Tag Archives: textile

A Group of Charming Cuties

Last week, I had something very interesting happen.  I had a kind of cute-splosion.  I started illustrating for the children's apparel market so I can begin to pitch my work.  I did some short research by looking at my son's clothes and picking out my super-top favorites.... and then it all just flowed.

It was remarkable.  I just worked on Illustrator and out came these characters and their back-stories and little lives.  I kept wanting (and still do) to keep on drawing them and their accessories and interactions...


Next, I want to develop each character on their own!  What do you think?

A Group of Charming Cuties

Last week, I had something very interesting happen.  I had a kind of cute-splosion.  I started illustrating for the children's apparel market so I can begin to pitch my work.  I did some short research by looking at my son's clothes and picking out my super-top favorites.... and then it all just flowed.

It was remarkable.  I just worked on Illustrator and out came these characters and their back-stories and little lives.  I kept wanting (and still do) to keep on drawing them and their accessories and interactions...


Next, I want to develop each character on their own!  What do you think?

Fairisle February!

Can't believe it's already started, and it's already February.  Yesterday I taught Day 1 of my fairisle course.  I taught (in German!) the the fundamentals of fairisle knitting.  I was so excited!  They got the basics yesterday:

-how to hold the yarn when knitting two colors
-planning colors
-working with colorwork charts

Our table was so messy by the time class was done.  Sadly, I somehow deleted the images from my phone!  GRR!  Oh well.  In the meantime, here's my little guy modeling the sample sweater-vest I made for the course...






Next week I'll back up any photos I take directly.  Speaking of which, next week we'll be facing fears and cutting steeks!




Commission Complete: Twin Boy Blanket

At last, I finished the machine-knitted blanket for the baby boy fraternal twin.  The longest part was the finishing...  Crocheting a border on the quilt was quite a feat using a 2.75mm crochet hook!

blanket being blocked
Instead of hand-grafting all the long strips together, I found a method that worked quite well... I zig-zag stitched them together using my sewing machine.  A zig went into one strip, and the zag went into the other.  This kept the edges bound together and sealed in the woven ends.



The crochet border was added as a nice finishing touch, but also helps keep the edges from rolling inward as machine knitted items tend to do.

I'm already onto the twin baby girl's blanket, and I'll post photos as soon as it's complete!

Previous post on these two blankets: http://adriprints.blogspot.de/2013/08/weekend-update.html

Weekend Update

Based on my last few posts, it might seem like I'm not knitting or sewing.
But I am! Really!  I just haven't been as diligent with taking photos and uploading them.

I was also recently commissioned to make twin baby blankets for a pair of recently born fraternal twins.  So, that was taking a bit of my spare time thinking how I was going to make it happen by October.  Enter the knitting machine manual, a garter bar, and I'm finally on my way.  I'll be using Cascade Yarns Heritage Sock yarn thanks to a friend who wanted to de-stash and some local stores that are carrying it!  I still have to figure out what will happen with the border, but I get ahead of myself...

Here's the plan:
the plan of action

The new mom likes purples and pinks for the girl twin, and greens for the boy twin - check.

The swatch says it will work!

I had to figure out how much yarn was actually needed so after an initial gauge swatch to choose the best tension on the machine - I liked 6.25 - I did a test run.  The test blocks revealed that each 6" x 6.5" block takes circa 8g of yarn.  Which means when multiplying 8g x 48 blocks, 384 g total yarn is needed, and I have 400g of yarn (100g x 4 skeins).   In the plan, there's 12 pink blocks, 12 purple, and 24 white so it should be enough yarn!  Same with the greens: 12 dk green, 12 lt green, 24 grey blocks.  

yarn with previous plan of action
I'll probably add texture in the form of cables and random garter stitch just to change things up, but we have the main knitting settled.  Crossing my fingers it'll be enough yarn.

 lilac, pink, and white

greens and grey
If not, I'll reach into my stash and make it work...

I've also been working on a skirt which is eluding completion due to the fact that I somehow thought it would be a cool idea to have a side seam zipper as well as side seam pockets.  Yeah.  I'll see how that works out.
Have a great weekend!

Random Rainbow

I woke up to my laundry line in the light, and I realized I had hung the clothes in a kind of rainbow color-order!

You never know where you'll find a rainbow...



Have a great week, everyone!  I'm trying to keep my head above water with the work on my plate, but hopefully soon I'll be able to share some new projects with you all.

World Knit in Public Day

This weekend, a friend and I did a fiber-upcycling awareness demo at a nearby LUSH store.  LUSH is a really environmentally friendly hand-made cosmetics franchise originally from the UK.  They have stores all over the world now, and focus on reducing packaging as much as possible.  The manager at the local LUSH approached us and asked if we knew anyone who worked with "plarn".


