Earring Organiser - no stitching required

I have been stitching. I'm a few days away from finishing the Christine Bishop Pulled Work Mat and will report on it within a week. I did, however, get carried away with another madwoman project on Saturday, and in the end it didn't require stitching.

Before I moved to the apartment where I now live, my earrings were stored on the inside of a cupboard door. The cupboard was an old one, made of boards. The doors were braced on the inside with horizontal wooden strips at the top and bottom. By tacking a piece of cotton fabric to these strips, stretching it between, I had a surface into which I could hook earrings. It was convenient and easy.

The cupboard was too big for my apartment, so I lost the earring hanger.

In the meantime, I bought an earring 'book' from the Innovations Catalogue. It worked OK for stud earrings, but was a messy solution for hooks, especially if the earrings had any length. It makes choosing earrings a chore. These days I don't wear earrings every day, but the effort of finding what I want is a disincentive, so I stick to a few I keep in a box near my bed.

 Early last week, when picking up a newly framed photo, I began to wonder if a frame would work in the same way as my old cupboard door. I got to considering whether I had anything I could adapt and came up with a scroll frame. It was for a particular project and I haven't used it since. I put it aside to think about and to look for fabric.

On Saturday morning, the Create in Stitch email advertised a shipment of stretcher frames (photo right from their email). I had rejected the one I have as being too small for the earring project, but the email indicated the shop now had stretcher bars up to 26". Wow! I headed straight there after my supermarket shopping.

In fact, they had them up to 28"! I came home with a set and got to work.

A hunt through my stash came up with a limited number of fabric pieces big enough. I found an accessible place I could hang it  on my bedroom wall, below a painting Brigid had done around 10 years ago. I rejected bright flowery prints and a dark green linen in favour of a pale, dusty pink double damask that complemented the painting.    

I haven’t used my staple gun for several years, but it was loaded with staples. I managed to staple one side, then pull the fabric tight, one side at a time, stapling the fabric to the inside of the stretcher, all without stapling my fingers. It took a while, and was tiring, but successful. 

I found a long braid I made in a lucet workshop and attached it under Brigid’s painting,  to the same hook. It hung well below the painting. I used a hook to attach the frame to the braid. My original thought was to stitch it, but Create in Stitch suggested a hook, and it worked.

Pretty well, I thought. 

Next was the hunt for my earrings. Many were in the earring book, but others had strayed. When I found them I sorted them. A few singles went into my oddments tin to use as embellishments or cord stoppers. I have a small box of pairs to be mended: a job for Beads on Parade    

 The remainder I added to the hanging frame. I kept back a  few small studs and hoops as too fiddly. I’m not sure yet if I will keep these in the earring book, or in a jewellery box beside my bed.

I probably could have managed with smaller stretchers - 24" maybe - as I'm not planning on buying more earrings. It doesn't, however, look out of place. I like the way it has turned out. It seems fitting: useful and decorative. It remains to be seen if it works.

 

Canvas Stitches on Linen Madness

On the last Saturday in August I attended a Guild Certificate Workshop on Canvas Stitches on Linen taken by Margaret Adams. I worked on some 22 count Permin, rather looser weave than the samples most worked on. I felt a bit regretful when I saw the quite delicate pincushion results of others. I had also picked dramatic rather than gentle colours.

Margaret provided heaps of information and samples. Her design left plenty of room for improvising and personalising.

I was having a fine time playing with the stitches and kept going when I got home. I found it hard to put it down.

It brought back to mind my High School Maths end of year activity - what our teacher called 'mathematical sewing'. We drew geometric shapes on card, marked the outlines in pinpricks every 1/8", then used a needle and thread to stitch from one hole to another - straight lines creating curves. This is essentially what we were doing here on linen. 

This is roughly according to Margaret's sample.

I checked out books I have on Bargello, canvas work and tapestry to fill in around the sample stitches.

I didn't need a pincushion, and this was getting too big and too textured. Obviously it needed to become a bag.

I added another border to make it easier to back. At the same time I hunted through my stash for lining and backing fabric, coming up with a shiny synthetic and a little bit of red velvet.

I couldn't decide between them, so took them along to the Junior Embroiderer' Group on Saturday and asked their opinion. They were really helpful - and quite clear. The velvet should be used for the back and it should be lined in shiny pink.

It took me a couple of hours of ironing, measuring and testing to get this done, but I got there. I had originally intended to close it with a zip, but changed my mind and designed a flap and looped fastener - using a good luck charm given to me by the monk Jim used to meet with to practice English and learn Buddhism.   

The pouch is for two of my red necklaces.

It's not perfect - but it's finished, I've learnt a lot, it uses thread, fabric and decorations with memories, I like it a lot and it has a use. My kind of result.

