General – Page 35 – Fiber Musings

Yummy Enough to Eat

On 2 Aug, 2005

Can a yarn be yummy enough to eat? I snagged the last skein of this berry silk/merino mix in Nancy Finn’s booth at Fabulous Fiber Fest 2004. It knits up like a dream. I have never knit with such an enjoyable yarn before. I hope Nancy will be there again this year.

I mixed the berry yarn with 2 skeins of its green/teal sibling and 3 skeins of Cascade 220. I started this sweater at family camp last month. Of course, I had to spend an afternoon at the nearby yarn store that arranges their yarn like a color palette. I made considerable progress on the sweater despite the long hours I have been putting in at work. I am using Jill Vosburg’s crystal cove sweater pattern. As usual, I couldn’t resist making a few changes.

On the sewing front, I made Iris’ Barbie an evening dress from some cotton batik that she picked out. I will post the pix next weekend.

Size Matters

By Grace

On 20 Jul, 2005

In General, Knit, Life

Why are american things so large? Is all that bulk necessary? I give you the example of the two needle sets–one american, the other japanese.

Ok, the american set has a few more needles and cables, but does the case need to be so large?

And why does my neighbor have to park this in front of my house?

Here’s a close-up. What do you think he’s compensating for?

Now for the knitting content. I made Iris a shadow heart sweater from Vivian Hoxbro’s recent book. I used the same number of stitches as the pattern in the book, but sized it up by using bigger yarn. Iris picked out the two colors of cotton fleece which has a gauge of 5 sts/in. The shetland recommended in the book should give a gauge of 6 sts/in. Iris will have plenty of room to grow.

I didn’t make the redundant heart on the back, preferring some diagonal stripes. I actually like the back better than the front. Can you see the (literally!) hearts on the sleeves?

Kimonos

By Ann

On 12 Jul, 2005

In General

I had forgotten how much I enjoy sewing until this past weekend, and now my juices are flowing again. Why? I took a kimono workshop from Linda Cannefax. She talked us through some history of the kimonos, how to wear them, the different parts of the kimono and variations on these parts, and how to create a kimono pattern that fits. Wow.

Since Linda is a weaver, and this is a weaving guild sponsored workshop, she spent quite a bit of the time discussing how to use your handwoven for creating kimonos. Kitty and Cyrena showed off their handwoven kimonos that they made. I am in awe.

Kitty wore the kimono vest (kimono sans sleeves) that she wove out of hand spun and natural dyed silk weft (commercial warp). It was gorgeous. Subtle shading from gold to red-orange. The entire vest coat was then hand stitched. Wow.

Cyrena had a full length kimono that was made from monoprint on rice paper (that she printed herself), then cut into strips before it was woven. Cyrena even threaded beads into her warp so that the beads were woven into the fabric, instead of sewn in after the fact. The woven fabric was then made into this beautiful kimono, lined with silk organza. Again, the piece was hand stitched. Sewing machines never came into contact with these kimonos. Double and triple wow.

I won’t bother to show you the kimono that I made over the weekend. It was classwork, made out of muslin. I figured out what sleeve style won’t work for me. At least not in muslin. The drape is all wrong. I might take a snap or two of the ones I will make out of the fabric I bought at Thai Silk though.

There was a prevailing sentiment that after all the work into creating the fabric, they don’t want any machine stitching to show, hence the emphasis on hand stitching. The 2 examples above were the extreme, but I completely understand it. It’s the creative journey that counts here.

Me? Since I’m not a weaver (still fighting it, kicking and screaming), I don’t have as much invested in the fabric, so I’ll be using my Bernina to piece, thank you very much. I will be doing all the hemming and tacking down the lining by hand.

Sorry, I’m not much of a picture taker during class. I’m too busy taking notes or drooling over the finished pieces to bother with the camera.

Random thoughts of a fiber enthusiast - mostly fiber related, sometimes coherent

Category: General Page 35 of 49

Yummy Enough to Eat

Size Matters

Kimonos