The Great Kit Challenge

Today marks 7 years that I’ve had this blog account, and although I haven’t used it much lately, I’m not ready to let it go. Hopefully I can find the time to update it more regularly!

The

Great Kit Challenge

2021

In any case, today I have an awesome bit of news to share. I’m delighted to talk about the Great Kit Challenge 2021, a project that was conceived by Emma Whitehead to help support artists and makers to realise their dreams of developing and creating kits to share with the public or community groups. Each kit has flourished from the imagination of these makers, and after putting their proposals to paper, they have been chosen to go on to create a kit demonstrating and teaching their craft to others. Some of these crafts include crochet, learning to manipulate wire into sculptures, stitching patchwork hexagons, papercraft, and more. And just some of the skills they will learn and perfect in this process include presentation, photography and marketing, branding, budgeting, packaging, and methods of teaching in the era of Covid-19 (ie., teaching over Zoom, through video or photographic illustrations, etc.). This is a huge undertaking and they’re already hard at work!

There are 2 categories in our project:

The first is Individual, where we support an artist to make their prototype and get professional feedback about all aspects of the process, including, marketing, and getting their kit ready for sale to the public. 

The second is Communities, where an artist designs a kit for a specific community group and gets our support to create a safe and appropriate creative experience at no cost to the group members.

But here’s where you come in: we need your help to make this succeed. With your donations and support, we can make these kits come alive. Not only will these kits become items for sale (or as part of a community group project), but there will be an exhibition in August at Top Floor Art to celebrate all their hard work and to see the stages of the process. We are looking for small donations that will make a big impact for our artists and makers. All likes, shares, comments, and donations, no matter how small, are welcome!! These donations will help fund materials, exhibition set up costs, mentoring and project management, marketing, and other sundries. For a breakdown of our budget costs, please visit Top Floor Art and to watch a brief video (starring me and Emma!!) about the project that explains it more in depth, click here. Most importantly, to donate to this effort and help local artists and makers develop skills to support and maintain their businesses during these changing times, please click HERE!

This is where we need YOUR help!!

And please feel free to SHARE!

Mini Embroidery Kits – A Review

Similar to my last post, I’ll be reviewing another wonderful kit from Emma Whitehead Art. This kit focuses on more standard embroidery skills: stitching and finishing. The only tricky (and also pleasing) bit about this finished make is that it’s small (and very quick)!

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Like the stumpwork butterfly kit, this kit also comes packaged in a cute box with everything you’ll need (except scissors): a few types of linen, a mini embroidery hoop, a pin backing, needle, embroidery thread in a few different colours, a piece of padding to give your finished piece a bit of lift, a hoop and a handmade pin cushion.

These kits have yet to hit the website, but when they do, they’ll come with an alphabet of letters to choose from if you want to stitch an initial. Alternatively, if you have a bit of stitching experience already, you could draw your own (tiny) design and stitch that. I did both.

First I tried an initial. I loved the finished product: cute, creative, and best of all, handmade.

I could see wearing this to a whole host of different occasions, as well as just because.

And then because I couldn’t leave well enough alone, I decided to try stitching on of my own designs. Just to see.

Obviously I couldn’t resist, and I think y’all can guess which one I went with in the end. But seriously, these kits are so cute and so inexpensive they’d make perfect stocking stuffers or just a little something for your crafty friend who likes a little adventure now and then. Or even just a little something for yourself after you put the kids to bed or settle into the sofa for an afternoon cuppa. The possibilities are endless!

These will hopefully be up on the website soon, so keep checking back!

Happy stitching!

Stumpwork Butterfly Kit – A Review

A little while ago I received a kit from Emma Whitehead, co-owner of Top Floor Art and the person behind the newest kits to hit the more serious craft market. (There’s a website here that’s just up and running – keep checking back for updates!) These kits are delightful: full of whimsy, clear instructions if you’ve never done stumpwork before and enough materials to keep you stitching for hours. Here’s what I did with mine.

The kits come with everything in the picture, all wrapped up in a tidy box. There are bits of material (both fabric and paper) to choose from, sequins and beads, wire, a needle, plenty of gorgeous high-quality threads, a small hoop, a template, and a handmade pin cushion. The only thing you need is a pair of scissors.

I started by using the template to trace my butterfly and then filled it in with some thread and buttons.

Once it was filled in and wired up, I carefully cut around the shape of the butterfly and stitched a few finishing touches.

