I was walking around the yard draping my latest scarf over bare winter trees when I suddenly remembered Stella.
My daughter bought her from Reverse Garbage years ago. She has been stashed away in the conglomeration that was once my pottery studio and then daughters' darkroom. Stella has lived quietly there amongst bags of dried clay, pottery wheels, old enlargers and developing tanks.
She seemed happy to see daylight again, I think I will be using her for future photos - she is pretty 'armless and drapes well!
The scarf was inspired from my coral reef crochet and looks far better on Stella than it does on me
The chronicles of Erica, a textile and mixed media artist living in Sydney, Australia, as she meanders her way through a life filled with fabric, clay, paper, glass and dolls ..... and dragons
Showing posts with label crochet knitting. Show all posts
Showing posts with label crochet knitting. Show all posts
Sunday, 17 August 2008
Stella and scarf
Tuesday, 27 November 2007
Hyperbolic coral reef - a work in progress
When I was at school I decided I didn't like and wasn't going to waste precious daydreaming time on mathematics, to the extent that today I have a complete mental block that kicks in when I see a Sudoku puzzle, and a hyperbolic plane is probably part of the Qantas fleet.
Then I came across the Institute for Figuring and their amazing coral reef project.
If you haven't yet heard of the project or seen any of the reefs popping up across the internet, go to the link and read up on it, and have a look at some of the crochet work which has now gone on display in the US, drawing attention to the effect of global warming and pollutants on the Great Barrier Reef.
Now I'm still no where near becoming a mathematician but I can crochet, so if I forget the figuring and just do what comes naturally I'll have my own reef in no time!!
Then I came across the Institute for Figuring and their amazing coral reef project.
If you haven't yet heard of the project or seen any of the reefs popping up across the internet, go to the link and read up on it, and have a look at some of the crochet work which has now gone on display in the US, drawing attention to the effect of global warming and pollutants on the Great Barrier Reef.
Now I'm still no where near becoming a mathematician but I can crochet, so if I forget the figuring and just do what comes naturally I'll have my own reef in no time!!
Wednesday, 6 June 2007
Antique threads from an Aussie icon
Sandy on flickr (sierrasndy)
wrote and told me about a lovely Victorian needlecase she had seen on ebay:
Sandy was wondering what the heavy silky thread was that had been used.
I thought I had some similar that I'd inherited from my mother but when I finally dug it out, I can see it is not the same. Mine is a rayon and has more of a twist to it. I'm not familiar enough with antique needlework to know what would have been used on the needlecase, rayon was being produced in the 1800's but I'm thinking maybe this one was a thick silk.
These threads of mine are from the Bonds mills, and are labelled as "crochet and knitting threads"
I would assume that as they are called "Wenty Rayonlee" they would have come from the Bonds factory at Wentworthville in Sydney.
Bonds was established in 1915 by an American, George Alan Bond, who started importing women's hosiery and gloves. In 1917 he began manufacturing hosiery in Redfern, Sydney. In 1918 he moved to Camperdown and began also making underwear. In 1932, Bond built Australia’s first cotton spinning mill at Wentworthville in western Sydney.
The company went into liquidation in 1929 and a public company, Bonds Industries Limited was established. In 1970 the company merged with Coats Paton Pty Ltd. (Coats were thread manufacturers) In 1987 the company was taken over by Pacific Dunlop. In 2001 the company was sold to form a separate entity, ‘Pacific Brands Holdings Pty Ltd’. At that time also the spinning mill was closed.
In 1938 Bond's asked their advertising agency to develop a campaign to sell men's athlectic singlets and "Chesty Bond" was created. He became a comic strip which ran in Sydney papers for the next 20 years.
In the mid 1960's the company decided Chesty was no longer suitable to represent the diversity of the company but Chesty refused to go away. Public demand put him firmly into Australian iconic history and he celebrated his 60th birthday in 1998 at the Museum of Modern Art.
wrote and told me about a lovely Victorian needlecase she had seen on ebay:
Sandy was wondering what the heavy silky thread was that had been used.
