Daily Fiber

Cast-on Monday: Now for something Completely Different

Posted on September 4, 2023September 3, 2023 by Laura Kate

Honestly, the project itself is not completely different. It’s a hat. It’s a 2-color hat. It’s a 2-color hat knitted in fair-isle technique. The difference lies in the chart.

It was generated by computer using a program coded by designer Rianna Suen.

https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/biome-hat

In her words, “Simplex noise is a clustered randomness algorithm. When translated into knit stitches, it produces a colorwork pattern with an organic look.” The upshot of it is that no two patterns will be alike. Each time you click on the link, the algorithm runs and displays a new chart. If you don’t like what you see, move a variable and run it again. Save a few runs and use the pattern that you like the most.

My chart looks hand drawn, because it is. I was unable to get a workable print-out of the computer-generated image. So, I hand copied it, just like the monks did in an era prior to the invention of printing. Ha, take that! 21st century.

Here are my yarns.

Ultra Alpaca is an old friend. I used it and loved it many years ago in making a skirt with a colorwork band at the hem. The beige skein I selected is natural undyed fiber. The forest green was selected by Henry, who will receive the hat when completed.

I’ve got the band finished.

It’s now ready for me to start working from the chart. I’ll expect that the work will go slowly. There is no pattern repeat that can be memorized. Each row is unique and there are 50 of them.

If you like to experiment with your knitting, check out the Biome Hat on Ravelry.

painting

Finished by Friday: Abstract Paintings

Posted on September 1, 2023August 31, 2023 by Laura Kate

It’s time to share two more paintings resulting from my lessons last week with Jan Brieschke. She taught three days on how to approach abstract painting using watercolor and ink. She calls her style Fractured Light.

**https://www.janbrieschke.com/Abstracts.htm**

Last week I posted photographs of these works at the half-way point.

First is an exercise featuring iterations of a leaf. After drawing some directional lines, we traced a leaf over and over again, following the lines. I chose a red bud leaf.

The next exercise was truly abstract. It involved a string, puddles of paint and two pieces of paper. The wet string is pulled vigorously through the paper sandwich.

Initial painting. This is a close-up of the section I worked further.

Finished painting. I fleshed out the design with many, many stipples. I also used a soluable graphite pencil to augment my painted lines.

This one pleases me a lot. I found myself in the flow while working on it. Somehow I knew exactly what to do, and exactly when it was finished.

So mysterious.

I’m sorely tempted to do more work in abstract style. I’d like to know if I got lucky or if I can find myself “in the flow” again.

hand embroidery

WIP Wednesday: Dragonfly Quilt

Posted on August 30, 2023 by Laura Kate

It’s been more than two months since I’ve reported on progress with my dragonfly art quilt. For the last few weeks, I have been adding detail with embroidery.

In this stage, I am using various colors of thread, including a metallic, to outline the subjects’ bodies and fill in and outline the wings. The box of machine embroidery threads that I collected from my mother’s work room contains many beautiful threads that work well together with DMC floss to enhance my dragonflies. I’m so grateful to have received it from her.

I started my work with the main panel. In the painting stage, I had indicated the wings using faint lines in a sketchy manner. Ditto for the legs.

Now with metallic and matte threads held together, I stitched the delicate veining using (appropriately) the fly stitch. The legs were done in a black fuzzy thread, which helps to indicate the scaliness I observed in the original photograph.

I love the way the threadwork gives depth and liveliness to the painting.

After I’m finished embroidering the dragonfly bodies, I’ll sew on the border and backing. When that is complete, I’ll move on to hand quilting the whole thing.

knitting

Friday Finish: UFO Transitioned

Posted on August 25, 2023 by Laura Kate

A few months ago, I wrote about my plan to assign unused yarns in my stash to potential knitting projects. Among those plastic bags hanging in the yarn closet were some UFOs (unfinished objects) including this one.

It had started life as a vest project, which involved knitting garter ridge triangles in strips, then sewing the strips together, adding shoulder seams, etc.

To make a long story short, I discarded that plan, partly because I really didn’t have enough yarn and didn’t want to buy more. Plan B involved making the strips longer and sewing them end-to-end to make a scarf.

This scarf is today’s Friday Finish

I enjoyed working on this project. It was basic straight knitting and made a good mindless project. It’s easy to pick up stitches along the triangle’s edge – one stitch per garter ridge. And the color play is gratifying to watch.

The final project is about 54″ long and 5″ wide. There is almost no yarn leftover.

Presto! Another Stashbuster crosses the finish line!

painting

Watercolor Wednesday: Abstract Art

Posted on August 23, 2023 by Laura Kate

More accurately, this is Watercolor Week. Our local art association is opening its annual art show and sale on Friday. In conjunction with this event, the association invited the judge, teaching artist Jan Brieschke, to give a three-day class.

https://www.janbrieschke.com/

Jan is teaching me and 10 other students how to compose and paint in the abstract style using watercolor and ink. Her work in this form of mixed media is stunning.

The first two days have been great fun. Jan is soft-spoken and low key. Her lessons on how to get an abstract composition started are inspired by four modernist painters:

PIET MONDRIAN

https://www.theartstory.org/artist/mondrian-piet/

MARCEL DUCHAMP

https://www.theartstory.org/artist/duchamp-marcel/

PABLO PICASSO

https://www.theartstory.org/artist/picasso-pablo/

and JACKSON POLLOCK

https://www.theartstory.org/artist/pollock-jackson/

We haven’t got to the Pollock yet (dripping and throwing paint at paper will be pretty darn exciting for a bunch of conservative Oklahomans!) Today I’m posting my work resulting from the first two days of class.

We started with Mondrian and geometric abstracts. Jan’s method was to have each student to suggest a shape. We then had to incorporate those suggestions into our initial drawings. Here is my work after drawing, inking the lines and painting washes.

To finish, we were asked to stipple our paintings using black Micron pens. I limited my stipples to the red circles, as you can see in this slightly wonky photograph.

The next technique involved the organic shape of a leaf. We started by making directional lines on our papers. Then we traced the leaf many times, overlapping the shapes in the direct of the lines. Color was added to the spaces made by the lines crossing. I chose to use warm colors on the leaf shapes, keeping the background in mixed shades of green.

Tomorrow I hope to finish by drawing more lines and some texture in black ink.

Our technique this morning involved soaking a string in one or two colors of paint, laying the wet string on a paper, covering the paper with another piece, and then pulling the string out while rotating it. I pulled two strings through mine, one twisted one straight. This is how it looks after the paper dried and I added a few twisty lines in a pale color of paint.

After studying the result for a while, I decided that I will crop it down, maybe like this.

Tomorrow is the last day of class. Hopefully I will finish my leaf and string paintings. And who knows what other crazy things Jan will show us using paint and ink.