Diggin' the Cotton

I've been on a cotton bender lately.  A few weeks ago I demo-ed at a friends booth at an event and, once again, people were fascinated by the magic of cotton.  To me, that's the only word to use.  There is something so magical about how this stuff grows (the flowers change colors and the seeds burst their bolls), how it comes right off the seed and how it spins up.  It was very satisfying to have women and men stand by me watching it all happen and being as entranced as I am.  It's like we were all just standing back watching a wonder of nature unfold right before our eyes.

I was going to use this cotton in a particular baby item but found that the thread is not suited to the technique I was going to use so I'll need to figure out something else to do with it.  For anyone who has never felt handspun cotton and who only knows cotton as that heavy or rough stuff that usually comes from commercially produced yarn or thread, they would be even more amazed at how light and soft and cushy this stuff is.

On a more wooly note, remember the Polworth yarn I was unhappy with?  Here's what happened to it:

Still no better spun but as pretty as can be.  This is the advantage to the Navajo plying and keeping the colors pure.  You get great striping like this.  I'm the most pleased at the scarf and how perfectly these vintage buttons matched the yarn.

The scarf pattern is very simple.  I cast on about 24 stitches and worked K2, P2 ribbing until I almost ran out of yarn then I crocheted the edge, including 3 loops for the buttons.  I attached the buttons at an angle so it would sit right when around the neck.  Easy, peasy.

The Puzzle's the Thing

I love learning new things and I love figuring stuff out.  At heart, I'm a problem solver, I guess. 

I've done a couple of projects now from vintage patterns that include tatting a "frame" and then needleweaving inside it.  Generally the patterns have been flower shaped (more or less).  As I've been playing around with this, I've discovered what similarities it has with Reticella work.  Have a look here and here.  Although these are much more intricate than anything I'm doing, it still bears a resemblance to how it's worked. 

My friend Karen Poulakos is vending at the Round Bobbin show in St Charles, Missouri, this weekend and I told her I would come along and demo at their booth on Saturday.  (If you're in the St Louis area, be sure to stop by booths 308 and 310 and say hi.)  While we were talking about it, I made the comment of wouldn't it be fun to do specific demos at specified times so maybe people will come by more often throughout the day.  So we hit on doing the following:

11 am - start spinning with a drop spindle

12 pm - knit or crochet with unspun silk hankies

1 pm - anatomy of yarns: tips to choosing the right yarn

2 pm - spinning cotton from the seed.

3 pm - needle weaving.

 

Most of the subjects are things I can do with my eyes closed but the needleweaving was a bit of a challenge because I haven't done that much of it.  I needed some samples.  See what you think of this:

 

 You've seen the brown tatting project.  It's not yet finished because I'm going to use that for my demonstration on Saturday.

 The pink panel at the bottom was just a filet crochet "frame" (instead of the tatted frame) with 3 different designs worked inside.  Click on the image to see it more up close.

The little medialian was done completely differently.  The frame was done by laying the thread out in a square, pinning the four corners, doing a buttonhold stitch around to make the fram and then working the leaves.  I wanted an example of more of a weaving base for the petals and this is what happened.  It has such an art deco look to it.  I can just see that sort of image being used for the Miami hotels or something like the Chrystler Building.

Spin on

I finally got a spinning project finished.  The other day when I spent the day demonstrating at the Historical Marbold Farm, I was determined to get this 4 oz of Polworth finished. 

I fell in love with the colors but I wasn't quite sure what I wanted to do with it.  I knew I wanted to keep the colors pure so I Navajo-plied it.  I think I put a little too much twist in it - it's not as soft as I'd expected.  Now that I've started knitting it up, I think it will be okay. 

But, regardless, I love the colors and the hat I'm knitting will show it up nicely, I think.

Variations on a theme

I had certain things I wanted to accomplish this long holiday weekend. The biggest goal, finishing the warping of the loom, I didn't do. Demo-ing at the Historic Marbold Farm Ice Cream Social, I did. Tatting, I really did. I decided to do some samples of a project I'm going to do for a class. I thought it had a lot of scope for variations so I tried a few.

