04.24.08
Posted in Costuming, Dance, Dance Accessories at 10:00 am by deRomilly
Bellydance costumes are amazing things. Whether you are looking at a hipscarf used for practice, a fully beaded cabaret costume, or some of the confections that the tribal style dancers put together, you are looking at a work of art. Heck, even the basic hipscarves that students like to wear to class are amazing works of beaded artwork.
This is just a quick overview of the field. There are several major designers out there, from Sim Moda Evi in Turkey to Bella and Madame Abla (may she rest in peace) in Egypt. You can see a beautiful selection of designer costumes at www.dahlal.com .
There’s a beautiful article at the LA Times about the designer Ahmed Diaa Eddin. In addition, there are some absolutely drop-dead creative people in the US creating their own costumes, and guaranteeing that they will be unique in the process. The Costume Goddess (Dina) is a guru of hand-made costumes on the cheap.
And that’s just the cabaret costumes. When you get into American Tribal Style and Tribal Fusion you get funky pants, coins, folkloric patterns and so on and so on. Tribal costuming is still more likely to be made by the individual than purchased, so examples can be seen on the sites of the various dancers and dance troupes.
The costuming Blue Moon Dance company wears at the Renaissance Fairs is typical of ATS costuming (they are a fusion group and wander out of “traditional” tribal costuming quite often) and the Indigo for Tribal Fusion (their myspace site) costuming ideas can’t be beat.
Dance costuming is a treasure trove of needlework and embellishment techniques, as well as basic costume design. Exploring them can become a hobby in itself!
Later I’ll go into some of the dance costume styles in more detail, but this shoud get you started on some eye candy!
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04.14.08
Posted in Free Patterns, Knitting at 9:24 am by deRomilly
These quick lace mitts were designed and made for my friend Rebecca. She hasn’t seen them yet, so if I see a “squee” on her blog I’ll know she reads this one. J
I learned the lace pattern in some sweater that I knit a while ago that didn’t work on me at all. I had the swatch left over, though and applied it to mitts. 
Pattern below the picture. As usual, copyright belongs to G. Romilly Mueller, all rights reserved, feel free to use for personal use only, no commercial use, and if you’d like to post to your site, please post a link here rather than reprinting.
Patons classic merino in Royal Purple
Size 4 (3.5mm) and 2 (2.75mm) needles
Gauge: 12 stitches over 2 inches on smaller needles
Cast on 48 stitches on larger needles.
Work k2p2 ribbing for 2 inches.
Switch to smaller needles and begin lace pattern as follows:
Row 1: P1, K1, SSK, YO, SSK, YO, K1, YO, K2tog, YO, K2tog, K1 Repeat 3 more times.
Row 2: P11, K1, repeat 3 more times.
Row 3: P1, SSK, YO, SSK, YO, K3, YO, K2tog, YO, K2tog. Repeat 3 more times.
Row 4: P11, K1, repeat 3 more times.
Repeat lace pattern until work measures 6 inches, ending with a wrong side row.
Knit a row.
Purl a row.
Switch to larger needles and work K2P2 ribbing for 1 ½ inches.
Bind off.
Seam the 1 ½ inch long ribbing, leave 2 ½ inches open for the thumbhole, and seam the rest of the mitt.
Pick up and knit 24 stitches around the thumbhole on the smaller needles. I did this in the round, but you could pick up the ribbing straight before you stitch the lower part of the glove together, and then just run the seam up the thumb ribbing as well.
Work 2 rounds of K1P1 ribbing. Cast off.
Weave in ends.
Make the second one.
Copyright G. Romilly Mueller, 2008
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04.04.08
Posted in Book Reviews, Free Patterns at 12:27 pm by deRomilly
…not to be confused with the Geometry of nature!
I found a new-to-me website. It’s in Dutch, but she translates into English below each post. And even if you couldn’t understand it, the charts are amazing!!! She found the old charts in her Aunt’s attic, and she and many friends have been digitizing them and offering them on her blog for personal use. Definitely worth a look: archives, too…. Lilian Kok: http://myauntsattic.web-log.nl/
If you like my little geometric designs you’ll love these. I found the site through the Gift of Stitching yahoo group.
The Gift of Stitching is the first needlework magazine I’ve bothered to subscribe to in a long time. It’s completely in electronic format, which allows them to have lots of color and lots of patterns and articles for less money than printing them. And the designers are international, which provides for a broader view of the art form in general.
Not affiliated (yet, though in the spirit of full disclosure, I do hope to put up an affiliation link soon…).
In addition, I recently received a copy of “The Art & Embroidery of Jane Hall, Reflections of Nature“. All I can say is wow. This isn’t a project book, but it does detail many of her projects. With her own words reflecting a magical outlook on nature and the world around her punctuating the photographs, this is worth every penny I paid for it. Link above is to Amazon for ease, but if you can find it at an independent bookstore, please do. The images are detailed, clear, and she works lifesize… stumpwork beetles with couched gold wings: 3/4 inch wide. TINY things. The gold thread that’s couched down is the size of sewing thread. Little silk scales made for a mermaid’s tail that are the size of a pinhead, tacked down with miniscule little stitches. And I thought *I* was insane with the tiny tiny fiddly work!!! I’m going to have to revise my opinions. Maybe there are levels of insane? Like rings of hell?
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