Irish Harp by BeAlice

I am trying not to buy more kits, but was recently seduced by an Irish Harp by Be Alice.  Her kits can be ordered as part of an annual subscription or purchased individually. The harp caught my eye and I ordered it. Since finishing the longer knitting projects, I've been ticking off these shorter embroidery projects to avoid adding to my stash.

The design was beautifully printed (maybe bleached?) into the fabric, making it easy to see.The instructions were very clear and would, I think, work for someone with little experience.

I really enjoyed working it.

 

Once finished, I tested out mounting it in a green hoop, but rejected that.  Instead, I found a piece of batik and backed the whole piece, folded in the corners and added a zip to form a bag.

I embroidered over the seams, using fly stitch on the narrow gap and closter blocks on the wider one. I didn't like the look of these, so went over the top of them with fly stitch.

That seemed to work well.

As  final touch, I ordered a shamrock token to make the zip easier to open and close. It arrived today.  

       

It needs another good iron, before being put to good service as a gift bag.

Floe, the happy penguin.

On the cover of Inspirations 123 , Floe, the Fairy Penguin captured me immediately.  I loved the concept, the embroidery, and the felt medium. I also have a friend who loves penguins. I bought the kit. Once my major knitting projects were completed I decided to treat myself to making it. 

Carolyn Stanton, the designer, has an Etsy shop, with lots of felt projects. This one, however is only available through Inspirations.

Cutting out was fairly straightforward. The instructions for transferring the design seemed to me unnecessarily complicated, so I copied the pattern markings by hand, using lead pencil on the white and chalk pencil on the black. I had, of course, to either work fast or keep renewing the pencil marks on felt, but a combination of both worked well.

There is a variety of threads, including several different wools and silks. Getting the right one for each stitch kept me focused.  (Would it matter? Not sure.)

The trickiest part was getting the curves right while stitching it together.  

      

Without a beak and flippers it took on a slightly sinister look which I could only pray would disappear when finished.

The stuffing, however, had to come first.  I decided against the recommended filling of either rice or oven-hardened beans. I figured the chance of a doorstop getting wet was too high, so bought a bag of stones from Bunnings. These went neatly into the base in the kit-included cotton bag. Filling the upper body to make it firm took a significant amount of wool fibre stuffing, but worked the required magic on the shape as I stitched over the back join (not in the recommended colour!)

I am delighted with the result. 

As I had hoped, the beak and flippers turned it immediately into a recognisable penguin. 

Floe emerged in all her splendour, with plenty of personality and anxious to get to her real home.

She didn't  fit into any of the standard Australia Post boxes, but I had one that had already travelled the world and packed her in using bits of bubblewrap, shredding, tissue and paper bags. She travelled overnight and reached her new home this morning.

She is already at home and welcome. My friend refuses to put her on the floor and she has found her new niche at eye level.

I really enjoyed the challenge, both stitching and construction. It isn't a project I would recommend to an embroidery beginner, unless in a class or group with help, but with a bit of experience it is a really satisfying project.

I'm glad I went with the Floe.

Another bag trio

This week I returned to embroidering a couple of flowers on Ink and Spindle Black Cockatoo linen that I had set aside while working on a couple of major gift projects. The linen was already cut for a bag, and I had begun embroidering a couple of the flowers using bullion knots in perle 5 cotton to add a touch of dimension. I finished the two bullion knot flowers and added one in straight stitch. The back of the bag uses the same fabric but is left without embroidery.

I had another two panels in the flannel flower print, already embroidered and awaiting construction into a tote, as well as another length of fabric set aside with a Nicola Jarvis bird I had embroidered several years ago, so I spent a few hours ironing and cutting out lining, sides and bases to make up the three bags.  

The two sets for embroidered totes made up fairly easily over a couple of days once I put my mind and machine to it.

The grevillea print was trickier. I try to work with the shape and orientation of the fabric and this piece suggested a horizontal orientation, so I worked on a folio-style bag with a zip along the opening. 

As usual, I was working it out as I went along, and intending to attach a shoulder strap across the top, but realised, after I had stitched the zip to the outer layer, that it would need handles in the centre as well, so they had to be added. This also meant it would be better if the shoulder strap could be kept inside the bag until needed, but that could only work with the bag unzipped.  

The shoulder strap was, at this point, in two pieces, waiting to be joined. 