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The kit even came with a pin backing to make it into a brooch, which I did. I’m sooooo pleased with the end result and can’t wait to do another! This was my first time doing stumpwork and I couldn’t be happier with the result. I am hooked!

This was the perfect introduction to stumpwork embroidery. The kit comes with everything you need and clear, step-by-step instructions with pictures. Considering that lockdown and covid-19 social restrictions have made it difficult to host workshops, these kits are an ingenious way to learn new skills and create awesomeness from your own home. These are perfect for people with a little embroidery experience who want to try something new, or for experienced stitchers looking to learn a new technique. If you’re a complete beginner, you might find this a bit challenging, but you’ll never know unless you try! And there are plenty of us out there willing to lend a hand online through tutorials or other types of support. Give it a go! You can find these and other kits through Emma’s website, http://www.emmawhiteheadart.com.

Happy stitching!

How to Knit C3: the 3-Stitch Twisted Rib (Faux Cable) Pattern

Since publishing my Five Days A Week cowl pattern, I’ve had a few questions as to how to knit the C3 (cable 3) stitch that’s called for in section four of the pattern. I also use this stitch in The Liquorice Twist Hat. So I’ve put together a quick video tutorial as to how I knit this stitch. It’s my first video, so apologies for the quality (of the video, of my scratchy voice and of the number of times I mis-speak!)! But hopefully it’s clear enough to see what’s happening. You can find it on my Facebook page, A Million Paper Stars and search ‘C3 video tutorial’, or click the link below. I’ve also included a photo tutorial below as I often prefer photo tutorials. 😊

C3 Stitch Video Tutorial

As for the Photo Tutorial, here we go!

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The 3 stitches marked out in red are going to be the 3 stitches we’ll be working with for the C3 pattern. In the second photo, my right needle is pointing to the 3rd stitch on the left needle.

Insert the needle into the 3rd stitch on the left hand needle. Although you’ll be inserting the needle KNITWISE (i.e., from the left side of the stitch’s front leg), it’s easier to see what you’re doing if you keep the needle in front of your work (like I’ve done here). You’re then going to wrap your working yarn around the needle like usual and pull it through that 3rd stitch (see next photo).

This is what it should look like now: you’ve pulled your working yarn through that 3rd stitch.

Then, with that 3rd stitch still on your needle, insert your needle into the 1st stitch on the left hand needle. In the diagram above, I’ve labelled the stitch you’ve created in the last step as the ‘new 3rd stitch’, as the ‘old 3rd stitch’ is still on the needle. Wrap your working yarn around the needle and pull the yarn through that 1st stitch. This time, you’ll pop that 1st stitch off the needle like you normally would (see below).

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So let’s see where we are now:

Next you’re going to insert the needle into the 2nd stitch. (On your right needle you should have your new 3rd stitch and your first stitch which is now completely off the left needle.) Your old 3rd stitch is still hanging in there for now, but soon it’ll be set free!

Now the working yarn has been pulled through…

So the 2nd stitch gets pulled off the needle, and see that 3rd stitch hanging on the left needle? It gets to go with the 2nd stitch and BE FREE! It can pop off the needle now too. So on your right hand needle, the 1st stitch that you created was once your 3rd stitch, the 2nd stitch was once your 1st stitch, and the 3rd stitch was created with what was once the 2nd stitch. Clear as mud?

DONE!

Hopefully that wasn’t too bad to follow! Please let me know how you got on – I’d love to hear from you! Use the hashtags #fivedaysaweekcowl or #liquoricetwisthat and tag me on Instagram (@a_million_paper_stars), Facebook (A Million Paper Stars) or Twitter (@Patchworkninja1). Or find me on #Ravelry as jaeliebean. 🙂

Happy Knitting and Stay Safe!

Some Thoughts on Project Bags

I’ve been making project bags for awhile now. I love to experiment with sizes and shapes, various openings and fixtures, and other little touches like extra pockets, patchwork or piping. Mostly I stick to a basic rule: they must fulfil their purpose. Which is a pretty easy rule, right? I mean, how do you make a bag that *doesn’t* work?

