Wireworking Jewelry

On August 29th and 30th I had a wire working jewelry class.

I learned all sorts of different ways to bend and curl wire around pliers.
I made a sampler necklace from some of the stuff we learned.
Samples: Coils, S-hook, jump rings, wrapped loop, caged bead, love knot, and spirals. The glass beads where from my teacher, Carol Holaday. Wire gauge was a mix of copper to get a feel for them. Mainly used 18.

Yesterday, I started and finished a bracelet and two earrings.
Beads where bought at Michaels. The picture doest show how pretty they are. They are black shell beads, but they look blue and gray on top of black. Wire was 24 gauge silver colored copper wire.

Home Dyeing

On the last day of class we found some unmarked wood ships, and tossed a few into a few small cups of water. Water in one cup turned a yellow-orange, and another turned a dark red wine color almost instantly. We guessed the orange one was osage orange and the wine colored was brazil wood. So students went and grabbed a bunch for dyeing at home, I grabbed an ounce of each.


Yesterday I tested out the brazil wood. I also tried a vinegar after bath.
The pre-after bath had some pretty purples and a burgundy. The after bath muted all the colors. I'm also not sure if I did the after bath correctly.


I will try to get scans or pictures of some of the actual yarn when I get a chance.

Last Day of Spinning and Dyeing Class

Yesterday was the last day of dyeing class. We had a pot luck, final, and more dyeing.

We had another two pots of indigo and one more pot of cochineal. One Indigo pot exploded and nobody knew how and how to avoid it for next time. I had put some cotton (93%)/spandex(7%) sock yarn in the indigo pots, I think I over died it about 6 times, but it didn't come out to be the dark blue I really wanted, which other ladies got.

The cochineal pot came out very lovely yesterday too. Really wish I put in a sample and/or got a picture for that pot.

Other dye pots
Alkanet - dull green and brown, neutral
Black Cherry Berry Tea from Celestial Seasonings - dull greens, browns, yellow
Tomato Vines - dingy yellow
Kamala - I'm not sure what part of the plant is used for the dye stuff. - orange and brown
Jamaica - Bright red - dies like KoolAid

Home Dyeing

Dye pots 7/26:
Blueberries - frozen - cool browns
Cranberries - dried - light tan-salmon
Wild Blackberries - fresh - purples, browns with a tint of purple

Cranberries

Wild Berries

Dye pots 7/27:
Rosemary - fresh sprigs - greens

Week 5 of Spinning and Dyieng Class

Dye pots at school, 7/25:
Madder - Root - Salmons and browns. Our book showed red, purple and orange.
Sanderswood - browns
Oxalis - dingy yellow
Annatto - seed - bright orange and rust colors. This seed is used to color cheddar cheese.
Red Cabbage - pale blue and green. Class thinks it didn't get hot enough or the bath wasn't acidic enough.

Dye pots at home, 7/25:
Cedar - bark - pale, dull tans and browns
Sycamore - bark - gold/brown
Bougainville - fresh bracts (the colorful part) - yellow and green. I used red bracts and the water was bright red-orange.
Flowering Plum Tree - fresh leaves - pretty dark green and some purple-green colors
KoolAid - Black Cherry - dark red, Grape - almost black, Lemonade - yellow, Orange - orange, Pink lemonaide - light pink

Bougainville
Flowering Plum
Sycamore I think, could be the cedar

Home Dyeing

Since I missed the second class and there have been outings that have taken away from dyeing time, so yesterday I tried to fill in some of the gaps that are needed in our sample book that is due at the end of summer semester.

Turmeric - Root, powdered - Yellows and browns
Chamomile - Fresh and dried - yellows and browns
Green plum tree leaves - fresh - greens
Walnuts - Dried husks - nice range of browns
KoolAid - Tropical Punch - Deep red

Week 4 of Spinning and Dyeing Class

First half of the day was spent at the local county fair watching fleeces being juged. We missed that due to certain circumstances and arrived at school when everyone was coming back.

Dye Pots:
Cutch - heartwood of tree - browns and rusts
Merigold - petals - yellow, orange, brown
Henna - leaves of shrub - tans
Cochineal - Stored fluid from dried insect husks - Pretty pinks and purples
Indigo - leaves of shrub - blues


I also tried to do some synthetic dye on a cotton/spandex blend. It turned out much lighter then I thought it would.

Edit: turns out there where a few steps I wasn't aware of that our teacher left out, like I was supposed too steam/heat it. I might over dye it, I might leave it, I'm still not sure about the color.

Week 3 of Spinning and Dyeing Class

We had an off-campus meeting with the local spinning guild. Our teacher only brought a few wheels and no spindles. I completely forgot to bring my cheap wobbly spindle, so I didn't get to practice spinning and ended up really bored.

I did work on my mohair shawl a bit, and glanced around when the guild had their silent auction.

Our teacher was thinking we'd maybe go back to class after, but most of the students vetoed that. So at when the meeting was over, we came home.

We lost out on a day of dying and me trying to learn how to spin.

Week 2 of Spinning and Dyeing Class

I got really sick and missed the second class meeting of my Spinning and Dyeing class.

From the sounds of it, I missed the chemical dyeing and some spinning.

Also, it sounds like the teacher wasn't clear on exactly what to do with the chemical dyes, leaving out steps and ingredients. :/

Just Because

Pirate Festival sewing

I made Matt a pirate shirt from Butterick's B4486 pattern, top right corner. I made him some pants that I pretty much winged since I didn't have a pattern. I screwed up a bit but they worked fine. I also made him a pouch to keep stuff in since the pants didn't have pockets.

I was able to get these two done in time for this years NorCal Pirate Festival.

