honeycomb

this year with very few flowers to feed bees i am vicariously working with honeycomb.

this one's  two colors on a single bed brother 890 an indestructible workhorse gifted years ago by my fairy godmother  m(_ _)m  from england. if that machine were to be produced again it would be a best seller. no need to complicate a well designed product with unnecessary cumbersome bells and whistles,   their mentality is to avoid the unnecessary in every aspect of life . japanese technology rocks.

neki desu

 

enter fairy godmother-again

ya'll know i do believe in fairies i do i do as in the children's choir in peter pan. 

actually that was my favorite fairy tale. no prince charming riding a white stallion for me, i preferred flying and adventures.

 as a prize for my beliefs i was graced by a fairy godmother all for myself ; peruse  that label and you'll see that my first knitting machine was a gift from her, that she introduced me to mysty fuse way back in 2008 and  that my surface design has never been the same after she sent me all kinds of funky materials.

enter she again. having read  that i had acquired a ribber she  said she  had two copies,was going through a random act of kindness period  ( as if she had ever  stepped down from it!)  and sent me THE book.

when i started mk  i looked for a bibliography to help me in my learning process. on finding that this was one of the craft's seminal books i was very upset because i had bought it around 86-87.
i remember seeing  Susanna Lewis' wonderfully patterned  m knitted coats in the windows of julies artisans' gallery in new york and dreaming of the time i could knit my own. casually one day  i came across her book in a bookstore and bought it.  you see, there  had  always been a knitting machine on the back burner but i, alas gave the book  away in one of my more than frequent moves. i have very few regrets  in my life and  giving that book away was one of them.

those of you who are machine knitters understand what this means because this book not only is a bible for  double bed knitting, but it is  also out of print. the second hand ones command ludicrous prices. therefore i need to invent a word because grateful really falls short. i feel the same way i felt in japan when bowing to that overwhelming kindness i experienced did not suffice.

i have to finish the herringbone yardage and get down to study.  there is plenty to learn.

and for those of you who do not believe in fairies take a look at this. scroll down until you find her comment (ﾟｰﾟ)(｡_｡) 


neki desu

a bit late but just in time

the knitting machine refurbishing worked well.the sponge was changed and a deep cleaning was carried out.the machine is working very well now. self control is in order, first a simple, basic knit. ultra thin  unbleached linen singles made it interesting. it  came out with one big mistake and a few minor ones, not complaining! it is soft, and after blocking and  a pressing it has a nice sheen. wanted to drop it in the indigo vat, which by the way is working like a dream come true, but i am hesitating as it could dye towards the green as the unbleached color has yellow undertones. i only hope my fairy godmother is reading this, she would have a chuckle.

i have already started a more ambitious project to be worked during the mornings while the sun heats the vat on the terrace.this one is silk doupioni using the tuck application?  and this one will be aizomed.

speaking of which the cotton itajimes are coming along fine and a silk scarf is already finished and curing.

and something happened to this bloody keyboard because all the keys got changed and it is a pain typing. note the lack of contractions. perhaps something happened during the last update. going into the innards now.

neki desu
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color comes to rescue

Some oddities here. Have you ever come across silk that pills? Like that above? Strange! This is a remaining skein from a kilo that i bought ages and ages ago in a place outside New Jersey.
It was at the beginning of my weaving life and i was sure i would never have any use for that silk as it was frog hair thin. But it was beautiful and the love of beauty blinded me. Again.

This is a sample of the double weave on the loom. Simple, predictable. And B-O-R-I-N-G!

Color comes to rescue. A simple trick weaving with 2 colors as per taffeta weave. Hope you can appreciate the color iridescence as the light hits the fabric. Two shuttles are a lot better than three. My can't live without double shuttle from here.

Think i'll have the scarf finished before the year ends.

Oh! and for those of you who thought my fairy godmother was a literary invention check this and scroll down. LOL!


neki desu




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goodie goodie on the mirror

With all the upheaval i had not had time to show the goodies i brought back from Helsinki.
Heat bond Angelina in sparkling colors and merino for needlefelting. DUH! What's the big deal you may ask. Well, remember i live in an almost materials deprived zone and were it not for my fairy godmother i would have never touched stuff such as tyvek or misty fuse among others!
Note the colors though, lots of purples and just two blues. Hmmm..

Now these were an astonishing find for me by way of Fiskars. The mandrel coils wire and the wire winder makes rosettes as you can see from the sample. One more turn of the spirograph screw! Can you guess where i'm going?

i also went for broke and bought tubes and tubes of 16/1 linen from Bockens to whet my weaving appetite. Although one needs to be judicious so as not to incur in what Laura Fry calls SABLE.

On another note today i got up at the crack of dawn to take advantage from the fact that husband-san is not coming for lunch.i'll run a small (and short) indigo vat, the last of the season. hoping to round out the darkies today.
Now if i could only tear myself away from the computer.......


neki desu

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time for a pause

And lots of walking.

So i'll leave you with a very inspiring post i found at Exploring the Surface.
Be back in a couple of weeks to a goodie care package from my fairy godmother .

neki desu

boxes, boxes tuppence, and other things

i felt the urge to work on a whole piece after doing tests and trials for a week or more. i had also been testing Bondaweb and Misty Fuse that i got in a care package from my fairy godmother. Guess i'll have to give her a tag as she's a recurrent presence here:) The first piece is the lower photo, an exercise in excess, even for me:) i used every resource on hand as a game to see if i
could o.d.and how.You judge.
The second photo which is the first one in this post shows the work i did trying out restrain and wabi-sabi to see if i could do it. It seems that when i want i can :)
As i incorporated knitted copper wire in both pieces i thought it would be fun to name them two penny. Or perhaps tuppence?

Other matters.

Yesterday in jest i commented on the Take it further for February challenge page that i had the chance of using my memory selectively as the theme was memories. i started thinking along those lines and thought of all those boxes that we( or should i speak for myself?) use to store things. Or memories which is what things most of the times stand for.
There are big opaque boxes, transparent ones in smaller sizes. Boxes made of lead, plastic,wood,cardboard, fur lined, silver lined..You name it. Somewhat later i got a message from Marie honoring me with the you make my day award.
Among other kind things said she mentioned that she perceived me as thinking outside the box.

Then i was uploading these photos to Flickr and noticed my tendency of late to let sheer fabric spread and wander outside the boundaries.
The first photo has notes on it and those are indicated by boxes. HMM, the box topic again!
It would be foolish to ignore the signs so i'm working the February challenge using the box as metaphor. There's still some tuning to be done , but it's only 02/02.

Moving onVivian of Vivian-in-stitches has tagged me and i have to mention 7 things about me and tag 7 people.
i'll think about the 7 facts and 7 people and post about it next week.With rules and all :)

This is the longest post in the history of this blog and DH is getting impatient bcause we have to do the groceries. Better sign off.

neki desu