Two-Year Knitting Project Completed at Last–WOYWW 291

The first of three posts for today. I wasn’t intending to join WOYWW this week but since I’m posting, I thought I might as well, even if strictly speaking this isn’t on my desk! It is Wednesday, though…

My excuse for taking so long over this project is that we moved house in the middle of it, and also had to clear out my parents’ house ready for sale.

I have posted occasionally about this, when I have made any progress on it, but now that it is finished I thought I’d collate all the photos and info into a single post.

Over thirty years ago I bought a beautiful knitted dress from a gallery and in recent years I was unable to wear it any longer because of all the weight I’d gained, but couldn’t bear to part with it, so I unravelled it and knitted it up again as a jumper. The yarn (pure Shetland 4-ply) had to be sorted, skeined, washed and wound into balls.

The skeins hanging to dry.

The wound skeins.

The patterns. I derived the graph patterns more or less from the design of the original dress, but arranged the charted designs according to my own preference, and bearing in mind that the sleeves of the jumper would be longer than the three-quarter length sleeves of the dress, I had to add some more colours. The sheet underneath is the basic design, and this had a few amendments during the course of the project, but basically all I did was draw a diagram of the basic shape of the jumper, with measurements, and calculated from a tension swatch how many stitches and rows I would need. When working the knitting, all I had to do, therefore, was keep the graph design correct and follow the visual instructions on the pattern. Since most of the shapes were basic squares, there was little point in charting out the whole design.

Beginning the knitting. In the background you can see my original Zentangle sketchbook. At this stage of the knitting, I have completed the bottom border of the front.

Working up the main body of the front, in the plain tan colour. I always work with a circular needle whenever possible, as it is a lot more comfortable; with regular needles, I’m always catching the blunt ends on things, and with the circular needle, the weight of the knitting is held in the lap and not by the arms, so it’s a lot less tiring. If you knit continuously on a circular needle, you end up with a tubular piece of knitting, but if you turn the work at the end of the row, like with regular needles, you end up with a flat piece. This is what I did.

Approaching the top of the front, and beginning to work on the yoke pattern.

Detail of the front hem border.

This is what the knitting looks like on the reverse. When working in Fair Isle style (two colours going simultaneously across each row), most people strand the inactive yarn across the back approximately every five stitches, but I prefer to weave in at every stitch, as this gives a neater back, and with less likelihood of the strands catching on shirt buttons etc., when the garment is being worn.

The completed front of the jumper.

Detail of the front yoke.

Beginning to pick up stitches for the first sleeve. After the back was completed, I sewed the front and back together just at the shoulders, so that I could work on the sleeves. I picked up sufficient stitches at the top of the sleeve, and worked downwards, decreasing according to the chart I made, and ending the sleeves with a ribbed cuff. The entire sleeve is patterned.

Detail of picking up the stitches for the sleeve.

Work in progress on the first sleeve. On the right, you can see the shape of the plain body of the garment. When the sleeve is complete, the first part of it is sewn into this piece, and then the sleeve seams and garment side seams are made up as normal. This is a square set-in sleeve; a design favoured in many ethnic clothes because it is easy to make, and with woven fabrics, there is little waste.

Detail of work on the sleeve, where the decreasing begins.

Further progress on the first sleeve.

The first sleeve complete. This picture was taken on the conservatory floor of the bed and breakfast farm we stayed on when we were on holiday in the summer.

The completed jumper.

I always seem to have problems picking up a decent neck – either I have too many stiches, or I don’t have enough, and the finish is usually less than professional! It’s also the worst part of a project for me – I hate doing all the making up, and would love someone else to do it for me, leaving me the freedom to do the actual knitting! (Very Kaffe Fassett…)

Originally I made a double-thickness stocking stitch neck band, with a zig zag pattern in two shades of brown, but it would not lie flat and felt much too thick, so I took it off, and redid the band using the smaller needles (not circular, unfortunately) and three different colours in stripes.

I am pleased with the result this time around. My sister-in-law, whom we saw on Sunday, gave me a few pointers regarding picking up for a neck, including not casting off at the top of the back and front, but retaining the stitches on a stitch holder, and then just knitting on from those stitches, using smaller needles, and working in rib. Sounds like a plan to me!!

In my old age I’m afraid I’ve got rather lazy about blocking out. I find it difficult to kneel on the floor, leaning forward, for any length of time so blocking can be an extremely exhausting operation for me. Instead, I make up the garment, and then wash it and drape it over the airer to dry as flat as possible, and then steam press the garment through a cloth. I’ve never had any problems with that.

