Alt Tassels and Trims Workshop
The name of one of the classes I will be teaching at the Taos Wool Festival is Alternative Tassels and Trims.
Here are pics of two tassels I made with the alternative method I will teach in the workshop at Taos. Both of these have polymer clay tops, but our workshop tassels will have knitted or crocheted tops. However, the tassel skirt is made by the same method, using two or more strands of yarn–can be commercial or handspun. You can even string beads on a thread and spin those into the tassel.
This shows the commercial yarns I spun together to make the tassel above.
Please check back here late in July for more alternative tassel workshop samples.
Different Kind of Button Making
Tonight Charles and I made the last buttons of the year for our daughter Eva’s school. I think it’s more accurate to call them badges, but a lot of people refer to them as buttons. Either way, as diligent PTO members, we made hundreds of them this year for the teachers to give out as awards for perfect attendance, meeting math and reading goals, honor roll, and so on.
Though they take a while to make, and can sometimes be a real pain, I have mostly enjoyed this year’s project. I love to design the pictures. We use Badge-a-Minit button-design software, which comes with some okay clip art. I import copyright-free designs and digital photos. It is fun to make the designs, but it is even better to see them made into badges.
So this isn’t the usual knitting-related post, but the badge-making project has been a big part of our lives this year, and it is a craft project. I love making stuff!
KAL Motivation Working
The KnitRedKAL/Personal Red Cardigan Challenge is working! Last weekend, what with driving to Houston for 5-1/2 hours, driving around Houston, and visiting with my wonderful father-in-law, I racked up over 60 rows on the sleeve. And I have diligently done my three rows per day, all two days since we returned from our trip.
Now my big dilemma is whether to knit ahead for the five days I’m gone to Indiana for Camp Iwannaknit or bring it along with hopes of an even larger gain. Reliable sources have told me it’s okay to knit on planes again. If I don’t bring the red cardigan, I’ll bring yarn to knit samples for an exciting project, which I will reveal later.
I have had two occasions lately where I could have used those pre-made smiley, winking, etc. faces that come with Word Press. May have to upload them.
USM-ing in Nature
I set up my Ultimate Sweater Machine under the carport again today. Two-year-old Ella cooperated, and now I have three new swatches for my latest (and I do mean latest! ) INKnitters article.
Coats Moda Dea ‘Sassy Stripes’ yarn was a happy surprise. It is a long-repeat, variegated yarn, therefore the sassy stripes. I loved this color-way, with the pink and red and mottled gray stripes. It knitted like a dream with keyplate 2-dot. I’m contemplating a cardigan for nine-year-old Eva, or maybe even for myself with this color, called ‘Crush.’
By the time you see the sample in the magazine, it will be much changed. I’m writing about how to let variegated yarn inspire you to play, play, play.
Personal Red Cardigan Challenge
Ella is nearly two and a half years old. I started this cardigan before she was born. I want to finish it before next winter, so I joined KnitRedKAL to motivate myself to finish. All I have left to do is the sleeves and the button bands and other finishing. We’re visiting family this weekend, so we have to drive about 5-1/2 hours one way. I’m hoping to get a lot done on the drive.
After that I will knit three rows each day until this rascal is finished. At that rate, the whole thing should be finished about mid-September. Three rows a day doesn’t sound like much, but at least I should be able to handle it.
Here it is close up. It’s my famous 😉 Seveness Technique: Suzann’s Sensational Similar Shade Scrap Stripe System (seven S’s).
The KnitRedKAL is meant also to raise awareness of heart disease in women. Our family has a history of heart disease, so I appreciate the underlying motive.
All moral support appreciated!
Salt and Pepper Done
After weeks of sitting around my living room in a basket, waiting for its collar to be bound off and its sleeves to be sewn in, the Salt and Pepper Jacket is done!
We went out of town for the weekend to visit family, and I brought it along, thinking that surely I could find two hours to finish the job. Charles and his brother took Eva, Ella, and their cousins swimming. I stayed at the house with my sister-in-law and father-in-law. We talked and sipped coffee while I worked on the jacket. Very pleasant.
Now I have to write instructions and send the sweater to INKnitters for the Summer 2005 issue. I’m posting a preliminary sketch instead of a photo, because you will be able to see the real thing in the magazine in a few weeks. The jacket is for girls, ages 8 to 12 or so.
