Pagan Pride Nottingham August 3rd 2014 Homemade Lammas Costume Part 4

Pagan Pride Nottingham August 3rd 2014

Homemade Lammas Costume

Part 4

This is the final part of making the Lammas Costume. In this Blog I will be concentrating on adding sleeves to the top and lengthening the skirt.

Making the Sleeves

First thing to do when adding sleeves is to measure the armholes of the top so you know the minimum material that is needed.

Next choose your colours for the sleeves I used Yellow, Orange and Red. This is because I made the sleeves in 3 parts. However you can make as few or many parts to the sleeve as you want.

I started with Yellow material but the example in the images is of the second layer (Orange) because it showed up better. First I took a large piece of material. This was already hemmed along the width at one side. If your material isn't then allow extra material (about a thumbs width) for making a hem.

I laid it out flat and measured the length I wanted at the shortest point of the sleeves. This is because I was going to taper it into a point so DON'T cut it out now.

(A close up of the pinning)

Now you have it pinned and made sure you have enough material make a slight mark (I left the end pin in) it is now safe to unpin fold and re-pin.

Next if you have enough pins (if not leave in the first and last pin) mark a diagonal line from one side to the other. You will see that I haven’t gone across straight from the last pin but left an inch for hemming.

When you are happy with the length and angle it is now safe to cut out.

Now unfold the cut out material and put best side down so you can see the inside to hem.

When you have secured the point of the sleeve you can now shorten the width

If you are confident you can cut now and re hem. Alternatively and this is what I did was hem all the way around. I then folded the material back to back. I shortened the width by folding and sewing the material together then trimming the excess.

Now you have your first part of the sleeve.  Pin and Sew onto the OUTSIDE of the arm hole. The point should be at the top.

Repeat the process with the other pieces of material. However sew the other pieces of material on the INSIDE of the last sleeve part.

When you have finished one whole sleeve you can start on the other side.

Completed top design front and back.

Making the Skirt Additions.

Take your skirt and lay it flat this will show the complete width at the bottom.

As you can see my skirt is shaped in points. If your skirt is the same length all the way around then some parts of the Blog will not apply. Choose the coloured material that you want.  I used Red, Orange and Yellow to match the top.

I cut out some triangular shapes in the various colours. Since I needed a variety of sizes I cut out triangles with a mixture of widths and lengths. However this is not necessary with a skirt with a consistent length unless you want to.

After you have cut out your triangles you need to hem them.

Next you can start roughly placing the triangles along the skirt. I put the longest triangles on the shortest point of the skirt. Then I put the shortest triangles on the longest point of the skirt. This way the length was becoming more standard sized.

Once you have a rough idea what it will look like then you can adjust it to your liking. You can either sew straight on to the skirt or alternatively you can overlap the triangles. I did the latter which meant I had to cut out more triangles.

This is what the completed skirt front looks like with Bottom, Poppies and Wheat sheaf added.

This is what the completed back of the skirt looks like with Bottom, Poppies, Wicker-men, Suns, Bales and Sunflower added.

Finally pictures of yours truly in the outfit at Pagan Pride.

Photographs kindly taken by David Hames

Pagan Federation Regional Co-ordinator for Nottingham.

Other Craft Creations 2016

Other Craft Creations

As well as the major long term project of a cape that I have been working on. I have been involved with other bits of crafting. These were mainly presents that I was making for friends and therefore could not be posted until they had received them.

So in no particular order here is what I have been playing at. Due to time constraints I did not make a record of how exactly I was making them. Firstly a knitted item. This was a baby blanket for a lady's new addition to the family. Though we do not see each other very often I am very grateful to her for her kindness to me when I was unwell on an outing.

Baby Blanket

Being aware that she was expecting a boy I proceeded to make a blanket using a technique of knitting squares in plain garter stitch and sewing them together. The hardest part was trying to decide on which colours and in what order in which to place them prior to sewing up. Thankfully I had some excellent help in choosing the final design from a good friend.

Then it was simply a case of sewing them all together (not one of my favourite jobs) then giving it a good wash and allowing to dry. If you notice the blanket does not have an edging on it. This is deliberate so as the child grows more squares can be added.

Baby with Blanket

Photograph by kind permission of his mum Joy Kelly

Another craft item I tackled which when finished I presented to my mum was a pyrographed chopping board. This was made with the assistance of Tessa Kaine who allowed me to play around with her pyrograph machines. Having made my selection of a Rose, Tessa kindly printed of the design so I could trace then burn it.

Me being rather clumsy had to enlarge the original pattern in order to cover up my various mistakes. However it turned out okay and mum loved it so I consider it a win.