Knowing World Knit-in-Public was coming up and all that, I agreed with the manager that it would be great to combine recycling and fiber fun.  What is "plarn" you ask?  Plarn is literally plastic yarn.  It is easily made from loops made when plastic bags are cut across horizontally.  Dunno what to do with all those extra plastic bags that one collects from here and there?  I had a stash under the kitchen counter, and I raided it.  If you'd like to do the same, check out this handy etsy post from 2010 here.


I ended up crocheting a basket and making a ribbon with all the grips and bases of the bags.  I think the ribbon or flower or whatever would make a fine bicycle bow or luggage identifier.  My friend and co-conspirator, Celina, made a lovely lace knitted bottle cozy, and a LUSH employee made a wonderful plarn crocheted purse!  All-in-all I believe the demo was a success.  So many people looked in, took photos, asked questions, and were generally curious about this alternative use for the excess plastic bags in our lives.

Then on Sunday, World-Knit-in-Public we gathered at our local SnB and knit the night away!

Need some inspiration?  Saw this interesting intarsia jumper on the streets of Munich back in May...



Happy Knit in Public Day!

Show & Tell, Stoffmarkt Holland and More

Last weekend was the Stoffmarkt Holland in Freising (the outskirts of Munich).  It's held twice a year and this year the weather held up really well, and there were so many people it was a bit overwhelming.

Twice a year, vendors from the Netherlands, Germany, and Belgium travel around Germany and sell there wares at this market.  This year was no different, although it felt as if the leather vendors had already sold everything but their dregs before they arrived at Freising.  I had a shopping list in mind, and one of the items I had been searching for was a bit of leather to try my hand at making gloves (pun intended).  No luck this time around, but I did come away with some other goodies...

I recently purchased a used Bernina/Bernette 334DS overlocker from the 1980's and I am totally smitten by her hum and love feeding her lots and lots of stretchy jersey and knits.  So, one of my purchases was a bit of really nice jersey knit from the Serukid kiosk.  If you're looking for children's/baby fabric, cottons, terry-cloth, fleece, organic cottons, etc... they have really high-quality stuff there.


Another difficult-to-find item for which I'm always on the look-out is nice wool fabric.  Once again the market proved a success in finding mill-end wool.  This one is 100% wool fabric in a nice subtle check.


I also found some nice elastics for lingerie and everyday use.


I also found a great deal on pattern-tracing paper in large wide rolls which is great.  This way I don't have to tape together bits and pieces of my tracing paper.  I ran out of drafting vellum on the roll that I had had for nearly 10 years this past fall.  That went a long way!  But, still on my list of things to find are a bit of glove-quality leather and curved rulers bigger than my current little french curve.

In local news, Stoff&Co. recently moved to my neighborhood!  They used to be a bit far away, but now... they're temptingly close. Too close! They stock lots of pretty print fabric including Liberty fabric, and lots of lovely things such as this little sampler packet below:


And, now to concentrate my efforts and sew up some of this stuff!


Beads & Quilting

These days, I've been working on a top-secret project for an unnamed magazine.
See the sneak preview below...


The photo shows several different types of beads and how they look on the project's yarn.  Any thoughts?

And, in the quilting world, I've been prepping!


All my quilting blocks from last year's Craftsy Block of the Month Sampler needed some sashing in order to free-motion quilt them.  So, I'm taking that first step and adding 2.5" strips around all the blocks.  I can't wait to start FMQ'ing!  I may start before I finish sashing them all.  I don't think I have that much patience to wait!

And, news on the Knitmaster knitting machine,  I've opened it up to inspect its condition, and there's a lot of dust and cat hair, but as you saw, the machine can still knit.  Plus, the needle retaining bar (aka sponge bar) needs replacing, and once that's done it will be a lot smoother.  So, that's what I'm up to this weekend!  Hope you are all doing well yourselves.  Anyone doing any fun projects this weekend?  I am sorta missing sewing clothing.  Perhaps once the quilt and the deadline projects are done, I'll work on some trousers.

My First Knitting Machine

Thank you super-much, Victor.


A friend of mine was generous enough to give me his knitting machine.  Yes, he gave it to me!  So generous!!

Turns out he never got the chance to run it.  The machine's history is somewhat blurry, as it was given as a gift, and handed over from one person to the next until it landed in my studio.  My hands still hurt from carrying the heavy case, but in my excitement, I didn't feel it.  The only hitch- Empisal Knitmaster 324 came without a manual.

I found lots of great resources that probably didn't exist a few years back, and I found the manual for the 326 which is basically the same.  It's adorable!  It's really easy to put together, and it's incredibly dusty.  I'll have to take it apart and clean it, then put it back together.  But, before I invested time into doing that, I couldn't help myself.  I knit a swatch.

Here it is.  My first knitting machine swatch.


So excited!  Do any of you have knitting machines?  Do you have any tips on how to clean it?