Non-Traditional Christmas Tree #16: A Celebration of Yarn

Celebrating Christmas at the End of a Pandemic Year

Christmas Tree 2020

What a strange year this has been. I think I have spent more hours in my home since March of 2020 than in many years combined prior to that. A lot of the ‘at home’ activity revolved around creative projects, so it would make sense that my 2020 non-traditional Christmas tree this year reflect that.

Since fibers are a bit part of my life and I have ample in my possession, I decided to create this year’s tree from all things related to yarn.  You can see some of the ingredients below.

balls, skeins and cones of yarn

cord, tassels and pompoms

The core of the tree was set around some decorative display items that Starbucks used in their stores a few years ago. I had asked my local store if they were going to toss the displays at the end of the season, if they would toss it my way. Lucky for me, they did, and I’ve been using these yarn and glass ball displays in my home holiday décor for many years.

Decorative core, thanks to Starbucks

Around the tree I placed my cones of yarn around the core. Some of these were from my weaving years, and others from my current machine-knitting years. I attached tassels around the edge of the tabletop. These I made these as demo items in my Textiles class. When we began to study yarns, I showed my students how to create cord, and then how to build a tassel. 

tassels placed around the edge of the table top

Next, I draped the hanks/skeins of hand-painted yarns around the base, and then, I positioned pompoms (also a demo item for my students in Textile Design) and balls of yarn to fill in the gaps.

fill-in items

The last item for the decoration was the stringing of lights. There you have it… a yarn holiday tree,  #16 for me.

NewDo: Machine Knit T-Shirt Top by Theresa Avila

Machine Knit T-Shirt Challenge: Complete!

Theresa Avila


Garment Designer user, Theres Avila from Albuquerque recently shared a project with us. Her machine knitting club decided to have a summer T-Shirt challenge. Teresa got involved and used Garment Designer to create her pattern. She knit the garment on a Brother 940 knitting machine using one strand of Yeoman Panama cotton yarn at tension 6.2. This was her first Garment Designer project. Great work Theresa!

Machine-Knit T-Shirt top by Theresa Avila

A Little about Theresa

Teresa says she is a good old-fashioned homemaker. Her love for sewing and knitting started when, at age 13, her mother told her, that due to her over-flowing closet, they were not going shopping for clothes anymore. Thus began her love of sewing and anything one could do to create clothes. She developed a passion to create new things and has continued this ever since.

ToDo/NewDo: Original Textile Prints and One-Yard Fabric Designs with Garment Designer by Carrie Schneider

African Culture Transformed: One-Yard Print Challenge 

Carrie Schneider

Recently, San Diego Mesa College Fashion Program was involved with a collaboration with the African Art collection at the college and Visions Art Museum in Liberty Station, San Diego. 
Students designed fabrics using imagery from the online African Art archives. Approximately 20 fabrics were printed in one-yard pieces. These fabrics were placed in an exhibit at the museum called African Art Transformed.

In early March, the museum hosted a fashion show of African-inspired garments from Mesa Fashion students (also part of the collaborative effort). Carrie was challenged to create a garment from a one-yard piece of fabric. And this she did, not once, but twice, with two fabrics she had designed.

Here are Carrie's prints.

And now... look at what Carrie managed to do with a single yard of each! She used Garment Designer to create the pattern and her ingenuity to manage garments with a yard of fabric.

Straight skirt

Square neck, cap-sleeved top

A little about Carrie
Carrie Schneider is a biologist who never fails to be entertained by the unique and fascinating qualities of San Diego's natural habitats. She grew up in the verdant countryside of the Hoosier state then moved to the east coast, where she earned a Ph.D from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and is now a consultant in biotechnology company. She led the Environmental Systems subcommittee for the City Wide Canyons Sewer Maintenance Task Force, whose proposed improvements to City procedures for accessing sewer infrastructure in open space parks were adopted by the City Council in 2002. She is a co-founder of San Diego Canyonlands, started the Friends of Switzer Canyon in North Park, and continues to lead volunteers to restore upland and stream-side habitat. She enjoys contributing to the Herbarium collections at the San Diego Natural History Museum as a trained parabotanist for the Plant Atlas project and was president of the San Diego chapter of the California Native Plant Society from 2002-2004.

