Mom and Daughters Making Buttons
I have a button-making class coming up on April 22 (Joy’s Fabrics, across from HEB in Stephenville, TX, 10:00 to 12 noon). To get in the spirit, we broke out the polymer clay today. I made a ton of buttons. Eva and Ella joined me at the table, creating objects of their own.
My beginning button classes always include the fabulous swirl button. You twist and turn the clay, roll it into a sausage shape, cut it up, roll it into little balls, and smash the balls of clay under your thumb. Make a depression in the center of the button, stir up some holes for sewing, bake, and voila! Buttons you can use!
I love swirl buttons because you can easily match the colors of a sewing or knitting project, and they are easy to make. You can also use up scraps to make this style. I used bits and pieces left over from polymer clay demonstrations and other projects to make these.
The last time we played polymer was almost two years ago. At the time, I made a beige piece with fuchsia jellyroll slices on it. I had a project in mind, but never was able to finish it. So today I added a top layer of translucent clay coated with gold-colored leaf. When you roll it very thin, the gold leaf cracks. The translucent clay becomes more transparent after baking. The effect is rich because of the gold, and muted because of the thin layer of translucent. You can see the jellyroll slices on the buttons.
What will I do with all these buttons? Well, whenever I get my online store up and running, I will probably sell them. But in the meantime–why do you think I had to start making wall hangings? To sew to my many buttons!
Here’s what the girls made. Three-year-old Ella made “Wallace” (the blue thing), a pendant, and her first button. Hurray, Ella! Ten-year-old Eva made a fish, a tiny container, and, of course, buttons! She’s a veteran button-maker.
Polymer buttons are machine-washable and dryable. Yes, it’s true! They are very durable.
Past Glories
>·
Every now and then my past comes back and surprises me! I designed many patterns for knitting and crochet magazines in the first part of the 1990s. So today, I’m looking through Herrchner’s Yarn Shoppe catalog, enjoying the yarn bounty that we could only dream of in the 90s. I flip the next page, and there is a pretty pineapple pattern crochet top in cotton, with the pattern showing up beautifully against the black dress the model wears underneath.
I designed it!
It first appeared in Crochet Digest’s Autumn 1997 issue (“Pineapple Lace Top,” pp. 6 ff.). I believe that my mother crocheted the top according to my instructions. Really, that is the best way for me to design, because it forces me to write the pattern first, instead of relying on notes that aren’t as thorough as I thought at first. The top looks as good now as it did then.
My pineapple top is part of a collection of pineapple pattern items in a book. Here’s a link that shows the front and back cover. I think I’ll order it and relive my glory days.
Back Again with Something Finished
I finished something, finally. Eva’s yellow vest, which doubles as a sample for my next INKnitters article, is done! I darned in the last few ends and sewed on the buttons during a pleasant visit to the Coffee Studio, with Ella and my mom. Now I need to organize my thoughts for the article, and figure out how many more yellow samples to make.
Last week was completely lost on me and Ella. We were sick in bed with fever and other uncomfortable symptoms. When I took Eva to school on Monday, I looked around and saw a world of green! The fields and the trees burst into life in a few short days (well, short for them, but long for suffering invalids).
In spite of our dry months last year, a few wildflowers are blooming. My girls picked these for me. These are mostly different kinds of paintbrushes, with a winecup and a few other little flowers. I love spring.
INKnitters Out at Last
The long-awaited winter issue of INKnitters is finally on the newsstand. Subscription copies should arrive any day now. I am extremely pleased with the article I wrote for this issue. It is called “Handmade and Altered Books for Knitters.” It follows in the wake of the enormous scrapbooking trend, and all of the interest it spawned in bookish crafts, old or new.
My idea was this: “What about scrapbooking, making books, and altering books, with a knitting theme?” I got busy working on samples for the article. It took me a long time to make the samples and write the article, but the result is worth it! The samples are very different from everything else I do. It’s good to explore new craft territory every now and then.
My friend, Jane Hurwitz, made a book for the article as well. When we met in the late 1990s, we were pleased to find out that we both enjoyed knitting. She started spinning sooner than I did, but I got there eventually. We hadn’t seen each other in several years when we talked on the phone early in 2005. It turns out she has been making books by hand! What perfect timing.
You can see all the pages of her book here. But do read the article, because it tells more about her book and the others. I would welcome your comments and observations on the article and any other article I write.
One altered book I started, but didn’t get very far on, is called I Love Pink It is a collection of all kinds of pink stuff, mostly made or drawn or photographed by me, plus pink trivia. The cover is above. My daughter, Eva, designed and colored the inside cover, here. I have a lot of work left to do on it, so it is my March Project Spectrum project.
