random threads

I spent the day Saturday at Baskets of Yarn, taking two classes from my favorite teachers, Sue and Margaret.

In the morning, Sue led a class of six ladies making Polymer Clay buttons, beads and stitch markers.  You could bring a project or yarn to match or just pick colors you like.  What Sue is great at is mixing colors of clay.  Don’t think you just have to work with the pre-packaged colors…oh no, a world of colors await you if you mix this and that in the right proportions. While I didn’t have a definate project in mind, I think my color choices were influenced by my Vertical Bettna Jacket, which I have been knitting on during the past week. This sweater is knit from Plymouth Boku in color 5, which is reds, wine, grey, black. Of course, never mind that the Bettna design does not call for a single button.

The technique Sue taught in this class is called Mokume Gane, and is based on ancient 17th century Japanese metalworking techniques.  Polymer clay artists developed their own techniques for producing similar visual effects in the clay medium.  There is brief on-line tutorial similar to what Sue taught us here on the Polymer Clay Cyclopedia.  I made two sizes of round buttons and also some small circles and squares I have in mind for pierced earring once I glue on some backs. The buttons still need buffing and polishing to look their best.

After a pizza lunch, five of us gathered with Margaret for a class in Beaded Knitting, and talk about SMALL!  We knit with No. 5 DMC Pearl Cotton, and size 0000 needles.  As Margaret said, ’smaller than a toothpick in diameter.’  I picked out teal/green beads and aqua pearl cotton. We were making sweet little earrings that look like amulet bags.  The beads were size 11 seed beads.  Most of my knitting with beads (which is not much) has been with size 6/0  on fingering weight yarn.  This was much smaller, and I did a bit of the work with my glasses sitting on top of head so I could see better (my eyesight is better at 6″ without the bifocals).  However, I am glad to report that with more knitting at home Saturday night and Sunday, I now have two little earrings that just need their ear wires to be attached (just as soon as I figure out where I moved the jewelry tools in the last round of house cleaning)

Sunday, I was a couch potato, watching my Carolina Panthers eek out a win over the hapless Detroit Lions in the Cat-Fight. I knitted on my current gift knitting project while watching TV. More on that later in the week. Suffice it to say, it is a quick knit, but I’m already thinking about how I’ll do the next one differently.

A week ago last Saturday, I took a class from Sue Dial at my LYS, Baskets of Yarn, called Sue’s Shoulder Shawl. Included in the class fee, was a large skein of Sue’s ‘Harvest Moon’ hand-dyed hand-spun yarn. I picked out a pretty green/blue/teal blend, but was tempted by the fallish colors enough that I bought another skein later with green and browns.

In the morning, we cast on our shawls using Sue’s pattern and began knitting. After lunch provided by the shop (pizza and cream cheese brownies, you know, two of the basic food groups), we started in on the polymer clay work. Sue is the talent artist who I have taken two polymer clay classes from before (see here for the shawl pin I made).

That afternoon we made beads to embellish the edges of our shawl from extruded clay. We mixed the clay in many colors to match our yarn, which was eye-opening to me to see how few colors are really needed to mix most any clay color. For mine, we used two different yellows, two different blues and a touch of white in different proportions to get about 8-10 different shades of greens, blues and teals.

We next did a technique somewhat similar to this project (.pdf file downloads) by Donna Kato using Japanese Mokume-Gane metalworking techniques. We built a chunk of clay of thin layers of variety of colors (leftovers from the bead making), pressed a highly textured rubber stamp into the clay and then shaved thin sheets of clay with a razor blade off the chunk to apply to bead shapes.  My bead made with this technique is the pendant dangle in the closeup photo on the shawl.  It hangs at the bottom point of the shawl in the back. Totally cool! After the Ravelympics are over, I want to do more work with polymer clay–maybe I’ll try out my video camera and make some tutorials.

Finally, while our clay beads were baking, Sue showed us some basic jewelry-making techniques, enough to string our clay beads and commercial beads onto headpins, make loops and attach the loops to our shawl edges. I finished knitting my shawl the next day, Sunday, although I had to make the front ‘tails’ a bit short as the skein of hand-spun I picked out was only 185 yards, instead of the 200 yards she recommends. I then spent several evenings this past week buying more blue/green glass beads, drilling holes in my polymer clay beads with my Dremel (after I ordered a 1/16″ drill bit and adjustable chuck for it), and building the dangles on head pins. Finally on Friday night, less than one week after casting on, I finished adding the dangles and had a completed beaded shawl! and my first (two!) Ravelympics medals (yes, I squeezed this project on 8/7 just before the deadline, but after I posted my list of projects).

I wore the shawl to the shop for the class I was teaching on Saturday (second half of toe-up-two-at-a-time socks) and Janet took some photos for me…I’m very pleased with the result. The beads add a nice weight to the shawl. I didn’t use that many polymer clay beads as they were so lightweight by comparison to the glass beads.

Socks are not all I have underway at present. I cast on for my second Chevron Scarf from Joelle Hoverson’s Last-Minute Knitted Gifts book. Just like my first scarf, I am using Socks That Rock Mediumweight (which I learned yesterday is the original STR weight that was offered). Colors this time are Backstabber (maroon) and Chapman Springs (blue/teal with accents of lemon and maroon).

You’ll also see in the photo I have made my own set of polymer clay decorated knitting needles, similar to what Sue Dial makes and sells at my LYS. I’ve stocked up on various sizes of bamboo straights to make more…I think it makes the knitting even more fun to use such funky needles.

Unfortunately, while this is a quick knit, I have been sock-focused the past five days and haven’t touched this since last week. And I’m casting on for something new in a KAL (hint–check the sidebar) this coming weekend.

And somewhere I need to find time to tidy the house–Mom and Dad are coming for a quick visit the weekend after next.

A week ago last Saturday, I spent the morning playing with clay… polymer clay. A class with Sue Dial, a local polymer clay artist who also knits was held at my LYS, Baskets of Yarn. We learned how to work with the clay and make beautiful shawl pins. We made the pins from canes that Sue had previously extruded from different colors of clay. I also made a few buttons, including some with ‘paper clip’ shanks (next time I’ll make the back side look more finished.)
And yes, there will be a next time, because I’ve bought a bunch of colors of Premo/Sculpey, rubber stamps for texturizing, a clay gun for extruding, because I want to make fancy ends for straight knitting needles and who knows what else…..I have made my first set of canes in black/pink/white/grey, but have not sliced and baked it yet. Don’t you love the retro/abstract design of the mosaic of circles inside squares?

This (at right) is what most of Sue’s shawl pins were made like, and I found more detailed instructions online here from Kathy Weinberg on HGTV. Maybe this weekend. I still need to polish and buff my shawl pin made in class more, as I have just gotten the finer grades of automative sandpaper to do it (you need finer than 400 grit, which seems to be all Home Depot and Lowes carry). So this is still somewhat matte, versus a shiny look that I prefer.