Oooh, Shiny!

Needle Cases

A commenter on Flickr asked how I made these, which reminded me that I had started a post about them  several months ago. (Oy.)

I didn't take any step by step photos as I made them, but here's the general order of operations:

1. Cut same-size rectangles from your outer fabric, interfacing, and lining fabric. I used a fairly stiff fusible, since I wanted a good amount of body.
2. Cut same-size rectangles for one or more pockets and pocket linings.
3. Cut same-size rectangles for the flp and flap lining that are about 1/2-3/4" narrower than the outer fabric (on the long dimension) and about 1/2 the height of the outer fabric.
4. With right sides together, seam the pocket and pocket lining together along one long edge.
5. This part is tricky to explain without photos... to attach the pockets to the lining, I put the assembled pocket and lining on top of the main lining, with the pocket lining side up. I aligned the pocket so that the raw edge was toward the top of the main lining, and 1/4" higher than I wanted the bottom of the pocket to be. Most of the pocket was extended past the lower edge of the main lining piece. I stitched 1/4" from the raw edge and then flipped the pocket up and pressed. For the ones with multiple pockets, I started with the one closest to the top of the case and worked down.
6. To make the pocket divisions, I just stitched down the pockets at somewhat regular intervals. Since you need to fold the case into fourths, it is helpful to stitch along those lines, and then stitch in other divisions from there as desired.
7. To make the flap, I put the outer flap piece and lining right sides together, and stitched around three of the four sides, leaving one long edge open. Then I turned the flap right side out and pressed it.
8. I added the ribbon for the closure at this point, by folding the fabric in fourths and then stitching down the ribbon along one of these lines, centered from top to bottom.
9. To assemble the case, I stacked the outer fabric (with interfacing) face down, the lining and pockets face up, and the flap face up. I then basted all of these layers together. Next, I finished the edges with double-fold binding. I used straight-grain, but you could use bias also. I like to make my own binding to match, but you can certainly use purchased binding just as easily.
10. Last step is to make a fabric-covered button and stitch it down near the "fourth" line opposite the one you sewed the ribbon on.

Hope this makes sense. You'll want to choose your own measurements based on what you want the case to hold. I also engineered mine to work with fat quarters, so I could use  fabric from my quilting stash.  I made three cases, one for circular needles, one for double pointed needles and one for crochet hooks. These are not the first cases I've made for needles and hooks, but they are the most successful ones. Here are some tips, based on things I learned the hard way with previous iterations:

• Make the top flap nice and deep, otherwise it will not keep the needles from falling out if you pick the case up from the bottom.
• Make the pockets for the circular needles nice and deep, otherwise the needles will constantly be trying to sproing out of them.
• Make sure you measure the depth of the pockets for hooks and DPNs so that your needles don't stick up past the top of the case.

Sister Bracelet

I've finally finished this and mailed it to my sister, so I can post a photo.

Does this design look familiar, Melissa? I've made four of them now. I think it's out of my system. :)

First Hand Dyeing Experiments

Dan just got back from a 12-day trip to Japan. As per usual when he travels without me, I spent the first week or so in blissful solitude, and took the opportunity to dig into some of my projects and dabblings. Then, I spent the last five days pining something fierce.

The first thing I got down to after taking him to the airport was trying out some immersion dyeing in the roaster oven I got from him as a Christmas present. I just wanted to give the process a whirl, get a feel for it, and try a bit of color mixing without any particular goals for the outcome. I used Jacquard Acid dyes, which my local craft store stocks, so I was able to easily get additional colors as needed.

The roaster oven has a "buffet" insert, with three pans intended to keep dishes hot for serving. They're perfect for running three small batches of dye at a time. My first round was a set of fairly primary colors on some natural white Wensleydale top that I got as a sample with my drum carder. I broke it into three equal pieces (not worrying about how much it weighed) and put one in each buffet tray. I had already soaked the wool overnight, and mixed up some stock solutions (1 tsp. of dye powder to 2 cups water; not overly precise, mind you).

From left to right, the dye colors used are Periwinkle, Golden Yellow and Vermillion.

After this test run, my plans were to dye a range of colors over some medium grey Corriedale roving I had. Here's the undyed fiber:

For this set, I did pay a bit of attention to the weight. I broke the roving into 2 oz. pieces, which I thought would be a reasonable size for samples - spun up, there will be enough to use in a small colorwork project. I put each piece into a tray, and poured in vinegar water (about 2 tsp./half gallon) to cover the fiber.

For each piece, I aimed for about 1/2 cup of dye stock solution in total, which I mixed with 1-1/2 cups water so I had a bit more volume of dye to pour over the rovings.

