Ends & Picks

Bobbin Lace

Melissa — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 01:38:38 +0000

This fall I took a six week class at the Textile Center to learn the basics of bobbin lace. Bobbin lace is technically a type of weaving, but it is done with pairs of bobbins and pins instead of the traditional warp, weft & shuttles.

The Snake was our first project and used 7 pairs of bobbins.

Check out those beady eyes!

Our next two projects were exploring the half stitch and the cloth stitch.

Our last project was some delicate nursery lace.

I really enjoyed this class once I got used to the new techniques needed in bobbin lace. I have some great ideas I’d like to try out once I get through the frantic Christmas knitting on my needles right now…

Harper’s New Cardigan

Melissa — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 20:53:25 +0000

My friend Amber and her husband welcomed home a beautiful baby boy last month - Harper Levi. I couldn’t pass up the chance to knit him a little something and when I saw Pamela Wynne‘s Ella Funt pattern (Rav link), I knew it would be perfect!

Welcome to the world, Harper!

And now for something completely different…

Melissa — Sun, 31 Oct 2010 20:18:00 +0000

This past summer, rhymeswithfun and I signed up to take a beginning pottery class together.

It definitely took me a few weeks to get the feel of working with clay, but it was definitely fun to do something outside of my normal realm of fiber-y comfort.

I ended up with nine finished pieces and although most would be perfect for holding rusty screws in the garage, I think a few turned out okay.

All in all, a great learning experience and definitely something I would try again!

Woodland Creatures

Melissa — Sat, 30 Oct 2010 20:17:53 +0000

A few months back, rhymeswithfun and I were able to take another great class at the Textile Center – Woodland Creatures!

We learned basic embroidery techniques as well as how to dye wool felt with Kool-Aid.

But the best part was that The Madre was in town and joined us to make an adorable owlet!

Surprise Visit

Melissa — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 02:44:55 +0000

Baby Kai came to visit us at work yesterday and look who he brought along with him!

Sooo cute!! (And Herbert is lookin’ good too!)

Myrtle the Turtle

Melissa — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 03:09:30 +0000

Look what we saw early one morning last week:

This determined little mama climbed out of the swamp (what looks like a whole mess of weeds above, not to be confused with the GIANT THISTLE that’s about to take over our grill) and up a fairly steep slope to dig a hole in our backyard to lay her eggs.

I don’t think she much appreciated me staring and taking pictures while she was hard at work…or maybe it was the two fixated kitties at my feet who were just BEGGING me to open the door so they could go investigate.

Okay, Madre, what type of turtle babies should we be expecting?

Woven Shibori

Melissa — Sun, 13 Jun 2010 03:42:58 +0000

Throughout the month of May, my friend Elisa and I spent our Saturdays at the Weaver’s Guild taking a wonderful class on woven shibori taught by Traudi Bestler. Woven shibori was developed by Catharine Ellis and it was her book, Woven Shibori, that we worked from throughout the class.

The first two days of class we planned, calculated, wound, warped and started weaving our projects. It was WONDERFUL being back in a weaving studio and even though I was pretty rusty with all my preliminary yardage calculations (as exhibited by the extra long warp I ended up with – oops!)

The third class we spent in the Dye Lab and since I ended up with two pieces of fabric, I decided to immersion dye one and hand paint the other. The fourth class we all came together for show and tell!

Unfortunately, the yarn Elisa and I wove with had a much higher twist than our classmates so we didn’t get the high contrast that others got.

Even so, I’m quite pleased with the results!

Silk Fusion

Melissa — Sat, 12 Jun 2010 02:24:06 +0000

Back in April I took yet another class at the Textile Center, this time taught by Susan Stein on silk fusion (also known as silk paper, but silk fusion sounds cooler, doesn’t it?)

Silk fusion is created from silk roving and a textile medium and is limitless in possibilities. I enjoyed layering in ribbons, metallic threads and Angelina fibers for some extra sparkle!

My last bit of silk fusion was an experiment to see if I could intentionally create open spaces.

While I find the colors rather garish, the technique itself is rather interesting and definitely deserves some more tinkering with for future projects. Maybe a sun catcher or lamp shade to show more layering?

Long Overdue

Melissa — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 02:23:59 +0000

These last few months have just FLOWN by and I am so behind on so many posts. So without further ado, here are some long overdue photos of the awesome weekend workshop I took at the Textile Center back in March, entitled Artful Knit: A Sculptural Approach to Knitting taught by Adrienne Sloane.

Adrienne started off our weekend of sculptural knitting by challenging us to knit with materials we wouldn’t normally knit with. We were tasked to experiment and see what craziness we could come up with. I played with wire, ribbon, fabric strips and woven tape threaded through felt circles. It was quite a liberating experience!

I also played around a bit with “finger knitting” which I hadn’t done in YEARS. I’m hoping to finger-knit a bit more ribbon yarn and then knit that into a bigger knitting piece for some cool knitted-knitting texture.

I think my favorite part of the class was all the discussions we had on how to knit different shapes, holes, bumps, bobbles, loops and pockets.

Some of my technique samplers turned out looking a bit like the Loch Ness monster, don’t you think?

All in all it was a FANTASTIC weekend. Thank you so much Adrienne for being so inspiring and teaching such a wonderful class!

Babies, Babies Everywhere

Melissa — Mon, 03 May 2010 02:00:09 +0000

Several of my good friends at work are having babies! Here are two little critters I knit up to help welcome home their new bundles. First up, meet Jarvis the Jellyfish (Rav pattern link), knit with love for Baby Lucca.

Lucca’s mom has been asking me for a jellyfish since she saw rhymeswithfun’s Julius back in the day. Jarvis now hang’s out over Lucca’s changing table and is sure to make diaper changes much more fun! (Well, at least for Lucca anyway…)

Baby Quiba will be welcomed home by Herbert once he arrives mid-June.

Herbert was knit from the free Ribbit pattern with no real mods except that I only used fiberfill instead of the recommended tennis ball for stuffing. Can’t wait to meet you next month, Kai!!