A weft yarn

Update on Santa stocking & how I organise a stitching project

I'm going to put Santa away for awhile and move on to other projects. I reached my self-imposed deadline of one third of the canvas stitched by April 2012 and now fell that my other projects need some love. It was actually kind of weird deciding to put it away because I was quite entranced with this project. Last year we renovated and created a small space for the children to put their computers so they didn't clutter up their rather small bedrooms. This new space, which we call the study nook, has just enough space to put in a comfortable chair and a tapestry frame. It has lovely afternoon light, so after school I've been sitting, while the children play on their computers, and I've done quite a bit of stitching. Often we sit in silence but usually not for too long. One of them will start chatting away about the game their playing or the site they've found and I found I've learnt a lot about Starcraft and the latest Stumbleupon or the TED videos that they are watching. It's been productive and fun for me to sit with them and I think they quite like my company even if they are absorbed by their computer play.

But all good things must come to an end. I hit a stitching block with Santa's beard. The stitching guide says to satin stitch between the continental of the grey lines. At first I put in my satin stitch on an angle and it just didn't look beautiful. I wasn't sure why. So I went to the photo that came with the stitching guide and it appeared that the satin stitch was vertical - straight up and down. So, I did something that I don't do very often - which is to rip out stitching and do it again. And unfortunately it was quite unsatisfying. It was long and fiddly to pull out stitches. I think made much more complicated by my style of stitching back and forth, instead of a block/type of stitches at a time. Then when I put in the vertical satin, it just didn't look perfect. I couldn't even quite finish it. I showed it to Tim who insisted that it was better and that he loved it. Typically, he said it in that humourous way that proves men have sheds and women have tapestry frames. If you don't get involved in the techniques of my beer brewing, I wont have to get involved in vertical vs slanted satin stich. But I really want you to be happy, so I love it. His jokes picked up my spirits, but I still decided to put the project away. Time will tell if that beard grows on me (hah).

 So, in the spirit of being helpful to anyone who is like me, relatively new to organising long  and detailed stitching projects, I offer a few facts about what I do. When you sign up to a modern canvas you can now buy stitching guides. You see it below in the red folder. I know the photos aren't great...but really they are just pointers to what I do...you don't need to work with them..just to illustrate. I then photocopy the original and put it into a folder so I can add my stitching samples and scribble notes all over the guide, without ever disturbing the original.

The stitching guides I've worked with are reasonably brief. They list the part you are stitching - so below, you are stitching the bricks of of the wall around Santa. They then list the threads and type of stitches to use. This guide goes a little bit further and puts in a small illustration of some of the stitches. However, the guide sends you to The Needlepoint Book for additional information and detailed instructions. So below, you can see we are stitching the bricks with three different threads: Impressions 1134 (a soft beige cotton), Kreinik metallic ribbon 1/16, 032 (colour white), and an overdyed floss, 1036 (a kind of self-striping brown cotton). We are to use Continental stitch on the mortar (using the Impressions) and the snow (using the Kreinik ribbon) and then Brick stitch for the bricks (using the overdyed floss). I've made notes about the page numbers and what I learnt from doing the stitching sample.

One of the first things I do when I get the kit, is to put each type of the canvas (eg the bricks or Santa's beard) into it's own little plastic bag. I then stick a piece of paper in with the threads that go with that part of the canvas. So, below there is a little plastic bag which says "bricks, Impressions 1134, 1/16 032, Overdyed floss 1036". You can also see my little bin of cut threads (and that the kids like Pringles - I personally find them kind of odd, as in not food), my notebook recording the hours I put into the project, and my magnifying glasses. I love these. I love being able to see all the fine details as I stitch.

 Below you can see my stitch samples and I've also kept the labels for the threads. I might have mentioned previously what an adventure this tapestry has been - so many new threads and stitches - so I've needed to do samples of many of them, and I've wanted to keep the details of the threads for future projects.

 

 

Anyway, launch in. It's a great craft. I like having things organised, particularly as I'm on a regular rotation of putting projects away and pulling them out months later. It's nice to have it all neat and organised when I pull it out again.

Previous posts

I might make my deadline (March 2012)

Tim's Christmas stocking - delays and pressing on (February 2012)

Christmas stocking (December 2011)

On the frame - Tim's stocking (April 2011)

Tim's Christmas stocking (April 2011)

National Folk Festival 2012

The National Folk Festival takes place in Canberra over the Easter weekend. The dates for Easter move around between March and April and have something to do with the first Sunday after the full moon of the ... something, something. I'm no expert. But I can tell you there's a full moon in the photo below. It's the big round bluey looking light between the flags. Hard to see amongst all the colour, crowds, lights, floating star-shaped lights and of course, flags, but there nonetheless. Strangely enough it was NOT freezing cold while I took this picture. For the past two years, we had been shocked by how cold it got at night, but this time around, the weekend was strangely warm and the evenings were a bit cold but not bone chilling cold.