Present for Mum

Carrying on with the pyrography theme I made another gift for a friend. Having expressed an interest in Braiding I decided to make her a Braid Wheel.

As always my theories are better than my ability to carry them out and I had several major problems.

1 Tools. Unfortunately some of my tools are rather old and I did manage to break some in the process of making the item.

2 Material. The wood I was using wasn't as good as I hoped and this lead to several redrafts.

3 Design. The design was a little adventurous given the other two problems and in the end I had to alter it.

Failed Attempts

As you can see I had about finished the notches when the darn thing snapped - Twice grr!

Therefore instead of trying to put in 16 slots as I originally intended I had to start again and reduced the number of slots to 12. This meant that the wheel could take up to 11 yarn as you always have to have an empty slot.

With this in mind I redrew the design however this time I deliberately did not place the slots exactly evenly. The reason for this was two fold. Firstly it was my intention that the wheel could take yarn of a variety of thicknesses. Secondly I had an ace in the hole.

As previously stated the wheel can take a total of 11 yarns. By carefully arranging the slots so that there was an area of just wood a thirteenth slot could be added if the user wished to ever make a 12 thread cord to correspond with the months of the year or zodiac.

Apart from the actual structure of the wheel I also added visual markers to help with working out which slots were in use. Though the wheel will take 11 threads it is not necessary to use them all. Indeed different types of cords can be made by adding or taking away the number of threads used.

When I have made previous wheels I have only ever put in 8 slots and have usually labelled them with the Sabbats. However since there were more slots and intended receiver has a slightly different path I decided against labels altogether. If wished they could be added by the recipient at a later date according to her own taste.

Therefore I created a design with lines that drew the eye. The widest slots were marked with an arrow in the centre for easy identification. The slots in-between are highlighted with either thick or thin lines. That means the wheel is divided into three, arrows, thick and thin lines. All of which are directly opposite their corresponding partners or in other words a thick line is never opposite a thin line or arrow.

Once the design was created and drawn in pencil I could then begin to pyrograph it. The effect is that of a flower. If you look there is one anomaly which is a line with no corresponding opposite. This is marked with little leaves imitating a stalk. This is the possible 13th slot highlighted if ever required.

All that was left was to give a good sanding especially in the grooves so the yarns did not snag. When satisfied it was as good as it was going to get I gave it several coats of varnish.

Finished Braid Wheel

And that is another selection of my Blue Peter Craftmanship : )

Autumn Cape 2016 A long Term Project Part 8

Autumn Cape 2016 A long Term Project Part 8

This blog covers the important part of moving on to a second chart. First take another piece of graph paper and copy on the original chart outer measurements along the top, bottom and both sides.

Pictorial Chart 2

I had marked off blocks of 10 on the first Pictorial Chart.  I decided in order to make my life easier this time I would also mark off the rows of 5 see below.

Pictorial Chart 2 Close Up

Now that I had practically the same dimensions I could now carry on the pattern the question was what was I going to put in it. To be perfectly honest here I am writing out of order and trying to think how to put it so it can be followed. What I was going to put in it was an Owl. However I had drawn this around the same time as I drew the Squirrel so I am back tracking a little.

The steps to adding an Owl were the same as the Squirrel first the rough drawing of an Owl.

Rough Owl

Then the drawing needed to be put on to the graph paper and rounded off.

Owl on Chart Paper

The above picture is where I have taken out the curved edges and altered to straight lines. Now I had to square the picture in order to knit it. Before I show the final version I want to mention something. After I had completed the Squirrel and realised how big it had come out I wanted to and try and scale it down.

Owl and Scaled Down Version

As you can see that the scaled down version on the left just didn’t work so I was forced to use the normal size Owl I had drawn so back to the Second Chart. I matched up the two sets of measurements and copied exactly the last two rows of the First Chart onto the first two rows of the second chart in pencil ( You might want to fold over the top so you could match exactly see below *). Once I was satisfied that the dimensions were correct I then proceeded to colour them in.

First Two Rows Coloured

The next part was to continue the pattern. I started with the outer and inner parts of the trunk of the tree. Once I had drawn a few rows down I began to input the Owl.

Input the Owl

Once the Owl was added to the Chart I could begin to enter more detail. I always do this in pencil and then I can rub out and redraw if needs be. Remember you can always slightly alter the pattern whilst knitting it up too if needed.

Coloured First Five Rows

Continuation of Pattern* 

In the picture above you can see I had folded the top of the Second Chart temporarily in order to see how the pattern flowed. This was prior to the colouring in part. Now I could begin to knit the next part of the pattern.

 ********

Oh dear things not going as hoped. A couple of slip ups which were a combination of tiredness and dropped stitches which was noticed too late was not a good start. Not only that the discrepancy between the square chart and actual knitted effect has not boded well. The outcome has resulted in an elongated Owl and hence I think it looks more pigeon shaped than Owl.

