Posted in painting

Color Study

Posted on by Laura Kate

I’m interested in doing a few watercolor portraits. Today I am studying this photograph that I took of my daughter wearing a shawl I knit.

I chose this because of the variety of textures and contrasting values. Her pose is also very interesting to me.

So far, I have cropped the image and penciled the shapes onto watercolor paper. But before jumping into painting, I thought I would test out a few color selections in my sketchbook.

Some good options

A good start. The background is not dark enough, but I like the shawl colors. I can add more layers of paint to the background. That hair is too orange! It will be useful to attempt another study of the head before I move on.

8-05-22

Today I corrected values, added detail to the background and refined the face.

Posted in embellishing, painting, quilting

Experiment with Stitch and Slash

Posted on by Laura Kate

While perusing available art quilt technique tutorials, I discovered another use for my hand-painted fabrics. Carol Ann Waugh teaches a modern take on reverse applique in her class on Craftsy. She calls it Stitch and Slash. It was inspired by the traditional molas made by the Kuna women of Panama.

Molas

In Carol’s interpretation of the mola, four pieces of fabric are selected and layered together. Then a design is chosen, marked on the back of the pile and stitched into layers. The similarity with the traditional molas stops here, when Carol gets out her seam ripper and slashes away at the assembled fabric Instead of nice, neatly stitched edges, she ends up with frayed, textured ones.

Okay, I thought, I have the perfect set of fabrics to try this out.

The two painted pieces are layered with a dark green batik print and a brown textured print. You see here the back side of the brown fabric, which I will be using for the top layer. Nearly all of the this layer will be cut (or torn) away.

Here is the back of my piece, showing marks stitched through.

Getting started with the slashing: You see in this photo all the top layer is gone, part of layer two gone, and the center of the circles showing the bottom layer.

This ripping took more time and was a little trickier than I expected.

All the excess fabric is now removed.

I was excited by how well the painted design is showcased.

The next steps are really just embellishments. To start, various ribbons and yarns are couched down over the seams. (Couching is just a zig-zag stitch worked over the ribbon/yarn/cord.) After that, it’s time to explore thread and machine embroidery options. I went with metallic yarns and threads in warm colors and dark shades.

To finish up, I made a quilt sandwich with batting and backing and stitched it together using free motion quilting.

My Stitch and Slash sample suggests to me how much the trees are suffering from drought and temperatures above 100 degrees. I will call it Heat Wave.

You can find Carol Ann Waugh’s class here:

https://www.craftsy.com/class/stitch-slash/

Posted in knitting

Cast-on Monday: Search and Swatch

Posted on by Laura Kate

So my objective for this week is to prepare to knit socks – at least 4 pair! Just to make things interesting, I have set up a few criteria for these projects.

  1. They will use as much of my stash yarn as possible. You can see in the photo above that I have a fair selection which includes DK as well as fingering weight. Having gathered my yarns together in this bowl certainly helps me begin to think about color pairing of partial balls.
  2. I will choose patterns new to me so that I will have variety and new skills to learn.
  3. The new patterns will be available on-line from free pattern sources.

So far, I’m doing pretty good! I had no trouble finding patterns that I like without spending a dime. Some of these are written for DK weight. Here are my choices of patterns so far and the swatches I worked up for them.

VERTICALLY STRIPED SOCKS by NOVITA

Making use of a very graphical but easy stranded design, this pattern is knit at 24 stitches per 4 inches. These socks look fun, sturdy and very warm. The yarn I swatched here is Knitpicks Hawthorne Bare in a dk weight and Berroco Vintage dk. Full disclosure regarding the pattern: I downloaded it a few years ago and now can no longer find it on the ‘Net. I did see similar designs offered on the Novita website.

YAMADORI

This pattern by Ema Marinescu is available through knitty.com. She says the design was born “from my finally embracing variegated yarn.” To achieve this effect, the yarn chosen should have short color changes. This skein of Wisco Sock in colorway Caterpillar by Ewetopia certainly qualifies. With a tight gauge (34 st per 4 inches) and slipped stitch pattern, the resulting socks can’t help but be warm and sturdy.

LEMON DROP with BUNNIES

I have already made this Universal Yarn sock pattern once for my granddaughter. This time around, I will change it up by replacing the Lemon Drops chart with the Bunny Got Back chart, which is a sock pattern also offered by Universal Yarn. The designer is Amy Gunderson. The main color is an unidentified skein of cream wool in my stash. I’m pretty sure it is a superwash wool from Knitpicks. The variegated yarn is also Knitpicks and the solid dark is Berroco Heritage sock weight.

FAIRLEE

I’m pretty excited to try this pattern. Designed by Amy Christoffers for Berroco, Fairlee is designed for their Vintage dk yarn. She calls them slipper socks, so they will be great for scooting around the house during winter. But I think they will also work well inside boots during the worst winter weather. I’m showing a swatch of Berroco Vintage dk, but I will need to purchase more of this yarn to make these socks. My stash is a bit lacking in this weight.

Okay, so I’m keen to get started. If any of these patterns interest you, you may want to click through the following links:

Novita website: https://www.novitaknits.com/en/yarns-and-accessories

Yamadori: https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/yamadori

Bunny Got Back: https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/bunny-got-back-socks

Lemon Drop Socks: https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/lemon-drop-socks-2

Fairlee: https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/fairlee