A Log Cabin Quilt Challenge... as interpreted by a Wearable Artist, Judith Pipher

A Log Cabin Quilt Challenge with Sewing, Machine Knitting and Beading...
as interpreted by a Wearable Artist, Judith Pipher

Front of Garment

Judith shares her process of following a Quilt Challenge and incorporating multiple textile arts to create a one-of-a-kind garment.

My goal in life is to surround myself with like-minded people. In the world of fabric the nearest group to me is a quilt guild . I joined the guild and appreciate the art form that quilting gives. Now to explain, I am not a quilt maker. I am a quilter. I quilt garments. I do try to fit in sometimes and I do take part in guild challenges.

This Challenge was to do a log cabin design. Of course it was meant to be a wall hanging or quilt. My interpretation was a garment. The  inspiration came from The Asymmetrical Layered Jacket from Cochenille Design Studio's The Easy Seven Series book. 

All pieces were charted out using Garment Designer pattern making software (www.cochenille.com). 

Both sleeves, left front and half the back were knit using my knitting machine. All hems were knit first using stocking stitch. The fabric was an assortment of Chinese inspired quilt fabrics. I took the right front pattern piece and the upper back piece from my pattern and then cut  the shape out of light weight cotton. Then the Log Cabin pattern began to take shape. On the centre back, the quilt pattern was overlapped to lay on the knitting. This was done to extend the log cabin square and to draw the eye away from the line of  sewing. The V-shape was then hand sewn on top of the knitting. The seam that joins the knitting and quilting was above the armhole to making it easier to manage. 

Front and Back of the garment

The inside of back quilting was finished by using a bias-trimmed lining to cover the stitching of the fabric. On the right front fabric side I used the same pattern shape to create the lining and slip stitched it in place. On the left side, a knit  facing was made to allow  the v-neck to lay flat and not curl. 

Inside of the garment

I continued to think about the art form of the Victorian Era of Crazy Quilting. On a black ultra suede strip on the fabric side  a dragon was created with embroidery and beading. A zipper was used for the closure and the stitches were concealed with an embroidery stitch. On the knit side, appliquéd strips of cloth were used at the shoulder matching up with the back fabric, creating an over the shoulder flow. Brass Chinese coins  were added to create whimsical detail.

To  add other focal points Bead work was done in the centre of a large flower, plus a small floral brass charm was added on the back.

Details

Once finished I realized that the back length was not the correct proportion for me. I shortened it by undoing the side seams, picking up stitches, then rehung the garment on my knitting machine finishing it with a hem and mitre corners at the side slits. 

The results of this design are, it is not a traditional quilt but it is wearable and  keeps me warm and best of all it forms a part of my one of a kind Signature garments !

"Each of us has a unique part to play in the healing of the world".  Marianne Williamson.

A Little about Judith

Judith is a retired historical interpreter. She loves history and now volunteers to do textile management at different museums.  She does condition reports, exhibits and cares for them. Her first and best love? Fibre of all kinds.

Judith travel to learn, to meet like-minded people and to be inspired. She went back to college at the age of 64  to learn pattern making. She continued on to study tailoring with Le Grand Chic school In Italy through Georgian College Barrie. and she graduated at 70!  We were honored to have Judith study with Cochenille in both Italy and San Diego. she has also studied with Jon Moore in London,  Susan Khalje in NYC, and Kathryn Brenne in North Bay (ON, Canada)

ToDo/NewDo: Hand-Painted Bird Houses are the Talk of Bird Town

At last.. they are hung in the yard

There is no greater pleasure that wrapping up a project that has sat dormant for a little bit, or a long bit, as is actually the case.

A few years ago, as a creative project, four of us sat down one afternoon and began to paint unfinished bird houses that I had gathered for the social activity. The group included Missy (from France) who was visiting, on loan from her parents, Teresa, a past student from Mesa College, and Don and I. 

We gathered acrylic paints, and began the process of adding color and design to wood.
Missy finished hers, but the rest of us had a way to go when it was time to break down for dinner. Teresa later finished her house, but Don's and mine sat dormant for ... well, a couple of years.

Wrapping them up...

With the enforced stay-at-home we are now experiencing, it seemed like the perfect challenge to finish these bird houses and get it out in the yard. So, out came the paints, and in a matter of an hour or so, we were done.

The group

Of course, the next thing was to coat them with polyurethane, and then, we had to determine where to hang them in the yard. 

