Picot's Progress, October 28, 2011

It's been a busy couple weeks for me and my fiber. First up is a black rose, knitted just in time for Halloween. The leaves are crocheted. The rose was made in four separate pieces and then sewn together with a little bit of yarn. I knitted a long rectangle of stockinette and rolled it up to make the flower, then did an i-cord stem. For the leaves, just chain a couple stitches, and then make a series of stitches that increase and decrease in size--such as single, double, treble, double, single. You can vary these to change the size and shape of your leaves.

I'm still working on my arm warmers, and they're causing me a bit of frustration. I'm doing simple ribbing all the way down, and I didn't think it was necessary to bind off in pattern. Oops. Turns out if you do a normal bind off, you "lock" the bottom so that it can't stretch to accommodate your hand. This one is half-on, half-off the needles, because if there's anything in this whole world that I hate passionately, it's picking up stitches. But the good news is, once I suck it up and pick up those stitches, and then bind off correctly, I will have one finished arm warmer, with only one to go.

I've found myself short on washcloths for cleanup after the prodigious amounts of gardening I've been doing. I managed to cover every spare surface of my home in potting soil after a massive repotting project involving almost 30 plants. So I've decided to knit up a couple of washcloths especially for gardening purposes. Here are two small ones in progress.

The Plarn tote bag is coming along. It's waiting on straps and embellishments. I've decided it needs some contrast in the form of crocheted flowers, which I'll make from the other colors of Plarn I created a couple weekends ago. I have enough Plarn left for a second bag, which I may whip up as another handy holiday gift. With Halloween only a couple days away, the pre-holiday crafting season is passing us by quickly. I'm hoping to have my gifts ready by the end of November so that I can fully enjoy all that December has to offer, unencumbered by last-minute stresses. I am also hoping for world peace, an end to poverty, and season 2 of Firefly. If you have a bridge for sale, drop me a comment!

In additional gift-making, I finished the tatted bracelet, and whipped up some matching earrings. I'm really pleased with how they turned out, but I'm still having difficulty weaving in ends. I'm going to try out the "Big Eye" needle to see if this is any easier. So far I've been using embroidery needles, and their flared eyes cause too much of a gap in the stitches, leaving a really ugly mess wherever my ends go. I am completely open to suggestions. No, really, I need to know your secret!

 I decided to experiment with a project based on "How to Be an Explorer of the World" by Keri Smith. In the book, she talks about the importance of pockets to hold an explorer's tools, including a magnifying glass, field notes, and of course, your samples and finds. Since a lot of my clothes don't have suitable pockets, I created an "Explorer's Pocket" in honor of Keri's book. It's just the right size for your field notes and small finds, and it has a rolling design kind that reminds me of my favorite style of journals, or those roll-up knitting needle cases. By the way, if you're not familiar with Keri Smith and her fabulous books, you should check out her website. There's even a drawing tool to play with! How awesome is that? You can see more pictures of this piece on my Ravelry entry for it.

That's all for today. Feel free to tell me what you're working on in the comments! I'd love to hear from you! Now if you'll pardon me, I have to go off and age. I believe these things are generally associated with celebrations and such.

Experiments in Plarn

So while busy creating holiday gifts, I decided to experiment with Plarn. What, do you ask, is Plarn? It stands for "plastic yarn". It's made from strips of plastic bags by upcyclers, fashionistas, and exceptionally desperate knitters/crocheters who have been deprived of wool. You can find the tutorial I used at My Recycled Bags, which also offers lots of great projects that you can make with your finished Plarn.

Don't expect Plarn making to be fast or easy. My Plarn took about four days to create. I found that the plastic strips were constantly breaking on me because of the low-mill bags I was using. Whether your strips break or not, you'll still find yourself with a surprising amount of plastic leftover at the end of your project, which is why it's recommended that you recycle your remnants. Fortunately, most grocery stores have a plastic bag recycling bin that you can feed your bag bits to.

 When I created my Plarn, I started by sorting my plastic bags by color. I didn't use the odd-colored bags for now, but they'd be good for accents or small embellishments. I removed any bags that were overly-torn, dirty, or otherwise not suitable.

You create your Plarn by folding grocery bags into narrow strips and cutting off the handles and bottoms. Then you slice strips off of that, unfold them, and join them together with a u-shaped knot.

