Pretty Stuff

Remember this?

Well, it's finished now.




In the comments for my last post, Bill M. asked what the difference between embroidery and needlepoint is. Embroidery uses a variety of stitches to create a single motif to embellish a piece of fabric. Needlepoint uses a single stitch type to create an image on a canvas, covering the entire material (which is usually much heavier than the fabrics one would hand embroider on). This is an example of what needlepoint looks like, and in some of these macro shots you can see a few of the stitch types I used to embellish the fabric Missouri provided.



Think of it this way: Embroidery is like pinstripes and decals on a typewriter, while needlepoint is more like going for full on silver surferdom (is that a word?).
















Another thing I finished this morning:



Mario Manicure! Because I am just that much of a geek. And no, I did not do the above needlepoint myself, but since I know someone will be wondering, I just had to use it since it was the first image that popped up when I Googled "needlepoint" for an example.

Typecast #5

Here is an image of the logo and sticker on the front of the machine (obviously taken before I finished cleaning it).

Sorry about the poor quality of that typecast--apparently, purple ribbon ink doesn't scan very well, and even photoshop had trouble with it.

__________

Did you guys see this article on Yahoo this morning? No, I'm not talking about Harry Potter. I mean this one about middle class jobs in danger. Scroll down near the bottom where it lists the 10 fastest declining positions in the country. Eight of the ten are related to the textile industry. I find this absolutely tragic, considering that for centuries textiles were the backbone of many local economies.

I know that this probably won't effect my job specifically, but I still wish that we could reclaim our industry, rather than shipping it overseas. I find this especially tragic since I (not so) secretly harbor a desire to get into the textile industry, in a small way, and I hate seeing an entire trade get cut down like that.

Landing

Alice and I arrived safely last night...at 3:30 in the morning. Our flight was delayed by an hour (which was kind of funny, since I'd never flown with Ryan Air before, and their sign at the airport said "The On Time Airline" (Their literature, however, read "The Low Price Airline". I Thought that was a rather convenient save, on their part). We met two lovely girls in the airport, also studying in Florence and staying just on the other side of of the Kensington Gardens from us. We hung out in the airport, caught a bus together, and then tried to navigate our way to our hostels. Since we had to go different directions, however, they managed to catch a direct bus while Alice and I caught a cab (only about £13, which isn't bad since our last cab in London was £40).

It was an uncomfortable night because we basically just dumped our stuff and then climbed into bed. I laid on top of my blanket, just covered up with my sheets. I didn't have a pillow so I used my coat and my backpack.

I have to say that I prefer the Smart hostel in Edinburgh. This place nickle and dimes you for just about everything. You have to buy a towel (the other place provided us with fresh every morning); The rooms aren't as neat and all of the public areas are bright red with black trim, which, while interesting, makes it kind of hard to relax. On the bright side, the beds themselves are comfortable. Now if only the bathrooms were large enough to actually move in. I will say though, that when I told the girl at the front desk that I didn't have a pillow, she gave me the pillow and a half hour of free internet to make up for it.

On brighter news, Alice and I walked through Kensington Gardens this morning, after brunch of eggs with toast and mushrooms and milk tea at a local cafe. It was so nice to see trees and grass and more animals than just pigeons after being stuck in stone cold Florence. As the age of the Florentines increases, and their birthrate continues to fall, you really get the impression that the city is dying. Being in London is like getting a breath of fresh air. There are kids and dogs and birds and squirrels, and I love it. The leaves are changing and everything is beautiful.

After the gardens we went down to the V&A--The Victoria and Albert Museum. Since we got in so late, we didn't go through much, just bits and pieces of the first floor. But it is probably one of my favorite museums now. They have so many textiles, and I scoured their bookstores for books to help with my thesis (the topic of which has yet to be decided, other than the fact that it will involve textiles). If I'd bought every one I wanted, I would have spent close to £300, so I settled for a single text that examines garments from all points of history from all over the world, since I'm pretty sure that I'll being working with garments of some kind.

We figured out the underground for the ride back. It was a little bit of a hassle in the station since it was so crowded and busy, but it was a quick ride. I think we're going to take a break here at the hostel before heading out again. There's plenty to see, and we are in no hurry.