I thought I had some similar that I'd inherited from my mother but when I finally dug it out, I can see it is not the same. Mine is a rayon and has more of a twist to it. I'm not familiar enough with antique needlework to know what would have been used on the needlecase, rayon was being produced in the 1800's but I'm thinking maybe this one was a thick silk.
These threads of mine are from the Bonds mills, and are labelled as "crochet and knitting threads"
I would assume that as they are called "Wenty Rayonlee" they would have come from the Bonds factory at Wentworthville in Sydney.
Bonds was established in 1915 by an American, George Alan Bond, who started importing women's hosiery and gloves. In 1917 he began manufacturing hosiery in Redfern, Sydney. In 1918 he moved to Camperdown and began also making underwear. In 1932, Bond built Australia’s first cotton spinning mill at Wentworthville in western Sydney.
The company went into liquidation in 1929 and a public company, Bonds Industries Limited was established. In 1970 the company merged with Coats Paton Pty Ltd. (Coats were thread manufacturers) In 1987 the company was taken over by Pacific Dunlop. In 2001 the company was sold to form a separate entity, ‘Pacific Brands Holdings Pty Ltd’. At that time also the spinning mill was closed.
In 1938 Bond's asked their advertising agency to develop a campaign to sell men's athlectic singlets and "Chesty Bond" was created. He became a comic strip which ran in Sydney papers for the next 20 years.
In the mid 1960's the company decided Chesty was no longer suitable to represent the diversity of the company but Chesty refused to go away. Public demand put him firmly into Australian iconic history and he celebrated his 60th birthday in 1998 at the Museum of Modern Art.
Thursday, 20 July 2006
purple scrumbles
I really love making crocheted scrumbles, a relaxing no-brainer way to occupy your hands while watching TV, but my problem is always what to do with them, they multiply so quickly and I've tried the full poncho approach and it is too much, visually overpowering and so heavy to wear (makes a good warm knee rug)
I had a nice little collection of purple-ish coloured pieces and put them together into a yoke, then had to come up with a body and sleeves for them.
I tried the diagonal/vertical cardigan II free pattern from Yarnexpress.
This is the picture from their site:
This pattern has a unique sizing method, the size is adjusted by adding vertical bands to the sides, after the shoulders are sewn together.
and this is mine:
I reversed the left and right fronts (made the left my right) so I could make use of the v shaping to fill in with the scrumbles.
In retrospect this wasn't a good idea, the front corners of the jacket droop, which I think is related to the corner shaping coming down to a point there, I can see the opposite corner as in the pattern would have held the shape a lot better.
(the front corners have actually curled back on themselves in this pic, taken before pressing)
This all sounds like double dutch but if you have a look at the pattern picture then compare way the rows of knitting fall to my picture it might make more sense.
Anyway the purple monster is finished and I've worn it to the local shops and didn't leave a trail of gaping mouths in my wake, so I guess that's a good sign.....or not...
Back view:
front view:
I had a nice little collection of purple-ish coloured pieces and put them together into a yoke, then had to come up with a body and sleeves for them.
I tried the diagonal/vertical cardigan II free pattern from Yarnexpress.
This is the picture from their site:
This pattern has a unique sizing method, the size is adjusted by adding vertical bands to the sides, after the shoulders are sewn together.
and this is mine:
I reversed the left and right fronts (made the left my right) so I could make use of the v shaping to fill in with the scrumbles.
In retrospect this wasn't a good idea, the front corners of the jacket droop, which I think is related to the corner shaping coming down to a point there, I can see the opposite corner as in the pattern would have held the shape a lot better.
(the front corners have actually curled back on themselves in this pic, taken before pressing)
This all sounds like double dutch but if you have a look at the pattern picture then compare way the rows of knitting fall to my picture it might make more sense.
Anyway the purple monster is finished and I've worn it to the local shops and didn't leave a trail of gaping mouths in my wake, so I guess that's a good sign.....or not...
Back view:
front view:
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