What is surprisingly easy is actually crocheting with the Plarn. It's a lot stronger once it's worked up than it is while you're creating it. After all, you're essentially working with a double-strand, and crocheted pieces are strong enough to begin with. I decided to create a tote bag--a generally useful gift, generally appreciated by the sort of person who also appreciates upcycling, recycling, reusing, and all that jazz. So far I haven't found any difficulty using Plarn for anything that regular yarn can be crocheted into, although it is a little tough on your hands. I would suggest taking breaks, and maybe switching it up with a light yarn project.

The bottom of a tote bag.

I keep my Plarn tote progress and other projects on Ravelry--you should join me there! What projects are you making lately? Tell all in the comments! (Well, except that thing that happened in Vegas...you know the rules.)

Tatterific Thursday

It's a doily! It's a basket! It's Disaster Doily!

I'm hard at work on my first commission, and I could not be more excited! The order is for a black doily somewhere between 5 and 8 inches. Aside from that, I have complete artistic free rein, and I've been trying to make good use of it. There were a few mockups in cheap old crochet cotton that helped me work out the second round. And then there was that little basket disaster...

At least now I know how to make a nice covering for Christmas tree ornaments! You never know when that might come in handy...or when I might need, you know, a tatted bra or something...it could happen, right?

Now with better behavior!

Fortunately I figured out the solution, and once I did, it seemed so obvious that I'm surprised I didn't think of it sooner. The clovers in the second round simply didn't need to be joined at the sides. This gave me nice, flat, well-behaved spokes. Or at least, they will be well-behaved, come blocking time. That's the exciting thing about lace--that is, if by exciting, you mean that you enjoy working on something that looks like crap on a string until you've cut it, knotted it, drowned it, and smashed it under a good heavy book. I like to think that the originator of the blocking process discovered it after months of frustration with an agonizingly complex lace project just begging to be drowned as punishment. Then, in my little fantasy, the punished project was stuffed under a book alone in the corner without supper. One day, while tidying, this Original Blocker discovered to her delight that the errant project had mended its ways, and she permitted it to rejoin society as an object of beauty and joy for all that beheld it.

As you can tell, this project is going to involve my (Least) Favorite Thing Ever: weaving in ends! I still haven't found any reliable method for dealing with them, although now there are some I can manage to tuck under the stitches while I'm working the project. Still, remembering to do so, and not getting frustrated enough to give up on doing so, both present additional challenges! How do you deal with ends? Share your ideas in the comments!

The new bracelet, in Lizbeth 20, colors 604 and 142.

Taking a bit of a break from the commission, I started a new bracelet this evening. It's a second one based on the belt pattern in "The Complete Book of Tatting" by Rebecca Jones. If you don't have this book, I definitely recommend it. It provides a good solid background in tatting history and techniques, and provides a wide range of useful patterns that should at the very least cover your basic and intermediate tatting needs. It was also my first tatting book, and I still find its charts to be the clearest and easiest to understand.

That's all for your Thursday dose of tatting goodness. I'd love to see your projects! Drop me a link. Until next time--stay knotty, my friends!

On Becoming Ambittaterous

I've been experimenting with expanding my tatting world into the needle realm. With four years of shuttle experience under my belt, I feel it's about time. I've made some interesting discoveries along the way.

A lot of the posts on forums, blogs, and such regarding shuttle vs. needle tend to be prefaced with "I've only ever used a shuttle, but..." or "I never could get the hang of shuttle but..." I didn't find someone who could speak authoritatively on both until I met a fellow tatter at a recent craft show. As a shuttle tatter, it blows my mind how easy it is to unravel--yes, unravel!--needle tatting when you've made a mistake. In fact, I asked my friend to demonstrate it more than once, just to get the full paradigm shift underway. Additionally, the smaller motions inherent to needle tatting suggest to me that it's significantly faster than its shuttle counterpart. It's also significantly easier for beading. On the con side, I wasn't aware of the difficulties inherent in creating rings and chains of two different colors while working on needles, and I don't like the idea of needing several different sizes of needle to handle different threads. I commonly work in anything from size 10 all the way down to size 80, my favorites being 20 and 80, which can all be handled by the same shuttle.