Meet Vanyel

Remember that Major Purchase I mentioned about a month ago that I didn't want to jinx? Well, this is it.

Vanyel is a Kromski Mazurka, which I purchased second hand from someone on Ravelry. I'm still learning, but here is the first bobbin I spun last night.


It took me about an hour and a half. I spun a second bobbin right away in natural white, and this morning I started plying them together.I've got about half a bobbin on the wheel right now.

Treadling is different. I originally wanted a double treadle, but I just couldn't say no to all of the wood turning. I try to use my left foot as often as possible, since I use my right for driving and my sewing machine. It's pretty smooth, and my biggest problem is that the wheel "travels" as I work. I'm going to get one of those no-slide mats and sew myself a little rug for it.

I've been doing a lot of dying when I'm not working on my thesis show, but not pictures yet. I've got a bit more to work on.

And in case you were wondering, yes, my new years resolutions/goals have gone out the window.

Doctor Who ain't got nothin' on this.

The other day I was listening to an older episode of Lime and Violet (maybe a month or two old), and Violet was talking about a Doctor Who scarf that she's knitting. At 18-20 feet long, they are quite a commitment.

This right here? Just over 1/4 of the total length.

I think I need a taller gallery.

I ordered a sewing machine a few days ago, and it came in the day before yesterday. I made some curtains and a pillow for my room. No pictures yet, but I'll take some soon (I always say that, don't I?).

I also got my studio set up at school. It's nothing terribly fancy, but I mostly sew and knit, and I don't need all of the stuff that the painters do. I need to get a case for my machine so that I can bring it with me to work, but I haven't found one that both fits the machine and my price range yet. I think a trip to JoAnn Fabrics is in order.



I want to put something on the walls, but my body of work is only about *that big,* and none of it is recent/two dimensional.

My classes are going well. I'm busy, but hanging in there. Anatomy is a chore though, and Textile science is remedial. We answer questions like "Where does cotton come from? Is flax an animal or plant fiber? Why do textile manufacturers need to know about textiles?" (yes, those are all direct quotes from the class or my text book).

Well, I'm off to work some more on the thesis show. Really, having it be put off is a blessing. It'll give me more time to untangle myself from this Scarf of Doom.

Birthday Swag

I turn 21 tomorrow, but we celebrated yesterday by inviting family and neighbors over. Mostly, I got cash (just the way I like it), so today I went out to spend it.

I got three old French primers from my great-great aunt who recently passed away (I only met her once and we never spoke; mostly I knew her son and his wife. They found the books while cleaning out her house a few weeks ago). I collect old books, and I love French, so they passed them on to my willing hands. I picked up some thread (I have lots of colors but no white thread? How did this happen?), some sour patch because I am addicted acid--citric acid, that is. Can't get enough sour candy, and these were on sale at CVS. Lastly, I went to one of my favorite DVD stops (Walmart. Got to love the $7.50 DVDs). I love digging through the sale bins at Blockbuster and Walmart for movies. There's lots of crap to laugh at, but every once in a while you'll find some gems. This week that have patriotic DVDs on sale for $8, so I picked up The Great Escape (*sigh* Can I go back to 1963 and get me some young David McCallum?), as well as a double feature disk of The Secret Garden and A Little Princess, which were two of my favorite books/movies growing up. Hey, two movies for $7.50? I'll take that!

I also got my "adult" driver's license today--the horizontal one with the yellow bar at the top. I don't care about drinking (I could do that in Canada and in Italy, and I didn't enjoy it that much, so what's it matter here), but the new card is nice and shiney, and I won't have people asking me where the expiration date is anymore (well, to be honest, that hasn't happened since I was 17, just after they implemented the whole under-age vertical license thing, but still).

And I have to say thanks to YarnHead over on Ravelry. I was asking questions about silk hankies in the Beginner Spinning group, and she PMed me to say she had a few "just lying around," and would I like them. Hello? Free silk? Yes please! Those arrived today, about half a dozen I think, so thanks so much to her.

Oh, and the rest of the cash? I bought 8 oz of undyed alpaca online this morning. I'm in fiber heaven. I made a resolution to not buy new yarn until I'd used up everything in my stash, but it doesn't count if I just by fiber, because that's not yarn, see? And I have to spin it all up before I can order something new, which mean it takes me longer to work through it all.

