Stash Busting Powdermill Cardigan

 A couple of years ago I crocheted a blacket.  I very much love this blanket and still use it most days to keep my knees warm in our old cold house.

At the end of the project I had a bunch of part balls of yarn left over (Stylecraft Special DK with names like Fondant, Spice, Violet, Pistachio and Fucshia) but I wasn't sure what to do with them.  I just kept them together and put them in my stash.

 

Then last year I knitted the Powdermill Cardigan and as I knitted, I couldn't help but wonder what it would look like using the colours from the blanket. 

The thought kept nagging at me, so I gave in and had a look at the bag of part balls to try and work out if there would be enough yarn to do it.  It was hard to tell, but what's the worst that would happen, I'd have to buy more wool!

So I set out to knit another Powdermill Cardigan, but this time from the stash.  Except my needle broke, so I had to buy a new one first! 

 

Eventually I got started.  I was originally going to blind pick my colours, but I wanted to keep the dark stripe/light stripe of the original pattern and that needed a little bit of planning to make sure it would work.  So I ended up planning the colours more than I had wanted.  (and this slowed me down as it was a hard decision to make EVERY. SINGLE. STRIPE.)

However, there were a few rules.  Colours that had touched before shouldn't touch again if possible.  And if they did I couldn't have three in a row.  I used the buttermilk as the colour to pull it all together as it had in the blanket and as the dark grey had in the orginal cardigan.  Lastly there should be a reasonable gap between the use of a colour so it didn't get bunched up. 

 

As I had limited amounts of the colours I decided against having all the edges match, to make sure I didn't run out.  But I did in fact run out of one colour - the buttermilk!  Luckly I was able to get a new ball at the local wool shop - a perfect match.

I also tried a new way to finish the front openings.  In the last cardigan I used a ribbon sewn in, but it took ages and didn't look the best.  This time I attempted a steek sandwich.  It needed a little tweaking but actually worked very well.  It also meant I learnt a new way to pick up stitches - much easier than I had been doing - but of course I only learnt how to do this on the last time of needing to pick up stitches.

 

I decided against buttons and button holes.  I have a shawl pin if needed.  

I adore how bright this cardigan is.  I love how well the colours sit together.  And if I leave it on my chair it merges into the blanket. LOL.

Might try something a little smaller/less challenging next... 

Printing Workshop

 

As some of you might be aware, I am slowly building a business as a creative coach.

Because of this I was looking for some inspirational posters to be hand printing for me by someone local.

Asking at my local Arts and Craft Society I was pointed in the direction of Type Tom.

 

Looking on his website, I very much liked his style of work so asked if he could print me some posters.  But he said no, would you like to print them youself?

If you know me at all, that is not the sort of offer I could turn down.

 

So this weekend I went down to Bognor to his workshop and spent the morning printing a set of 4 different posters in my brand colours!

He's also made me a logo block so we could emboss the corner of each poster to show it was mine. 

 

It was great to learn a bit about letterpress printing, before selecting the type from a wonderful selection of wooden type sets, laying it all out and printing it.  It was really hands on, so how I came away with only one smudge of green on me I have no idea! 

And I ended up with a box of posters ready to use as I see fit.

 

I'm sort of hoping I use them up quickly so I can go back and have another go! 

Recycling Broken Glass

 

Whenever I work in glass I always end up with either broken bits or things that didn't work and they all go into a tub.

Last summer I'd finally got to a place where I had enough old glass to think about recycling it.

First I had to give it a wash, then I set up my big kiln with some metal dams set up in a square, poured in all my old scrap and set it to a full fuse.

 

I should point out a couple of things here.  1. I made sure all the glass was the same brand - if you don't do this it not going to end well.  2. I lined my dam with fibre paper so nothing would stick.

Out of my kiln came a very solid slab of colourful glass and I had to think about what to do with it.

 

Later in the year I got a tile saw and a flat lap grinder.  So in the new year with some time on my hands I set about cutting up the slab and then grinding each piece down to take off sharp corners etc.  I then put half into the small kiln for a fire polish. 

 

I learn so much from this process.  For instance, you need to grind open bubbles out or you just get a cloudy mark on the surface.  Don't spend too much time shaping if using a fire polish as they are so thick they will loose their shape a bit.  Be careful using the flat lap, it will grind away your finger nails!

 

So with my second batch I took these learnings on board and tried again.

I've now got some lovely colourful chunks of shiny glass.  7 of these have had silver plated bails added and are now in my shop for sale as pendants.  Lovely chunky statement pieces.

But some of the chunks will be made into rings or brooches.  The only problems, being the price of silver right now and the amount of time I have, makes this harder to sort out.  There are some other lovely metals out there so when I have time I need to decide what I'd like to do.

I love that I am able to use my waste material to make something that hopefully people will like.  It feels much better than just chucking broken glass away. 

  

Viking Chain and Glass Beads

 

One of the gifts I received last Christmas was a kit for making Viking Chain from Abby Hook.