It occurred to me that if the shoulder strap clipped together in the centre, the two pieces could be tucked down their respective sides of the bag, so I made a trip to Spotlight for a clip to join the two ends, rather than stitch them together as I originally intended. 

At the tab end of the zip, the strap can be tucked in the open bag. 

At the other end I made a gusset, so the strap is tucked between the lining and the outer layer. It’s a somewhat strange solution I admit.

In addition, the bag is not entirely symmetrical - an unintended consequence of my work-it-out-as-I-go approach. It is 41cm wide and 30cm high in the centre, but with a 2cm discrepancy at the side edges.

It is, however, sturdy and will hold a fair bit - certainly a towel and beach equipment, artist equipment, or even overnight travel needs. It was fun to experiment. As I learned while doing Barbara Mullan’s Design Online Course, I fall into the design-as-you-go rather than design-it-in-advance group and that's OK.

These three add to my growing pile of tote gift bags - and I have fabric for more. I now have the zipped bag, seven embroidered linen tote bags and three printed tote bags awaiting homes. I have linen for at least another six, probably more. Better, I think, give tote bags a rest for a while.

Pulled Thread Whitework Class

 I have just constructed this bag from Carol Stacey's Whitework Pulled Thread class that I attended at the Guild over the last two Sundays.  I had selected a piece of green silk as lining, but it proved to be a bit short, so I used some rayon lining fabric I had been given by a dressmaker years ago. 

It was a lovely design - really elegant, with a lot of variety in both stitches and thread. I do like pulled thread work.

I chose to trace the pattern on to the linen using a pencil, which was probably a mistake. The lead was intrusive under the white thread. Although it washed out easily, it was a bit unpleasant to look at. I didn't, however, want to use my usual fine permanent marker with the white thread and chalk tends to wear off too quickly.

While the class was a really pleasant way to spend a couple of Sundays and I enjoyed the company, I found it very hard on both my back and my eyes. I used a seated hoop in order to have both hands free and to be able to bring the work up fairly close but even so, the work needs to be so close that I found myself having to bend my back while seated in the chairs in the Gallery at the Guild. 

After the first Sunday, when I stitched for several hours straight, I went home with a very sore back and blurry eyes. At home, after a rest, I was able to get myself to a position where I could work on  it with a straight back, so I did as much of the work as I could at home, leaving only one leaf to finish the next Sunday. 

This worked well for me. I took breaks to stretch my back and rest my eyes, and left after lunch, with the work almost finished.

I blocked the finished piece to get rid of any remaining pencil. 

                                       

I constructed the bag very simply by backing the linen completely with the lining fabric, creating a gusset for the cord and stitching the whole piece together with a seam down the back. 

The twisted cord took a while, as I couldn't find my cord maker, and did it by hand. Of course, I found the cord maker an hour later!

Two tassels finished it off.

I'm delighted with the result and the bag will no doubt hold some jewellery, or a gift, or, more likely, the makings of another project!

Chaffinch kit from The Bluebird Company via Create in Stitch.

I had vowed not to buy another kit, but when Create in Stitch advertised this one in their 5 October newsletter I fell in love.  It was so beautiful. I could also see immediately what I would do with it.

I bought one. In order to keep my promise not to add to my stash, I began work on it as soon as I finished the Swedish hand towel.

The instructions were clear and precise, with good illustrations.  Although they suggested working the background first, I only did enough to see how it worked and moved on to the bird.

It was really interesting to stitch - a good variety of stitches, and never enough repetition to be boring.

The colours are so harmonious and calming. After the bird I returned to the background - fine for doing in front of television!

As I got towards the end, I had a class at the Guild, so went on a hunt on the trading table for a bamboo hoop I could use to frame and hang it, without using one of my working hoops. I found one, came home and finished off the stitching. 

This morning, before breakfast, I mounted the finished item in the trading table hoop. It took a bit of manipulating and tugging to get it tight enough. 

I then found another Guild treasure, a piece of cloth dyed by Guild members for an exhibition challenge a couple of years ago. It was the best colour blend in my stash for backing the hoop frame.

It was a little tricky stitching the backing on, but a lot of pins helped.

It is now hanging on my front door, along with the two other pieces that have been there for a year or two. My neighbours are supportive.

It's been an uplifting project to work on - some challenges, but calming and joyful. I recommend it - for learning, for stitching satisfaction and joy.