See posts on March 22 and April 4, 2005, for more on the Salt and Pepper Jacket.
Button Making Medley Workshop
My new buttons samples are finally done! The workshop is Friday afternoon, June 3, at Camp Iwannaknit 2005. There’s still room in the class!
We will make five styles of buttons: fake lapis buttons and color swirl buttons in polymer clay, felt buttons, and two different kinds of Create-A-Button. Here are my samples:
The faux lapis and color swirl buttons are easy to make from polymer clay, but they are very good looking. Color swirl buttons have converted many uncertain crafters to polymer clay enthusiasts.
These are made from dyed wool roving.
Create-A-Button is a product of Clover Needlecraft, Inc. The flower-style is a plastic dome with notches and three strategically-placed holes, which allow you to wrap it very evenly. Then you can weave between your wraps (like the coral button above) or even wrap the wraps as you would for a Dorset button (beige button).
The mesh-style Create-A-Button is a plastic dome with holes, which you can embroider through or sew beads, sequins, or other embellishments into. When you’re finished decorating the top, snap a fitted plastic disk to the bottom of the dome to complete the button. Unfortunately, these buttons have to be removed every time you wash the garment they are on.
Fire Ant Ranch
Last weekend we drove to Elgin, Texas, to visit my friend Suzanne Correira, owner of Fire Ant Ranch. She raises Black Welsh Mountain sheep, Gulf Coast Native sheep, and some Shetland sheep and Angora goats. She sells the wool, fiber packets ready for spinning, handspun and hand-dyed yarns, spinning tools, and more.
We hadn’t seen each other since 1996, just before my family left to live in England. It was good to catch up with each other, and to see the improvements Suzanne and her husband, Alfred, made on their land. Suzanne already knew our older daughter, but hadn’t met our two-year old.
Suzanne kindly let Eva and Ella feed her two Shetland bottle babies. We visited with her numerous cats. We walked down the hill and watched the ewes and lambs run out into the pasture. But it was unseasonably cold and rain threatened, so my husband lured the girls into the car with promises of going to Austin to see a movie. They love movies, and that is fine, because they don’t get to watch TV at home (we don’t have one).
Alfred brewed us some delicious coffee, which we sipped while talking about Suzanne’s business and the fiber business in general. I will write an article about Fire Ant Ranch for INKnitters magazine. Look for it in the fall.
Then I shopped. Suzanne is an Opal sock yarn dealer. Had to buy some of that. I couldn’t resist a green and yellow batt for spinning. One of my rules is: When you see a good green or yellow yarn, buy it. A batt is potential yarn, isn’t it?!
A Rock Pile called my name. It is a Fire Ant Ranch specialty consisting of ready-to-spin wool with locks of dyed mohair here and there. Mine is gray Shetland with foresty-green mohair.
Naturally, I must test spin some of Suzanne’s fibers before I write the article, so I bought some Black Welsh Mountain and Gulf Coast Native fleece. Now I have a good excuse to get my spinning wheel out of storage. I long to get spinning, but must stay focused on preparations for Camp Iwannaknit, my overdue INKnitters article, and another article in the works. Come June, I am going to spin.
Progress on Salt and Pepper
The Salt and Pepper Jacket is nearing its end! Hurray! I am ready to get it done so I can go on to other things. I restarted the collar several times Saturday night, trying to get it right. While I knitted, my daughter and I watched a 007 movie–Die Another Day.
It was educational. Really. We have a DVD of Jimmy Neutron in “Jet Fusion.” There are lots of James Bond references in the cartoon (if that is what you call computer generated animation). We had to watch a real James Bond movie so she could make the connections. We always go the extra mile to provide education to our children.
One good thing about writing for money is that it forces me to focus on a project until it is done. Otherwise I would go and start gobs of projects, and put them aside once the initial thrill was over.
Taos Festival Workshops Open
The Wool Festival at Taos takes place the first full weekend in October, and you can attend fabulous fiber and textile workshops before and after the Festival weekend. The workshop descriptions are up on the web site, and you can register now. UPDATE 2022: The workshop descriptions are no longer available.
Yes, I’m teaching there. Hurrah! My family is coming, too, because Charles can’t pass up any opportunity to go to Taos. My classes: Crochet Flowers, Alternative Tassels and Trims, Knit or Crochet an Underwater Scene (by hand this time), Small Quilts and Tote Bags from Old Sweaters.”