'If you make happiness your goal, then you're not going to get to it… The goal should be an interesting life."

Dorothy Rowe

Saturday 6 June 2015

You need hands...

Wensleydale and I keep saying to each other 'Next week, when things get back to normal...' I think we've been saying it all year, and so far, they haven't. Last week, you may remember, the Cheese Minors went on holiday. And so did we. The calm before the storm, as it turned out. This week they moved house. And so did we. Well, we helped with their house move. Granddad helped with plumbing, taking down cupboards, dismantling stuff etc. and I kept Babybel, the VHC and the dog out from under everyone else's feet. As it was a lovely day, this meant going out in the sunshine and watching them play. I think I drew the long straw.  Everything went as well as could be expected, given the trauma that moving house always is, and that Babybel was a bit off colour. Their new house is lovely, and a great improvement on their old one, in my opinion, although, of course, when we left yesterday, it was at that 'it gets worse before it gets better' stage that follows the removal men's departure, and precedes you having had the time to unpack. The new house being within walking distance of a chip shop was a definite plus. Next week will still not be 'normal' whatever that is, as we have changed our grandparenting days so we can be 'in', but at their house, for deliveries and BT engineers. Around all this chaos, I did manage to fit in some knitting. The wine-soaked glove dried out and has grown a bit - it is joining in the competition for the world's longest.  
  I also tried some sewing. I decided that I ought to have a go at making a sewn glove, so I Googled it. I read all the instructions for making your own pattern. Then I bought one. Then I procrastinated.  Next, as the pattern was very insistent on using stretchy fabric, I went through the stash for some stretchy fabric. This was not a bad thing, as I ended up throwing out a bin bag full of stuff I will never use. I also found:
  1. some white stretch velvet, bought because there was a fashion for doing things with stretch velvet. I can't remember what the fashion was (it may have involved transfer dyes) but I still have the stretch velvet. 
  2. some flesh tone cotton jersey, bought when I made dolls, and
  3. 2 metres of white cotton jersey, bought for who knows what. 
I thought about using the flesh, but went with the white , because there was more of it if I made mistakes. Then I procrastinated. Finally, on Thursday, I ordered myself to get started.  I made mistakes. The major one was having the idea in the first place.  I am sure all my readers are skilful glove makers. Look on my works, ye mighty, and laugh.  
 
It is easier to list what went right than what went wrong.
 
What went right? Nothing. Knitting gloves may take longer than sewing them, (though the endless resewing of the finger seams, which had become shredded when they disappeared down the hole in the needle plate, took half a lifetime) but it is a damn sight easier.
 
But then - I decided, despite being tempted towards long term procrastination, to do what I had decided to do with this glove, after  seeing Shelly Goldsmith's 'Dark Time' at the Contemporary Craft Centre at Farnham last weekend.
 
 
I wanted to add an image. So I scanned my hand, again, flipped the image, printed it on to transfer paper, cut it round the rather blurry edges and ironed it onto the glove.
 
And I rather like it. The transfer wasn't perfect,, and the image tore when I straightened out the glove, but I like the effect of that. 
 
So? More experiments. These gloves are not going to be worn - that was the theme I started with about 2 months and 27 new ideas ago - so they don't have to be made properly. Which means I can play with different materials, different construction techniques, perhaps even transfer photos/scans onto knitted gloves. 
 
time to start procrastinating about all these new ideas...
 
             
 
 

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