I can rationalize anything. Especially birthday purchases.

Photo Overload

Okay, I'll admit it. I forgot to take a picture of the cincher. I'll try to get one soon. It will be so nice when I have readily available internet, and don't have to go to the school. I can just pick up the camera, snap the picture, and plug it in.

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Peace Project Update
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We are up to 133 promised flags, and I know of at least one person that has completely finished theirs. Spirals on Ravelry wrote up a lovely article on the project for This Week in Ravelry (thanks Sprirals!).

Speaking of Ravelry, there is now a page in my notebook where you can see photos of the project as it comes together. Also, don't forget about the Flickr group!

To make up for the lack of cincher pictures, I do have images of the Peace Project centerpieces, with the completed embroidery. The grease stain came off wonderfully--the dry cleaner is a miracle worker, and the nicest lady. I guess she had to try a couple of times to get it off, but I'm so glad she did!

Photographic Proof

This is the top that I was talking about the other day. Haven't tried it on to mark the darts yet. No, that is not the poor photo quality (though it is a bad picture); the material really is iridescent. I picked it up for about two euro for about four or five yards at this little stand just outside our apartment. I've discovered that this crappy little stand has the best apparel fabric at the best prices--he beats the pants off of the Tuesday morning market, plus he's close and open every day but Sundays.

This is the first sock of the second pair. I've got a few more inches to do before I can cast off. I'm thinking maybe four or five. I should be trying it on again, but I'm afraid I'm going to break those itty bitty needles. I'm so used to using size eight or nine aluminum needles that these sock needles just feel like toothpicks in my hands.

This is the scarf for my mom. I'll probably have to go out and buy two more balls of the yarn for it, since I'm only about 1/3 done and I've doubled the yarn. Still, it's working up nicely. I'm going to have to beat it a little before I give it to her, though, because it's linen and a little bit coarse on the skin.

I was a bad girl this morning and ordered some things from Amazon, which will be waiting for me when I get back. I purchased Knitting for Peace and Knitting Goddess, and pre-ordered Tin Man. I am a dork and want to take Alan Cumming home. He really does not look forty-two years old.

I added a few things to my wishlist, too. Like some addie turbos, and a set of Denise interchangeables, as well as some spinning books that were recommended on Lime and Violet.

And just to prove that there are pretty things in Florence, here is a picture of Cascine Park when there is no market. This park is my favorite place in the entire city.

Blossoming

Well, it certainly took long enough, but here is a picture of my first ever batik! It's going to be a cushion, but I can't really stuff it until I get back to the US, just for the portability of flying.

This particular project had to be centered around Florence/Tuscany/Italy. What does this have to do with Florence, you may ask? Well, the Fleur de Lis at the center comes from the Loraines, a French family who married into the Medici, who where the rulers of Florence in the middle ages and Renaissance. The word Florence actually means something like "city of flowers" or "field of flowers;" I don't remember the exact translation. It felt like everyone in my class was doing some image of the Duomo, the huge church at the city center, and I wanted to be a bit different. I also just really like the Fleur de Lis; it's the Francophile in me.

Last night I made a huge leap--I cast on for my first ever sock! The yarn came from the dollar store, and it was finner than what I usually see there. It reminded me of the sock yarns back home, even though it wasn't quite the right weight. Well, I had a pair of size 2 DPNs in the apartment, and decided it was about time I started using them.

Even more shocking than the fact that I'm making a sock, I'm actually using a pattern! This will be a first for me. Well, there were the hideous fingerless gloves I made last spring, but I only finished one, and I hated every minute of it.

The pattern is the plain Widdershins, from the Knitty Summer '06 issue. I'm doing them in plain old stockinette right now, just to learn the construction, but I think I'm going to do the leg part in a k2p2 rib, and turn them into knee socks. I've been wanting a pair of socks that are a little heavier duty, because I keep wearing holes in all of the store bought ones I brought with me. I'm beginning to wonder if it's even worth my time to go back and sew them up again.

More news!

Alice and I have started recording our very first podcast! I should have it up on Itunes within the next week or so, with a link to appear here in the sidebar. I can't tell you the title yet; we were thinking about MisKnits, but that's a blog here on blogger. Then we decided on Pomcast (long story), but there's already a PomCast on Itunes.

