progress on ALL THE THINGS

in which our plucky heroine ramps up her handicraft efforts on at least some of ALL THE THINGS

Beginning on the 2016 SWAP online sewing challenge, I'm almost done cutting out the first dress. I found some cross dyed black/brown cotton linen blend, which will work perfectly for one of the two garments in the "Colorway A + B" section of this year's plan. My original idea was to simply use this fabric and edgebind it in black. While I normally discard selvedges, one side of the fabric had this taupe fringe and blue edging. I will be adding this as part of the hemline decoration, along with the black edge binding...

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Years and years ago (back in the 80’s) I made wooly socks for my whole family to wear like slippers. New England had cold winters then. My folks are currently in the middle of decluttering (just like I am), and the socks I had made for my Dad turned up and were sent back to me for refurbishing. I decided that instead of simply re-doing the bottom half of the socks, I’d instead try out the Duffers Revisited pattern, make some hopefully dense felted slippers, attach the top half of the original socks to them to create slipper socks, and then sew non-slip to the bottoms.

The "Duffers" knitting pattern does go really fast, as I’m about 3/4 the way through after only two days of spare time random knitting. A bit worried about the felting part though, since the washer here is a front loader.

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Another holiday needlebook commission, this one based on trillium flowers. I love making custom sewing box treats, particularly needle books and pin cushions...

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the initial sketch, and the finished needle book
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"wintery mix"... doesn't that sound like something you could buy in the bulk bins at the grocery store? or from a candy shop?... Why is it then falling from the sky instead??

later Sunday, our "wintery mix" turns to actual snow...


Boneclaw Mother and Nanny Og, in the first snow since they were born.
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My dear friend SR in the dress that I decorated with reverse applique (Alabama Chanin style). The project took months of my spare time, but I will say that the results really suit her. And fortunately the weather had been cooperatively (and uncharacteristically) dry for a few days, so she was able to have another friend take and send me this picture

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December SMART goals

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	charter painted	plinth casters	bag to Goodwill
2	fabrics keyring	shed door rings	bag to Goodwill
3	Elizabethan shirt	garlic planted	-
4	party cookery	flowerbulbs planted	-
5	reverse applique RTW dress	salad table planted	-
6	Elizabethan shift	squirrelproofing	-
7	trillium needlebook	-	-
8	-	-	-
9	-	-	-
10	-	-	-
11	-	-	-
12	-	-	-

custom pet portrait in felt and wool

Before the holiday, but after my kitty face needlebooks were up for adoption, I was asked about doing a custom portrait of this dapper chap, intended as a sachet and ornament... I couldn't show the finished piece, as it was a surprise gift, but I did mention it briefly in this post on brindle brindle brindle

My initial sketch of the front of ornament: about 3 1/3 wide, base layers of felt brown and black, with wispy black needlefelted wool overlay on the brown to simulate brindle color, embroidered mouth and nose, button eyes

back of ornament brown with embroidered curly tail on overlaid pocket to hold potpourri...

Ears and tail finished, layers stitched together... all he needs is an ornament hanger...

and... the rear view... curly tail and a pocket for a potpourri sachet

brindle brindle brindle

...'tis one of our plucky heroine's very favorite colorways for critters...

While cannot show the entire piece yet, (as it is a commissioned holiday surprise gift for someone), these ears and forehead show how by using needlefelting techniques, was able to get this sort of detailing on a needle book, intended to represent the brindle fur of a beloved pet... am thinking that it would also work well for tiger stripes!

(I love making things for folks that they cannot find elsewhere, and custom needlebooks, or holiday ornaments are a nice way to both support your local artist and give someone a special treat - prices start at $35)

circled squares

I’m calling this done, my pattern-testing knit project… I love the shape, (a lovely round-bellied urn), and the color choices that I made worked out well. The pattern was clearly written and easy to follow, and the knitting was intriguing without being frustrating. I am quite happily surprised at the nice large size that the bag turned out to be, at about 12” x 13” it will make a nice purse or knitting project bag. The base of the bag is particularly well designed, and the Lanaloft that I used for that part made a very sturdy felt.

A side view of the base of the bag,
clearly showing the triangles of unfelted knitting (bronzy-green salvaged single-ply),
and the great shaping of the "foot" created by the knitted-in tuck

The only difficulty I had was that not all the yarn felted evenly, and (despite my best efforts) neither the washing machine or hand felting, or boiling! in soapy water was able to get the Noro or the salvaged single-ply yarn to felt, while the other yarns felted very quickly, and my attempts to get the recalcitrant yarn to cooperate made the already felted parts rather too solid.

I learned two new techniques while making this bag. The foot of the bag has added shaping by a kind of knitted tuck, which seems like an excellent addition to any future knit and felted bag projects. Also the instructions for making the twisted cord used for the bag handles are so much easier than the way I did such things before.

the bag from the top down, with a glimpse of the twisted cord drawstring-handles

I'll most probably make this bag again; I can envision it in a number of different colorways, and it'd be fun to try it in a sport or fingering yarn, for a smaller "bag of holding" I used eight different colors of yarn, all worsted weight, and my recommendation for the future is to be certain that the chosen yarns are ones that felt at the same rate more or less.

Here is what the bag looked like before felting:

before felting, about 16" x 16"

machine felting dilemma

For my test knitting felted bag project, I used several different all wool yarn “leftovers” from my stash. I wove all the ends in while I was riding the bus home from work yesterday. Last night I put the bag in the washer to start the felting process…

The different yarns are felting at very different rates: the Taos and the Lanaloft are really quick, already looking quite solid, but the Noro is barely felted; the checkerboard sections are much more felted than the garter stitch rows. I didn’t think to do a set of preliminary swatches to see if they would all felt the same, since they were all 100% non-superwash wool. I’m going to run it through the washer again today after work, and hopefully that will help. If it doesn't, I can always either line the bag, or add on some kind of felty decoration over the unfelted areas.

The bag already has a great shape, and I will certainly knit a second one (probably using all the same brand of yarn, rather than stash scraps) The technique of knitting in a welt before knitting the bottom of the bag really helps define the shape.