Well, here’s the thing. If you’re a serious knitter (or crocheter), you’ll know that some bags are better than others for certain projects. Maybe you spring for the fashionable ones that are currently all the rage: the basic pouches with large zippered tops made from sturdy canvas fabric, or maybe you prefer the classy ones with leather trims. Or maybe you’re like me and you have a variety of bags in all kinds of styles and colours because they just spoke to you somehow and you had to have it. Maybe you’re a combination of all of those! When I’m starting a sock or mitts knitting project, I like to choose a small, collapsible drawstring bag because I usually make these projects my travel projects. And since I walk most places, I want it to be lightweight, to fit in whatever bag I’m carrying, and to be easy to get my project in and out of. The bags I make are mostly in this style because I like their portability, durability and wide range of fabric choices. I also make mine with a wrist strap so walking while knitting is even easier: the bag becomes a natural yarn bowl.

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A selection of drawstring and Japanese knot bags.

For bigger projects I like tote bags, or the occasional zippered bag. The trouble with zippered bags is that the yarn can get caught and ripped or frayed on the zipper teeth if you’re not careful. But they keep the project secured in the bag and away from little fingers, or little kitties, as I have recently discovered. Tote bags are generous for big projects like sweaters and blankets, and there’s often room to just throw your wallet or whatever else in there and head straight to your local craft group. Then you’ve only the one bag to worry about.

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Tote bags: one with a button loop closure and one with a magnetic closure. And, of course, lots of pockets!

Recently I stumbled across a pattern on Pinterest that looked interesting, it was a triangular zippered bag. I took the idea and enlarged it, added a wrist strap, batting, and a lining and came out with a pretty cool looking project bag that sits upright and acts like a little yarn bowl. It’s been perfect for socks or hats and I’ve made a couple bigger ones for slightly larger projects. I’m not sure how well these would work for garments though. What do you think?

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Triangle bags can just be seen in the cat fabric (near the top) and the measuring tape fabric (bottom).

What’s your favourite style of project bag?

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A small zippered pouch and padded bucket bags with handle and drawstring closure to protect contents.

The Liquorice Twist Hat

Worked in Malabrigo Chunky

I’ve been working on this hat pattern on and off for a good few years now. I played around with stitch counts, with decrease options, and different yarns. I’d write down what I had done, but then I’d lose faith that I wrote it down correctly, or I’d start to think the stitch counts looked off… Anyway, you get the picture. I tried to get friends to test knit it, just to be sure, but everyone’s lives are so busy, including mine, so here we are! Almost 6 years after I first designed it.

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Worked in Misti Alpaca

So this is the Liquorice Twist hat! A cute little beanie with faux cables and the option for a ribbon. There are so many positives with this hat: it’s quick to knit, easy to size up or down (just adjust yarn weight and needle size), and looks great on a boy or a girl. Plus the cabling creates a thick, textured and warm fabric for cold little noggins.

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Worked in Louisa Harding Amitola Grande

 

The Liquorice Twist hat is free to download on Ravelry. If you make it, I’d love to see a picture! Enjoy and happy knitting!

How to Carve a Pumpkin

It’s that time of year again, and I love it. I especially love that feeling of Halloween night where everything feels magical and tingly and a little bit dangerous but also mischievous and fun. And one of the things I love to do around this time of year, besides a LOT of baking, is to carve pumpkins. So I thought I’d share my ‘process’, even though it’s less ‘process’ and more ‘winging it’…

1. Procure pumpkin. In the States this was an exciting trip to a pumpkin patch and long minutes were spent finding the perfect pumpkin and getting covered in muck and leaves and all sorts. Here in NI it means heading to Tesco or Sainsbury’s or wherever and digging through a large cardboard box to pick one that’s suitably roundish, with minimal markings on the outside and a good size.

2. Pick a design. It should be relatively simple because the knives aren’t the easiest to navigate through the outer skin of the pumpkin. This will take several hours as your kids fight over which design is the best, and then get huffy when the final image proves unsuitable as it’s too complicated to carve. Repeat this step until you have finally settled on a design and everyone is thoroughly pissed off. Including you.

3. Assemble your tools. I use a basic pumpkin carving kit and an assembly of kitchen knives, spoons and scoops.

4. Carve a circle in the top to allow access to the inside. (This is that lumpy orange thing in the above photo.)

5. Scoop out all the seeds and stringy bits. The cleaner and smoother you can make the inside, the longer the pumpkin will last. (Tip: you can save the seeds for roasting later if you want. They’re super tasty with garlic salt and cayenne pepper sprinkled over the top.) This step can take awhile. Especially if the kids are fighting helping.

6. Once the canvas (pumpkin) is prepared, trace your image. This can be done a few ways: tape your design onto the pumpkin and use a sharp pencil to trace the image. The pencil will leave a faint mark pressed into the skin of the pumpkin. Alternatively you can just draw straight onto the pumpkin. Or you can skip this step altogether because really, who cares. It’s a pumpkin, not the Sistine Chapel.