Here are some other detail shots.

When making the cuffs, I made them double length so that they could be turned back, and made the centre (fold) stripe with twice the number of rows:

so that when turned back, its appearance is better:

Hope you’ve enjoyed the design, construction and making of this project. I am very pleased with it now it is finished.

Some years ago I made a long tunic-top with a circles motif based on a Kaffe Fassett design, in purples and yellows. Like the knitted dress, this is now too small, and anyway I was never happy with the neckline, so that is the next one to unravel and start again! I just hope that this one doesn’t take two years to complete! (To see what that knitting looks like, have a look at my blog header, on the left.) The circles design is one of Kaffe Fassett’s but the rest is my own. I love that colour combo. Watch this space for progress on this new project.

Second Felt Making Class

Last night was week 2 of the felt class, and this time we were taught how to make a picture in felt. I went with the idea of creating a mountain and lake scene with a sunset, but as it turned out (time mostly) I ended up just depicting a sunset over water. I had originally planned to frame it with trees either side, and my finished piece is wide enough to accommodate this if I choose to add some needle-felted trees later on. I asked whether it was possible to add more wet felting after the piece had dried, but our teacher told me it was not, because the new felt would shrink, and draw up the old felt which was already shrunk. Common sense really!

During the class, I did manage to take some photographs of the work in progress, but a couple of times I forgot (so caught up with what I was doing!) so there’s a bit of a gap in the photographic record. During the initial rubbing stage, when the wet material is between the pieces of bubble wrap (the most strenuous stage) my arms did give out a bit, and our lovely teacher, bless her, offered to rub my felt for me for a while so I could have a rest! If I was doing this at home, I would be able to go off and leave it for a while, but of course at the class, we have only two hours so we have to get on if we are going to complete the piece.

Before the class began, the teacher showed us the Youtube video I’d sent her the link for – I found this the other day and was highly amused and thought we’d really got off pretty lightly considering! After all, we weren’t expected to round up our sheep and shear them, and neither were we expected to bring a horse along to the class! Lol! Watch this and see!

She also warned us about buying wool rovings from dubious sources and said that she had had some recently that were full of moths! Not at all nice, and not at all what you want to bring into your house!

Anyway, to work… I was really hacked off with myself because my lovely parcel of dyed Merino rovings arrived in the post today, in time for the class, and I left them at home!! Duh… Anyway, I had enough to be going on with. (I decided to buy some ready-dyed stuff because it’s a lot of work to dye my own, and I was having problems with it felting in the dye bath.)

Here is my first layer of fibres being laid out on the bubble wrap. I decided to use undyed rovings for this, as last time I used up all the avocado-dyed stuff I’d done, just for the back of my piece!

You can see that, as instructed, I am laying the pieces down in a horizontal direction first, and overlapping them slightly.

Here is the second layer complete, this time laid in a vertical direction.

The third layer is the picture layer, with the pieces being laid predominantly in the horizontal direction again, but with the opportunity to lay small amounts in different directions to create the picture. Unfortunately I forgot to photograph this before I’d wet it, but here it is at the next stage, ready for felting.

You can see that I have created a sky which is very dark blue at the edges, and gradually lightening into the centre where the sunset is. It was amazing, blending the colours, and being able to lay down very small amounts – it was almost like painting with the fibres. I continued the sun colours down into the water (which was also blue, but with the addition of a small amount of green), adding some vertical fibres to create the illusion of a reflection. Small amounts of white were added to emphasise the sun, the horizon, some whispy clouds, and a suggestion of ripples on the water.

The next picture shows the top layer of bubble wrap laid on top of the wet fibres. The underside of the bubble wrap was wet with the hot soapy water, and more of this was added to the top surface.

The rubbing has to be done very gently to start with, or the fibres will move about and spoil the picture. As the fibres begin to felt, one can get ever more vigorous with it, and it was at this stage that my poor arms started to suffer! It is probably easier if one can stand up and have more downward pressure, but it was very hard work from a seated position. Teacher to the rescue!

The felt after the rubbing state, and ready for rolling. You can see how it is all coming together.

