Dharma dyes

This skein is done. It took me 3 weeks to figure out the wright colorcombination. First it was all greens and Yellows (boring) Yesterday I added Dharma Dye (Fire engine Red and Electric Violet) The change was dramatic. I like the outcome so much. It is hard to photograph the colored skeins as beautiful as they are when you see them. In fact they are way more pretty than they show up in the pictures.

finished

Preparing for my exhibition I came across to many unfinished projects that I actualy only started to remember the idea. I decided to tread them like sketches and declared them finished. The first one was an experiment with Kauni yarn.
The mitten (gloves for the oven) I knitted in the colors of a mitten made by my mother. Amongst many things she also quilted. I wanted to knit the twin sister of her mitten. Although I knitted only a few rows, I got bored. I like the idea of a second and knitted sister-mitten and want to remember that idea. Just don't feel like knitting the whole thing. Finished, as a sketch.

My very first exhibition

With the group of painters from Bleu et Vert, I will be exhibiting my knittingwork on the fith of june. If you think of visiting the exhibition please leave a message on my blog so I can get in touch of you. This is one of my works that I will be showing there. It is about the space were the top of the tree meets the air. This particular work is made after Anne Franks tree, the one she could see from her hiding place, the one she wrote about in her diary.

Itten

Just two extra experiments with the colourtheory of Itten that I wrote about in an earlier blog. Speldenkussentje 2 is made out of cotton.
The three scetchbooks are covered with colourblocks knitted out of cotton. They were made to see how the colours would work together. I realy like the results.

speldenkussen

Not knowing what to do with all the 10 meter yarns that come from the dyeing experiments I decided to make a speldenkussentje. It is inspired on a pincushion that was made by my aunt Nel, who is into quilting. I tried to use her construction to make a knitted version. Both sides of the speldenkussen are knitted with different types of yarn. They show how the same dyelot does different things with different yarn. The speldenkussen was made by knitting 2 circles. Stitching them together. With a contrasting color I formed the pincushion into its shape.

Happy sticks

For a few years a take small branches with me from walks I make. At home I'll cover them up in a colorful coat. When I knit up the coat I go through al sorts of memories. The colorful sticks just make me happy. People ask to tell about the trip I made when picking up certain sticks but I do not remember which stick comes from which walk. Though the sticks are all there. The one I picked from my parents garden when my mom had just passed away, the one that became mine during a very painful walk/conversation with my girlfriend, the one when I decided to go through operation. Even the one that came from the tree that Anne Frank saw during WOII which she wrote about in her diary.

baigneuse

La baigneuse. As promissed. By me.

Elana Herzog

Today I received an invitation of Elana Herzog, an amazing Textile artist, for the opening of her new exhibition. I've never seen her work in real life, but only from looking at the small pictures I am impressed. If you happen to be around the New Britain Museum of American Art between may 7th-july 25th please have a look and let me know. Did it touch you? This picture was send with her invitation. It is hers and it'll be shown there.

speciaal voor Nel

Look this is what I do with my koninginnedagtreasures. No final outcome yet.

color

Results of experiment with Landscape Dyes and different types of yarn that I bought from her. She provides excellent service and helped me figure out problems I had with yarn and dyes that did not react the way I wanted it.
The greens are dyed with "Daintree", reds come from "Salmon gum", yellows from "Broome" and blues from "Pacific". The shades are made by dipping short or keep the yarns longer in the dyebath exhausting the dye, or adding a little Currawong black to the dye. Also I dyed different types of yarn (100% wool, 25 % polyester, yarn that was prepared with chemicals and acryl)
I keep a notebook in order to be able to reproduce the results.

koninginnedag

Treasures from Koninginnedag.

so disappointing

This is how the beautiful skein turned out in knitwear. I am as disappointed as I thought I would be. The dyed skein (3 blogs ago) is much more beautiful than the knitted item .
I knitted the marineparts of the yarn in purl-stich, the rest was knitted in knit-stich. I used the leg from this pattern (circle socks), and the construction of the personal footprint for Insouciant Sock Knitters from Cat Bordhi.

YarnPrincess

This picture is for her. It fits her birthday vases I think.

