Stitches

Alchemy

helen — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 19:16:58 +0000

Take some of these:

Hibiscus flowers

Add a little water:

Wait, for the magic to happen, cook with yarn…

A beautiful short film

helen — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 22:21:03 +0000

Featuring my home town in the UK. Wonderful photography by Stephen Banks.

Dye studio…

helen — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 01:14:12 +0000

Well, it could be the new tagline for my basement. Why not?

If you are on Pinterest, click the yarn pic below:

Now we’re cooking!

helen — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 21:56:28 +0000

It’s well below zero degrees (C) outside here in Canada so spending time indoors is a pretty attractive option. Aside from shovelling snow and having fun with sleds, things have been going on in my kitchen…

Experiments that involve yarn, cabbages and onions. The preliminary results are above! (Onions win, hands down.)

I plan to post more details about how you can do this yourself once I’ve done some further tests with my friend and fellow yarn-addict, Victoria. We are having a lot of fun with this, and with our plans for the yarn once we have dyed it. There’s a lot to learn and many other things to try. We’re also finding out more about our local resources and networks of experienced people.

We are bursting with ideas about how to develop this online Stitches Studio space, too. Can’t wait!

Resources:

I’ve been getting inspiration from Harvesting Color: Making Your Own Natural Dyes, which is really worth a read if you are interested in either the process or the history and environmental practices of natural dyeing in North America.

Great minds think alike?

helen — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 22:45:45 +0000

Have you ever had what seemed like an original idea…
Only to find that very shortly afterwards, someone else came up with something SPOOKILY close to what you had envisioned?

I’ve just had that experience with these socks:

The colour, the broderie stitch, maybe not the wavy up and down patterns.
But still. Weird.

I’m still going to make some soon to test my idea – but it no longer feels ‘experimental’. I hadn’t seen that particular lace stitch on a sock before. Now I know it’s ‘out there’. And I think it looks great, by the way!

There are lots of other fabulous designs at the Twist Collective website, too - don’t forget to check out their archive.

Incredible crochet

helen — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 00:14:08 +0000

This incredible video by Nick Hand shows Shauna Richardson making enormous animal sculptures with nothing more than a crochet hook and a mountain of yarn.

If you have ever thought your knitting or crochet project was taking forever to finish, this will put it into perspective!

Shauna Richardson: Crochetdermy from Nick Hand on Vimeo.

Thanks to Victoria Raddings Kroh for showing me this!

A new year, a birthday and silver linings

helen — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 03:28:35 +0000

Today was my birthday.
I am very much looking forward to the coming year.
And to be honest, I’m glad to put this last year behind me.
I spent a large part of this last year being treated for cancer, and finding out what it feels like to be weak, sick and limited.

But I don’t really want to dwell on my illness. I’m grateful to be here. And I’m literally here, blogging on my website, to a large extent about knitting, as a side effect of my illness.

I’ve always loved textiles and design, but my career and life path didn’t end up going in that direction. From making all kinds of fabric and knitted creations as a child and teen, I barely made anything at all in these media as an adult. I was just too busy with my day job, or raising children.

When I became ill, I was just too sick to look after the kids or do much work, most of the time. I also found it very hard to do anything mentally challenging, and got tired a lot.

What I did find I could do was knit. So I pretty much knitted constantly for months, teaching myself to make hats, entrelac, cables, socks, short rows, and recently, fair isle colourwork, all of which were new to me.

I may have temporarily lost my health, but I gained new skills. Now my health is improving, and I’ve started designing some of my own knitwear as well as following more challenging patterns.

So that’s my silver lining.

I would not wish upon anyone the illness I have had.
But I do wish for you that this year you find as much time as you can to do something you really enjoy. Whatever difficulties you face, I hope there are silver linings.

So happy birthday to me, and a very Happy New Year to all of you. Make it count

Fear isle

helen — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 06:36:01 +0000

I confess I got quite put off doing knitting in multi-colours. It started with a fiddly Debbie Bliss tea cosy- the pattern was an irregular tartan in two colours, and I chose completely the wrong yarn. It was very fuzzy, black and red, and I soon loathed it. I finished one side of the cosy and gave up,resigning it to the project graveyard.

That didn’t stop me looking longingly at Fair Isle patterns or pondering a bit of intarsia. But I didn’t take the plunge. Too complicated, too fiddly, no fun.

Well until this weekend. I wanted a break from cables or lace, I had already knitted a plain, unembellished sock for one of my kids. Then I came across a simple sock pattern with a heart motif. I decided to face my fear of the Fair Isle.

This time I had the right (sock) yarn and the right needles. And possibly more patience and willingness to unpick mistakes. I admit I did snap one of the bamboo needles in half by accident and have to dash out and buy a new set. But other than that, I really enjoyed the project.

One sock down, one to go. And once I’ve done that, I have my eye on a Fair Isle cardigan project for the New Year…

Knitting up a storm

helen — Sun, 04 Dec 2011 23:21:45 +0000

Well I’ve not been enjoying having a rotten cold this week. But I have been doing well with my completion project.

Here are a few recent finished items:

Gauntlets – my own design

A ‘wurm’ hat for someone’s Christmas gift…

This one is inspired by Maeve, a feisty character created by Elizabeth Cunningham. She has recently released ‘the Red Robed Priestess,’ the fourth and final installment in Maeve’s journey that takes her back to The Isle of Mona (Anglesey) where she began training as a druid, but was kicked out. This is a hat for the young Maeve in Druid uniform green to keep out the Welsh wind (and drizzle) while she hangs out in the sacred groves.

Master knitter

helen — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 00:51:29 +0000

The East Side Culture Crawl in Vancouver was certainly an eye opener. I realised that the area around Prior Street near Commercial was something of a hub for artists, having commissioned work from a jeweller there previously and seen the number of studios operating. But once the doors of all the little studios, some in private homes or one-room studios off the street, and others housed together in old industrial buildings, were open, the true scale of the event became apparent.

This lovely shawl is by master knitter Julie Pongrac, one of the artists working at 1000 Parker Studios. We were blown away by her fine work and attention to detail. Little cable twists had gemstones nestling in them; she knew the name of each sheep she had taken yarn from to spin, and then showed us the subtle differences in colour. As well as shawls and mittens, she had also created some interesting bowls made from stiffened knitwear. Some further images of her work can be found here.

I went with my friend and fellow knitter Victoria. We both left completely bursting with ideas and inspiration, from artists, sculptors, milliners, jewellers, and many others. Other highlights? A shaman’s closet filled with animal bones, incredible bronzes and a range of very tempting buttons…

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:1000 Parker, Vancouver