Saturday, March 10, 2007

Today's Theme: Architecture
The Architecture of Building a Knitting Project
It begins with the finest supplies, a well designed blueprint, a unique technique, and fresh new finished product.

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Two Felted Projects Ready To Felt


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*Sticky Post*
Hey Andre,

I know you are concerned about me not replying to your emails.
I have been all along, and I assure you that your updated email is on the list for updates of this blog.
But I believe, when your company changed to the new email service addresses,
there may have been a higher level spam security put on.
Even my replies to your email are not getting through.
If this becomes something we cannot solve I can do all of the emails through my sympatico mail.


Sorry to worry you ,

Amy

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Felting is a technique inwhich a knitter will use a pure wool or pure fibre mix of yarn and the project will be knitted larger than required (about twice as big) and then the work is washed in the washing machine in hot water. This plus a bit of dryer drying will shrink the project and matt the fibres together so the piece resembles the felt of a hat.

Felting is the new fad of knitters. An old way, revitalized so the texture of a piece can be altered.

I got this beautiful yarn at Knit or Knot. I am taking the Moebius classes there too! I suggest that if you live in the Toronto area and want to take a class, in a variety of knitting techniques, then come up to Aurora for the Knit or Knot classes. Check out the class calendar on their website!

The piece on the left is a pillow cover I knit on my chunky knitting machine. It overlaps in the centre of the back so I can slip the pillow in. I will then lace the back up with a contrasting yarn when I block the piece on the pillow.

The basket has the signature Moebius twist on the handle. I will shrink this one on Saturday with my Moebius class, and then block it over a balloon so it will have a 3D round appearance.

Both pieces are made with Manos del Uruguay pure wool fibre. I used Blue Varigated on the top half and Green Varigated on the bottom half. This was machine knit. Machine knitting this took 1/2hr and then sewing the edges and making the flap took about 45min.

This is the Moebius basket. It is done in the Manos del Uruguay Purple varigated pure wool fibre.

All in all I used colour numbers 106, 107, 109 of the Manos del Uruguay yarn. I got it at Knit or Knot!

Inside the Manos del Uruguay tag is written this:

"Manos del Uruguay, The Hands of Uruguay is a non-profit organization comprised of more than 400 artisans in cooperatives sscattered throughout the countryside of Uruguay. The organizaton's mission is to bring economic and social opportunities to rural women.

Manos yarn is spun from a luxurious blend of Merino and Corriedale wools. It is hand dyed in large kettles to create a marbleized, stiated effect, sometimes subtle, often dramatic, and is available in more than ninety glorious colors.

No two skeins are exactly alike and there are no dye lots. We therefore recommend buying enough yarn to complete a project and to alternate knitting two rows from one skein with two rows from another to give an overall blended effect."


I am very happy with my work on these two pieces so far.

Next I will felt them and I will show you the finished projects.





3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Love the colors - especially the purple!

Andree said...

That moebius handle got me immediately! Love it. And you are right: architecture is planning and that is what you're doing. Beautifully!

Mother of Invention said...

I can't believe how busy you are and good you are with your hands! I wish I had such dexterity and talent! I can barely grasp things because of neuropathy...have been going to Newmarket actually to get cortisone shots from Dr. Ng across from the Hospital.