In addition to that I am not entirely happy with the placement of the Owl. Due to the fact that I started this with very little idea what exactly I was doing and it has taken until now to get the feel of the Design I would have preferred the Owl to be much higher in the pattern.

  

Knitted Owl verse Pattern

Position of Owl

The minor slip ups near the head can be covered up when adding the detail. The shape however is a more serious problem. I decided that one way to tackle this was by removing some of the rows of the Owl Design hence making it shorter. In theory that should in turn make it look wider than it is. This in turn should give more room below which again in theory should help make the Owl look less near the ground.

I have discussed this idea with Knitting Guru Eleanor Burke of Knit Nottingham and she thinks that though not ideal it should help – again in theory. So fingers crossed that it will work.  So time to find the eraser and begin altering the Pictorial Chart. Wish me luck.

Autumn Cape 2016 A long Term Project Part 7

Autumn Cape 2016 A long Term Project Part 7

Last time I wrote up my blog I had reached the point of putting the finishing touches to my Squirrel Design on the Pictorial Chart. The only thing I had left to do was colour in the tail.

Nearly Finished Squirrel Design

As you can see in the photograph above the Squirrel Pattern was almost complete but most of the Right hand side of the pattern needed to be drawn. However I could knit the first few rows of the Squirrel.

Beginning of Knitted Squirrel

You can just see on the Left hand side the tips of the ears. Obviously this is just the plain version of the blocked colour. All the outlines would be embroidered on afterwards.

Squirrel Close up

Before I could go any further I needed to get more wool so I visited my friend Eleanor at her new shop.  -http://www.knitnottingham.co.uk/

I had a great time looking around the place – so much room.  Apart from stocking up on extra balls of yellow (which I seeming to be using more of than I thought) I needed some white for the Squirrel's chest, paws and tail. However as I suspected the white was very stark against the other colours therefore another colour had to be found. In practise this meant running around the shop grabbing every shade of near white we could find and trying them one by one against the other colours.

If anybody is particularly interested we finally settled on a Merino Blend from King Cole which according to the label is 776 Aran. I don’t think that I particularly went into detail about the yarns I am using because generally they are discontinued.  If I can find the labels which are lurking somewhere at the bottom of the knitting box I will tell you what they are. See Bottom of Blog

Along with the aforementioned Aran which for easy I will still call white I also have mainly used a Ginger for the main colour of the squirrel. It is a King Cole Masham Double Knit entitled Bracken.

So now I had the colours I needed I could continue filling in the rest of the design and of course knit it.

First Pictorial Chart Fully Detailed

In addition to filling in the detail for the Squirrel and the Right hand side of the chart you may notice that I have embellished the trunk. This is the beginning of the crevice in the tree trunk. I shall give more information on that in the next blog.

As per usual I transferred the Pictorial Chart into a Written Chart.

Last Completed Written Chart for Pictorial Design Chart 1

The final result of the Knitted Squirrel?

Knitted Squirrel

The Squirrel seems somewhat larger than I anticipated but I think it has come out reasonably well. The dimensions are as follows

First Full Knitted Chart 23.5 Inches

This was a bit of a surprise as it is longer than I thought it would be so I will have to take that into consideration on the Pictorial Chart.

Knitted Squirrel's Height

The Squirrel's Height is approximately 8 Inches.

Knitted Squirrel's Width

The Squirrel's Width is approximately 6 Inches.

Time to finish off sewing in all the ends before going on to the next part which will be starting the second chart.

After scouring my yarn collection for labels I have used so far : -

King Cole Merino Blend 50 gram  Shade.776 Aran.  Dye no 52955

King Cole Merino Blend DK 50 gram Shade 109 Copper Dye 52152

King Cole Merino Blend DK 50 gram Shade 55 Gold Dye 55514

King Cole Masham Double Knit  50 gram 1298 Bracken. Dye 04

King Cole Masham Double Knit  50 gram 1296 Berry Dye 02

King Cole Merino Blend DK 50 gram Shade 23 Dye 45224 (no colour given so will call it Chocolate Brown)

Cygnet Aran75% Wool 25% Polyamide 100g Shade 1310 Dark Brown Dye 21843

Autumn Cape 2016 A long Term Project Part 6

In the previous blog I ended on the pros and cons of one of my bright ideas (heaven help us). This one is how I put the said idea from theory into practise. First of all the idea I had was to enrich the design by adding a squirrel,  A Red Squirrel obviously being a bit of a traditionalist.

Much as I like the Grey Squirrel (an American invader) whenever I think of Squirrels I automatically think of Squirrel Nutkin. For those not familiar with him he is a character from the Beatrix Potter stories.