I'm pretty busy right now, so I wasn't sure when I'd have time to try it out, but then it snowed and there was no way I was going into the studio, so I collected some tools and sat in the warm house instead and played with wire.

It was much more straight forward than I thought it would be.  Basically you need to wrap your wire round a dowle and depending on the thickness of your wire and your dowle and if you use 3 or 4 loops will all change how your chain turns out.

It's amazing, as once you've done all you're wrapping you've got quite a solid worm of wire, but then you use the draw plate and suddenly it's thinner, flexible and flowing.

 

I made my first chain using the copper wire in the kit I received.  I then made a second from some thinner purple wire from a job lot I got off Facebook.

Lastly I made a silver chain with some silver coloured thin wire. 

Which is when I realised they needed something extra.  So once the snow recided I did go down to the studio and made some beads.  Amber to go on the copper chain, purple for the purple chain and cream and turquoise for the silver.  I actually tried two different purples, but the dark was best.

 

I pulled the purple chain a little thinner than the silver chain and the beads move around, while the beads on the silver chain can be moved, but won't move by themselves.  I quite like that they sit still.  I like having that control, plus they won't full off when I undo the chain. 

These are fun and easy to make, and nice and light to wear.  I think the silver is my favourate, but I'd wear them all.  I wonder what other colour combo's I can come up with?

Mini Needle Felted Unicorn

 

This Christmas I was gifted a mini needle felted unicorn kit.

It was super cute and when I opened the box the colours were brilliant!  I really wanted to start making it there and then, but apparently it's not approprate at the dining table.  I wasn't sure when I would get the chance to make it.

And then on the Saturday after Christmas I was supposed to go down to the studio and do something with glass.  But it was cold and even with the heater on, it didn't seem to make much difference.  And it's a mess too which didn't inspire me.  I settled for having a quick tidy then retreated back to the house.

What to do?  And my eyes fell on the unicorn kit.

 

I had to get one of the felting mats left over from another felting project, otherwise I was good to go.

It didn't take long, just the afternoon.  The instructions were pretty clear, although I decided to do legs last once I knew I had all the material I needed to making the head, ears and horn.

But it was only when I added the mane and tail that she came alive!  'im outdoors called it the 'disco unicorn' and that seems a reasonable description.  If my fringe was that long and in my face I'd have cut it off by now, but I think it suits her.   Hope it doesn't annoy her as much as it would me.

 

I also added a star on her rump, seeing as I had so much colour left over. 

A nice little afternoon project.  But I'll have to get into the studio at some point. 

Lampwork Blown Baubles

 

 If you've been following along, you might notice that I have a bit of an obsession with hollow glass forms.  If not, you do now.

I spent a lot of time this year making hollow beads.  And while I got to the end result I wanted, I'm always interested if there is a better way to do something.

 

When I saw Laura Quinn was offering a 'blow your own bauble' class just before Christmas, I signed up straight away. 

So on the Saturday before Christmas, my best mate and I, spent 2 hrs in Laura's studio learning how to blow baubles out of borosilicate glass tube, which is very different from the glass I normally work with.

Laura was so lovely and patient with us, and when I told her I had my own studio she was kind enough to get into much more technical details than I expect most people would get (or want).  And she let me make my own points!

We both had a really great morning and came away (well they were posted to us once annealed) with pretty decent baubles. 

 

What a great way to start the holidays!  Can't wait to see if I can do something similar in my own studio, although her torch was a monster, so I'll be working smaller I think. 

Cyanotype Christmas Cards

 After playing with cyanotype printing this summer, it gave me an idea for this years Christmas cards.

So while walking the dog early one August morning I made sure to take my secateurs and cut myself some bracken tips.

 

As you can see they make lovely little trees!  And each one is different.

Then I had to decide about decorations.  I had wanted to go the whole hog, but there were two issues.  If I did that it would make them hard to recyle, and two, simple just looked better.

So I glue gunned some stars on and left it at that.

 

I really like them, I hope those who received them did too. 

Happy Christmas.

Glass Holly Wreath

 

You may remember that last Christmas I went to West Dean and learnt how to copper foil by making some lovely glass stars.

I had lots of ideas for what I could do with this skills and did try some stuff out but life got in the way, like it does, and I sort of forgot what to do and gave up a bit.

 

However, when looking at the glass stars course last year there was another one I was very tempted by, and when I saw it was running again this year, I quickly signed up before it sold out - a glass holly wreath.

So today I was back at West Dean, for the last time this year, to learn how to make a glass wreath.

 

The wreath consists of 28 holly leaves, so while it could be a tedious process making all the leaves, it was actually the perfect project to remind myself how to cut the glass, apply the foil and then the solder. 

In the process I hope I built a bit of muscle memory too to help me get back to some of my other projects.

 

While not quite as laid back as the star project, as there were many more pieces and the curved cuts were a little harder to master, it was still a nice project to spend the day on.

I'm dead chuffed with how it came out and I know exactly where I'll be hanging it.  But while the stars have managed to stay out all year, I think this one will be going away with the Christmas decs in Jan.