The piece was squeezed out to remove some of the water, and thrown down a few times onto the table to aid the shrinking process, and then the felt on the bubble wrap was put onto the towel, the top layer of bubble wrap replaced, and the whole thing was rolled up around  a rolling pin, and the forward and backward rock-and-roll movement began – 100 times in one direction, and then the felt turned through 90 degrees and then a further 100 times in the other direction. This was another stage I forgot to photograph!

Now for the photos of all our finished work, laid out on the table together. Our teacher is so encouraging, and said how thrilled she was with our work, and had not seen nicer pictures, even in a book! Although many people said they wanted to embellish their pieces further, she said that in many cases, they could stand as they were, and needed no further work.

Because we had a bit more time this evening, she asked each person to speak a bit about their work – what the inspiration was, how we felt about it, and what, if anything, we would have done differently or wanted to add later on. Some very interesting things came out.

The grey and brown one in the foreground was inspired by the design of the settee in a Gustav Klimt painting. The lady who made it said that she was disappointed how blue the grey wool turned out to be, but this was an illusion caused by the proximity of the brown – an interesting effect. We were all intrigued by the tassel-like pieces extending beyond the edge of the felt – she was worried about them not being sufficiently attached, but our teacher said they could be secured with some needle-felting.

The piece beyond was full of colour with the flowers beautifully depicted. She had added some brightly-coloured dyed wool nepps – little knobs of compacted fibre – to imitate small flowers, which was very effective.

The piece just above the Klimt one depicts the sea with a sea wall, and there are going to be some felted beach huts added, which will be a lovely pop of colour. I love how she’s depicted the waves.

The picture above shows a wonderfully vibrant piece – those gorgeous brightly coloured flowers are beautifully set off against the very dark background. She said it was inspired by the work of artist Yvonne Coomber, who now lives locally. I have seen some of her work in the past and the colours and shapes remind me of Kaffe Fassett’s designs.

Others had introduced some bling into their work, in the form of sequins etc. – easy to use if they are anchored down with a thin layer of wool fibre over the top. People also added texture in the form of nepps, and curly fleece – again, taking extra care so that they are anchored securely with a fine layer of fibre over the top.

Here is my finished piece after rinsing and drying. A Sunset Over Water.

Altogether a very interesting and productive evening. We are being well taught; there are group times and lots of individual attention. Having a relatively small number in the class really helps, but there are enough of us to provide plenty of interest as we share our different inspirations and expressions in our pieces.

WOYWW-ers – Please scroll down to see my WOYWW post.

WOYWW 277

For information on how to join in this most fun of blog hops, please click on the WOYWW logo in my sidebar, which will take you to our hostess Julia’s page, where all will be explained.

What’s On My Workdesk this Wednesday? Just about everything!! My poor ARTHaven is a tip. Again.

We have had a very busy week. Today is the last day of our holiday at home, as Mum is returning today after spending 10 days with my sister, giving my hubby and me a most welcome break. We have had several trips out, the highlight being our visit to the Kaffe Fassett exhibition at the American Museum in Bath, which is running till November, I think. (You can see all 99 photos I took, here in my Flickr album.) I am still basking in the experience of being totally immersed in a riot of colour! I have been a fan of Kaffe Fassett’s for years. If you get the chance, do go – it’s really worth seeing.

I also had a shopping day on my own – a rare event these days and I had Such Fun! I had a good old rummage in the charity shops and came home with some lovely stash for altering and upcycling – a project that will have to wait for the New Year at this rate.

Last night we had a friend round for dinner – I did a roast chicken and lots of vegetables, and my famous apple lasagne for pudding – nobody felt like any cheese after that lot! So I have been busy cooking and preparing. To celebrate this extremely rare event (Shoshi doing any entertaining!) I got out the best china and we had a candle on the table. The works. I even managed to clear everything up afterwards!

Tonight I begin my felt making classes, and I have been busy preparing for that. We have to take a certain amount of stuff with us (rolling pin, bubble wrap, Merino rovings etc. – in the photo above, you can see the green box full of all this stuff, ready to take for the class) and since the theme of the 5-week course is Autumn, I decided to dye a few pieces of Merino to go with this theme. Here is my dyeing table by the sink in my ARTHaven, with the pieces I dyed yesterday.

Last week I also dyed some Merino roving with avocado skins and pits and it came out a gorgeous dusky pink colour, and I shall be taking that too. I have got some commercially dyed rovings. I have experienced some problems with the wool tending to felt during the dyeing process so I’ve decided to card it before taking it to the class.

