SKETCHBOOK PREP TO DISPLAY DESIGN SKETCHES AT THE KNIT & STITCH

This is my solution to 'How do I show my sketch work when they are in a old battered, falling apart, travel everywhere with me notebook?'......Since my exhibition stand has evolved into a retro, vintage look, I found this lovely Cath Kidson fabric (Love Cath Kidson prints;even saw a mobile phone designed with her patterns)

...next ingredient, is this plain photograph album...

...result is a 'Shabby Chic' sketchbook. Here I have added my labels which are to be on my garments; the labels are a mix of my logo, a parchment craft label which represents the knitwear and a hand-made mini card (Will have the fibre content and price written on)....all of which are held in place by my 'Quirky little knits' badge, with teeney weeney written blogspot address.

...inside the pages were as you would expect, but this is what I was looking for. The pages provide an area to make written annotations.

....example of the sketches which need to be placed inside the new sketchbook.

....vintage style papers are torn and placed underneath the sketches to help make them stand away from the flat cream pages.

'SHABBY CHIC' exhibition stand planning...

...At less than 4 weeks to go to exhibiting my knitwear at The Twisted Thread, knit and stitch show (October 8th-11th, Alex. Palace, London) http://www.twistedthread.com/pages/exhibitions/viewExhibition.aspx?id=23 ...I am beginning the thought out process of how my stand should look. It will have 'Shabby Chic' influence. With cream wrought Iron garment rail and pretty boxes to hold my Eco bracelets...

....This little cream iron work holder started life as a salt and pepper pot holder, but is an ideal size to use to display business cards. I needed new salt/pepper pots so it was a very useful find indeed.

...the wrought iron features a rose (which helps to tie together label identity, since my own website has roses on it too) and a heart shape at the top. On my labels (Blog to follow) I have cute hand made cards/envelopes (To state fibre content/price & sample of yarn) which also have a little red love heart on them. My postcards/notelets have been designed to have the caption, 'Made with love by me'. So all in all it should relate nicely.

...full size version of my 'Shabby Chic' garment rail, courtesy of 'Sylvester of Oxford' ( Very impressed by their products and customer service)

Finally this is yet another example of how to recycle. The yarn is throwster silk (Left over silk which is then spun) and began life as a back piece for a red linen dress, but it became obvious it was not suited to the job. The red linen underneath it was to be a sleeve cuff but yet again this was not suitable. So I combined them to make a very quick choker and managed at last to re-use some glass beads from an old favourite earring, which had lost its partner.

'MAKE DO & MEND' ON TREND ETHOS

(Basic base is a recycled yarn tube but other tubes which are the right size for the arm can be used. A cover is hand sewn by slip stitching to cover the tube)




Development for 'The Makery'. A new business in Bath. U.K. specialising in bitesize workshops based on reusing items and getting back to basic skills and crafts. This is an on going piece which I am working on to hold knit and crochet workshops. This should be around November time.


...crochet and knit is used to make flowers and leaves from left over yarns....

..working out the placement of said flowers....

....inside the tube, with the cover in place ready to be hand stitched...

...finished bracelet, white garter stitch base with crochet embellishments...other applique can be applied, it just needs imagination (Old buttons are very useful)

...here one of the flowers has been sewn to hang loose so that it moves with the wearer....

....bracelet stood on an empty yarn tube, lol it looks like a vase of flowers.

WHEN EXPERIMENTS GO WRONG!

Some years ago I made a large lighted sculpture from PVA glue and some string! The overall look worked so well, but unfortunately during the 4 day art exhibition, with the unusually extremely hot weather the shape started to sag. Ever since I have regretted not covering the mould with crochet and brushing the PVA onto that in order to create a hard skeleton....

...so recently I have been experimenting on this on a smaller scale.... This worked well and I was pleased with the outcome until...

I made the silly decision to experiment with yacht varnish. The thought behind this was that I had used this very high gloss, hard drying varnish on some bags previously and it worked well. I was looking to form a harder coating around the globe and wondering if I could bypass the PVA and create the form from crochet coated in the varnish. However, disaster! coating the now dried PVA with varnish caused the two to react against each other, and thus ended with an almost curdled effect which remained soft......

Next step will be to experiment with the crochet and varnish minus the PVA glue.

(The original light sculpture from PVA glue and string)

TUNISIAN CROCHET HALTER

Unusual for me to use Acrylic but this crochet top was made from plain and a mottled yarn. The yarn was from left overs in a charity shop so guess its kind of still recycling. The top uses plain treble and doubles on a 5.00 hook in double knit. I used the mottle yarn to emphasise the top area, with the plain to edge it. Tunisian or as I have on some occasion heard it Turkish style crochet has been used for the mid drift section, using simple double Tunisian crochet stitch...

...The lower body has been a mixture of trebles and chains and plain trebles. It has a tie back fastening and pussy bow to the neck. This piece was intended to steer my crochet to a more commercial vein and orginally was going to be a maxi dress. However it worked best as a top which can be worn in layers. It is now in E & A boutique Glasgow.

....I will be launching my designs at the forth coming Twisted Thread, Knit & stitch shows 2009.http://www.twistedthread.com/pages/exhibitions/listExhibitions.aspx

GRANDMAS INFLUENCE

(My inherited knitting equipment)

......It didn't take long for me to get on the design wagon, by age 10 I had designed my own intarsia 'Danger mouse' scarf as a gift for my cousin (there was always knitting going on in our house with my Grandma, my mum , sister and me), after college I begun taking on commission work from local yarn shops before I moved to Germany. This is where I really got into knit in a big way, I worked in a knitting and craft shop and loved every minute of it. I designed, taught and took on commissions, sometimes altering patterns to specific needs. I also sold some of my other arts and crafts......when I had to leave, due to a military posting I never found another job like it....so when it came to 2004 and I saw an advert in the local paper for a job as a knitwear designer at Sirdar yarns, I knew I needed that degree.