You can also leave the paper tracing in place and carve through it, but I find it tends to get wet and displaced, which then distorts the image. However, this is effective for expanding your swearing vocabulary.

7. When you’re ready, grab your knife. Start with an easy section of straight line while you get the feel of the density of the pumpkin. Carve slowly with an even sawing motion. Keep your hands out of the way, and if you’re having trouble with a curve or a small detail, try coming at it from different directions until you’ve completed that section. When you complete a chunk, slowly work it through the pumpkin flesh. It’s often easier to push from the inside out, but sometimes a stubborn piece is better pushed from the front to the inside. A gentle tapping can help release it. More swearing usually helps too, especially if you push out more than intended, or you have a special cat helper that keeps sticking their paw in the way.

8. As you finish the main parts of the design, tidy up your edges. Check this by looking at the image at eye level to ensure the bevels in the flesh are even and neat, otherwise the light may not shine through completely or may be refracted. (Sometimes you want this, depends on your design!)

9. Tidy up the bits of pumpkin flesh that have started to stick to the edges of the images. Make sure there are no excessive stringy bits on the inside. Give it a rinse if necessary. Light a candle and pop it in.

10. Admire your handy work. This may be the only time that something you make looks infinitely better in a very dark room, the darker the better.

Happy Halloween!

The Flax Mill

It’s been a while since I’ve posted. It turns out that your third (and final) year of nursing school keeps you pretty busy! (And that’s not considering all the other life stuff and responsibilities: kids, art exhibitions, volunteering, etc.) So apologies for the radio silence, but I have some cool things coming up so I promise to try and keep on top of things better!

Anyway, back in December, a friend and I took a trip out to Dungiven to visit Flax Mill Textiles run by Hermann and Marion Glaser-Baur. It’s a bit of a drive from Belfast but well worth it!

Originally a corn mill, the Flax Mill has been operating for over 200 years, although Hermann and Marion bought it and converted it to a weaving mill in 1988. Passionate about this old art form, they’ve been producing stunning linen weaves ever since. Although the couple are originally from Germany, both came to love this old Irish industry and dedicated their lives to reproducing it and keeping it alive.

They’ve tried hard to keep the buildings in as much of the original condition as possible, and they’ve accrued quite a collection of woven fabric samples from a variety of linen mills across Ireland and the UK. It’s a treasure trove of textile history in a setting that really takes you back to the 1800s.

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The Flax Mill is also home to the annual Yardfest celebrations, which brings together a variety of fashion, artistry and music. And wherever you wander, you can find all sorts of interesting little nooks and crannies.

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One of the most fascinating parts of the Flax Mill is seeing where all the magic happens! Marion and Hermann spend hours of almost every day weaving metres of delicious linen and wool fabrics. They work extremely hard to create fabrics to order, and their skills show in their products.

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Hermann and Marion were so generous with their time and showed us so much of their living and working spaces. It was so kind of them and I can’t wait to have another visit! And if you fancy dropping by, Yardfest is happening this September. You can get in touch with Hermann and Marion via their website.

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Hope you enjoyed this brief glimpse into the world of an Irish weaver!

A Note on Visibility

This post has been a long time coming, but what’s that saying? Start as you mean to go on? Well here’s the thing: I’ve always been a believer in change. I might struggle with it, as almost everyone does, but I think change is good. I’ve always been the type to shy away from confrontation, to “let things go” because it was more important to “keep the peace” than to disrupt the social status quo. That maybe what I had to say was never as important or as worthy as the next person, so what was the point? But as the sun sets on 2018, there are a few things I’d like to say.

Politically, a lot of things have gone down (y’all know what I mean) and that seems to have given people the impression that it’s ok to be close-minded, it’s ok to give up on trying to understand each other, to give up on being compassionate and kind. It feels like people are taking sides and there is no longer any in between. But what if you have always been, by definition, in between?

There was a comment posted on Twitter a while ago by someone I usually admire, but the comment gave me pause. Without trying to give too much away, the gist was that this person blamed another for “stealing” elements of an identity that they claimed to own. I mean, what?! What made it worse was that most people seemed to agree with the commenter, because in the past they have been quite vocal about LGBTQ+ rights and the notion of visibility. Of awareness and acceptance. But if I understood what was being said, then it really shocked me. Made me angry. So angry that I *almost* commented back. And for those introverts out there, you’ll know how big a step that is. The more I dissected the whole thing, the more I came to the conclusion that someone was having a bit of a tantrum and throwing their toys out of the pram over the very thing they said they promoted: the visibility and acceptance of all people, no matter their persuasion.

