• Home
• about
• fashion
• design
• Sydney style
• craft

occasional glimpses

• Akris and the love of stocking stitch

  08Mar
  Categories: fashion, knit Comments: 0

  

  My blog posts? I think I need to do some freeing up, stretching and shaking out. Possibly focus on my breathing too. My posts are too tense, too thought out.

  Anyway. I remember a year or so ago discussion on Ravelry about “beastly” knits. Designers hating knit wear, making it look oversized, strangling, ugly. Since then, my eye has changed. My thinking too.

  For me, this is a celebration of the stocking stitch. Its right side and, cleverly, a view of the wrong side as a simple collar. It’s huge stocking stitch, magnified. So you really look at it again with fresh eyes. In striking colour that you can’t ignore.

  Oh, that giant cast on, and cast off! If you knit: how many times have you stared at those stitches, counting them? Now they’re plain for all to see, on the cuffs. And that slight sag, forming the peplum (restrained by a narrow belt, is it threaded through?)

  Too bulky? Look, if you live in a really cold climate, I’m sure most of your Winter clothes are rather bulky. Makes you look too fat? … or doll like?

  See, my eyes have changed.

  Image used for review: style.com

  Tags: Akris, Fall 2010, FW 2010/2011, knitwear design, stocking stitch

• The joy of craft classes

  18Feb
  Categories: Amigurumi, sewn Comments: 4

  I’ve taken a couple of craft classes recently: decided I’d learn something enjoyable before Uni holidays end and my mind fills up with real study. I did Beginners Crochet and Adult Sewing. Took my kid, M, along to a class for toddlers too, before her school starts. Love her swooshy painting, she had fun. Also in the photo, the double stitch crochet square I’ve finished in spare moments.

  It is lovely doing a class: being with other people excited to craft; discussing by pointing, touching and showing; hearing things you never thought to ask (machines can knit, but there are no machines that crochet, it’s always totally by hand). And it’s such a confidence boost to know most of my self-taught ways are actually the “proper” way!

  I’ll be back at my desk, in my usual creative space next week. But I must say I’ve enjoyed being out and about.

  Tags: class, crochet, learning, sewing

• My creative space #003

  11Feb
  Categories: random Comments: 6

  Hope you’re enjoying seeing the little changes, week by week, to my creative space and my thoughts. This time, only one photo to show what’s changed. The rest is the same.

  1. From A. Because it’s a nice, smooth stone.

  2. This sticky tape is too big. But very useful. So if it’s staying on my desk, it can hold all my post-its, used bus tickets and little bits of paper.

  3. Notes from school, forms to fill out, things to remember …

  4. Mess. It moves, it changes, it’s always there!

  5.  My current book bag. The kids don’t go to the local school, I wanted Montessori. So I spend a lot of time in a café or at the library, waiting for them to finish. Reading, doing homework, thinking. Underneath there’s my pile of pattern-making books. I plan to read each one this year, slowly. And a Vogue Living from Mum (in turn, a gift from Nan).

  6. I had to check for my post last night.

  7. More library books. I might use some flowers in my tea towel swap. What will happen when libraries go digital? When books go digital? And we no longer visit libraries or book shops? We’ll still have the information, but is it the same? And what of the second-hand booksellers? I’ve found a lot of interesting things second-hand, books I never could/would have bought new. And I’ve become expert at browsing libraries for hidden treasures…

  8. More crochet project. I’ll tell you about it once I’ve made more.

  I know some of you only visit me on Thursdays, so: Have a great week everyone!

• My first patchwork: am I mad?

  10Feb
  Categories: fabric, sewn Comments: 4

  2010 is starting to feel serious: A is back at school, M’s starting soon (it’s a Montessori school) and I’ll be back at Uni before I know it. So I’d better hurry up and show you the only Christmas present I actually handmade!

  Yes, Germaine, Mum did actually ask for a handmade gift. I suspect she knows I have more fabric/time than money at the moment … And so I took the opportunity to try my first patchwork.

  The fabrics are from a charm pack: Botany by Lauren and Jessi Jung for moda. You know, I haven’t really used craft fabrics before. Admired them, yes. Stroked them on the bolt in the shops, uh, yes. But actually sewn with them? No, I’ve basically used dress fabrics: cheap or better quality.

