Making Monday – rainbow lace cheat’s mitts

This is what I have on my needles at the moment after a request from my sister for a pair of rainbow cheat’s mitts:

The yarn is Sirdar Snuggly Smiley Stripes, which is 80% bamboo, 20 % wool and the lace cuff is two complete pattern repeats of Leaf Patterned lace. As it turns out, this probably wasn’t the best choice because I’m going to have a bit of nightmare sewing it up I think, but I wanted to try something different to keep learning. And of course the yarn is DK rather than 3 ply so my tension is all different too, although my sister has small hands and wrists too so hopefully they will be a nice snug fit, rather than actually big enough for my partner like my green ones!

I’m definitely getting the hang of lace, I might actually brave a Chinook Scarf with the lovely merino I was given for Christmas next.

Resisting Second Sock Syndrome

Tempting as it was to redo my first mitt with some decreases after the lace cuff so it wasn’t as big on my tiny wrists, I resisted and completed a matching one so here’s my first actually completed project:

I’m now working on a similar pair for my sister with a different lace pattern for the cuff, and they are in a different yarn so you’ll finally get to see something other than my bargain green acrylic from Lidl Pics to follow tomorrow for Making Monday.

Making Monday – Cheat’s mitt with lace cuff

Apparently, I’m a big fan of running before I can walk. After finishing one side of my little bag, rather than casting on for the other side to complete it, I decided I wanted to make a pair of fingerless mittens, with a lace cuff. I don’t have any DPNs for knitting in the round and don’t know how to shape thumbs but I didn’t let that stop me. Having an idea of my gauge from the previous knit, I merrily cast on and tried the simplest lace stitch in my book.  It only involves purling two stitches together and yarn-overs, I thought, how hard can it be? Several hours later, I realised my folly. However, I finally managed to construct a cuff of 5 repeats of Ridged Feather stitch without any glaring errors (there’s at least one yarn-over that I dropped and picked up wrongly but I’d already started again twice by this point so I decided it would do) and then proceded to make the main body in stocking stitch with a little cuff of purled stitches at the top. The result was this (apologies for the dodgy colour, there was no daylight left up here by the time I finished!):

Lace cuff cheat's mitt

The lace is really hard to photograph, I managed this picture but I’m not sure it makes it any clearer. Now I just need to knit the other one!

Click to enlarge

If anyone is interested, the pattern for a 7 inch diameter mitt on 4mm needles with 4 ply (sport weight) yarn is as follows (the lace pattern requires multiples of 11 stitches, 55 stitches would be 8 3/4 inches in my gauge of approx. 6 stitches and 8 rows per square inch):

Cast on 44 stitches.

Row 1 (RS) Knit

Row 2 Purl

Row 3 *(P2tog twice), (yo k1) 3 times, yo,  (P2tog) twice. Repeat from * to end (44 stitches will need 4 pattern repeats)

Row 4 Purl

Repeat these rows 5 times

Work required mitt length minus approx 1 inch in stocking stitch starting (RS) with a knit row (I did  35 rows as I wanted long mitts and have narrow forearms).

Work border so on RS you have 3 purled rows with 2 knitted rows in between (beginning on (WS) knit 2 rows, purl 3 rows, knit 2 rows)

(RS) Bind off as knit row

Sew up leaving thumb hole from just below purled top border

I hope that makes sense, I’ve struggled for ages trying to work out the individual rows for the final border bit, it’s so much easier to just describe it from the right side!

Check out what other people have been making on Natalie’s Making Monday post.

Belated Making Monday – mixed makes

Welcome to 2012 – I’m still here, although still without pottery classes. I am finally getting round to making actual jewellery from my left-over beads and pendants, like this necklace made from emerald clouds glazed beads and silver effect spacer beads, which I just need to attach the fastener to.

I’m so pleased with it that I’m thinking I’ll get some more of the silver beads and do another one – I think I have enough blue beads for a chocker and the silver should set them off nicely.

Aside from jewellery making, I’ve been trying my hand at knitting, something that I can handily do at home unlike my beloved pottery. I’m making a little bag in King Charles Brocade stitch at the moment, to practice knitting and purling and reading a pattern. I’ve managed 3 pattern repeats so far:

I’m really quite pleased with how it’s turning out given I haven’t knitted since I was 12 and then I only made garter stitch squares for blankets.

This year looks to be a year of more varied crafts – I’m not going to be back at pottery classes before April at the earliest from the looks of things, I’m determined to master the knitting enough to make some wearable garments, I have fabric offcuts and want to learn to use a sewing machine, and I have a big event coming up at the end of the summer which is also calling on my crafty skills (these silk flowers may well give you a clue on that front).  So now I’m seeing the drawback of intending this to be a specifically pottery-based blog. I don’t know whether to give it a make over or just start again from scratch since I can’t change the name. If there’s anyone still reading this, what are your thoughts?

