Intermediate Retrospective Pt 3

One exercise that we did during our course was with collage. I made two collages, one from leaves & bark, the other from papers. It was the paper one I used as a base to to create this design.

There was lots of tracing & view finding involved before I even got to the design below, then lots of applique & stitching to get to the final product. I was really happy with this one, & had plans of framing it to hang on the wall, but that never happened. It might though one day, because even after all this time, I still quite like this piece.

Intermediate Retrospective Pt 2

This is a copy of a tracing from another still life that I did from early on in the Intermediate Certificate Course. It was this tracing that was the basis of a number of other designs. We learnt three different ways to take a sketch & turn it into a design, one of which was the age-old window view method.

If you look closely at the sketch above, you will find the shell that inspired this "One Stitch" exercise. We were only allowed to use one stitch in the whole piece to stitch with.

Intermediate Retrospective Pt1

For some time now I have been having some correspondence with Linda, the most recent of which has been about our stitching experience & how we learnt our craft. Part of my experience has been through the Embroiderer's Guild here in Sydney, where I have participated in a few courses & classes over the years.

About 12 years ago I enrolled in their Intermediate Certificate, and as this was long before my blogging days I thought I would show some of the work that I did back then.

I'll never forget that first day. On our equipment list was drawing materials, no fabric, no thread. That alone was scary, let alone the still life that was set up in the middle of the room for us to draw. It was very cleverly done, boxes at different levels, covered with a multi coloured cloth. Then on top of each level sat something, a pot, a vase, a book, etc etc. It was done so that no matter where one sat around the table there was something to look at & draw. Guess what we did that first lesson.

Our homework was to go home & draw. We were supposed to draw for at least an hour every day. We were to set up our own still life, draw it, then interpret it into stitches.

Below is the drawing that I did, very faint so I do apologise. But the pic at the top is my stitch interpretation of the sketch below.
That is something that I still find hard, trying to find stitches that work for a particular design in surface stitchery.

Another Scarf

This scarf was born out of a gift from a friend. Over six months ago I was given a hank of knitting yarn that was textured & variegated. It sat wrapped in it's tissue paper for 5 months waiting for me to think what to do with it. A scarf was the obvious answer, but what pattern? I also needed to add anther yarn with it to have enough to make a scarf. Then back in May my friend M___ & I ventured into the city to see what yarn we could find, and also a pattern that might inspire. I came home with 2 balls each of a green & a red/brown wool, and the pattern for a ruffled scarf.

After much experimentation with yarn combinations, needle sizes & patterns, this is what I have ended up with. The two different yarns required two different needle sizes so there was much playing with needle sizes alone to get something I was happy with. I even tried combining needle sizes, but ended up knitting the whole thing in just one size, somewhere between the two required.

Then there was the pattern. There were two colours involved & I was adamant that I didn't want stripes. That's when I ventured into the ruffles, but that gave me funny wedges which might be OK in different yarns than this. So the hunt was on for something else. In the end I settled for this drop stitch pattern, something that I hadn't done before and which was oh so easy.


I still had to experiment as to where to use my two colours, un-pulling a few times before I was happy with the result. I have ended up with something very textured in mottled colours, and not stripes which is on the plus side, something that should go with a few different colours.

My dilema now is whether to add something to the ends or not. I have no textured yarn left, only the green, and personally I think a fringe would be the only answer as anything else would add another texture which would be too conflicting. I think I might just leave it plain as is. What does everyone else think?

Irish Crochet Bits

On & off for a while now I have been continuing with some Irish crochet. In particular I have been playing with leaves, wanting to get them with little bumps on the edges. I have found the leaves tricky, trying to start them over the cording. The thread is fine & leaves nothing much to hold onto when starting. Once I get going I am fine, & then it is the picots on the edge giving me curry. It is hard trying to get them the same. My biggest problem is that I don't sit at it in anyone hit, it might be two or three weeks between sittings & in that time I have lost my flow & have to find it again. I have many more of these little picoted leaves to make to finish the project I have to do. Maybe I should just sit & do them, but my scarf is nearly finished & the reticella is calling.