Gives you Wings

It's been a while since I gave an update on the Aubrey cosplay, hasn't it? I'll admit, I've gotten sidetracked with other projects, but that doesn't mean this cosplay has fallen completely to the wayside! In between re-learning embroidery, I decided to make the wing decals for the back of the jacket. I already had colored felt and matching thread lying around, so it was just a matter of putting things together. First, I drew a wing design onto a piece of paper, just to get the dimensions right. I wouldn't want to make a pair of wings that was too big for the jacket, right? Satisfied with the size, I proceeded to cut the parts out of felt and pin them together:

Pretty cool so far. I love gradients, and this fiery maroon to yellow one makes me happy! Next, I had to sew everything together. I chose to hand sew, using a blanket stitch around the entire border of each piece in a corresponding thread color. Felt doesn't fray or unravel, so I didn't have to worry about hems or securing the edge with the stitch. Once I finished that, the wings looked like this:

From a distance, the stitches blend in well, but a close up shows my handiwork:

The blanket stitch is a worthwhile stitch to learn if you do any hand-sewing, and it's fairly easy to learn, too. I'll be sure to add a page for hand sewing tutorials soon so you can teach yourself the basics. And then I'll get back to those embroidered patches. Maybe this cosplay will be done by Halloween!

Pattern Review: Sydänmaa Cabled Mittens

Cables! The quintessential knitting technique! Of course, I had to try them (and much sooner than anyone would recommend to a beginning knitter). I had a ball of Cascade 220 worsted in a lovely teal color, so I figured mittens would be a good idea. I came across this pattern, called Sydänmaa (link here), which I quite liked:

Don't fear the Finnish title: the pattern is available in English. For the curious, "Sydänmaa" means "heartland" in Finnish. I did try to learn the language a few years back at the behest of a friend, but languages just don't come easily to me. Unless we're talking the language of crafts! Speaking of, I took to a borrowed pair of double pointed needles to try Sydänmaa myself.

The results! These mittens were clearly made for someone with much longer fingers than mine. I cut out an entire pattern repeat and they still fit fine. I can't say that I'm a huge fan of how long the wrist sections are, either, but that's a personal stylistic choice rather than one of fit.

The charts were easy to read even for a beginner, and the shaping of the thumb fit my hand nicely once I corrected for length. I liked the style of the cables as well, though those could be changed fairly easily if you wanted to try something different on the backs.

Overall, apart from the length issue, it was a good pattern. Clear instructions made for a fine result that was easy to adjust to my hand. To conclude:

Thumbs up for Sydänmaa!

Knitting: It's About Time!

I've been crafting for a long time, but in all those years, I never learned to knit. Oh sure, I have a pair of needles, and every few years I would clumsily attempt a cast-on and a few rows before losing interesting and ripping everything out again. My grandma taught me to crochet, my mother taught me to sew, and I taught myself tatting, papercutting, embroidery, weaving, and all the rest. I figured I didn't need knitting with all those other tools at my disposal!

But then, I just happened upon a book in the local bookstore on knitted lace on the bargain shelf. The patterns were, on the whole, beautiful, and the instructions were clear and well-written. Surely buying it couldn't hurt? Just to look at the pictures, to fill a space on my bookshelf. Then I started looking at patterns online. Pretty patterns. Stylish patterns. Knitting patterns. If I wanted to actually have any of those items, I would have to learn to knit. So I wiped the dust off of a pair of needles, made a few test squares, and got started.

Now, I am terrible at being a beginner. I hate the simplistic, plain crafting that's always suggested for a first project. It's. So. Boring. So whenever possible, I just... don't. I don't believe that your first project has to be some variation of a plain one-stitch rectangle. It takes a little longer to do, and you have to learn a handful more techniques at once, but you can absolutely start with a project like this:

This is a free pattern called the Peaks and Valleys Scarf, available here. I liked it a lot: it was way more visually interesting than a plain garter stitch scarf, but not so complicated that I couldn't manage to figure it out. In fact, the instructions proper fit on less than half a page. I needed to learn a handful more techniques than I would have needed for garter stitch, but the repeating pattern gave me plenty of time to practice.