These are a few of the pink-related photos for the book: the old dairy barn in the sunrise, pink Texas wildflowers, my pink projects. Why do some of them have zig-zaggy edges? Because I used pinking shears. That is so clever. This book will leave no pink stone unturned.
Updated 2022 to replace a link that didn’t work anymore. You may be able to find copies of INKnitters on Ebay.
Textile Windfall
There are advantages to being known as textile lovers. Eva, Ella, and I reaped the benefits yesterday. My Aunt Mary used to sew a lot, but she can’t see to sew anymore. She gave us a bag of fabric, appliques, felt pieces, and trims. Eva loved a paisley print, which is destined to become a skirt for her. Aunt Mary knows we appreciate it, and will use it. Thank you notes are on the way!
Sometimes friends of friends of friends of friends find us, too. Former students of my Mom’s teacher friend offered her a box of trims and fabric from their mother’s estate. The lady sewed, but the children didn’t. Their teacher said, “I can’t use it, but I know someone who will.” The box has been making its way to us for several months, and it is finally here.
We felt like treasure hunters as we pulled out borders and trims, one after the other. I love all the crochet, but the rick rack and crochet trim is my favorite. I’ve seen the combination of crochet with rick rack and other trims in reprints of old crochet books, so it’s been around for a while.
Several of the trims look like they’ve been removed from some other piece, and saved for another use.
We are grateful to those who take the time to pass these wonderful things to someone who will love them.
The sewing lady had wonderful taste in trims–our minds are spinning with possibilities!
Crochet, Crochet, Crochet
It’s crochet city up here around Washington DC. Ladies are wearing fine thread crochet tops. Some are worn over solid color tops. Some are lined. Our group ate supper in malls the last two nights, and we saw those cute crochet tops in lots of shop windows.
Crochet is all over accessories, too. Claire’s Accessories, the best girl store I know, had thread crochet-covered headbands and journal covers. Individual crochet flowers crop up as decoration on all kinds of stuff. Handbags are either crocheted or have lots of crochet in the construction or trim. And we saw lots of crochet shawls and ponchos.
Then there was the skirt in pinapple-pattern crochet, lined with white. Eva thought it looked great. “I made one like that, years ago,” I said. How many years ago? About 25. It was originally lined in white, but now in green, which is Eva’s favorite color. I promised to find it for her. Check back, because I’ll post a photo of it.
Guess I can also haul out the pretty pineapple-crochet shawl I made about the same time as the skirt, and I’ll be on the cutting edge of fashion.
We have a couple of hours at the Smithsonian Museums tomorrow, and we’ve tentatively agreed to see the First Ladies’ Inaugural Ball Gowns. Can’t wait!
March 20, 2006: Here are the pics of the crochet skirt. Couldn’t resist including our wisteria in one of the shots. My memory was pretty good about when I made the skirt. It was in a show called “Tying the Knot,” a show of wedding clothes and accessories at Hill Country Weavers, Austin, Texas, in 1982.
Knittingham Puppy Farm
We’re back from Washington DC, where we were kept so busy by our elderly tour guide, that I was too exhausted to knit. There wasn’t time! My red poncho was admired by the group. One of the ladies is from The Netherlands, where she used to knit all the time. “But the sweaters are so cheap here, there’s no need to knit!” she said.
We watched a couple of educational videos on the bus, and during those, I managed to knit the armhole edging on Eva’s yellow vest. It’s almost done. Then I need to finish up my samples for the next issue of INKnitters.
Here’s a little trivia for you: Scooby Doo, the famously cowardly and hungry dog detective, was born at Knittingham Puppy Farm. The farm is owned by Mrs. Knittingham. Is it possible that her ancestors were knitters? Did she come from a place famous for knitters? We can always hope.
Sore Feet in Washington DC
We’re in Washington DC as part of a school trip. It’s great. After a very short tour of the Capitol Building today, we had lunch at the Library of Congress and then went to its Visitor’s Center. It is one of the most beautiful buildings I have ever seen. Every surface is covered with decoration, including gold leaf, decorative painting, and, oh yes, mosaic! The mosaic floors and ceilings are breath-taking. Hope I can find something out about it–could be made by Italian mosaicist. Pictures in a week or so.
It may have been beautiful, but Eva was mad. “I want to see the books. When can we see the books? You don’t go to the Library of Congress to see the architecture, you go to see books,” she ranted. So the dream will have to be postponed.
Did I say pictures in a week or so? Why is that? Because we have been forced to fall back on film for this trip. Can you fathom it? I foolishly put down our digital camera to pay for something at one of the Smithsonian museums. I guess I forgot to pick it up. When we went back to look for it, the clerk said, “Was it on this corner?” Yes, it was. “I think a gentleman picked it up,” she said. Another clerk standing nearby said, “He must not have been a gentleman.”