Thanks Margaret and JEMS.

Banging on about Wrapping up a Wrap in the Round

This is another post that will be of interest only to the most hardened of knitting nerds, and it's long. Turn back now if this puts you off!

As I wrote in my blog post about the Vikkel hat, after my steeking success last year, I decided I would get a bit more practice. When this book appeared on my radar, I thought I'd give it a go. The 21 wraps employ steeks, enabling , for the most part, all work to be in knit stitches.

I bought some alpaca yarn from Adagio Mills - in three shades, two browns and a black. My idea was to work two-coloured shawls. I bought what I thought would be enough to make three shawls, and the three colours would give me six possible colour options.

I began with the black and lighter brown.

When I read the pattern, I decided the steek was an unnecessary complication, and began using the chart to knit back and forth. It didn't take long for me to realise that reading the chart from left to right for the purl rows was going to be slow and frustrating. I joined the work into the round and went with the steek after all.

The pattern had a 5 stitch steek. I increased it to 7 stitches to give myself leeway. In retrospect, not strictly necessary, but helpful.

It's an 8 stitch, 8 row pattern.  After a couple of repeats it was easy to remember.  Each row increases by 2 stitches until there are 452 stitches on the needle - slow progress.  

 

 

I didn't time my progress until there were around 340 stitches on the needle, by which time each row was taking 25 minutes. It isn't possible to keep a row counter on circular needles so I was counting rows up the steek with a goal of 200 rows. When I reached 173 rows I checked the pattern to discover the goal was 220 rows!    Knit faster woman!       

The alpaca knits beautifully and feels very good on the hands. It is quite dense in the two colour pattern, because of the yarn carried across the back. I am, fortunately a fairly loose knitter. It will stretch a little in blocking, but not much. I realised after about 100 rows that my yarn calculations were way out, so amended my plans. Rather than 3 shawls from the yarn, I will make 2 - and still require more yarn. I managed to order more of all 3 colours from Adagio Mill before they ran out. The dark colours run out quickly. In fact, the pattern needed even more.

                                          

Around  row 216 I measured the length and, (as much as I could on a circular needle) the breadth, to find, as I suspected, it was larger than the pattern's predicted size. I therefore called it quits, and proceeded to cut the steek. I ran a row of straight machine stitching either side of the central line in the steek and cut. It wasn't as scary as the first time!

The result was pleasing: a decent size triangle and straight edges.

A lot trickier was the process of picking up 320 stitches evenly around the two steeked edges.  

The circular needle, with 772 stitches, was crowded. I had further extenders, but needed more joiners. 

The border is 12 rows. It was only after picking up the stitches that I realised the pattern was using the sandwich method of completing the steek - that is, knitting a double border, picking up a second round of (another 772) stitches on the inside of the shawl, then sealing the two border strips together with an icord, encasing the join so it isn't seen, like binding the edge of a cushion with a cord.  I was not at all sure it was feasible to find the stitches to pick up between the floats on the back of the shawl. 

The more immediate problem was the tightness of the stitches on the circular needle. I needed more length, had only short extensions, and no joiners. A trip to the Yarn Trader gave me a 125cm extender and a couple of connectors. The resulting circle is huge - not quite the full length of the stitches, but workable. 

As I worked the 12 rows in rib, I considered my options for neatening, or hiding, the steek - an inner border, or just neaten the raw edge?

I liked the look of the underside of the single border. On the top working edge there was no steek, and the transition to the border was smooth. It seemed a shame to turn that easy transition into a double border, losing the look of the inner rib. 

My yarn calculations, once the outer border was complete, suggested that, even with the extra yarn I had ordered, I would not have enough yarn to complete an inner border but would just manage one around the two steek sides - without the icord. Furthermore, there was no more of the fawn yarn available. I ordered a ball of what looked like a similar colour in an alpaca/polwarth blend, but it was too light. 

So I cast off the single side with an icord, then knit an inner border on the two steeked sides. This meant knitting back and forth, purling on the back. I'm OK with that - it was easy, relaxed knitting.

I cut any excess loose threads from the steek edge. Even so, the fold was bulkier than I'd like. The folded edge inevitably has four layers of knitting which no amount of pressing or blocking will remove.

Once the inner border was finished, I hit another snag. The pattern instructions simply said 'join the two edges', gave icord instructions, assuming a single edge. As I had no intention of trying to slip 369 stitches from the inner circular needle one by one between the 369 stitches on the outer circular needle, I went looking for instructions for joining two edges together using an icord. I found a useful video that showed me how to begin with three cast-on stitches, then knit together three stitches, one from the cast-on, one from each edge. 

It is slow, demands concentration, but works.   I just had enough fawn yarn to finish the two edges, so the icord edge is black.

