Laura Kate

Wednesday: Considering a new project

Posted on January 10, 2024January 10, 2024 by Laura Kate

At present, I have various works in progress and finished objects that I could write about today. But January is the month that Quilting Gail and her co-horts begin work on the annual Stay at Home Round Robin quilt. So I am pivoting.

Stay at Home Round Robin Quilting

During the past three years I have participated with joy. I’d really like to continue round robin-ing this year. But I am in a quandary about my center block. Thinking about SAHHR in December, I had the idea to use paper pieced squares in this year’s center block. I but never got around to making them. Now, feeling pressed for time, I’m reluctant to work on a deadline in a technique in which I have little experience.

This morning, I decided the answer may lie in the objects I made during my first year of practicing fiber arts. It was a time when I was bursting with ideas but short on skills. As I rummaged through my portfolio from 2019 to early 2020, I found six fiber objects with potential to become a center block of a small quilt.

Shall we audition them together?

Candidate 1:

This was an early experiment with fabric paint. I took two different paintings, cut them into strips and wove them together, using satin stitch to close up the cut edges.

Candidate 2:

This is a rejected block from my oakleaf hydrangea wall-hanging. The background is covered in snippets of hand embroidery with irregular blanket stitch on the edges.

Candidate 3:

I was discovering what fabric markers can do. This painting is done on lightweight muslin and would need to be mounted on sturdier fabric.

Candidate 4:

A mini art quilt, this was inspired by what I saw in my head with eyes closed during a yoga class. I was practicing curved edge piecing.

Candidate 5:

Inspired by one of Bill’s photographs, this block was a practice piece for a larger work I never completed. The technique is confetti applique. While I would consider putting this one in an SAHHR quilt, I’ve yet to give up on my original concept.

Candidate 6:

A very early experiment in fabric painting, I “saw” a scene of a mountain area recovering from a forest fire. The initial paint application was enhanced with brown stamps of bare and broken trees. The middle ground is meant to represent fireweed which moves in quickly after a fire ends.

This last block is the one I am leaning toward the most. I have some ideas for expanding on the theme of environmental devastation and recovery.

What do you think about my options? Even if you are not a quilter, I am interested in learning the block that attracts your eye the most. Which one has the highest potential from the aspects of design, color and originality?

knitting, painting

1st Cast-on for 2024

Posted on January 1, 2024January 2, 2024 by Laura Kate

Need I mention that this will be another stashbuster? While that’s true, this hat is a also a sort-of swatch for a much more ambitious knit project.

I’m knitting it up from scraps of yarn using a pattern offered by Wool & Pine. The technique is called 1 x 1 colorwork. It is just what it sounds like: Using 2 different strands of yarn per row, knit 1 stitch in color 1, then 1 stitch in color 2. Continue alternating colors to the end of the round. Then it’s up to the knitter on how often to change out colors throughout the project.

Here I am switching out colors once per row. After practicing on the hat, I hope I will be ready to knit the pull-over.

https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/sea-glass-sweater-2

Seaglass is the ultimate stash-busting pattern. It came to my attention from fellow blogger The Crafty Yarnster who is working on her own seaglass sweater.

https://wordpress.com/read/feeds/152202665/posts/5052736941

In other news, five recipients of Christmas handknits expressed satisfaction with their new accessories. The balaclava/mitten combination can be seen here:

After trying it on, the child’s mother ecstatically called out for her own balaclava. It’s that warm! The adult version will be cast-on no. 2 for 2024.

Moving on to watercolors, I have promised my yoga teacher that I would do a watercolor portrait of her two little Havanese dogs. This is the photo she sent.

Irresistibly cute, don’t you think? This will be my first painting of a dog. I think it will be truly fun to do.

So, with these three projects, I believe that my plate for January 2024 is full. Hopefully I can squeeze in some work on December 2023 UFOs.

Living Life Well

Christmas To-Dos: TA DONE

Posted on December 31, 2023December 31, 2023 by Laura Kate

My collaborators for the holiday festivities:

As we approached the end of Christmas week, it became clear that we wouldn’t be able to complete every joyous job. The weather was a bit of an obstacle, and we also ran out of time. Some in our group felt that we needed to recognize stuff we did that wasn’t on the list.

So we did.

**Extra Stuff is Written in Black Sharpie.**

Don’t forget to bring your black sharpie to Christmas week to write in your choices,

colorwork, knitting

C.O.M. * Stashbusting Mania

Posted on December 18, 2023 by Laura Kate

Okay my friends, I have been concentrating on knitting projects that use up stash yarn for just about seven months now. I have knit two-color cowls, socks and mittens; three color scarves; and four-color shawls. Yet, based on the looks of my yarn closet, I still am not making a big dent in the wool. Soooo much remains. Argh!

At this point, I am dropping my careful technique of pulling full skeins of compatible colors, weighting the volume of yarn then selecting a pattern that will make use of the mass. Now it’s just grab anything and cast on, then think about what it will become. Hence my current cast-on using these pitiful pieces of yarn.

There’s not much to work with and the weather is getting colder. The obvious answer is fingerless gloves. I happen to have a quick and easy pattern sourced from Klamath Basin Wool Works. It’s called Off-the-grid mitts.

Wool stories

As I recall, these are available as a free download from the site.

Here’s my start, using size 3 double point needles.

Off the grid is an appropriate name for this pattern. It is a playful reference to the grid-like texture which results from the mosaic stitch. (Slip one and knit one for two rows, then knit two rows of the main color.) In the end, you will have something to warm your hands if you live off the grid.

This knit should go fast, satisfying my manic need to keep knitting. Then, in a cooler frame of mind, I can return to a more methodic way of using up my left-overs.

* C. O. M. = cast on Monday.

knitting, painting

Friday Finishes (Yes, two!)

Posted on December 15, 2023December 14, 2023 by Laura Kate

It’s been a pleasant and productive week for me. You see in the image that I have finished the second sock of the Mary Delany pattern.

This is the first time I have stranded two yarns across the heel. For the past few years I have been seeking construction techniques that reinforce the areas of the sock foot which always get holes. Logic tells me that two strands are stronger than one.

I used one blended yarn and one all-wool yarn. Fiber content includes acrylic, alpaca and sheep’s wool. Time will be the measure of success in this test of tensile strength!

The pattern is by Kate Davies, and I will again insert the link to it. I must confess to substituting another Fair Isle pattern for the pattern’s. Your results will vary.

https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/mary-delany

My second finish of the week is the Winter Birds watercolor painting based on Bill’s photographs. My composition is compiled from three of his photographs.

The two chickadees are cozied up to a pinecone, with the pine’s branches and needles as background. Working out the best layout was a wonderful challenge. My goal for the painting was to suggest bird camaraderie during the depths of winter.

This painting is about done. I still need to clean up some edges, tone some of the masked areas and add a highlight or two. All fun stuff. And it’s finished in time to slip it into a frame and hang it on the wall before Winter officially begins.

After laying in masking fluid, I used hansa yellow deep, transparent orange, pyrrol scarlet, burnt sienna, Winsor green blue shade, Cerulean blue and ultramarine blue. My new favorite black mix is ultramarine blue and transparent orange.