably go to http://www.sgaonline.org.au/).
Funds will be raised by donating Bulleen Art & Garden’s normal commission to SGA; small artist contribution donated to SGA (which would cover exhibition & opening costs which will be met by BAG); and sundry other donations.

The Gallery

The exhibition will be held in the Bolin Bolin Gallery at Bulleen Art & Garden, 6 Manningham Rd West, Bulleen. (For more information about Bulleen Art & Garden, go to http://www.baag.com.au/ or www.baag.com.au/gallery/)

Buttons galore

It's a cold wintry day and I've been out with my umbrella and scarf to my local wool shop to buy more buttons for the fingerless mittens I've been knitting. It puts me in a reflective mood about buttons, and how many of us love to collect buttons.

We almost always have permission to collect buttons..."they'll always come in handy", and, they do. My collection resides in a tin box and there is something very satisfying about poking about through the button box, jar, or, even better, someone elses.

Op shops have wonderful collections, saying as much about the source - the dressmaker, the former shop owner - as well as the people who come to find their own treasures. Some colours can be strangely scarce and finding really large buttons a challenge.

There is also the current trend of lots of young designers using buttons, I'm thinking particularly of the jewellery that is appearing at markets and places like In.cube8tr. I love their creative use of such a simple thing.

I've just remembered this article in an old copy of the magazine 'Piecework', (Nov/Dec 2006). Wouldn't you like these, there is a pattern to make one.

And that reminds me of one of my favourite shops: Buttonmania in the Nicholas Building in the city.

The only drawback with my buttons, is now I have to sew some on!

Judging at the Show

I spent yesterday morning judging the woolcraft for the Dandenong Show. I went out there last year and it was delightful and was so again. They managed to double the entries from the last show and the quality also improved with some really good entries, and a few really difficult sections.


The CWA put on morning tea and lunch. Homemade scones, fresh local asparagus, etc. etc. I also had a look around the main craft display, I always love the cake competitions.

It is really surprising that the show exists, being, as I see it, in suburbia. I am wrong, of course, it really borders the city, as do the Whittlesea and now Berwick shows. This years has been diminished a little, as there will be no horses because of the equine flu, but these are well worth go to see.


Judging is always a nerve-wrecking effort, as you really don't want to make a mistake or upset anyone. One of the ideas I've thought about is that I really want to give prizes. I think this encourages the people who have entered, and hopefully, encourages others to enter. So there always is a winner. I'd love to do Dandenong again.




Textile pictures


I am also trying to finish off as many articles for my stall on Sunday. As you can see the textile pictures are coming along. I'm quite happy with them, but they are quite different from the first trio.


I also managed to get my buttons from Buttonmania in the city. It's always a pleasure going in to her shop and browsing through buttons with their expert help. I paid too much for one button, but it is beautiful.


She's having a sale from 26/11/07 till 1/12/07. She sells her buttons on sale BY WEIGHT. Apparently the black go really quickly. If I can I'm going!


NOTES: Dandenong Show. 10th & 11th November, 2007. Showgrounds. Bennet St. Dandenong
http://www.dandyshow.com.au/
Buttonmania. 2/37 Swanston St. Melbourne Vic.