Author: Laura Kate

One of six children, I was raised by a busy mom, who instilled in me a love of fabric. Though I learned to sew and knit at a young age, it was the arrival of my first grandchild that pushed me into action. A long-time knitter, I am now ready to explore all things fiber.
Posted in knitting

Finished Object Friday: Sea and Sand Reveal

Posted on by Laura Kate

I had great plans on revealing this new shawl with a few last comments on its constructions. But my plans changed last Friday when we got on a plane.

My husband and two good friends and I are in Belize for a week of sun and fun. I took the shawl along and Bill did a photo shoot with me and the shawl on an actual Caribbean beach.

So in this post, I’ll just give some narration to accompany these lovely photos.

As you see here I added a lace border in a very pale yarn. This is Knit Picks Gloss in colorway Clarity, fingering weight. The lace pattern is from my stitch dictionary, called Spiral and Eyelet Panel. The only adaption I made was to insert a six-stitch panel of spiral eyelets between each 24 stitch panel. It worked pretty well with my ultimate stitch count of 320. The bind-off I used is the same as in the Water shawl pattern I knit earlier this year. You can read about that here:

https://wordpress.com/post/dailyfiberfun.wordpress.com/3400

I’m happy with the curviness created by the 24 stitch center panel. An element of waviness came along with the lace border. It reminds me of the foamy waves as they roll onto the sandy shore.

Now that I am actually standing on the beach, I find the colors on the shawl are a fine representation of those found in the warm waters of the lagoon inside Belize reef.

Sand and Sea Shawl final dimensions: 23″ high by 59″ wide. It took eleven different colors of fingering weight yarn (roughly 50 yards each color) plus slightly more than half the ball of Gloss for the border. If all goes well, I plan to publish the pattern, once I get home and have time to write it up.

Posted in knitting

F.O. Friday – Cowl

Posted on by Laura Kate

I finished the Show Me Your Spots cowl a few weeks ago, but was unable to get myself photographed wearing it until this week. So here we are, in all our glory.

As I mentioned in my cast-on blog post, this pattern was chosen because it is a stash-buster. Lauren Sauvage publishes it on Ravelry, but also makes it available on her blog as a free pattern.

Pattern: Show Me Your Spots Cowl

Now that it’s finished, I kinda like the way it fits and looks on me. So I reserve the right to keep it for myself, and not gift it.

Next week you get to see the stash-busting shawl that I am making. It is also a stash-buster. I’m improvising the design as I go along. It is looking great and I’m very keen to finish it up and show it off.

Posted in drawing, recycling

Autumnal Equinox 2021

Posted on by Laura Kate

Today I want to celebrate the changing of seasons. Weather-wise, it’s still summer here. But a cool front is expected here in the next 12 hours.

I am hopeful for cooler breezes.

With the idea of using non-traditional materials for this art piece, I started by rummaging through my paper storage drawer. Among the half-used scrapbook pads, pages from old calendars, brown paper bags, pieces of card stock and carefully saved rice paper, I came across this:

Yes, your eyes do not deceive you. This is a paper towel that had been used as a wiping rag. If I had to guess I would say this it is covered in fabric paint, because it was fiber artist Cindy Walter who suggested that I save my used paper towels.

https://www.craftsy.com/class/fun-techniques-with-fabric-paints/

Well, why not, I told myself. This could be made into something, by applying a little imagination and some carefully chosen marks.

The towel was quite fragile, so I started with a 4B pencil. Flowers, I thought. Working through the blobs and streaks, I decided to include other living things that associate with flowers. These creatures are currently busy preparing for the coming of winter. I drew beetles, bees, caterpillars and a curious cardinal. Soon the paper was full of pencil marks. I considered adding color. In the end I did put a tiny bit of blue paint onto the stems, but refrained from adding other embellishments, due to concern about damaging the paper towel.

HAPPY EQUINOX TO ALL.

May this fragile drawing remind you of the frailty of life and our pledge as stewards of the earth to preserve it.

Posted in painting

Sunday Sketching – Flowers

Posted on by Laura Kate

This month I signed up to take a class taught by the frugal crafter, Lindsay Weirich.

https://lindsayweirich.teachable.com/p/loose-juicy-watercolor-florals

Since today is Sketching Sunday, I am sharing a few of the quick and loose flowers that I have painted while following her instruction.

None of these took longer than fifteen minutes to do. They certainly help me fill up the blank pages in my watercolor sketchbook.

How are you spending your week-end? I hope you are making time for fun stuff.

Posted in painting

Watercolor Wednesday

Posted on by Laura Kate

I have been saving this image from Unsplash for the time when my skills were sufficient to paint it. I think I’m ready now.

There are several challenges:

  1. Painting the pink flower with shading and without losing its delicate transparency.
  2. Making the background black enough while keeping the crisp edges of the foreground.
  3. Rendering the texture of the leaf in the foreground

It took me a few days and several stages.

Pencil outline of the flower and underpainting of the leaves. I added some colored pencil on the foreground, but these lines completely disappeared under subsequent glazes.

Before I proceeded to the next layers, I reserved the edges by coating them with masking fluid.

First layer of paint on flower and background, second glaze on leaves.
Second layer of paint on flower and background. Once it dried, I rubbed off the masking fluid.

Final painting. To render the curves of the foreground leaf, I decided to add a dark color band which doesn’t exist in the original photograph. I used a blue Prismacolor pencil to draw in the delicate veins which are visible between the large ribs.

I like the glowing look of the flower. The crimson petal tips really come forward visually. I’m happy with the foreground leaf. I’m wondering if I need to darken the leaf in the background.

Maybe I will wait a day and see how I feel about it.

Painted on Fabriano Studio cold press paper with Winsor yellow, quinacridone magenta, alizarin crimson, prussian blue, viridian, gold green and sap green.