I've been knitting socks with my new thread and it's working out really well. Except the thread is only 10 meters, not enough to finish one sock. I'm stuck now waiting for another shipment. After payday, I'm going to try to buy a whole box of this stuff. It is DMC Coton a Broder size 16. I'm using a 5-0 32" circular needle to knit two socks at once. For the most part, it works GREAT. I just had trouble keeping the stitches tight on the decrease section. Hopefully a better experience next time.
I recently rearranged my sewing room. I removed a table I used to sculpt on. I'm not really sculpting anymore, although there is this one project... Anyway, one less table gave me room to put a chair and chest of drawers in front of the very sunny window, and I love to sit there and knit in the glorious sun. I'm going to get a footstool from Ikea next week, which will make the stitching area perfect! The footstool even has storage!
I finished embroidery on the periwinkle dress--little white bullion daisies with yellow French knots and green lazy daisies. It's very effective. I got some yarn in the color of the yellow centers and I'm making a shrug from a Beck Colvin Sew-Cool design. Little periwinkle shoes and a headband to come with additional daisy embroidery. I think it will be adorable and will hopefully meet with my collector's approval. And if not, I can sell it and make a little money!
I'm making just mental progress on my yarn dyeing project. I've decided on a less expensive swift/skein winder combo. I need to be able to wind off a measured amount into a skein for dyeing, and I see no other way to do it than with a swift/skein winder. Then I will need a canning pot and jars to do the steaming/simmering. I'm looking forward to the challenge of color mixing!
Wednesday, March 27, 2013
Sunday, March 17, 2013
A Return, Perhaps?
Here are a bunch of pictures of my last design, then I'll talk about stuff. I think of this one as my masterpiece. The last one is the fancy underwear I made to support the weight of this dress, which was pretty heavy with embroidery and beading.
I've been thinking about the reality of maintaining so many crafts. I've been much more involved in knitting. I want to design my own dolls sweaters and dye my own yarn. The yarn dyeing is a long term thing, because it will cost so much to get started. Right now I want a totally frivolous Crazy Monkey combination hand powered swift and skein winder with a counter! That's like $700. I don't see that happening, lol.
But I thought I could sacrifice lace to get in more knitting and more sewing. It turns out I can't. I still love it, and I just bought a new pillow for the next project. Once I realized how I felt about selling the pillow, (in short, NO), I knew it wasn't gone for me. I may only spend 10 hours a week on it, instead of the 30 I was trying for, but that's still lace finished. I have two pieces ready to sew into outfits still that I haven't used yet.
I've had various money making schemes brewing in my head. One is to put together kits for my outfits, with hand dyed fabric and yarn and original patterns. Hopefully by the end of the year I can try it out. I wonder if I want to give out my patterns, though. Plus, many of my ideas are inspired from other artists, so I wouldn't be able to sell those. I don't know. I just know that I want control over my yarn colors just like I have with my fabric. I want the freedom to create my own knitted things. I want total control over the look of my work.
So today. I'm working on the third and final outfit for my doll exchange--three outfits for an expensive doll. Then I'll be able to actually sells things again. I think the lack of profit motive may have made me slower. I'm hoping I can move faster after this. I'm waiting on a new thread for knitting socks and a new color to knit the sweater. Plus I need to make shoes and a headband.
In the meantime, my big project is to make underwear for all nine of my dolls! I'm doing the six big ones first. I'm either going to gather ruffles or make lace today. It's a gorgeous, cool but not cold, day.
All this blog was inspired by Ravelry, that yarn black hole of time absorption. They let you link to your blog, and I thought how cool is that! So here we are! A blog post!
Hugs and kisses,
Simon
I've been thinking about the reality of maintaining so many crafts. I've been much more involved in knitting. I want to design my own dolls sweaters and dye my own yarn. The yarn dyeing is a long term thing, because it will cost so much to get started. Right now I want a totally frivolous Crazy Monkey combination hand powered swift and skein winder with a counter! That's like $700. I don't see that happening, lol.
But I thought I could sacrifice lace to get in more knitting and more sewing. It turns out I can't. I still love it, and I just bought a new pillow for the next project. Once I realized how I felt about selling the pillow, (in short, NO), I knew it wasn't gone for me. I may only spend 10 hours a week on it, instead of the 30 I was trying for, but that's still lace finished. I have two pieces ready to sew into outfits still that I haven't used yet.
I've had various money making schemes brewing in my head. One is to put together kits for my outfits, with hand dyed fabric and yarn and original patterns. Hopefully by the end of the year I can try it out. I wonder if I want to give out my patterns, though. Plus, many of my ideas are inspired from other artists, so I wouldn't be able to sell those. I don't know. I just know that I want control over my yarn colors just like I have with my fabric. I want the freedom to create my own knitted things. I want total control over the look of my work.
So today. I'm working on the third and final outfit for my doll exchange--three outfits for an expensive doll. Then I'll be able to actually sells things again. I think the lack of profit motive may have made me slower. I'm hoping I can move faster after this. I'm waiting on a new thread for knitting socks and a new color to knit the sweater. Plus I need to make shoes and a headband.
In the meantime, my big project is to make underwear for all nine of my dolls! I'm doing the six big ones first. I'm either going to gather ruffles or make lace today. It's a gorgeous, cool but not cold, day.
All this blog was inspired by Ravelry, that yarn black hole of time absorption. They let you link to your blog, and I thought how cool is that! So here we are! A blog post!
Hugs and kisses,
Simon
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)