Overlay Crochet

Hi, Pat checking in here.  Nice post on blocking Marie, I have to block some pieces and yours are an inspiration.  I have been playing around with what is, for me, a new crochet technique, Overlay crochet and making some pieces from Crochet overlay jewelry by Melody MacDuffee.  She works with a size 14 needle and sewing thread, way to small for me so I moved up to a size 10 steel hook and size 8 cotton crochet thread.  The pieces are very dense and textural and I love the process.

 

Above is a little purse, the strap is all the colors crocheted together.  The fringe is from the Beaded Edge by Midori Nishida with coral drops. The closure is a vintage flower and a loop. It is about 3 1/2 inches square without the fringe.

 

 This is the front and back of a little bag that is about 3 inches square.  It too has a crocheted beaded fringe (with sandstone), vintage buttons and a small wrist strap.  The wrist strap is beaded and I am working on a longer necklace length so that the straps can be interchangeable. The back is just a square design with no overlay.

 



 

 

This is my favorite so far, it is the back and front of a potential bag that has not yet been assembled.  I have some great orange beads and grey beads that I am hoping to use, it reminds me of fire.

Melody also does cabochons, I adapted the idea to encompass rocks.  these were a couple I had picked up in Terra Lingua TX (outside of Big Bend).  The samples below I bought while shopping with a friend and browsing in a rock shop.

Overlay is fun but I can only do it for a few hours in the morning while I am awake and alert enough to figure it out.  Now I have to work on creating some of my own patterns, I want to do some mandalas. 

 

I took an on-line Craftsy course in knitting lace that included instructions for blocking.  I found this part incredibly fascinating and therefore am posting photos of the process from my second lace scarf.
This first photo is the unblocked scarf with kitchen twine laced around the perimeter.  This is used for stabilizing the yarn when it is stretched.

The four corners are stretched and pinned...

Then each section is bisected to smaller and smaller sections...

Until it is completely pinned.  Then you let it dry

I purchased a Craftsy web-based class on lace knitting.  A swatch of the final project was knitted using a multicolor yarn and the knitted lace end was photographed in process to show how the lace edge is added by incorporating it while binding off the end.  The lace edging grows perpendicular to the body of the scarf.

Using Manos del Uruguay FINO yarn in Amethyst Earring and size 4 needles the provisional cast on was performed using blue cotton yarn in one instance and a circular needle in another instance.  I love the idea of using the circular needle so that the provisional cast on stitches are ready to be knit without taking any additional steps.

After  blocking, by soaking the completed scarf and pinning it to stretch it out, and weaving in the ends after blocking (so that the woven ends don't impede stretching of the scarf), behold the final product!

Knitted Mittens - First Try

Knitted my first pair of mittens using Filatura Lanarota Kaleidoscope 100% extra fine Merino Wool (50 grams = 65 meters; color 009) on US size 8 needles.   In the last photo, the top mitten was just completed and the bottom mitten had been soaked in cold water to full the fibers.  The water soaking seemed to stretch the mitten out.  They may need some light felting but they feel oh so nice!

Wear Your Art - The White Jacket

this is the beginning of the white jacket.  First I printed the designs on paper.  Then I traced the lapel and pockets.  I used the tracing to make a mask - something to look through and audition the prints, and the cutting pattern (including seam lines).  I cut the paper and pin it on the jacket to see how it looks.

Tracing the lapel and figuring out seams and how to piece it

Auditioning the print

The design



The jacket with paper pinned to the pocket

 

Next step cutting and piecing the lapel and pocket.

Wear Your Own Art

We have spent the summer in the Santa Cruz area, Watsonville to be exact, awaiting the birth of our granddaughter and holding her, cuddling her and just loving her after her birth.  Oh yes, we also kept feeding the parents.  We also have friends in Aptos and this post is about a project I am doing with my friend Robin.  Robin has made some glorious Zentangle designs (kind of like doodling but on steroids) and she likes to wear artistic things.  She especially likes suit jackets, her favorite is getting to big as Robin has been loosing weight (you go girl).  So, we decided to decorate another jacket, I decided that we should use Robin's art rather than just find fabric.  Robin sent me some designs and I printed them on fabric.  Then I made a Lapel, pocket flap and some pins.

 

this is the jacket with artful additions

Her is a close up of the lapels and pins

Robin wearing the Jacket - we still have to change the buttons

 

Robin's Zentangle design

 

 



We had such a good time "co-creating art" that several things have happened.  I am going to do another jacket, a white jacket using black and white designs.  I will post some "in process" pictures in the next post.  I also went to Spoonflower.com OMG - you can design and create your own fabric and have it printed and shipped.  So of course I ordered a yard of one design, no I did not order a swatch I was to eager to see the full yard.  It will be coming soon.

Now I need to learn to edit the designs, I need to get the swatch book of the types of fabrics and I need to order some swatches of the other designs.  Limiting myself to 8 1/2 x11 size sheets is just to hard as I have to piece things together.  We would like to laminate some of the fabric and make wonderful tote bags.  More on the white jacket tomorrow.  As Robin says:
Edit it
Print it on fabric
Glitter it (Robin the glitter girl, glittered the hearts)
Laminate it
Make Stuff

More Felting adventures

Corrections for the Chameleon bracelet are in the April 2,2013 post; the free ribbon cuff is on the February 16,2013 post.

I went to NJ for my mom's 90th birthday in March.  We had a great time, a party for Mom, visiting relatives and friends, a little yarn shopping.  One of my friends took us to NYC to see a play.  We had a great time, thank you Cheryl.

My sister and I have been felting, or to be more accurate, fulling.  She knits, I crochet, we have been working on some things and when we got together at my mom's we felted them.  Marie has been doing these wonderful big baskets - they work great as cat beds and she made one for her yarn.  We also did some baskets, bowls and vases.  We did learn that the felting worked better after I had run several loads of wash.  The hot water was much hotter and it made a difference in the felting.  Here are some of our projects.

Marie's basket before felting

Same basket after one washing; you can still see the stitches

 

Same basket after a second wash in hotter water;

much more blending and it is stiffer

 

 

This is a moebius basket that works well as a cat basket;

the design has been cat tested!

 

 

Marie's bowl and a moebius basket

 

Pat's two vases (crocheted), same pattern (different rim) same yarn;
the second one is MUCH smaller, it was washed in hotter water
and it is much stiffer 

First vase with a glass vase and flowers in it

Pat's crocheted moss basket or nest.  Wool yarn with acrylic green fluffy stuff;
I want to wash it again

As you can see we got quite a bit done.  Part of the shopping was at a small yarn shop, I found lots of yarn on sale to make Guardian's of the Forest.  These will be soft and semisoft crocheted and fabric sculptures inspired by some pictures we took while walking the celery farm.  You know how you can see shapes in the clouds?  Well you can see faces in the forest.  We are calling them guardians and I have started work on them.  I will post when I get a few more done.