I've run out of wall space in my house (for art), and so, the yard and garden have become my new playground.
So, after and little experimenting, all the houses now are hanging on my back fence, amid my bicycle wheel/depression glass hangings.

New homes for the bird houses

Missy's polka dot version... Why Not?

What a great cloudy day! It set the colors off.

Already a birdie or two have been poking around, checking out the real estate. Don and I are having amusing conversations about what the 'he' bird is saying to his 'she' bird. 
"Hey honey... check out this red house. Don't you like the porch?"
"No dear, I think it is too much. I prefer the pastel model over here. It has a bit more deco style"
"But that one is beyond a starter house... I don't think we are ready for that"...
etc. 
etc.

The summer should be interesting.

ToDo/NewDo: Ethnic, Up-cycle, and Surface Design with Anna Walden

Getting It Done! Completing Projects

Anna Walden, Point Loma, California

Anna has been completing projects. Here are a few recent ones.

First is a pair of Harem Pants made in plaid cotton flannel according to the instructions in the diagram.  I made them smaller because my fabric was narrower but it turned out to be a good decision as they would have been too large on me.

Second is the Sweatshirt Dress, a up-cycle project. I cropped the sweatshirt, added a skirt in a Liberty knit borrowed from a dress pattern, made the collar from the leftovers, again borrowed.  I drafted the sleeves in Garment Designer and appliquéd the lace using HeatBond and sewing machine.  

The top below is from the Garment Designer pattern I made for the Kuba top project I made this past Fall in a Textile Design class at Mesa College in San Diego. When I made that project, I incorporated fabric that I had dyed using an Ice Dye method. When cleaning up recently,I found the extra fabric, and I sewed it up.  I love this top.  

 A Little About Anna
Anna is a Psychologist and an active textile artist. Most of her creative time is spent sewing or knitting, and ow she has thrown in various forms of surface design. She has published numerous knitting patterns and was part-owner of a yarn company in years past.

ToDo: First Project with Garment Designer, Susan Van Campen

Handwoven Garment 

Susan Van Campen, Inland Empire, California

Susan won a door prize called Proportioned 4 You (an e-Book of patterns) from my business at Stitches West this past February. 
Below is a garment she made using the Cape Coat pattern in the E-book.

Front View

Susan say:

I wove the fabric on a four-shaft loom with ten dent reed. The warp yarn is an 8/2 Cotton and the weft is chenille.

Back View

A Little Bit About Susan

Susan is a retired LCSW, Licensed Clinical Social Worker. She has been weaving for a couple of years now.

One of her retirement goals has been to learn to weave fabric with the goal of making clothing. Susan is the co-president of the Inland Empire Handweavers Guild.

ToDo/NewDo: DIY Face Mask by Lisbeth Wahl, Italy

Original Mask Pattern

Lisbeth Wahl, Italy

Lisbeth used her past training to develop a face mask pattern and sewing instructions. This pattern is unique in that the front panel is made of two layers which provides the opportunity to insert a barrier fabric or insert. In addition, the front panel is pleated on to the sides which allows for more fullness across the face.

Double-Layer mask

You can use any cotton-type fabric. The ties can be made with any tie-like device including twill tape, laces,

The pattern for the mask is available as 

• a PDF file (a tiled pattern which requires taping together), OR
• a Garment Designer pattern (.gds) file, should you want to edit and resize 

Click here to download the pattern and instructions from Cochenille Design Studio's website (www.cochenille.com). This is a zip file that contains the pattern the PDF pattern, the .gds pattern, and sewing instructions.

Side Piece and Front Piece

A multi-page PDF will walk you through the steps of construction.

Below you can a collection of masks made by Lisbeth.

A little about Lisbeth

Lisbeth is a world-renown felter who lives in Peschiera del Garda, near Verona, Italy.

Born in Denmark, She trained as a tailor and pursued her career in costuming and pattern making, most notably the costume department of Teatro alla Scala (Milan). She became interested in felting, and has taken her talents on to new realms. In 2016, she won the top award at the Australian Common Threads Wearable Art Showcase with her felt piece called Set Your Light Free, which combined felt with fiber optics.