My first batch of three was the secondary colors, left-right:

• 1/3 cup Golden Yellow, then Periwinkle to make 1/2 cup,
  
• 1/2 cup Golden Yellow,  then a tablespoon or so of Vermillion
• 1/4 cup Vermillion and 1/4 cup Periwinkle

For the next two batches, I picked up some Scarlet and Turquoise dye, so that I had closer to true primaries. And at this point, my record keeping kind of fell apart. I am not destined to be a production dyer. Here's my best recollection:

• Scarlet and Turquoise
  
• Vermillion and a little bit of Turquoise
• Golden Yellow and Scarlet
• Golden Yellow and Turquoise
• Straight Turquoise

And here's the full spectrum, with the undyed fiber in the middle.

Keen observers will note that my second set had five, not six colors. I used some natural light grey Corriedale to round out the  group.  This was a smaller length, so I threw in a small piece of tussah silk with it. It was neat to see how differently the fibers took up the dye. The silk is much bluer.

Finished Floral Punchneedle

A quick post from me tonight... too much digging in the garden this weekend has left me pooped out!

Here's a shot of the floral punchneedle I was working on... last June.

I have a frame for it, but obviously haven't gotten it in there yet. One of these days! It's on my "get it done in 2008" list. :)

  Here are some scenery pictures from Lancaster. I'm not very good at shooting landscapes, or really anything from a distance, so I decided I need to practice. I think they came out okay, better than any landscape type pictures I've taken in the past anyway...

They might make neat landscape quilts...

Fair Isle Finished

This post is a bit overdue, since I succeeded in finishing the sweater in time for Christmas. :)

This was a Philospher's Wool Color Your Own kit that I got at Stiches about five or six years ago. Dad picked the colorway, and they are not only some of his favorite colors, but also ones that look great on him.

I put off starting this sweater for a long, long time because I was a bit intimidated about learning the Fair Isle technique. I took some detours into learning Continental style knitting so I would be better able to do the true two-handed stranding technique. The final kick in the pants to get going came last Christmas (2006) when Dad said wistfully that he thought he'd never get the Fair Isle sweater. I determined then and there to finish it for the next Christmas.

The first few inches of the body were a little bumpy. My tension was not too even, and the bottom band did not lie very well. I also did not love the way that the 1x1 ribbing looked. I made the decision very late in the game to cut off the first design band at the bottom and reknit it and the ribbing. I'm glad I did, because I'm very happy with the way it came out:

The corrugated ribbing is tedious to knit, but the effect was just right for the design, and also to provide a bottom edge that would not pull in too much and bind.

Here's a photo of the crocheted steeks in progress. They worked wonderfully and left a very tidy edge inside. The vertical row of orange is a line of running stitch I put in before cutting to make it easy to see where the sleeve stitches should be picked up. I got nice straight sleeve edges!

Here's one more shot of the top part of the sweater and the neckband:

Dad loved it, and thanks to Mom's espionage and measuring of his favorite sweaters, it fits him very well. Yay!

So, here are some pictures I promised from my trip to Lancaster this past week. I actually forget to take pictures for most of the time we were away, but on the last night, and the last day I remembered. Here are some of the projects my mom and I were working on.

This is the apron quilt my mom was working on. She put the top together for a workshop she taught for the guild on vintage aprons. She did a lot of the quilting on the top while we were away.

This is a wool felt applique project that my mom was working on. She's close to finished this one.

Here's a detail of the applique.

This is the Exquisite pattern quilt that I worked on in CA. I sandwiched it for the third time while we were away and finally got all the wrinkles out. I can start hand quilting it now... I bought a lot of different colors of solid fabrics to do a series of this pattern. I got an army green to do one with green and pink, I got a dark brown and a dark gray, and I got teal blue and a dark purple that I'm going to do in a checkerboard with orange and yellow triangles. These blocks were a lot of fun to make, so I'm looking forward to doing some different color variations... and it gave me a reason to sort through my scraps...

I made a belt out of the ribbons and buckle we ordered while I was in CA. It's pretty, but it the buckle doesn't hold the ribbon in place on it's own. I'll have to add some snaps or something...

I started a little owl embroidery. I wasn't planning on making this, but I wanted to work on something new while I was there so I started doodling and drew this little owl.

As always, the project didn't end there, and I drew him some friends which I'm now going to stitch as well. I think there will be two more little parts of this picture with sky, stars, and a moon and then I'll arrange it like you're looking out a window.

That's all for project photos. I'll save the pictures of Lancaster scenery for another post.

I know this blog is mainly for crafty projects, but I don't have any photos of my projects yet, and my camera is still broken. But, I have been experimenting with Photoshop recently, basically trying to learn how to use the program. So, I'm going to post some of my photo experiments instead. Our guild just had a workshop on printing photos on fabric, so I might try that out with some of these photos.

This is the sign on a diner in Philly across from the Tin Angel. I adjusted the colors a little and then used a Glowing Edge filter. Normally I wouldn't go this over the top with a photo, but I think it sort of works on this one.