We managed two days this year: Saturday and Monday. This, our third year, of attending in recent times (we went pre-children but only started back with children fairly recently) was our most musical year. In previous years, Tess and I spent quite a bit of time just soaking up the crafts, the workshops, the music and the stalls. This year though, I spent more time pouring over the schedule and put some time into trying to hear a range of music I thought I might like.

 Over the two days we saw some great sights, heard some wonderful music, ate yummy food, shopped at creative stalls, and enjoyed a craft workshop. I love the spectacle, the buskers, the flow of people, the colours, the richness of all the different venues and the playfulness of some of the acts. We enjoyed the Leonard Cohen tributes and many, in a loving and supportive way, had a good laugh at Leonard's slow drawling, dark, style. I was anxious that there would be an over abundance of Hallelujah but it was not done to death. In fact, the Cashew's gave it a very comic feel. Who would have thought? I didn't get to hear the complete two hour finals, but heard from Tim that there were some very fine performances.

I thought the most exciting band of the two days for me was Shooglenifty. They were very trippy kind of Celtic frantic Arabic fiddle music. No lyrics. Sounds weird but it was mind tinglingly beautiful. I had an overwhelming sensation of musicality. Like they weren't playing music they were being music. It was at times lyrical but more like being lyrical on fast forward. It's hard to explain how fast their music is.

Here's a six minute song from their Budawang performance.

courtesy of some other dude who attended (his name is on the video).

The other highlight for me was Yeshe. I may have mentioned before that my brother plays the Mbira, that he gave my son an Mbira from Zimbabwe and that at previous Nationals we have sought out some African music. Well Yeshe was just perfect for me. He played Mbira but mixed it with violin and catchy harmonies and lyrics. From his website he says...“After stumbling across the Mbira in the desert of New Mexico I was immediately put under a spell and shortly after had to follow it to it’s birthplace in Zimbabwe. There I found Mbira master Garkayi Tirikoti and totally immersed myself into the Shona culture, basically never leaving his sight and sleeping on his floor in the ghettos of Harare. The Mbira thereafter became the centerpiece of my music.” Somehow the blending of the Mbira with western style music really worked for me.

This clip is only 4 mins and is very beautiful.

 

Last year Tim enjoyed the Spooky Men and because we are still relative newbies to the National we weren't aware that acts can't come back for at least two years so we had scanned the program looking for more spooky and while first disappointed eventually we found Fred Smith who did some of his performances with a small gathering of the Spooky Men. We didn't get to hear or see him perform the new CD 'dust of urguzan', which we gather from some friends who attended that it was stunning. However, his 'Urban Sea Shanties' was right up our alley.

We also spent a bit of time in the big top of the Majestic enjoying Boisterous, a couple of circus performers. They had us playing along with them, great audience control. And as they finished they said "if you loved us, we're....Boisterous [cue roar of crowd] and if you didn't, we're.....Morris Dancers."

The venues are fantastic at the festival. The large indoor venues all have comfortable seats, comfortable carpet for when you need to lie down and stare at the lights flickering on the ceiling, places to dance down the front, stands to sit up above it all and get a good view of the stage, large screens to showcase the performers...seen below is Katie Noonan. Huge favourite of the festival. I loved her jazzy singing.

While I enjoyed the band below....it was really Mic Conway (famous for his junkyard and jug bands) but playing this year with Robbie Long and Liz Frenchman who gave us the most joy in this venue, the Marquee.

I hate to admit this but I'm pretty sure I heard Mic Conway's Junkyard band back in the mid-90s at the National. I still love his irreverant, sometimes bawdy, witty word play, often slapstick, comic, ridiculous and playful music. This man is a long-lived, musical clown who never fails to amuse and entertain. This clip below is subtle by the standards of his other songs...but gotta love someone who plays a saw, in a tuxedo. 

That's all for this year's report. See you next year. We'll either do two days again...or make the jump to a season family pass. Not quite sure were up to the jump yet. We'll see.

Previous posts

National Folk Festival (April 2011)

African blanket : Thread painting Zebras

I have done some more work on my African blanket. The whole blanket will eventually have a lion, two zebras, two giraffes, two elephants, two cheetahs, dozens of leaping gazelles, and 8-10 Samburu people - plus some grasslands (for context, like). As with so many of my embroidery projects, it will be years in the making. Last year I went to Sydney twice for classes with Jenny McWhinney and I made a start on the giraffes and the elephants. In March this year, I again went to Sydney for a class, this time on the zebras. Seen below is my two full days of stitching.

Jenny always tries to make sure you have completed the hardest part of the stitching before you leave. It's usually always the details of the faces.

Unlike the elephants and giraffes, which were stitched in wool, the zebras are done in perle cotton. It is shiny and a bit reflective and Jenny reported to the class that whenever she pulls out her blanket for a showing, people are always drawn to the zebras.