Cabled Laptop Cozy

I'm only a little behind. This is the "finished" image of my laptop cozy. I've attempted several times to make one in the past, but it always ended up frogged. This time around, I was determined to make it work.

Stats:

Times frogged: 4 for this attempt, at least twelve overall.
Yarn: 1 skane of red heart acrylic (one of the last skanes of such remaining in my stash! I'm almost free! The end is near!)
Needles: 6mm straights (that's a US 8, I think)
The how to: Cast on enough stitches to cover laptop long-wise. Purl ten stitches, move three to cable needle, put needle in back. Knit three, knit from cable needle, purl until there are 16 stitches left. Move three to cable needle, hold in front. Knit three, then knit from cable. Purl remaining stitches. On the wrong side, knit purl stitches, purl knit stitches. Cable every four rows.

When there is enough material knitted to cover the front of the laptop, switch to reverse stockinette with a seed stitch boarder (four stitches). When both sides are of equal length, begin work on the flap by decreasing at the beginning and end of every right side row. For the trim, pick up a stitch, knit, pick up another stitch (there should be 2 now), k, p, pick up stitch (3), k, p, k, pick up stitch (4), k, p, k, p, pick up stitch (5), k2tog. Continue picking up stitches every four rows, knitting the picked up stitch with an existing one so that you keep 4 on your needles at all times. Work in seed stitch all the way around the flap. When you get back to the other side, decrease to create a mirror image of where you started. Sew up seams and add buttons (my buttons are not shown because I took this picture a few days ago and found my buttons by accident last night).

Another Eff'd Oh!

Stats:

Times Frogged: 3
Yarn: Linie 194 in Solo for the flames, Dark Horse Fantasy #20 (that's the red), and the black was a soft, leftover black I had laying around but lost the tag for. It's some kind of inexpensive acrylic, but not the nasty Red Heart kind.

Needles: US 11/8mm Brittany wood straights
Pattern: My Own
The How-To: I cast on 16 stitches in the varigated, worked a few inches. The border is two stitches wide, done in seed stitch. Honestsly, I think I should have made both the scarf and the border a bit wider, because the red yarn is a bit thinner and has a tendency to curl, even though it's been blocked.

The color changes were stranded color work, but the main body of the scarf was really simple. My biggest problems came from adjusting my gauge (the varigated yarn is much, much thicker than the red or even the black), and also working out how I wanted to do the flames. I think that between this scarf and the Butterfly hat, I am done with fancy color work for a while (but at least this time the color work came out semi-properly).


Currently on the needles: Kimono Sweater
Currently in storage: the Never Ending Skirt
Next in Line: Cap and Cowl for my dad, winter skirt (sewing)

I've also intermitently be working on some squares for my scrapghan, which I have been making on and off for a few years now. I almost have enough squares for a lap robe. That project has been on hold because up till now it's been all crocheted, and I simply can't crochet anymore because of my wrists. The new squares are being knit it garter stitch, and have come out pretty nice. I figure that if I get the sizing wrong (the blanket is at my parents' house) I'll just crochet a little around the edges to make them big enough. That little bit I think I can handle.

Oh, and here's another Eff'd Oh that I'd almost forgotten about! My Pixi Skirt! I actually finished it sometime in September/early October, but oh well.

Stats:
Number of seams ripped out: 0 (!!)
Fabric: The blue is a satin remnant I've had sitting around for ages and wanted to use, and the black is a crinkly satin-type material, no idea other than that.
Pattern: My own, of course. Are you noticing a theme?
For the closure, I used four pearl buttons and some fake leather cord, so it buttons up the way Victorian era boots would. Really cool, and it was surprisingly easy to make. I didn't have any problems, except for some minor hiccups in sizing, which I cleared up in about five minutes with a pair of shears.

SQUEE!

I just finished making my Halloween costume. The costume was designed, hand sewn, and modeled by me, with photos taken by my roommate, Alice.









Brigid is a triple goddess, meaning she has aspects of the maiden, mother, and crone. It is speculated that she is who Morgan LeFay is based off of.

I've been working on this on and off for about two months, and I am so unbelievably proud of it. I really hope I win something at the campus Halloween party tomorrow night.