I am a textile artist and this blog documents my work. I spin, knit, weave and anything else that adds to the unique nature of my work. From one-off yarns and scarves to sculpture, these all make up my practice.
Friday 7 November 2008
Mosaic knitting
I had leftover yarn from another project and decided to try some Mosaic knitting. It ended up being quite successful, with all that leftover yarn disappearing, there's now only a small ball of cream left and just enough yellow to go into the compost bin, a fine effort!
I did try this stitch at first thinking I would make a scarf, but, of course, the back is fairly unattractive. Making them into these fingerless mittens was just perfect. Using the fairisle idea of only changing one colour at a time ensured that the colours used in each one matched sufficiently to look purposeful, even though the original colours were not chosen to match each other.
Off to the guild today to 'work' in the library. A pleasurable pastime.
Thursday 6 November 2008
Another pair of socks
Wednesday 5 November 2008
Seaweed is endlessly fascinating
I hope you all had a successful flutter on the Melbourne Cup. Two of the four of us managed to pick 2nd and 3rd place getters. Good luck to you if you picked Viewed.
We usually spend the long weekend at the beach, this time managing to get down on Sunday afternoon and staying till Tuesday afternoon. It's always a relaxing atmosphere and I always wonder how to maintain the feeling when I get back to Melbourne..????
Anyway, this was another chance to add to the seaweed collection. Not many different types, though I always love the colours and forms of those I found. A new discovery was, don't do this when walking with someone else...."I thought we were walking.."......"We are, I'm just stopping to take photos...."
Saturday afternoon was Experimental Spinning and we spun with cotton, wrapping it around a core. I love cotton, having spun it a few times. It is challenging because it is such a short fibre, but creating punis (mini-rolags using your hand-carder) or using a core, as we did, makes spinning so much easier. Ginned cotton has a very satisfying texture, being full of lumps and bumps. (Question: I do wonder how cotton is processed to remove these?) The resulting yarn is beautiful and soft.
Off to SnB today, yes, we couldn't miss it for a week!
Tuesday 28 October 2008
What is the name for a group of UFO's?
I'm not talking about the individual UFO's out there. You know....start off knitting that jumper for a significant other, or, in my case, for me, and then you realise that there isn't time in the day for it, if everything else is going to happen, or it's just not working and eventually you'll have to do something....
No, I'm talking about all those, 'gees, that's a good idea, I'll just try that...'. Doesn't matter that they seem to increase daily, or that the deadline to finish something looms. No you'll just have to try it and see.......and before you know it you have....
A great idea for using up those leftover yarns. Just do a little mosaic pattern and change when you run out of yarn, just like in fairisle. Oh, they'll look good as fingerless mittens.
Or, I can't take needles on the airplane, so I'll crochet a background for the crochet and weaving sample. (Yes, Australia is in the dark ages...they took my nailfile!) Maybe that will make an interesting scarf. I do have some lovely yarns to weave.
Or, maybe I'll make another knot scarf with this knot yarn. Oh gee, it's not quite working, so I'll make a reversible lace scarf, but now it needs blocking......WHEN IT'S FINISHED!