Ootjiestas voor vrouwen uit Spakenburg

Deze Ootjies tas is ontworpen door Lotte van Laatum voor een van de projecten van www.hetwildeoog.nl. Het patroon staat op een poster die je bij hen kunt bestellen. Er staat dan weer niet op hoe je de tas verder afwerkt, zodat dat aan de maakster zelf over wordt gelaten. Een bijzonder project om een nieuw perspectief op verdwijnend erfgoed te geven. De foto van Spakenburgse vrouwen met de tas is gekopieerd van de site van het wilde oog. Zo kun je zien hoe de tas bedoeld is.

gebruikersgemak

Bij het verven heb ik oude aantekeningen van mijn textiele opleiding gezocht. Het proces van verven van garens gaat gepaard met veel scheikunde. Ik was het weer vergeten. Het voordeel van verven met Landscape (zie vorige blog) wordt verkocht als gebruikersgemak. "Bulky and easy". Dat komt omdat het zout al aan het pigment is toegevoegd. Je hoeft tijdens het verven dus niets anders te doen dan 30 minuten verwarmen en aan het einde eventueel extra azijn toe te voegen. Ik vind dat de kleur op 100% (niet voorbehandelde wol) niet goed pakt. Gebruikersgemak heeft zo ook echt z'n nadelen. Kleuren uit een potje zijn toch allemaal net iets anders dan voorgespiegeld en ik ga daarom lekker verder met mijn proevenverslag zoals ik dat op de opleiding al begonnen was.
Dit is het resultaat van een meerkleuren experiment op sokkenwol (flame, 75 % wol, 25 % polyester).

Mijn haat/liefde verhouding met zelfstrepende sokkenwol zorgt voor een nieuwe puzzel. Hoe krijg je nou het mooie van het pasgeverfde wolletje over in een breisteekje/patroon die de kleuren net zo mooi laat uitkomen als op de streng?

Dit zijn mijn experimenten met de breisteken. Ik houd me aanbevolen voor alle verdere ideeen over streepjesgaren.

Landscape

This afternoon I spent some hours dying yarn and trying to find the right colours of Yellow and Red. I used Landscape dye that I bought from http://www.ateliermidsummerseve.nl/ This is how it turned out.

telefoonhoesje op Ravelry

Finaly discovered the advantages of using Ravelry. For now I will use this blog to publish "telefoonhoesje", one of the patterns I made. It was develloped during a study of colours van Johannes Itten, a German scientist who developed a theorie on how colours effect each other. In the "telefoonhoesje" I played with contrasting colours and tried to figure out how little of a contrasting colour one needs to balance a design. This is my outcome.

For telefoonhoesje I used some sort of very thin embroidery yarn which I bought at De Afstap in Amsterdam. I used the yarn double treaded since it was so thin. I used 7 colours. (darkbrown, liverbrown, ockre, yellowish brown, 3 different colours of yellow and a bright purple) I used some 15 meters of almost all the colours, exept for the purple (just one round)

pattern;
CO 36 st, with 4 double pointed needles.
Rnd 1; (k1 dark brown, k1 liver brown)18x
Rnd 2-5; repeat rnd 1.
Rnd 6; k 36 st liverbrown.
Rnd 7-10; (k1 yellow-brown, k2 liverbrown, k2 yellowbrown, k1 liverbrown) 6x
rnd 11-13; (k1 liverbrown, k2 yellowbrown, k2 liverbrown, k1 yellowbrown) 6x
Rnd 14-16; (k1 yellowbrown, k2 brightyellow, k2 yellowbrown, k1 brightyellow)6x
Rnd 17- 19 (k 1 brightyellow, k2 yellowbrown, k2 brightyellow, k1 yellowbrown) 6x
Rnd 20,21; (k1 orangeyellow, k2 brightyellow, k2 orangeyellow, k1 brightyellow) 6x
Rnd 23; (k1 ornageyellow, k2 purple, k2 orange yellow, k1 purple) 6x
Rnd 24-26; (k1 brightyellow, k2 orangeyellow, k2 brightyellow, k1 orangeyellow) 6x
Rnd 27-29; (k1 orangeyellow, k2 lightyellow, k2 orangeyellow, k1 lightyellow) 6x
Rnd 30-32: (k 1 lightyellow, k2 ockre, k2 lightyellow, k2 ockre) 6x
Rnd 33-36; (K 1 ockre, k2 lightyellow, k2 ockre, k2 lightyellow) 6x
Rnd 37-40; (k1 liverbrown, k2 ockre, k2 liverbrown, k1 ockre) 6x
Rnd 41-43; (k 1 ockre, k2 liverbrown, k2 ockre, k1 liverbrown) 6x
Rnd 44; (K 1 ockre, k2tog, YO)12x
Rnd 45; k36 Ockre
Rnd 46-47; (k1 darkbrown, k2liverbrown, k2 darkbrown, k1 liverbrown) 6x
Rnd 47-48; (K1 liverbrown, K2 darkbrown, K2 liverbrown, K1 darkbrown) 6x
Rnd 49; (P1 liverbrown, P2 darkbrown, P2 liverbrown, P1 darkbrown) 6x
Rnd 50-52; (K1 liverbrown, K2 darkbrown, K2 liverbrown, K1 liverbrown) 6x
Cast off 36 st.
Fold rnd 45-52 to inside en sew to inside of sleeve.
Crochet a cord, 30 cm and put it througt top of sleeve. Sew ends of cord together.