Check out what everyone else was making yesterday as part of Making Monday on Natalie’s blog!

Apologies

Sorry for the lack of updates, I’m snowed under with my day job at the moment. I’m still around on email if you’ve seen something you like on my stock page though, and this blog has fan page on Facebook now so you can contact me there too (although I’ve removed the link box from my sidebar so you aren’t tracked when you visit because I’m not comfortable with their new sharing policy).

Quick update

Apologies for the lack of a Making Monday post this week, check out everyone else’s contributions here. My stock page is approaching up to date though, so if you liked the look of the porcelain pendants or buttons in my last post, check it out. I haven’t listed all the 1″ diameter ivy leaves because I’m still musing attempting wirework again and making something with them, but if you had a project in mind for them, feel free to drop me an email and I’m sure I could be convinced to part with them

Making Monday – porcelain pendants and buttons

I had great fun playing with porcelain before my classes finished – it takes patterns pressed into it really well because it is so fine in texture and the white body makes a great base for colour. These are my two favourite creations: an ivy leaf pendant coloured with a mixture of underglaze paints and copper stain, and some beads with teal spirals carved into them. I’ve been getting plenty of wear out of both of these.

Porcelain ivy leaf pendant and carved spiral beads

They weren’t all I made though. I have a pile of other pendants and buttons just waiting for good homes, which will be going up on my stock page this week. Here’s a sneak preview for you:

Porcelain pendants and buttons

Some are decorated with underglazes, while the small leaf buttons and pendants are made using coloured porcelain. The textured rectangular buttons and pendants were all made by pressing different designs of lace into the clay. You can click on the photo to look at them in more detail.

If you’re interested in what other people have been making, check out the comments on Natalie’s latest Making Monday post.

Handmade in Britain

The BBC and the V&A announced a major new year-long partnership yesterday; a series of new programmes on BBC4 exploring the history of British craftsmanship, covering things like woodworking, textiles and metalwork. And it’s all going to kick off with a 3 part series on ceramics this autumn.

It should be fascinating and I’m looking forward to seeing what the V&A’s ceramics collection is like because I keep intending to go and see it but London is a bit of a trek from Dundee!

Making Monday – a much used old make & a new one

I was going to post an example of my creative process today, from inspiration to finished product(s) but then I read a comment left by Sharon on my first Making Mondays post about how she loves using the pots her Dad has made for her, and remembered something Ros said in her craft debate post;

“I’d like to see crafting as a normal part of pretty much everyone’s life… it doesn’t have to be beautiful and it doesn’t have to be perfect. It has to be functional and personal.”

And decided to post about my teapot instead.

This is one of the first things I made at my college class back when I started evening classes in 2006. It’s slip cast (made by pouring liquid clay into a plaster mould, leaving it for about an hour and then pouring out the excess and leaving the mould to dry, before opening it and then trimming and smoothing) and ‘glazed’ in Norwegian Blue. As you can see, I hadn’t quite got a handle on how much glaze to use, so it’s patchy and mostly black where the glaze isn’t thick enough. But it’s perfectly functional as attested by the fact it gets used more or less everyday and, loose leaf tea addict that I am, I even take it on self-catering holidays with me (although we have yet to actually stay in a cottage that didn’t have a teapot despite the prevalence of tea bags). It might not be perfect, but it pours well and my tea making ritual is so much more special because of it.

The thing I actually made this week (aside from multiple pots of tea) was a Facebook fan page for this blog. You can find the link in my righthand tool bar now I have eventually got it to work!

Craft debate

The Crafts Council UK and the British Museum have been hosting a craft debate on Twitter this afternoon. If you head over and search #craftsdebate you can still read the discussion, which covered definitions of craft and issues about professional vs amateur making and the value of craft in modern society. It was interesting stuff, although my feelings are mostly in agreement with this post by Ros.

I don’t like the suggestion that there is a huge gulf between professional and nonprofessional crafters, like making things mostly for yourself is something to be looked down upon because everyone with real skill and passion should be able to make a living from it. I don’t think the skill level of amateurs is necessarily lower than that of professionals. In pottery at least, I think access to resources is often the biggest difference between the two – I’ve seen people selling stuff at Potfest that I could make just as well myself, and amateurs at my college class produce work that looks highly professional. And while I’d love for more people to appreciate and be prepared to pay for handcrafted items made with love and care, I think there is a limit to how big the market can grow before it becomes just another expression of modern consumerism.

Etsy seems to be full of remarkably similar stuff that most people could make themselves if they tried, so it seems to me that the drive to make a living from it doesn’t do the reputation of non-specialist* craft any good whatsoever. Something that is charming and personal when made for yourself or a friend loses its charm somewhat when mass produced.

*I say non-specialist because as Ros acknowledges, people need to be able to make a living from crafts such as stone masonry & blacksmithing to keep the skills alive really because they require such an investment in equipment.