Instagram: @ lisbeth.wahl.fiberart

https://www.facebook.com/lisbeth.wahl

ToDo/NewDo: Tania Sutherland Original Jacket Pattern with Scuba

New Jacket Pattern with Circular Accent

Tania Sutherland, South Africa

Tania shared a complete project with us.
She designed & Drafted the Jacket pattern with circular design element.

Fabric: Suede Scuba

Pattern: She created a circle deign in the jacket and used the contrast side of the fabric to add some texture combination as well as the colour tone. 

Construction: She used a stretch needle, as well as stretched the fabric slightly as she sewed the seams together. Tania says the scuba fabric is really a great fabric to sew with. She kept the jacket unlined.

Pattern pieces 

Circular detail

A little bit about Tania..

I am based in South Africa, fashion designer with over 30years experience, fashion entrepreneur, teach basic sewing classes as well as a full time fashion design & fashion start-up course called become a fashion boss. Have written a few books on planning your sewing, preparing a ready to wear wardrobe, draw & sew fashion illustration sketch book and Stitching to riches book to help you get guidance on how to start your own fashion business startup

My main goal for this year 2020 is to launch my own fashion pattern collection PDF and paper.

Tania Sutherland

instagram

@stitchinstudiosa

www.stitchingstudio.co.za

NewDo: Virtual Cocktail Party, the new mode of social gathering

Virtual Cocktail Party

Friends Creatively Getting Together During Stay at Home Restrictions

The new mode of meeting up with friends

With recent restrictions, it has become practically impossible to lead a normal social life. Challenges call for creative measures.

Thanks to online meeting tools such as Zoom and GotoMeeting, all things are possible.

Coordinate the friends, figure out a time and theme, and set up the meeting.

Our plan was for a Friday late-afternoon cocktail party. Each couple was to prepare their own appetizers and drinks, and take photos to share.

Come 5 p.m., we all logged on to the meeting and proceeded to catch up with each other. Conversation revolved around new topics such as how we are all handling our new way of living, what home projects we are working on, what we had recently experimented with in our cooking.

Salami rolled asparagus, melted cheese and artichoke dip, and fresh fruit

Grilled broccoli and cauliflower, homemade humous, Monchego cheese with assorted crackers and almonds

ToDo/NewDo: Weaving as a Distraction to the World

Challenge the Mind... learn to weave

Holly and Leo Dumont, San Martin, California

Holly and Leo Dumont have been emailing with me to keep me updated on their progress of learning to weave.

Part of their goal?

Don’t neglect your brain health while worrying about this virus.  

The Internet provides all sorts of tools for challenging your mind. Holly shared one that I found particularly interesting, as it also serves to spark creativity. Amongst the many exercises they have, making lists of 100 things… looked like a lot of fun. https://litemind.com/tackle-any-issue-with-a-list-of-100/

The Weaving Challenge

Holly and Leo have decided to live in the present, and their focus is to learn how to weave. They had purchased a floor loom... and then...
 

See what Holly says about their process of learning to weave…

The big loom is scary.  It uses a lot of yarn.  What if I make a mistake?  What if I can't figure it out?  All this drama.  So my husband went out and bought this table-top loom.  Aim small, miss small, small mistakes, small risk were all some of Leo's thoughts.  And it made it less scary for me.  For our anniversary we were going to take a class.  But that's out, so we turned to books, on line learning and magazines.  

Ashford Table loom

The big loom came with 6 years of old Handwoven, and Weaver's Craft magazines.  So every evening I read a couple.  Some of them I don't understand at all.  

From the Handwoven Magazine I learned about Long Thread Media.  

For $100 you get  workshops, magazines etc.  (We were going to take a course with Tom Knisley, and they have an online class with him).

We got some books, recommended by Handwoven subscribers (Issue 144 & 145).  

• Alderman, Sharon.  Mastering Weave Structures.  Interweave
• Osterkamp, Peggy.  Weaving for Beginners.

After doing some reading, we decided to hit YouTube and watched the dressing of the loom for the Ashford Table Loom about 5 times.  We'd put it on, run to the kitchen, try the process, wait, what? run back watch it again, and try again.  The great thing is with the books and video, we were able to get through the warping and we're partially through the dressing.  Two minds are better than one.  Four hands are better than two.  Mistakes were made.  Laughter was more contagious than the virus that's on everyone's mind.  For several hours, it left our minds completely.

