New projects

I'm still working on my crewel piece but in between, I've begun a couple of other projects.  The mass of pink yarn above exactly matches my new winter coat. So, while it's not exactly ideal for the pattern, I'm using it. The pattern is a teaching pattern designed by my sister-in-law and I'm test driving the instructions.  It's a really fun hat to knit.  It goes all different directions, from a vertical cabled side panel to a side-to-side knit central portion for each half of the hat, finally ribbing.  I've got one half done, to the right on a holding needle. The second half is on the circular needle.

This piece has an interesting history. The materials were collected by a woman I met last spring. Jane was the kind of person I wish I had been able to spend a lot more time with and get to know a lot better. Smart, witty, an artist and art lover, definitely someone to know. Sadly, she passed away shortly after we met. Generous friends sent me some of the gorgeous fabrics she'd collected.

Amongst them was this piece of broiderie persé--applique using existing printed or stitched fabrics, following the contours of the design.  The original embroidery is on silk and the ground is quite fragile. She had basted this piece to the brown velvet ground--there are several other pieces of the embroidery I may use to add on or fill in. 

A young woman who grew up with Jane as a neighbor is getting married this spring and I'm going to complete this applique and make it into a ring bearer's pillow for the wedding.  Afterward, I'm going to disassemble the pillow, which will necessarily be fairly small, and remake it into a larger pillow for a sofa or a chair, as a wedding gift.

It's coming along nicely. I've found threads that match the embroidery pretty well for the applique.  I plan to edge the outline in a metallic thread to finish it off.  The silk ground is so fragile it turns under easily. It also sometimes frays and shatters a bit. Some of the embroidery threads are loose and I'm tacking them down as I go.  I really like projects like this where I feel connected with past stitchers, in this case Jane and the unknown embroiderer who stitched the original silk flowers and leaves.

While they're silk and a bit more formalized, the floral motifs are very reminiscent of the crewel I've been so immersed in lately. 

I am still stitching...

I've been neglecting this a bit in my scribbles here, but it's always ongoing.

In spite of saying I would stick to UFOs, I began a new project. Mary Corbett on Needle'nThread is teaching a long and short stitch sampler and I'm participating. Here's my start. I had the first bit, that red box, pretty much done but I didn't like it so I started over. My top edge still isn't straight and the first row is a little short, but I'm going to keep going now and not be so picky. The point is to learn this technique not make my first stitches perfect. Now, by the end, I expect they will be perfect! (yeah, right.)

This is the entrelac bag that will be felted. I showed the pattern when I started it a few weeks ago but it was a little tangle on the needles for the first couple of rows and would not pose for a photograph. Row 3 is nearly done and the blue will be row4. It's now at the stage where it can be waiting room knitting. I think I'd like to do this pattern in Noro.

This Hardanger project will fit into the boxes we used for Camp Quality. It is part of the Needle Artisans of Northwest Indiana (EGA) Indiana State Day project for October. While the amulet bag is the actual State Day design, it is too much to stitch in a one-day class, so this is the companion teaching piece that we will be teaching on State Day. Both projects were designed by Jamee Jecmen.

It's nearly done, I just need to do the Hardanger bit in the middle. I used Watercolors and various perle cottons for it. I aimed for Autumn colors this time (the piece is called Web in an Autumn Garden). This worked up quickly and will be great for class. It would have gone much easier if I'd used Waterlilies rather than the thicker Watercolors. (both threads by the Caron collection) I may do a second one.

I also dug out my Japanese Embroidery piece and found two more UFOs in the same case. (it seems to never end!) In 2002, I think, I went to the Japanese Embroidery Center in Atlanta and took a week's class in phase 1. I felt a total disaster, clumsy and awful, and I came home and put the piece away and haven't touched it since.

In the meantime, I found I was using various things I learned while in the class in my other stitching. Both UFOs that I put with the traditional piece use some Japanese techniques and designs. One is on canvas. They're all together because the materials are similar and I used some of the same tools.

I'm planning on picking up and working on the traditional piece next week at the classes I've posted about over the last few weeks. I'm a little anxious about it.