This photo was originally a little dark. Jean lightened it up for me a little bit, which gave it a sort of distressed look, almost like a photo transfer. I kind of liked that look. In this version I enhanced the colors a bit, increased the constrast, and applied a filter (I don't remember which one). I like it though. It's sort of abstract, and I like the bold colors. I might try printing this one on fabric and embellishing it with beads and embroidery floss.

This is one I took a while ago at a beach near San Francisco I think. I was amazed at how much clearer the picture looked after I adjusted it. The colors are a lot richer and it lost the cloudy feeling of the original that was created by the water I think.

Here's the original image for comparison. I'm a lot happier with the photo after the changes I made. It just looks crisper and a lot better all around.

                                                                Okay, I know, this one doesn't look like much. It's a photo of cracked bricks I took at UPenn. It was pretty drab color-wise, so I added some red, and again applied an effect that I don't remember. I'm not meaning for this photo to stand on it's own, because it doesn't. Since I do video work though, I thought it might look good as the background for a graphic. I don't have much experience with making graphics, but it's something I'm interested in learning, and something I really need to learn about. This photo doesn't go thematically with any of my projects right now, but sometime in the future it might make a good background for a graphic.

This one is of Christmas lights on a tree outside at night. I didn't do too much to this one. I just brightened up the colors a little bit.

This one was taken in a car and is of traffic going over the Ben Franklin Bridge I believe, or somewhere in Philly. I adjusted the colors a little bit and boosted the contrast. It makes the photo a little more interesting, and the colors pop a little more.

So, those are my experiments. I have a few others, but these were the most successful so far. Tim just got a fun new toy. It's a light scribe CD burner. It basically inscribes an image onto a special kind of CD. I've been playing around with designing CD covers, but I don't have much to show for that work yet. It's been fun to play around with.

The Lancaster Spring Fling starts tomorrow, so I should have some new pictures to post when I get back. I'll take some photos of the quilting projects I'm working on, and hopefully the painting on fabric project we started at the guild workshop today...More to come soon!

Breaking the Logjam

I spent most of 2007 in a bit of a spin: there was a lot of adjusting to do after moving to a new city and getting used to the rhythms or working at home all the time. We also had to get used to the additional responsibilities of taking care of a house, and all the new interior and garden projects that came with it. For most of the year, I felt like I was in suspended animation in terms of my creative pursuits.

In 2008, I have determined that I will bust through that, and get back to being productive in my non-work life. We've settled into a pattern for our days, and we have started making friends here in town. My overarching goal for this year is to focus  on working through the projects that are in progress, or that I have bought materials for. There are a few impulses behind this:

1. If I finish projects in progress, I can get piles off of my work table (and desk and floor), return tools to their home with related items, and generally enjoy a less cluttered and chaotic environment.
2. I would really like to feel a little bit more sense of accomplishment. I am always busy, but because I nibble away at so many different things I often feel like I never get anything finished.
3. One of my least favorite aspects of my personality is that I let myself get stymied when I hit an obstacle. Instead of working through it, I have a strong tendency to put it aside and start something else. Net result: I feel guilty about projects that have been sitting too long
4. I've noticed that when I am busy, I have a pronounced tendency to buy materials for a new project as a substitute for actual creative time. This only adds to the guilt produced by point #3, and compounds my clutter and storage issues.

We're almost two months into 2008, and so far so good. I've bought stuff for one or two new projects, but I have been on  a roll with getting things finished - or at least moving again. I'm going to work on chronicling some of these things here.

Let's start with a couple of handmade albums I made in January, during the "playtime" week I took off after Christmas. They're an example of a project I bought the materials for quite some time ago.

I've had a longstanding interest in bookbinding and other paper arts for as long as I can remember, although I don't spend as much time on it as on other hobbies. In theory, it dovetails nicely with my photography, and these albums are intended to house portfolios of my photos when I get them together (another 2008 project...)

I started with album kits from Paper Source. Oh, I could wax lyrical about my love for Paper Source, but I will save that for another time. They sell great little kits for postbound albums that take the hassle out of making them: the parts that are tedious and require specialized equipment are done for you, leaving the fun parts. The two below are the Medium White and Medium Black album kits.

The kits include board for the covers, and pre-cut, scored and punched pages. You choose the cover and end papers, and the bookcloth on the spine edges. I got the cover papers from them as well.

Postbound albums are great because they can expand to hold the photos that you put in them, unlike most bound books or albums.

I can only hope that one day, Paper Source will come to Santa Barbara...

Fair Isle Progresses Apace

Knitting time that coincides with ability to focus has been scarce as hen's teeth this last week, but I've managed to make some progress on the Fair Isle sweater for Dad. Mom assisted with some measurement surveillance on a favorite sweater of his, so I'm feeling confident that it will fit when I'm done. Here's the body so far:

And here's a little closer shot of the pattern:

I'm taking a little vacation to Lake Tahoe next week, and I'm expecting to get a lot of knitting done while I'm there. The goal is still to have this done by Christmas... we'll see how it goes!