I felt bad enough about it, but my daughter had so enjoyed snapping pictures of all the interesting sights, that I felt even worse knowing that she couldn’t do that anymore 0n this trip. Ah well. The thief will undoubtedly suffer karma. My current understanding of karma is that it is all bad, so apparently, “bad karma” is redundant.
But here is something funny to close with: at the National Zoo, a man walked up to the information booth. He said, “Do you have any kangaroos?” The woman at the booth, a National Zoo employee, said, “No, I don’t think so. We have emus. That’s the closest thing we have to kangaroos.”
That is a true story. I heard it with my own ears.
Maglia and Uncinetto
With a German mother who knits and crochets, and her mother, and yes, her mother, I am naturally a great fan of international craft magazines. Some German mags have been available over here for years (Anna, for instance). Mon Tricot, a French knitting mag, offered designs and ideas that were fresh to US eyes in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
My foreign craft magazine habit has been well-known for a long time. My Tante Christa sent me a now-defunct German magazine called Handarbeiten (handworks). I loved that magazine.
Charles brought me a stack of crochet and knitting magazines from Mexico, when he did his graduate field work. Greek craft mags are stunning, with lots of embroidery, cross stitch, and crochet. We couldn’t leave Barcelona without stopping by a book store to check out the needlework and craft books and magazines.
I waited until the last minute to check out craft mags in Italy, but luckily the train station news agent was open for business on Sunday afternoon. These were my favorites. The blue and white, knitted and crocheted sweater on the cover, sold me on le idée di susanna. Love that name. Cross stitch took up most of the pages.
Consigli pratici has knitting (maglia), crochet (uncinetto), embroidery, cross stitch (punto croce), and even beauty tips and recipes.
I don’t make a point of collecting baby patterns, but the clothes in Prestigio collana—Moda Baby were so cute, I had to get the mag. There are a couple of little jackets that I think could be successfully translated to adult sizes.
By matching pictures to words in the basic instructions, you can figure out what words go with which stitches. Combine that with the fantastic charts, and you can pretty much work out how to make the garments. You’d have to be a reasonably accomplished crocheter.
Correction: I said in an earlier post that Filatura di Crosa was the yarn manufactured by the Missoni family, but that is wrong. There was a Missoni yarn up until just recently. The family got out of the yarn business to concentrate on designing. They have an interesting website. It has a very design-y, European feel to it. You can view it in English.
Mosaics of Mine
Here they are! These are the mosaics I made at Luciana Notturni’s Mosaic Art School. This one is a copy of a tiny portion of the grand mosaic at St. Vitale, a Byzantine church in Ravenna. It is mostly glass, with quite a few gold tesserae. Along the edges, the browny-yellow is made with stone interspersed with gold.
We all got a lot of help with our copies. Several square inches of my left edge was mysteriously filled in, on the second morning. I learned best by watching the teachers demonstrate or correct mistakes. A million words might make your brain understand how to do a thing, but it’s much better to see hands at work. In fact, there’s Luciana helping a student in the photo at the top left—a familiar sight in our class, too.
Our small mosaics were of our own design or inspiration, worked directly into cement. I used glass tesserae for this heart, choosing the shades of pink and lavender from the many colors available in the studio. The border around the heart is thin glass pieces alternating with pebbles. Pebbles fill in the background.
I enjoyed our workshop very much. I’m sold on the groutless mosaic technique. Without a doubt, grout has its benefits for certain applications. The ancient technique we learned opens up far more possibilities for me, as I consider what sort of mosaics we want to have in our house.
Another valuable aspect of the week spent in Ravenna, was seeing a well-organized studio in action. As I mentioned before, Luciana’s studio was very much a community and family effort. She provided leadership and expertise for most of the pieces produced in the studio. It was a pleasure to see how the other craftsmen, apprentices, teachers, and speakers worked toward the common goals of producing mosaics and teaching classes.
Dale Chihuly, an American glass artist, works in a studio with many other glass-blowers, some of whom are also artists. I’ve read about his studio and seen an inspiring documentary about him and his cohorts in art. Chihuly’s studio, like Luciana’s, produces a great deal of work, much more than one person could hope to accomplish.
To me, a studio with several craftsmen and students is the best way to realize an artistic vision, and also to pass on a lifetime (or more!) of expertise to the upcoming generation. I guess weekend retreats and conventions are one way to do this, but a year with a master artist/craftsman would be a whole lot better. I want a studio like that someday. Give me about seven years.