Now I am not much of an artist especially when it comes to drawing real things. Indeed if people can recognise what I have drawn I count it as a success. Therefore I needed to do some research. Since Red Squirrels are hard to come by in my area and even if they were they would be unlikely to sit still long enough for me to draw, books and the Internet were my fall back.

Rough Red Squirrel

The picture above shows my first Rough Red Squirrel. Don’t be fooled there was a hell of a lot of rubbing out and redrawing before it got anywhere near this stage.

Rough Red Squirrel on Chart Paper

 After I was satisfied with my original rough drawing I next had to transfer it onto some chart paper – NOT the same piece as my tree.

Red Squirrel on Practise Chart

Once I had my rough drawing transferred on to the chart paper I had to square off all the curves in order to make it suitable for a knitting pattern.

Red Squirrel Measurements

Before I transfer this picture onto the real Chart I wanted to measure it. I need to check the picture for scale. Not only that as I am getting near to the bottom of the paper I am using I wanted to make sure that there was enough room for the whole Squirrel. I am making things difficult enough for myself without the added problem of trying to transfer one drawing on to two pieces of Chart and getting them lined up correctly. It might seem simple just counting the squares but believe me after a while they start blurring and merging into one another.

Red Squirrel on Pictorial Chart

The above photograph shows the Squirrel finally inserted onto the Pictorial Design Chart. I meant to a take a picture before colouring in but I forgot – sorry folks. Most of the Squirrel will be coloured in for the knitting pattern. However the outlines of the arms/hip etc. will need added afterwards in the fine detail.

Red Squirrel on Pictorial Chart Full Colour

Since Squirrels Red or otherwise rarely levitate in mid-air it needed to sit on something. Consequent after adding the Squirrel I drew in a branch on which it could rest then added the background leaves. I tried to wherever possible place yellow around the Squirrel in order for it to stand out once knitted.

Now I have the Pictorial Chart I can begin to transcribe that into my Written Chart. I won’t actually be able to do much Knitting until I get my wool for the Squirrel but then that means you get a break from my excessive blogging : )

Autumn Cape 2016 A long Term Project Part 5

Autumn Cape 2016 A long Term Project Part 5

It was shortly after my last blog that I realised that I had found another bit I could improve. In all honesty it is something I should have spotted long before now. If you can remember as far back as parts 1 & 2 when I was showing how I built up the design you know I built up the Pictorial Chart Design in sections.

First Coloured Background Chart 

As stated previously I had cast on 124 stitches; 120 for the main pattern and 2 extra each end for the selvedge to make the knitted piece flatter and also easier to sew up. The main trunk was drawn and coloured but the background leaf design was coloured in every 5-10 lines.

I was concentrating so hard on remembering to knit the selvedge’s that when I came to add further sections of background colour I overlooked one essential detail. That was the fact that when sewn together these selvedge’s will not be seen. Therefore it was a bit ridiculous to make small colour changes at the edges of the design.

If you look at the picture below you will see that the colour changes at the edges are far smaller and more often above the lower boughs. When I realised my mistake I corrected the chart by making few changes at the edges below the boughs.

Fewer Edge Colour Changes

The above picture shows the design after knitting 2 complete A4 pages of the Written Chart or alternatively 120 knitted rows. Since I would soon be at the point where I would be adding a new part to the Design it was a good opportunity to take some measurements beforehand.

Left hand bough Approx. 20 cm Wide.

Left hand bough Approx. 15 cm High

Right Hand Bough Approx.  17 cm Wide 

These measurements were important as when I come to input the feature I have in mind I need to get the scale correct in correspondence to the rest of the Pictorial Design Chart. Of course rough drawings were needed before any addition to the chart.

I had a couple of ideas - some of which dangerously complicated but then I never seem to take the easy way when trying something new.  Annoyingly what I had in mind I haven’t got the correct coloured wool for and I am not up to a trip to the city as yet.

I have a couple of options. Once I have got the design roughly down on paper I can incorporate it directly into the knitted design by making it to the right scale and transferring it to the Pictorial Design Chart then adding the fine details later. Alternatively I could put the actual feature design to one side and then embroider it after the knitted piece is finished.

Both options have pros and cons. The first option means that I have to be spot on when knitting and any mistake would be glaringly obvious. On the other hand it would mean the majority of the work will have been done and only a little bit of fine detail would need adding.

The second option means that I can have a large section of background colour without quick colour changes. However it means that there would be more to do after knitting plus a whole section would be double thickness of wool.

Perhaps once the rough designs were made it would make it easier to choose which option to use. So the next stop is research to help me draw the rough outline of the feature I want. I will give the results in the next blog.