At the top was the original sample in a plain single color.  It has 4 simple, small motifs in the middle with an edging around.  I decided to play with more small motifs in the middle with the edging.  I found this variegated green so I thought maybe I could play with a garden theme.  I did the 2 motifs in the pinks.  I didn't have a plan, I just started making motifs and putting them together.  Once I'd come up with this configuration, I wished I'd planned it better and done the 4 middle motifs in the colors and surrounded them with the green motifs.  But I didn't and I couldn't cut the 2 green ones out of the middle because they were foundationals motifs and had others motifs connected to their picots.  So I went ahead and finished the edging on it.  Pretty but I think I'd like to do it again with the pinks in the middle and the greens surrounding.

I did another small version with just the variegated pinks.  With these last 2 versions, I did the tips in a different method than I did on the pink version.  This is the pattern that I didn't like the way the book had done the end so I've been playing with other combinations.  I think I like this version the best.  On the end, where I'm working between 2 picots on the same motif, I did 6 ds, small picot, 1 ds, large picot, 1ds, small picot, 6 ds.  This give a nice pointy end for the diamond.

Rescue Scarf

A friend of mine got very interested in weaving a couple of years ago and, encouraged by her niece, bought an overshot scarf kit from Yarn Barn.  Another friend and I helped her get her loom warped (actually it was my loom - long story).  However the threading was a little off, she thought, and she just never got back to fixing it and getting started.  After a (long) while, she decided that she had lost interest and gave me the loom back so I could do the weaving.

In the meantime, however, the warp (which was a lace weight wool yarn) had weakened in the area where the heddle had been rubbing it so when I got it home, I realized I was going to have to rethread (to find the mistake in threading) and I might as well get the warp past the weakened area so I wouldn't have to keep fixing the broken strands.

I finally got everything together last weekend and got this far:

Not too bad until I realized that I had missed a strand between the 2 groups I'd threaded and had to rethread a whole section.  I finally got that done and here's where I am now:

If that looks like the same place, it is.  At least I got back to the point where I was before I discovered MY mistake!  Now all I need is a little time and patience and I might actually get this sucker re-warped and going again.

Wish me luck.

On to the land of tatting

I've gone from babyland to the land of tatting, all with the little exercise of the making the samples for the LACE group.  I admit there had been a hankering for the tatting for a while but this got me going.

After I finished the samples, I was looking through one of the books I'd been using and came across a pattern that was just like the one I'd found in the 1933 craft magazine (click here for more info on that one).  I'm so fascinated by this technique of tatting a pattern with an open middle and then needle weaving a pattern in the opening.  The pattern I just found is in a Dover publication but the original publication of the pattern was probably in this same time frame - early 1930's.  See what you think.

First you tat the "frame."

These are 4 identical motifs that were joined as I worked.  The way the pattern was written made the final join in the motif extremely challenging but I found that by changing the starting point from the ring in the middle of the side to the 4-ring motif in the corner, it solved the challenge and made it easy as pie.  It's easier and I'm allowed to do that. Working the following 3 motifs, getting the joins in the right place however, entailed the challenge of paying attention to where I was at all time and making consciously sure I was joining to the right picot (see previous post about "ripping out" tatting - not fun).  Of course, I had to test my powers of tatting by doing all this by watching the movie Inception.  I love that movie but I don't recommend tatting something complex while watching it.  That is, unless you've seen it more than 10 times. 

Now that I have the framework in place, I can work the inner weaving patterns.

Like this.  Isn't that interesting?  Click on the photo for a closer look.

I've got it pinned to one of my bobbin lace pillows to make sure it doesn't get skewed in the weaving.  I also steam ironed it before I started.  The helps set everything in place.  Tatting's pretty solid but it just adds a bit of structure as the weaving is worked.

The needle weaving is very relaxing and contemplative.

I've been wondering how this could be worked with knitting (not sure how that would hold up) and crochet (I think crochet could totally work).  I even thought about the possibility of working this in a sweater or other garment.  You could certain even work the tatting and use it as a centerpiece in a knitted garment.  How about doing it in a circle and using it as the yoke of a sweater?  That could be very, very cool.