It needs to be worked with the wrong side facing, to get the corded edge on the right side ( upper edge in the photo above). On the wrong side it leaves a narrow gap with a running stitch effect.

Having come this far, I covered the gap by whipping over it.

To reduce the bulk over the steek, I reluctantly decided to run a row of machine stitching over it.  While part of me thinks this is a shame, it is firmer and much smoother.

I experimented with a number of embroidery stitches to work over the machine line, but rejected all of them in favour of allowing the machine stitches to sink unobtrusively into the knitting. I feel this is a bit of a compromise, but definitely the best option. 

I have no regrets about leaving the long edge as a single layer. I like the way it frills. I bought a magpie scarf pin from Scarf Pins and Rings to hold it together.

I considered blocking it on my hap stretcher. It would certainly fit. The hap stretcher, however, needs a repair to one of the screws, which I have been putting off.  

The shawl is  soft, light, and  cosy rather than lacy. I didn't want to lose any of the warmth and thickness by stretching it too far, so I blocked it on my dining table using a combination of blocking tiles and a polystyrene  board, deliberately giving it a scalloped edge along the single border.                   

After 36 hours I removed the blocking pins and hung it outside for a couple more, just to ensure it was dry.

Veronica modelled it for me on Saturday. 

I am really pleased with the drape and feel. 

My daughter should have it in Canberra today in the expectation there are a few weeks left this year when it will be cold enough to use it .

This has been a major learning exercise. There were times when I questioned my sanity. I think clearer instructions would  have helped. Nonetheless, I'm glad I figured it out, adapted and did it. I really like the shawl. I think it will bring pleasure and get used.  My first shawls were knitted from patterns in the Prayer Shawl movement. I try to practice contemplation and blessings in all my knitting now, but particularly shawls. Even the frustrations experienced couldn't take away the calm and peace that came with knitting it.

I guess that's why I'm about to cast on for the shawl shown on the cover of the book above using the remainder of the alpaca!

Mending celana oranye untuk bepergian

I last mended these cotton pants back in March 2021. They belong to a friend who bought them in Indonesia a number of years ago and used them as comfortable pants to wear when travelling (celana untuk bepergian) - particularly on planes. When they split, I offered to mend them, using patches of Indonesian batik, of which I have plenty. 

They are now patchwork pants and keeping them going has become an amusement, challenge and narrative. With another long flight coming up in a couple of months, my friend discovered yet another split.

Of course it's mendable, say I. 

I raided my container of cotton off-cuts for a suitable piece to reinforce the inside of the tear.

The tear was against a pocket. It didn't take much to undo one pocket edge to place the patch underneath.

I  zigzagged around on the outside, then stitched down the edges on the inside. This won't be seen.

I could then place a patch on the outside to cover the mend. This time I used a piece of Dancing Spirit Brown from the Aboriginal Fabric Gallery in Alice Springs. It fitted with the colour scheme, and seemed appropriate. 

I'm invoking protection for the wearer, rather than protection of the pants!

It was an easy matter to stitch the pocket back down.

So the pants can keep travelling, and protecting their wearer. There's a way to go before the orange disappears and the orange travel pants become batik travel pants. When that happens it will be time to introduce orange patches. 

Salamat Jalan!

Birthday Bag

Last week I turned my mind to a bag to use as wrapping for Katherine's birthday present. I went through my stash of printed linens and eventually settled on a remnant of Ink and Spindle's  Wrens in Bluestone. This gave me the scope to add some embroidery, in this case, leaves to the number of the birthday

I had an unexpected free day last Friday, so made the most of it embroidering leaves, as well as visiting Create in Stitch. As I had hoped, they had a zip that fitted the pouch I had in mind. They had also advertised some leaf and flower-cup sequins that I wanted to investigate.

I came away with the zip and a life-time supply of sequins.

Blue fairy wrens are mostly ground feeders, but their habitat is amongst flowering gums, as well as grasses. While the sequins don't have stamens like flowering gums, they do have the shape and approximate colour in the light, so I added the number of sequins to fit the birthday.

The next day I emptied my drawer of cotton print fabric. I had lost track of what was in there and past rummaging hadn't improved accessibility.

I found fabric soft enough to work with the linen and,  which was pleasantly associated with Katherine's childhood.

I then created the pouch using the cotton as lining. I did all of it on my machine, except for the turn at the end of the zip, which I finished by hand.

I usually stitch the lining to the zip by hand, but was feeling confident (as, of course, I should, given the number I have made!).

I added the year and our initials in one corner. I used the DMC Etoile for this, but would probably have been better off using linen thread given the amount of shaping required. It is, however, quite readable.

The result was fit for purpose, and appreciated.