As with other classes, Jenny very kindly offers her own blanket for photographing. I might have mentioned that I was interested in learning to do thread painting as a technique, signed up for a class in Sydney and was initially only going to the giraffes as a cushion. But then I logged onto Jenny's website and found the whole blanket, complete with LION - hear me roar - stitched in the middle and then re-thought my commitment, dug deep and decided I wanted a whole blanket and that lion!

Aren't those leaping gazelles just so wonderful? Thanks Jenny for another great class. Now, time to put my head down and finish off those three animals before October's class.

Previous posts

Thread painting elephants - Samburu blanket - animal number 2 (September 15, 2011)

There's an elephant on my sofa (August 30, 2011)

Samburu blanket thread painting: Giraffes (June 18, 2011)

Giraffes, Africa, Blankets - embroidery - thread painting (March 23, 2011)

Weaving: blue scarf, long and blue

So Tess finished her third scarf on the Ashford Knitter's Loom back in January. She put the finishing touches on it while I was having a spinning lesson from a friend. We had brought our Knitter's Loom over to our friend's house to show her how portable and easy it is to use. My friend has been spinning for years but as she doesn't enjoy knitting or crochet, she seemed keen to take a look at this small and portable loom. Perhaps she'd be able to use the products of her 30 years of spinning and weave something with her yarn.

I was at first a bit bemused about her not using the yarn that she spins but she explained that it is spinning that she loves. It relaxes her and she loves the soothing process of spinning fleece into balls of yarn. I'm happy to report that I found spinning a 'potentially' relaxing activity. But that is a report for another day.

Meanwhile, back at the loom...

 

 We had used the beautiful blue hand dyed wool that we bought in this yarn and sack club.

 

 On the shuttle we mixed two different mohair bobbly wools. This loom is designed to take a funky, bobbly wool - which works for us. The mohair made the scarf quite soft and fluffy.

We had planned to make this scarf as a gift for a family member, but once it was finished we both really cooled on that plan. Tess does work very quickly (at all things - homework, craft, family activities) and sometimes she doesn't necessarily fuss over the details. Anyway, in the early parts of the weaving she clearly was racing through it. Whereas about half way through, she started attending to the process of actually weaving and tried to keep her edges neat and made sure she used the shuttle to push the yarn down into the fabric.

So the first half is disturbingly loose but more importantly it's just really different to the second half of the scarf. Unfortunately it doesn't look like a design feature, so we are chalking this up to skill development. We do wear it around the house and use it play with the cats, who love nothing better than chasing a blue tail. In summary we love the colours, the feel, and the wool, but think we'd better be a bit more even in our weaving if we want to make gifts on the loom.

I think it's my turn next on the loom....but I said that after she finished scarf number two. I didn't move quickly enough and before too long she'd got started on the warp and weft for this scarf. I might need to put the loom away in a cupboard so she forgets about it and gets on with practicing spinning. Since December we now have two spinning wheels. One that works and one that was gifted to us from a family member and doesn't work. We both need to put some practice hours into the spinning to make anything at all. Obviously, practice on weaving would make a more perfect object, but you can just leap in and make something without needing to be some kind of hugely eye-hand-and-foot coordinated master. Spinning was not so forgiving. Our first few efforts were completely unusable. Again, though, that's a story for another day.

Previous posts

Weaving with the Ashford's Knitters Loom - update on the blue scarf (May 2011)

Our new weaving loom (April 2011)

Midnight peacock purse

I have been working on a small tapestry project from the American Needlepoint Guild magazine that will be made up into an evening bag when it is finished. It is a bargello project using a range of black threads, with the only colour being a Frosty Rays blue. It is done on a black 18pt canvas and it is sitting on my new embroidery stand - which I love. I have made a lot more progress since I've had the new stand. Having both of my hands free while stitching makes the work go faster and improves the quality of stitching.

 

 

This project uses 9 different black threads - most have some kind of shiny, metallic reflective quality to them. The most reflective thread is actually the black patent leather. And as mentioned only one thread with a touch of colour (blue).  The designer Toni Gerdes said that she wanted to 'design a purse that was done entirely in stitching but still had the elegance of a beaded evening bag'. Her pattern can be found in this edition of Needle Pointers.

The article in Needle pointers was quite interesting about the history of this type of stitching. Although referred to as Bargello - it is more precisely called the Florentine stitch, which is a series of straight stitches, all of the same length. Hungarian point is a type of Florentine stitch that uses varying lengths for the straight stitches - if you search images of "flame stitch" you'll find some pretty amazing examples of this pattern; stitching, upholstery, clothing, glass ware. Some hideous, some beautiful and a few quite collectible. I had a bit of a wanty want moment with some of the search term objects.

And while I quite enjoy a bit of historical detail, I'm sure that it is completely irrelevant that this type of geometric stitching that we refer to as Bargello, is actually the name of a building in Florence. The building, is now a museum but given it's been around since the Middle Ages, it has had a number of uses, one of which was a jail. So..the word bargello means a "head of police". You can't find that in a dictionary now though. A google search will tell you that it is a type of geometric stitching. And that this pattern is a pomegranate.