I want to make cloth and Leo wants to make rugs.  We both have an interest in recycling.  Our first project is going to be piece of cloth from which we'll make project/travel bags.  We will do one plain bag, and one using the technique of Zanshi.  I have lots of leftover embroidery thread that we are tying together to make the warp thread.

To learn more about Zanshi, go to this site

https://redstoneglen.com/classes/zanshi-and-sakiori

My goal is to make yardage and I like the following Indigobird pattern partially because you can use it to make items to sell.  Not that I'll get around to that, but I don't have to worry if I make the pattern a dozen times and give them to friends.

Below is the lining for the brown and white bag.  Leo and I dyed these during the summer.  These are leaves from our trees.  The fabric was mordanted with alum.  We rolled the leaves in copper pipes, spritzed them in vinegar (nails were soaked in the vinegar - so technically this is home made iron water) and then steamed them in a vintage vegetable steamer.  We left them for 24 hours before unwrapping.  

Eco-dyed fabric

Now… on to the weaving

Day 1

Here you can see the header (the fat red yarn) and the beginning of the weaving.

The warp yarn is 8/2 unmercerized cotton, and the weft is a thick and thin brown cotton.  This should full nicely after washing. I put on enough yarn for 2 bags plus.  There's three yards on the warp.  Each bag uses about 1/2 yard.  So, after we get the 2 bags on this warp, I should have enough for a small mystery project at the end.

We aren't going to worry too much about our selvedge edges on this go, since it's fabric and not a finished object.  We figure we got enough to learn just making a piece of cloth.

We had a hoot deciding how to beat.  Leave the shed open and beat?  Close the shed and beat?  Switch to the next shed and beat.  Since this is a table loom, so one hand is occupied moving the leavers while the other beats and catches.  After some bantering about and a bit of let's try all of them, we went with the close the shed and beat twice.  Now, if we could just agree on the music to listen to while weaving.  Leo's holding out for something with a lively beat....

Day 2

All good things must pass.  Here's the end of the nubby brown yardage.

Winding on the "remainder threads".  

Last year I did a lot of embroidery and have lots of leftover green.  Zanshi is a Japanese weaving tradition that saves all those remainder threads and reuses them.  I tied the warp yarn, an 8/2 cotton to 6 strand cotton floss.  I did this in ratios of 3.  The first color run was 1 yard weft to 12" of floss. Then Leo said it needs more green.  So I went to 18" of floss and 18" of weft.  By the way, this tying of threads took more time than anything.  Do NOT do this with cats present.  Let's just say that part of the time was spent chasing the varmint who ran off with the nudibranch green.  She's a very knotty cat.

After a plain header, Leo began the Zanshi.  I know that cotton doesn't "full" but it does shrink, so it will be interesting to see what happens when you mix unmercerized with mercerized cotton.  It sure is fun.  When I was a kid, back when dinos roamed, we spent a lot of time in Baja California.  This pattern reminds me of a hoodie that was as popular as puka shell necklaces (sans the knots), baby oil at the beach.

Now I gotta prep the mystery project.  It's a mystery to me what we will fill the rest of this warp with.  

It is not a mystery why there is no header yarn between the next project.  I "found" it later.  Katia is taking the 5th.  

An update to this project will come in a future blog...

Thank you Holly and Leo! It has been a pleasure to watch your process.

A little about Holly and Leo

Holly and Leo live in the Central Coast California. Both are long time farmers. Their love of fiber goes back to when the raised angora rabbits and Merino/Cotswold sheep.  Holly still keeps a market garden, but Leo has turned his love of plants to waterside restoration with native plants to prevent flooding.  The pair of them love plants.  Holly always wants to know, if you can't eat it, can you dye with it?  Can you spin with it?  Can you weave with it?  Leo loves dyeing but only with natural dyes. Although Leo's hand sewing is not the fastest, it didn't stop him from taking an indigo class last summer with John Marshall (highly recommend!). Holly has been sewing since Jr. HIgh School, when they taught Home Ec. but she didn't learn to embroider till taking classes at the SF School of Needlework and Design. Both Holly and Leo hope that weaving will take them into the next two decades. They recommend that if you and your kids are hanging around the house, now is the perfect time to start seeds for a summer garden. Seeds of Italy has a great selection, all of which do great in California. If you want a summer garden, start now!  (See my woad in the back row!)