By the way, for those that care, I'm working this using Lizbet size 20 Egyptian cotton in Mocha Brown Medium.  It's a 6-cord cardonnet thread which is more tightly spun than regular crochet thread and more suited to tatting.  You can use crochet thread but it doesn't hold up as well or have as much body for tatting.

Thoughts and conclusions

I've been learning a few things lately and I've come to a few conclusions. 

I've come to the conclusion that ripping out is easier with crochet and knitting than it is with tatting.

I was asked by the LACE group in Chicago to do a tatting class during their  Lace Days event next June.  Since they want to approve the pattern (or choose the pattern - not sure what that's about), I've been doing some samples for them to look at. 

One of the patterns, the one on the left here, is made up of 4 small medallions, put together with a border stitched around them.  I got the inner mediallions done, no problem.  I started working the outside border and started to have issues.  There weren't nearly enough stitches to make it lay flat and the original pattern had the double rings off to the side on the top and bottom (where here I've added the longer chains and little upsidedown ring).  Again, no problem, it didn't take long to do.  I'll rip it out and redo the border, adding more stitches.

Now crochet is the easiest thing ever to rip out because you're only ever working with one live stitch at a time.  Knitting's not too bad either unless you're on a complex lace pattern.  But even then, you've put in life lines and you're okay or you can take it out stitch by stitch.  Not so bad, even if time consuming.

With tatting there's none of that.  Here's what ripping out looks like in tatting...

It's done with scissors.  You just snip it right off and start all over again.  And then you redo the border.  Easy.  But it sucks when you've made a mistake in the middle of a pattern.  Once you've closed a ring, the ring is closed and there's no way to change it.  Other than cut it off.

The next thing I've been thinking about is the new exercise routine I've started with a program called TurboFire.  I've been thinking a lot about how I feel and how I feel about myself and I came to the conclusion that I don't care about the weight, I care about not being in shape.  I needed a kick in the butt and preferred to try this method rather than the personal trainer route.

My goal is no longer to lose x number of pounds, it's now about fitness.  My goal right now is to be able to do 25 full plank push ups.  When I started 3 1/2 weeks ago, I could barely do 2 half pushups on my knees.  Now I can do about 10 full pushups on my knees and 3 plank half pushups. There's something about that change of focus that is motivating me to do the work and being able to feel and see the muscles starting to take shape makes me want to do more.

I don't want to sound like an infomercial but here's what I like about this program.  Although it is a fnancial investment, it's a fully rounded program that provides both cardio, strength and flexibility training.  It comes with the "props" you use in the workouts like a lower body band, a toning band, a workout schedule for just starting out and for long term use, help with learning to use food to fuel your body instead of defeating the purpose (and a killer recipe book) and about 15 different videos with different types of workouts.

Now here's another conclusion that I think I always knew but has been reinforced to me.  People with passion for what they do make the best teachers.  I think that's one of the big things I've responded to in the way the Chalene Johnson approaches these workouts.  There's a lot of butt kicking but you get so encouraged by her enthusiasm and passion that you don't even noticed you got your butt kicked until it's over!  Well, you might have a clue or two but you want to press through.  The vibe is so positive that you believe you can do it, even when you're panting and your legs are shaking. 

There's always the understanding that you do as much as you can and then next time you do a little more than you did today and so on.  It's not for everyone but it will take you on a great journey and you'll feel like you've really accomplished something.  Music out.....

And my final influence lately is a children's book called the Phantom Tollbooth.  Somehow I got through childhood and this far into life without coming across this book.  I'd heard an interview with the author, Norton Juster, because they've just put out the 50th anniversay edition of the book, and was intrigued by the interviewer's extensive quoting of the word play throughout the story.  Sounded like just my kind of thing.  It's been quite a journey with Milo and Tock and the Humbug.  So my thought here is that we underestimate kids.  We underestimate people that we know in just one context, only at work, say, or who are older.  We don't hold out the possibility that they have interesting interests or talents or have had interesting experiences.  Understand?  No?  Read the book.