PROGRESS REPORT 18

J E N N E

The sashiko stitching continues.  I keep most all scraps from other sewing projects and last week went through them and cut many into the same size to do some stitching experiments with.  I am really interested in playing with the colors of the threads vs the stitching and the combinations and possibly layers that will come.  This is another big experiment with a vague idea of what I am aiming for but letting the material dictate what will be done with it.  Yesterday Alisa sent me a picture of a poster on the wall at her school that says "Detach from outcome, commit to process."  I am really feeling that right now, freely experimenting with the materials I have and letting the process dictate where I go with it and what to try next.  

A L I S A

This is what my puppet looks like assembled. All the pieces that were in the last Progress Report all went into making Rocky the Goat Puppet. This is a final project for year three of my formal spinning education. I really loved how it turned out and loved the process of making it. The story of Rocky goes like this… When I moved back to Canada from the USA about 6 years ago, I was working at a yarn mill and totally getting into spinning and knowing how the textile and fibre arts work from the basics up. The mill was on a working farm that raised Angora goats for Mohair. Rocky was the first animal I ever saw being born and I really took a shine to him. I spent a lot of time with him over the next few years and the owners of the mill/farm gifted me all his fleeces. I have wanted to make this totem since then. The puppet is made out of his fleece that I was present for the shearing of and processed myself. Rocky started this amazing change in me to stay curious about materials and where things come from and to know about fibre animals and what goes into making yarn. 

PROGRESS REPORT 17

J E N N E

Sashiko has become the work of the summer. I spent a week working on clothing for my daughter and I decided to make a dress with sashiko stitching on the bodice. With sewing you have transformative powers in your hands, in your needle and thread.  You don't have to follow a pattern to the letter or use the fabric as is.  I have been trying to use up everything in my fabric stash and in this case made a new fabric out of a cut of denim that honestly doesn't match the rest of the pieces of the dress. (Look carefully at the skirt fabric, its more teal and the back has darker pieces.  Maybe only I can see it, I spent years scrutinizing shades of color in my last job and years of printing color in the darkroom)  Add handstitching, or block printing, or any sort of surface design is a way to make something imperfect more imperfectly perfect - a sort of wabi sabi magic that I am completely embracing right now.

A L I S A

I've been taking this six year long course through the Ontario Handweavers and Spinners Guild in hand-spinning. It runs for 10 days a year in a beautiful place called Haliburton at a beautiful school up there. It is much more than hand-spinning though. I've been learning all about the properties of fibre, both natural and synthetic dyeing techniques, construction techniques and, of course, all aspects of spinning on a wheel. I'm going into my fourth year this year and I'm finishing up some homework. Homework for this course is pretty intense and very specific. The planning portion for each project is much more in-depth than anything I would do for work outside of school. This picture represents a fair amount of hours of work in fleece selection, spinning, weaving and crochet. It's going to be an angora goat puppet! I will post more pictures here as I progress….

PROGRESS REPORT 16

A L I S A

Last Progress Report I was about to ply up some yarn that had been on my bobbins for a while. I am using up a bunch of hand-dyed braids that I had in my stash. I really love the outcome. the colours didn't match up as well as I though they would, which makes sense as I'm just working by eye and not being super careful about weighing out roving. I really love this skein and I'm ready to spin up and ply the rest. Firstly, I HAVE to work on my final project for school (which is due mid-August - YIKES). My excuse of not having any empty bobbins no longer holds...

J E N N E

I AM CRAZY FOR SASHIKO!  After making the pillow, I wanted to experiment with drawing the patterns to be able to change the scale and also to experiment with different fabrics.  The polka dot seemed like a natural pattern already to play with some freehand stitches.  I found a book at the library in japanese that has pictures of how to draw out on a grid any traditional pattern at any scale and have been practicing on paper.  The denim piece is a sampler for two garments I am making - testing out the scale and the thread.  I am working on a dress for M to try out sashiko and garment construction, and hopefully it will work well so I can also do stitching on a larger scale.

PROGRESS REPORT 15

A L I S A

I've decided to use up all my stash before I purchase anything new. I also have a (newish) rule to only purchase enough stuff to make a whole project because, when I first started spinning, I would buy a bit here and a bit there… so, I have all these bits laying around and decided to put them together to make enough yarn for a sweater. I have four different colourways of some nice merino and I'm spinning them to create a yarn with very long colour repeats. I have two brights with neutrals between. I'm ready to ply up a skein to see how it looks - I'm sure it will be fine because I like things a little kooky anyways!

J E N N E

Trying out new stitches and techniques is fun, but what to do with the samplers when done?   Make pillows of course!  On the left is a sashiko embroidered pattern (a preprinted pattern from Olympus.)  I loved making this piece - it was a sort of a test for sashiko that I want to incorporate into other sewing  projects.  Its different from the embroidery that I did for the Alabama Chanin inspired dress - though the running stitch is the same in sashiko its approached as an allover pattern vs. embroidering motifs into a pattern as you go.  The right is the completed Nigerian reverse applique piece which has such a rad 3D quality to it.   Quilted stained glass.  I am having a lot of fun learning these techniques - and have figured out a way to possibly a very exciting project combining them.