07.15.11
Posted in Stitching Genres at 7:00 am by deRomilly
An unblocked floursack towel that is now in use... and never ironed any more! 
I was blocked when I started writing this. No clue where to go with it. It probably shows.
Although blocking is an important part of all needlework, it’s rarely talked about. Every lace knitter knows the magic that happens when you take a mess of a knit wool shawl, wet it and pin it out to dry, stretching tightly. You go from something that looks like a tangled mass of string to an amazing piece of art!
Embroidery gains from washing and blocking, too. When you’re stitching, fabric can get wrinkled and maybe a little grimy, even if you do work with clean hands (eating chocolate while stitching is a bad habit. This is not to say I don’t do it, but chocolate isn’t the easiest thing to get out of linen, especially if you’re stitching with thread that will bleed if washed.)
Anyway. Gently washing your embroidery, gently squeezing the extra water out between two towels (PLEASE don’t wring) and then pinning it out to dry, stretching it on a board to the correct size and shape, does wonders for the crispness of the final product, especially if you’ve been stitching with silk thread.
I’ve also been known to iron my work dry from the back, stretching it into shape as I go, but only if it’s cotton or linen on cotton or linen (or maybe a blend with some polyester or rayon in it).
Of course, on that last point, I also use my hand-embroidered tea towels and flour sack towels as dishtowels, and just toss them into the washer and dryer when they get dirty. If this use was good enough for my grandmother (and it was), it’s good enough for me…
and I don’t have enough people in my life who both appreciate my handwork and are willing to use/wear it. If I want to keep stitching, I need to use what I stitch and knit so it wears out and I need more!
Point? Did I have a point today? Oh. Learn to block your work. Know your materials, and don’t be afraid to put your work (using washable threads and fabric!) on things to use and then use them. You DO like stitching more stuff, don’t you?
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05.25.11
Posted in Threads at 11:27 am by deRomilly
Isn't it pretty?!
Last weekend I went to the Carolina Fiber Fest with some friends. It has been a long time since I’ve been to one of this type of event, and I’m afraid I forgot what the wool fumes do to me. For the most part, I was good, and didn’t spend a lot of money.
Unfortunately, I volunteered to teach my friends how to spin (Note to potential friends: Romilly is an enabler… you don’t want to shop textiles with me unless you want a new hobby, or a new toy to play with an OLD hobby…) And to do that, I had to have some of the same wool they were going to be using!
So I came home with five ounces of colonial roving. Pretty blue, turquoise and red. It sat in my bag until Tuesday. Tuesday I broke down.
More yarn shots.
I borrowed my friend’s new spindle – both of mine had yarn on them already… got to finish that! and I wanted to play with the weight on hers in any case so I knew what she could expect… it’s light. And two hours of work later, I have a skein of 130 yards of fingering weight singles… I may ply it later, I might not… and a little bit more. And I still have 2/3 of a bag of roving to go! I think I’m going to have a new shawl next fall. What do you think?
*I* think it’s time to dig the spinning wheel out of storage and see what I can do with it. I originally learned to spin with the intention of spinning my own crewel wool… Maybe I’ll pull that idea back out. Drop spindles are perfect for that, because you can spin a small amount of fiber pretty easily. I’ll keep you posted as to how that works!
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03.18.11
Posted in General at 7:00 am by deRomilly
Bleeding Sampler Motifs
I’ve been thinking about comedy and humor recently. Remember way back when in my Welcome post, when I said I wasn’t a needlework humorist? I’ve been trying to figure out why. Some of my current thoughts on the subject make me think that while embroidery is inherently healing, friendly, and beautiful, it doesn’t lend itself to humor like knitting or sewing… Why? I asked.
I’ve come to the conclusion that the only way to really write humor well may be from a position of pain. Pain is where we find the truths about ourselves, and that kind of truth is whence humor really stems. Even the Yarn Harlot’s humor stems from the mistakes that happen with gauge or with working through a misunderstood pattern. Maybe that’s why it’s hard for embroiderer’s to move to humor about their work — when I don’t get gauge on a sweater I can end up with a finished project that would alternately fit André the Giant or a Barbie doll. When I mis-stitch a flower petal in a piece of embroidery, I end up with… a misshapen flower petal. Or, when the sampler threads bleed all over the bottom of the fabric and it never comes out… is that funny or just sad?
Yet I can see many opportunities for humor in my sewing – the T-Rex T-tunic for example (always remember to put eas in the arm measurements or you will have T-Rex arms when you put it on!) Turning something flat into something 3-D is ripe for humor. Whereas flat work, like the misshapen flower petal, choosing the wrong color in a needle painting, or my struggle to get the eye in the right place on a profile figure doesn’t have quite the hilarity factor (for the record, I just now realized that my problem is always putting it too far back on the facial profile — drawings will now improve, probably dramatically. Funny though? Probably more pathetic.)
So I’m still trying to find humor in my stitching. Anybody know any funny stitching stories you want to share?
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03.04.11
Posted in General at 7:00 am by deRomilly
Dad in his new sweater
My father passed away on February 18, having worn his new sweater constantly since Christmas. His 77th birthday would have been on Sunday.
I mentioned back in December that I’d been knitting, not stitching. This was the result. A month and a half of frantic knitting produced a sweater that my father wore constantly. I think he likes that it’s darker than the light arans Mom and I have given him over the years.
On the other hand, knitting in the evening does produce some problems. The skeins I used were all the same “dye lot” (they’re natural colored wool) but NOT the same shade. That works really well when the lighter piece is the button band, or both sleeves. Not so much when the shade changes noticeably in the middle of the back. Yet, I doubt anyone will notice it but me…
Cables - click to enlarge
The pattern is one from Patons: appropriately, “Dad’s Cardigan.” Apart from some very strangely worded instructions and a couple of typos that changed the pattern from the way it was shown, it went together pretty easily. Find the mini-cable twist pattern instructions somewhere else, though. It’s also a pretty loose stitch count for an Aran knit. But it turned out warm and well-loved, so I’m happy. And so was Dad, which is what really matters!
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10.22.10
Posted in Stitching Genres at 3:25 pm by deRomilly
5. I can do it on anything. Shirts, loose fabric, paper, yes, even on my knitting!
4. Using multiple colors doesn’t make it smaller.
3. Beads don’ t have to have big holes to use them.
2. In general, my thread stash takes up less space than the yarn stash.
1…. No gauge issues. If something is 14 stitch to the inch, 140 stitches WILL be 10 inches, give or take a millimeter for thread thickness. An 8 X 8 inch design drawn on my fabric will stay 8 X 8 inches, no matter how I stitch it. If I use a thick cord around the outside, it MIGHT add a millimeter or two. Maybe. I drew my curtain to fit my window. The embroidery will fit my window. (The curtain now… that’s sewing. That’s another story… seams can migrate like gauge, if you’re me.)
So…
Why have I spent the last week with knitting needles in my hands instead of an embroidery needle? Especially since today I literally threw out the project and gave up after three tries when the multi-colored sock STILL doesn’t fit over my heel to get it to the ankle… despite making gauge. Despite everything. Yeah. I think I’ll stick with socks made out of one thread and no fair isle. Multi-colored knitting… Well, I’m considering buying this sweater pattern and knitting it. If I do, I’ll make a ruling on more than one color in my knitting after I’m done… and, if it doesn’t work, the designer has a cross stitch pattern to match it!
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