A few days ago my parcel of new stash arrived, and most of that is dumped on my desk. I made some moulds from some of the metal embellishments and these are now put away (about the only thing that is!!). I am hoping to have a chance in the next few days to sort out the chaos and try and tidy up a bit, so that I can get down to some work again!

Have a great creative week, everybody, and happy WOYWW.

Kaffe Fassett Exhibition

Picture rich post!

Yesterday my hubby and I drove up to Bath to see the Kaffe Fassett exhibition taking place this autumn at the American Museum. I am very grateful to Diana of Velvet Moth Studios for alerting me to this – she posted recently about her visit, and I would not have missed it for the world – I have been a great fan of Kaffe’s for many years.

In case you don’t know, Kaffe (pronounced “Kafe” to rhyme with “safe”) is an artist who came to England from the USA in the 1960s. Originally he was a painter, but on his arrival here, he fell in love with textiles, and so began the adventure which has lasted his whole life long. He revolutionised the knitting world in the 70s and 80s with his riotous use of colour, and branched out into needlepoint, patchwork, fabric design and mosaic as time went on. He is a complete pattern junkie and has combined this with his passion for colour.

My hubby gave me my first Kaffe Fassett book, “Glorious Knitting” for my first birthday after we were married – on our honeymoon, in fact. He subsequently gave me “Glorious Colour” and “Kaffe Fassett at the V&A” – along with his love of flea markets for inspiration and the purchase of many eclectic objects, Kaffe has found much inspiration at London’s famous Victoria and Albert Museum. All these books are large format, and lavishly illustrated, and have been a source of inspiration for me for many years, but yesterday was the first opportunity I had had to see his work in the flesh, and it was a mind-blowing total immersion in colour!

I took nearly 100 photos, including some of the location. I will not be able to put them all in this blog post, but will select as many as I can, and will upload the whole collection to my Flickr album. Now uploaded: click here.

When we arrived, I was delighted to see my very first examples of “yarn bombing” – I have read about this and seen pictures, but so lovely to see the real thing – and how appropriate for the occasion!

The foyer of the exhibition centre, which doubled as a shop, was decorated for the exhibition.

The letters forming the “Kaffe Fassett” title over the door into the exhibition proper were solid and wrapped with blue fabric.

We were led along a short tunnel made from distorting mirrors on both sides and the ceiling, into the wonderland beyond. Throughout, the floor was adorned twith a covering printed with Kaffe’s designs.

The first thing to meet my eye was Kaffe’s famous knitted coat which featured in the books, and also on his 6-part TV series several years ago. This was inspired by the costume worn by Rudolf Nureyev in the ballet “Romeo and Juliet.”

Surrounding the foot of this magnificent coat was a series of crochet hats embellished with buttons and beads. I loved how the heads were first wrapped with rich lurex fabric to reflect the colours of the hats.

His jewel stripe shawl – actually more of a blanket!

In the centre of the main exhibition hall was a mock-up of part of Kaffe’s studio, showing work in progress, and an eclectic collection of colourful and patterned fabrics and objects.

A very pretty little antique nursing chair, covered with Kaffe’s needlepoint in a crazy patchwork design, with a piece of knitting in progress.

Kaffe’s palette and a wonderfully paint-stained jug containing more brushes, in front of a painting standing on an easel.

During the 80s, when Kaffe broadcast his TV series, he visited the beautiful town of Arundel, which so inspired him with its walls and buildings constructed of brick and knapped flint, and the lichen growing in the churchyard. From this sample of lichen you can see how he interpreted this inspiration, in pattern, and uncharacteristically subtle shades.

When we visited Arundel, I was equally inspired, and my camera was never idle!

In one display case, along with many beautiful needlepoint pieces and other objects, was a collection of Indian metal embellishments. They were all embossed from thin sheet metal and coloured – how easy it would be to make something like this from embossed drink cans and alcohol inks!

Kaffe has been heavily influenced by the beautiful Islamic art of North Africa, and several of his pieces reflected this – the geometric tile patterns and the rich jewel colours of blue, purple and green, in knitting and patchwork.

There were many examples of his knitwear adoring the walls, displayed on wooden poles to show them to their best advantage.

Some of his pieces feature bold, simple designs in squares and rectangles. This glorious shawl boasts a full, rich fringe, and a contrasting border along the top edge.