I'm still a raw beginner on needle tatting, being that I've only messed around with it for the last day or so. I got the hang of stitches and picots but I haven't gotten my rings closed correctly yet. I'm reminded of my initial struggles as a shuttle tatter--no teacher, no decent instructions--and countless "nooses" formed by rings that wouldn't close. I also remember the sweet, sweet smell of victory that emanated from that first closed ring...like it was yesterday...ah yes! You will be mine again, closed ring! You WILL be mine.

Are you ambittaterous? Have a preference for one or the other? I'd love to hear about your learning experiences, so don't be shy, step up to the comments!

Nancy Drew and the Case of the Christmas Creep

You know they're coming. The winter holidays. Whether you call it Christmas or Winter Solstice, Hanukkah or Kwanzaa, or something completely different, you and the fine folks on the Monty Python crew all celebrate or are at least touched by one of these festive occasions. And that means gifts. And gifts mean a last-minute scramble--despite the 12 months' advance notice you've had this year, and every year prior.

This phenomenon may always be an unsolved mystery, but the ghost of Christmas future doesn't have to haunt you. This year, I have vowed to do things differently! I've been busy creating a list of who gets what, as well as actually embarking on said projects. (Gasp!) I thought I'd share a list of ideas, in case you're trying to prevent your own holiday stresses. They're all fast, relatively painless, and useful for other (surprising) gifting occasions, such as birthdays.

The Piquant Picot's "Oh Shit, I Forgot" Guide to Stitchable Holiday Gifts

Knit or Crochet

• Drawsting Bags: To gamers, they're dice bags, but they have all kinds of great uses. To personalize the gift, you could present it with something inside, such as small candies, or, if you are a gamer (and can bear to part with them!) the coveted dice themselves. 
• Slippers: Soft, comfortable, and fairly quick, slippers make a gift that will be appreciated in cold winter weather!
• Spa Kit: This gift can include more or less stitching, depending on your time crunch. If you're short on time, whip up a washcloth or two, buy some soap or lotion and a candle, and you're done. If you can go at a more leisurely pace, you could make a loofah, an eye pillow, a shower mitt, pedicure booties--go wild!
• Phone Sleeve: Everyone's got to have their electronic accessories, and those accessories need accessories of their own! You could make a sleeve, pouch, or cover for a phone, mp3 player, eReader, iPad or tablet. 

Tatting

• Earrings: A pair of earrings is quick and fun. If your recipient doesn't have pierced ears, a pendant is a good alternative.
• Sachet: If you can do a little sewing, you can tat an edging or motif for a cloth sachet filled with any scent your recipient might enjoy.
• Luggage Tag Holder: For the wanderer in your life, why not tat a little something to mark their suitcases? Join a couple motifs together, slide a card inside, and create a tie with a series of split rings.
• Card: You can totally one-up Hallmark with a unique creation of your own. Tat your favorite motif and glue it to a card. If you want to get fancy, cut a "window" in the card and glue paper on the back to form a pocket, so that the lace can be removed and used as an ornament or bookmark after the card has been enjoyed.

How do you combat the Christmas Creep? Any ideas for great gifts? Please share in the comments!

The Piquant Picot

What's a piquant picot? Let's get a little help from dictionary.com on that matter:
pi·quant 
adjective

1.

agreeably pungent or sharp in taste or flavor; pleasantly biting or tart: a piquant aspic.

2.

agreeably stimulating, interesting, or attractive: a piquant glance.

3.

of an interestingly provocative or lively character: a piquant wit.

pi-cot 

noun

one of a number of ornamental loops in embroidery, or along theedge of lace, ribbon, etc.

Now you've probably got a handle on piquant, but picot sounds a little vague, doesn't it? Let's clear matters up a little further: 

That is a hand-tatted doily (made by me, in fact!). The little loops that stick out off of the rings and chains are the picots. They're easiest to see around the outside edge of the doily.

One question leads to another! What is tatting? Tatting is a technique for making lace through a series of knot-like stitches. It can be created with a shuttle, a needle, or even with string alone, if you're desperate enough! (Ask me how I know...) 

So put it all together: The Piquant Picot is a repository for fiber fantasies, for art, for wit (I hope!), and for thread porn such as the delight pictured above. Welcome! And enjoy!