Norah Gaughan - Jatta Bag

Felted knitting always struck as me as a willful pursuit of destruction. Now, I get it. It is such a rush to stick a piece of knitting in hot water and squeeze the life out of it. Look what happens:

Before, 21" x 13"



After, 14" x 7"


The fabric has become spongy and heavy, it's all really quite beautiful.

Changes:
Yarn substituted with Elann Peruvian Sierra Aran. I didn't swatch and mine is bigger than the design specs.
I backstitched the two pieces RS together.
When it came to the bottom stair stepped shape, I just stitched on a curve, to make a more pleasing line.

The pattern is sewn WS together and I don't know how you would deal with the square step corners or if they would "disappear" during felting.

Next, I'm going to try a different felting technique on it. Inspired by this lovely Japanese felting book/magazine:


I'm going to needle punch circles along the bottom, as in the cover picture. And then, line it and find handles.

This is the original by Ms. Gaughan:

I have a serious knitting crush on her. You know how some designers just move you with their work? Her work has re-oriented my perspective on knitted fabric.

Burda July '07 - 122 Butterfly Top

What do you think? Behemoth or whale?

This is the Burda's pattern from this month's issue. The top size is 42/44 and I fit in the upper range of 44.

The original has lovely shirring along the midriff, front and back, and is cut to about the waist. It would look beautiful on a slimmer or less wobbly midriff, but on me, the shirred section would just slide up to the narrower part of my bodice, below the breasts. Also, without the shirring, the midriff is pretty close in measurement to mine, making shirring essentially pointless on me.

I left the midriff longer than in the original and experimented belting the waist, to effect a soft blouson style. In the mirror, it didn't look too bad, a little blousy maybe. But DH told very kindly suggested that I may not want to look 'bigger'. Hee hee.

He's right, though! In the pictures I can see it makes me look matronly and huge. And in the trash it went.

The fabric was some Anna Sui satin striped chiffon from Fabricmart - pricey but unloved.

At least I'm on goal with sewing up a Burda pattern from each current issue. I have the skirt 115 from July's issue under way right now, in a green stretch twill. I think that'll work out much better on my body type.

HP7 - Done

Maybe I should go and talk to my kid now.

No Fair!

My hi-tech paean to moderation:



After stuffing a closet for the past week:


That's pretty much all the fabric. I have about 100lbs that need, uh, re-distribution. I'm taking as much of the good stuff as I can to my Mom in London later this year. She can take it back to to family even later this year. Fabric in the Mid East can be very expensive and most people go to see tailors or make their own.

There's a yarn hanger to the right of this picture, with more yarn in a corner cabinet and drawers. I'm tempted to pass on the non-loved stuff there too.

And the patterns - aye!! They're still in the basement. I'm probably going to ditch most of the butterick/mccalls/simplicity/new looks. I really prefer burda, with patrones and vogue as back ups. Sheesh.

I'm exhausted, but I feel *lighter*. I'm also losing weight - hopefully all this is signaling a much needed psychological shift.

So you think cats are trouble!

He filched three skeins of silk/alpaca. Sheesh!

Happy 4th July!