A favourite pattern. While true Fair Isle knitting traditionally has only two colours going at once in any row, Kaffe’s method of knitting using manageable short lengths, enables many colours to be used at once – you simply pull out the colour you want, and weave in the ends as you go. Many of the pattern repeats are relatively simple; the elaborate effect is created by the abundance of colour – to quote Kaffe, “When in doubt, add forty more colours!”

The next picture shows an intriguing design. The yellows, with a touch of lavender, appear to be overlaid with a lighter shade, which, from a distance, looks almost like lace. In this picture you can see how the background colour of the wall matches the knitwear. This was a common feature of the display; you might think that it would have the effect of reducing the impact of the pieces, but it actually enhanced them in a stunning way.

Moving on now from knitting to needlepoint, although the medium is different, there is no departure from the rich use of colour and pattern. Unlike traditional canvaswork designs, in Kaffe’s pieces, the background is as important as the focal motif.

More shells.

I can see great potential for developing basic Zentangle patterns with the use of vibrant colour to create designs such as these.

There was an additional room beyond, which contained mostly needlepoint pieces, with a green colour theme, mostly based on designs of leaves, flowers and vegetables. I love Kaffe’s designs of humble vegetables like cabbages, leeks and beetroot, and his use of subtle shading brings them to life.

Again, the floor covering was printed with Kaffe’s designs. This is the original needlepoint panel from which the floor print was taken.

On the table were many pieces, inspired by teapots in the shape of vegetables, etc. Many of these items were collected by Kaffe from flea markets in London and elsewhere.

This tiny tea set in the shape of bunches of asparagus is one such object.

Also in this room was a beautifully distressed and vintage bench with needlepoint cushions in the design of vegetables.

This floral panel was an unusual piece because the background included some lurex yarn that caught the light and sparkled.

At the far end of the room was Kaffe’s magnificent hollyhocks needlepoint hanging. From this picture you can see that on entering the room, one felt one was stepping into a garden!

Here is a detail of the hollyhocks hanging.

You can see that he has used a long-and-short stitch, with several strands in the needle. This gives great coverage at high speed, but it is not very hard-wearing and is really suitable only for hangings – most of the cushions are worked in traditional tent stitch which will stand much more wear and tear, but it does take much longer to do. You can see the amazing life-like effect he has achieved with the subtle shading – painting with the needle!

Another needlepoint panel, this time depicting various fruits.

Back in the main exhibition hall, a collection of cushions worked in needlepoint and patchwork.

The bottom-left cushion, depicting blue and white china. Kaffe has used this motif frequently, both in needlepoint and knitting. Some years ago I embroidered some miniature blue and white pots in cross stitch, which was inspired by this design.

Another beautiful needlepoint cushion, this time in a more subtle shade. The beautiful two-tone background shows off the intricately patterned moth to perfection.

Moving on to quilting, this beautiful quilt is worked in a sunray pattern.

Here is a detail.

Kaffe works in both plain, brightly coloured fabrics, and prints. He has designed many fabric patterns. The following quilt shows some examples of these.

This particular quilt was the design chosen for most of the merchandising for the exhibition – mugs, place mats, book marks, etc.

Some of Kaffe’s fabrics and trims.

An unusual example of Kaffe’s mosaic work. He loves to piece together fragments of broken china and glass, and has covered pots and other objects, and was commissioned to produce some mosaic work for the Chelsea Flower Show.

Some fabric fans in a display case. Beyond, you can see a beautiful glass vase with a circular pattern.

I took a close-up of this, but unfortunately it is rather out of focus. This design of concentric circles is a favourite of Kaffe’s and frequently features in his knitting.

The view from the exhibition hall back along the mirrored tunnel into the foyer.

One of the sales tables, displaying some of Kaffe’s books.

When we came out, we went into the Orangery Tea Room for a well-earned cup of tea, and were entranced by the beautiful stencilling on the walls.

Finally, the outside of the Tea Rooms, built from the beautifully warm and mellow golden Bath stone.

Today I had more comments about my wheelchair with its mixed media spoke guards than ever before – I suppose I should have expected this, as the exhibition was going to attract creative people! Everybody loved them, and unlike the usual casual commenters, they all wanted to know exactly how I’d done them!

To finish this virtual tour of the Kaffe Fassett exhibition, I would like to share a piece that I made, inspired by this incredible artist. I’m afraid I haven’t got any photos of the other pieces, and I can’t find them at the moment, as they have got temporarily mislaid during our house move!

If you look carefully at my blog header, you can see this incorporated into the digital collage.