  So this project gave me a couple of surprises. First, I’d always thought that not using craft fabrics for dressmaking was kinda snobby: it isn’t. Roll on all the designers (actually it’s not their fault), roll on all the manufacturers offering craft fabric designs on dressmaking and other types of fabric. And second, I’d thought that combining the fabrics contained in a charm pack would be kinda brainless. I mean, they’ve been specifically designed to go together, haven’t they? Well, they probably were designed to match. But I didn’t happen to like that particular fresh Spring green with that particular turquoise. Might be just me. Or might be unrealistic expectations. Any rate, I decided one side of the patchwork bags would use mainly the fresh greens; the other mixed the turquoises.

  

  Look pretty and neat, don’t they? But they’re actually a bit wonky. I mean, I knew attaching the linings would be a problem: I’d sized them without factoring in any space needed for bulky seams, turn of cloth or any concepts like that. As a result, there’s a tuck just where the ribbons are joined. And I rather like that tuck, makes the bags a little more interesting. Next time, I’ll design in a tuck (on purpose).

  My other issue was a bit more unexpected. I’d chosen what I thought was a really simple pattern for my first patchwork: just lots of squares. Arranged in a grid. No fancy hexagons, diamonds, nothing. Just a grid. About an hour into sewing (I’m slow: I sew and think, sew more, ponder..). Anyway, about an hour into sewing I realised a grid-based pattern requires you to line things up exactly. And I couldn’t. I did try, with lots of pins. Hence my question: am I mad to worry if my patchwork is about 2mm out in places? Lots of places?

  Deep down, I know the answer. No, I should be more accurate. It’d look better. So, dear experienced patchworkers, some more questions: what should I have done? I’ll admit to treating a my fabric like paper: folding in half, scoring and cutting (with scissors). Was that my downfall? I’ll also admit my sewing may have veered from straight by about 1mm on occasion: did those slight errors multiply? Or is there some particular technique I should have known about and used?

  And yes, I did check my patchwork books, limited though my collection is. And I realised all my Japanese books are about hand patchworking. Not by machine. Even though one of them is specifically about different designs made from squares (and triangles). I also have Last-Minute Patchwork + Quilted Gifts by Joelle Hoverson which doesn’t really have a lot of grid-based designs. Perhaps so you can make them last minute, eh? And they still look good as gifts? Yes, Germaine, there’s often quite a bit of truth to what you say, however offended we get. But nine patches are a traditional grid pattern, so there must be a way to align them?

  Tags: bag, beginner, craft, design, fabric, Germaine Greer, gift, handmade, learning, patchwork, starting

• My creative space #002

  04Feb
  Categories: Amigurumi, home Comments: 6

  Thank you so much for your comments last week! I had fun. Mind if I do it again?

  1. Kid’s art. Still not on wall, but looking nice and colourful in the morning light.

  2. New library books. I can never borrow just one. Also, I’ve been trying to dig out all the Bendigo Woollen Mills shade cards I have – I don’t think the website does the colours any justice. And, to be honest, Bendigo’s prices are really reasonable, particularly if you have ideas involving a lot of yarn…

  3. Yes, I drew that background! (Sorry, couldn’t help myself!)

  4. Kid’s heights and other measurements, in case the sewing urge strikes. The littlest is nearly a metre tall! (She’s just turned 3.)

  5.  Chinese dictionaries, balloons, pencil case. I think this weekly showing-my-desk-thing might be good for me: I actually tidied the Christmas pudding into the storage cupboard

  6. Ideas.

  

  7. Went to IKEA on the weekend. You’ll be pleased to hear I bought a little bin (see 9 last week). And I bought a random orange tin I’m not sure what I’ll do with, some more kid’s bowls, some finger puppets … as well as the drawers we really went to buy.

  8. Crochet project. I’m really enjoying it.

  9. Sewing machine, still untouched.

  10. Yes, dear patient library, I will return it on time! (Hate it how the length of time you can borrow changes if someone else requests the book. Even though it’s totally fair enough, I’ve requested books too)

  11. The books mentioned yesterday.

  12. Stain on the table, although I try to be careful. Argh! (I did later manage to scrape it off)