So I did! I knit and purled and made mistakes and fixed them. Many of the skills I knew from crocheting came in handy, and I learned new skills as well. The result was far from perfect, but I'm proud of it all the same!

The scarf curled pretty badly when I first knit it (It's the nature of stockinette), but a little steam blocking evened that right out. If you don't have a steamer, soak a pillowcase and lay it over your work before ironing right on top of the pillowcase. It does the trick nearly as well!

Now that I've finished a proper project with a proper pattern, I can officially call myself a knitter! I'm sure I'll be going on a knitting spree, making up for all those years I was too stubborn to try. If you want to learn how to knit too, I'll be posting a tutorials reference page soon. If you already know how to knit, share your tips (and your own first time projects) in the comments! And until next time, keep an open mind and stay crafty!

An Experiment

Experiment time! I do so love using craft supplies for different projects. You can get really cool effects that way! But using products in ways they were not intended requires trial and error.

You may remember that a little while ago, I tried my hand at marble dyeing. While I love the results and plan to do more in the future, I have more marbling paint than I could ever need! I wanted to see if I could use the paint for any other craft, and after a little Internet searching, I hit upon the idea that perhaps they would work for silk painting.

For those who don't know, silk painting is a technique where some sort of resist is piped onto silk fabric to create a design, and then the fabric is painted with dyes. The resist prevents the dyes from spreading across the line, resulting in clean, white lines and blocks of color that look a bit like watercolors. I wanted to try my hand at the craft using materials I have in my house. Hence, the experiment! Here's how it went.

I took one square silk scarf and cut it in half. I didn't have anywhere big enough to stretch the entire square out, and I wanted to try a few different ways of fixing the paint, so two scarves it was! In marble dyeing, the fabric is pretreated with alum, so I did that for one scarf and left the other alone to treat after the paint was applied.

Next, I drew a design. Water lilies seemed like a traditional and beautiful choice, and it would give me a chance to play around with blending colors in the large water areas.

Then it was time to resist! Or... to add the resist. I didn't have any proper resist around, but I did have beeswax. Beeswax is often used for batik dyeing, so I predicted it might work for painting as well. I melted it with a candle flame and used an old paintbrush to apply it across light pencil lines I traced onto the fabric. This was probably the trickiest part! The beeswax dripped when liquid and solidified quickly, making it hard to get an even line.

Finally, the painting! The scarf is just stretched over a plastic storage container (which wasn't quite big enough, but I digress). I took the paints and applied them as I saw fit. Most of the colors bled readily, but the beeswax stopped it as long as the line wasn't broken. White was the only color that didn't bleed well, not did it blend with the other colors readily. But otherwise, the colors mixed to produce a lovely watercolor effect.

For the pre-treated scarf, all I had to do to finish was to remove the alum and wax. For the untreated scarf, I first treated it with the alum solution and let it dry for a day. Then I washed both scarves gently with water to remove the alum. The beeswax needed to be melted out, so I sandwiched the scarves between layers of paper towel and ironed them. This left an oily stain on the fabric, so it's not a method I would recommend. Fortunately, the already-mottled colors of the water hid the stain well!

And there we have it! Both of the scarves turned out pretty nicely for a first try, and neither bled when I tried to wash them. Hooray for colorfastness! It was a bit easier to apply the wax and paint to the untreated scarf; it seemed like the fabric absorbed the liquid better that way. And since both methods fixed the paint to the scarf well, I'd recommend whatever is easier to do!

On the downsides, these scarves are now rather stiff. I ended up using a lot of paint to cover the fabric, and it affected the feel. Paints, unlike dyes, have a matrix of non-pigmented molecules that hold the pigments, and too much of that structural material can stiffen fabric. I wouldn't want to wear either of these scarves on my skin (but they'll look nice as a wall hanging). In the future, I'll dilute the paints considerably and see if I can get vibrant colors without saturating the fabric quite so much.

And thus ends the experiment! I learned lots about how the marbling paints work, so I'd say it was a success. But there's still more to test, so perhaps you'll see more silk painting here in the future!