Shirt WIP	Finished shirt and pants

Close-ups of the shirt, I'm quite proud of it:

Spinning and Dyeing

This last Saturday I started a Spinning and dyeing class. It's from 9 am to 4:30 pm every Saturday to August 1st, with 4th of July off.

Our first class was a bit over whelming but was fun. We had our introduction then we started spinning on drop spindles and mordanting some 100% wool yarn.

The mordants we used where copper, tin, alum and iron. We won't get to use the 5th mordant, chrome, for a week or two.

Our text books are Start Spinning: Everything You Need to Know to Make Great Yarn by Maggie Casey and Natural Dyeing by Jackie Crook. I like the dyeing book, only glanced at the spinning book.

We also have an optional book, The Craft of Natural Dyeing: Glowing Colours from the Plant World by Jenny Dean. I skimmed through it during class and it looked like a pretty good book.

More on the class next week.

Top is finished

Here is the second garment I finished for clothing class. It's made from a crape knit fabric.

Skirt FYI

I got a 48/50 on my skirt. Woot! Working on other final stuffs and my top. Got to have it done by June 3rd.

Skirt is Done!

I finished my skirt on Thursday! I ironed and took it for a test wear last light, and of course got something on it. Now, all I have to do is wash it, do my self-evaluation, and turn the project in. 1 project down, 1 to go in that class!

Skirt update

I have to finish the belt backing, hem, buttons and button holes. Talked to my teacher and told me just to hem the bottom of the skirt the way I did the sides, yay no hand stitching that much fabric! There is a dark green lining so that needs to be hemmed too.

Tote/Machine Cover

Went and got a sage on cream toile de jouy and a pre-quilted lining for it. From the patterns I've seen and from talking to my sewing teacher, I got a yard of each.

Now I just need a pattern that I like, or make my own. Would like dowel handles. I also want to flip it over to be a cover for the machine. I would also like a pocket to keep the manual or other sewing stuffs in and not fall out when flipped over, maybe velcro closing all the way across.

Anybody know of a pattern like that, that I might be able to alter?

Update

So I've been busy with school, but here are two projects I'm doing for my clothing class: Skirt A using these two fabrics: The maroon combined with the pale top in the upper right corner. I'm using a lightweight knit fabric. I have a fashion plate drawn up and colored of what it will look like which I will scan and post later.

And when I'm done with those two and I have some spare time, I have 2 more lined up. First,

the red dress style. I've got a nice black/gray/white woven fabric for it.

Second, I want to make a tote/cover for my new sewing machine. I think I'd like to make it out of Toile de Jouy fabric.

In a black, blue, or sage on cream.

B-day Present

Yesterday my birthday present from Matt's Mom arrived, in it 10 skeins of Blue 100% Runakay Alpaca yarn. She bought it from Runakay Alpaca's E-Bay Store. She also gave me a pattern that I had picked out from StitchDiva.com.

I am doing this version of Giselle: Pictures © by StitchDivas.com

Also, since Terri requested I add a photo of the spinner, here it is:

Computer History Museum: Picture Heavy

On Saturday, February 28th, we went to the Computer History Museum in Santa Clara for Matt's class. We were offered one of four hour long tours: Apple/Mac Anniversary, Supercomputers, Data Storage, and ____________. We opted for the Apple/Mac tour. It was very interesting, they left out some stuff but it was understandable since they had to keep it to an hour.

After the tour we got free pizza and drinks at a pizzeria close by. Pizza was okay, not great but not bad either.

The rest of the day we got to look around the Museum at our leisure.

Click on pictures for a larger view.

















I'll finish adding photos at a later date.

Stitches West 2009

So the boyfriend and I went to Stitches West in Santa Clara yesterday. It's a pretty big knitting expo with tons of booths with tons of yarn, patterns, looms, needles, and other knitting related items.

It was neat to see and feel all the different types of yarn and all the different colors. This was my first fiber convention so I wasn' quite sure what to expect. There was 100% and combinations of: mohair, alpaca, merino, pure silk.

It wasn't so neat to see the price tags though. On a lot of stuff I was afraid to ask the prices of, "If you have to ask the price, you can't afford it." That was the case through out the expo floor. I saw bundles of fiber from $40 - $150.

A bit disappointed with the prices but it was interesting to see everything. I came home with a neat drop spindle though, it's made from a CD, dowel, and screw in hook; advertisements/business cards; and a desire to raise my own goats, sheep, and alpacas.

School

So school has been eating up alot of my time and I haven't been able to post, but I do have a few FO.

First, a hat that I knitted for my BF. I knitted it up using Kis*Knit's Hat pattern adding 8 stitches, leaving out the stripe, and changing how I did the decreases. I got it all done and when the BF tried it on, it was to small. So I frogged it, added another 8 stitches and started knitting. About 2 inches into it, the BF says he likes the look of the really small stitches on beanies, so I frogged what I had. With some math and swatches, I ended up using size 4 needles and casting on 136 stitches, I think I also added an inch or two in length.

He says it could still use another half to inch more in length, which I will add when I'm done knitting his matching scarf. He seems happy with it though, since he rarely takes it off now. ^ ^

I used Simply Soft in a dark blue.

Second, I made a black bag using Amy Singer's Everlasting Bagstopper pattern. I changed the handle, which I'm going to change back to a ribbon. The way I did the handle was to stretchy, and if I but anything to heavy, like my school books, it would stretch from my hip down to below my knee.

I used Caron's One Pounder in black.

Third, I made a mouse pincushion. I altered the "catwarming" pattern I've been using for cat toys, by making it a bit bigger and leaving out the catnip and bell. The knit isn't quite tight enough and I'm afraid I'll loose some pins into the belly and find them the hard way.

Fourth, I made a prezzy for one of our friends who is having a baby. Thats all I'm saying so it will stay a surprise, and I will post pics after the parents get the present.