My anger wasn’t just caused by a public moment of jealous selfishness, but it hit home and poked at the building frustration I’d been feeling these last couple of years. As conservatism grows more popular, a lot of my friends have grown more vehemently liberal (thankfully). Having not gotten caught up in a lot of the trappings that go along with fashionable statements that advertise my identity, I guess you could say my style is definitely “whatever goes”. I certainly won’t be accused of stealing anyone’s fashion identity anytime soon, and aside from the multiple items of clothing I own with cats on them, there’s probably very little for people to make assumptions on. Maybe that’s a good thing, but it’s left me feeling, well, invisible.

Back in June, actress Stephanie Beatriz wrote an article for GQ about being bisexual and her upcoming wedding – to a man. I wasn’t even aware of who she was, but she became my hero in that moment. She summed up my feelings perfectly: the invisibility of being caught between the seemingly more dramatic stories of coming out as gay or trans, of people assuming you’re just “going through a phase”, of thinking you’re more likely to cheat because you’re attracted to both, of having to repeatedly come out to people because it may not be as obvious to others that you swing both ways, of not being straight enough for straight people or gay enough for gay people (possibly the most frustrating!), of going to the trouble of coming out to your family and friends and then trying to explain your relationship to someone of the opposite sex, as if it was any of their fucking business to begin with, of trying to justify how you can be bi and yet be married to a man (like in my case, because if you married a man, you MUST be straight, right? Like if I married a woman, would I instantly turn gay? COME ON, PEOPLE.) I wasn’t aware I had to justify anything to anyone, but it turns out if I want my identity to be taken seriously, if I want people to know who I am, if I want to legitimise my place in the fight for equal rights, acceptance, and justice, then I guess I have to display my colours more openly. So here ya go.

Consider yourselves warned. And now that I’ve done that, I’d like to make a point about that Twitter comment: I don’t think anyone, gay or straight or otherwise, has the right to comment on another person’s dress sense and make assumptions about their identity, much less criticise them for it. I feel that if you want to change the world, you have to represent the changes you want to see happen. Or, barring that, just go back to what we all learned in kindergarten: if you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all.

Hope you all have a happy and healthy 2019!

Dancing With (Crochet) Stars

Recently our craft group decided to go out for an afternoon tea to get ourselves into the Christmas spirit. Someone (not me!) had the bright idea of also doing a small swap of a handmade gift. Since I didn’t know the name I would draw on the day, I decided to make something festive but not too over-the-top, in case my giftee wasn’t into big decorative gestures. 

I settled on a bunting of crocheted stars made with scraps of Shetland wool. (Great stashbuster!) The benefit of using Jamieson & Smith colours is that they all look great together, so I chose a selection of about 8 colours to work with and just rotated them as I fancied.

At first I had planned to follow Ruby and Custard’s crochet star  pattern, but I quickly decided to modify it because I can’t follow instructions apparently.  I’m pretty happy with the result, so here are my modifications. The original pattern can also be found for free by clicking the link above. 

Crochet Star Pattern, modified

This pattern uses US crochet terminology.

Start with a magic ring. 

R1: Ch 3, make 9dc into the ring. (10 sts)

R2: Join new colour. Ch 3, dc into the same st, 2dc into each following st. (20 sts)

R3: join new colour. This round is worked over a 4 st repeat:

(sc, hdc) in 1st st.

(dc, trb, ch 2) in 2nd st.

(trb, dc) in 3rd st.

(hdc, sc) in 4th st.

Repeat a total of 5 times to create the 5 points of the star.

To make the bunting, I chained 12 sts into a loop and sl st into the first ch., then I chained 15 in between each star. I caught and joined the point of each star with a sl st. When they were all joined, I ch 15, then chained another 12 to make the loop at the finishing end. The loops allow the bunting to be easily hung up wherever it may bring you joy. 😊💖⭐️

Tag me with your makes! I’m on Instagram as @a_million_paper_stars. 😃 Happy crafting!

 

Abbreviations:

ch: chain

dc: double crochet

hdc: half double crochet

sc: single crochet

sl st: slip stitch

st(s): stitch(es)

trb: treble crochet