I have not provided detailed photos of my work on this one in order to preserve copyright.  My photos show no more than the promotional photos of the kit show. 

When I published this blog post, Create in Stitch still had the kit in stock. I'm sure it's available from other retailers, as well as the Bluebird Company itself.

Swedish Weaving: Hand Towels

Wanting a break from my knitting, I turned to the 

Stjärnljus 

pattern in The Handpicked Collection 3. 

I dug out a piece of Huckaback towelling I had in my stash. I have a couple of large pieces of Huckaback, but an oddment of white, cut in half and hemmed, made 2 decent size hand towels, slightly wider and shorter than the one in the illustration but quite serviceable. 

I also had plenty of green DMC Perle 5 cotton, and chose 3 with consecutive numbers, not the same as in the pattern, but close enough. 

Swedish weaving is hugely pleasing to do - rhythmic, quick, geometric and restful. The hardest bit is working out where to start. I started the first one a bit lower than I needed to. That's not a problem, but I corrected that in the second one. It's quite a clever pattern, maximising the run you can do with each colour,while providing a dimensional effect.

I worked the 2 towels over 2 days. I made a few mistakes, undoing them before I got too far. I also cheated a bit after miscalculating the centre of the first one (by about 2 stitches, small, but enough to show).I added tape tabs so they can be hung from hooks if required.

I use hand towels a lot so these may end up in my guest bathroom if I don't find another home for them. They do, however, make very good gifts.

The first embroidery project I ever did (as far as I can remember) was a Huck hand towel in Grade 3 at school. I still have it (not, admittedly, in daily use). It’s smaller than the current ones, and, in spite of soaking and washing, stained.

It's a bit of a testimony to that NSW sewing curriculum (every Grade 3 girl in the State was making the same towel, with a choice of thread colour) that I am still making huck towels. Today’s are a good deal more interesting and attractive than the first one. That's a good thing  nearly 70 years on!

So, refreshed, I'm happy to return to knitting for a bit.

Leftover Uradale wool shawl

For the last two weeks I have been knitting up the wool left over from the Uradale version of this year's Shetland Wool Week hat. As I posted last month, the hat  used very little of the 5 balls of wool in the kit. Rather than knit more hats, I found a shawl pattern in Martha Waterman's Traditional Knitted Lace Shawl and adapted it.

Her 'garter lace triangular shawl' has alternate bands of simple lace and garter stitch.

I began trying out the pattern as written, intending to work it in stripes of the five colours, but decided pretty quickly that the texture wasn't right for the wool (left).

Instead of the garter stitch bands, I worked bands of stocking stitch with a simple Fair Isle pattern, no 56 from Mary Jane Mucklestone's 200 Fair Isle Designs.  I began with the darkest colour, and worked bands of pattern using each of the other four colours in turn between the lace. It seemed to work.

I then moved to the next darkest colour and repeated the process, increasing as indicated in the pattern.

This worked in so far as it rationed the wool nicely  but the similarity of three of the colours didn't make for great contrast. I nevertheless continued with the scheme. Subtlety isn't a bad thing, and this was, after all, an exercise in using leftover yarn.

Making it up as I went along, and with the best part of a full ball of the dark brown, I inserted a contrasting  band  between each background colour change.

I liked the effect, so continued, working each ball until it ran out.  I soon became concerned that the shawl would end up too long and narrow to drape comfortably over the shoulders

so I began to increase at the end of every row instead of every second row. I couldn't really tell on my needles whether this was working, but stuck with it.

Obviously, as the rows got longer, the colours would not cover as many rows, but the colour sequence largely worked, I finished with a couple of dark rows of lace and cast off with this the only left over wool. Maybe I could have managed one more row - but was not risking it.

I blocked it on my dining table, which is 1.5m x 1m, so my increases seem to have worked. It is a decent size for a shawl.

It took 36 hours to dry and smelled strongly of sheep while wet, even  washed in woolwash. I hope this doesn't persist when worn. I’m airing it outside for a while and will store it with lavender.

Both the shawl and the hat are up for grabs, for gifts or trading tables. 

I find it amusing that the leftover wool produced something much larger than the original hat! I'm pretty satisfied with the result. I have a substantial stash of wool, and do not want to add to it. 

I've had much joy in the making. This is also a versatile pattern that I'm sure I will use again.