Being But Men

The poem “Being but Men” by Dylan Thomas is a real favourite of mine. It describes the magic of childhood and how we lose a lot of that growing up.

This piece is a personal visual interpretation of that poem using textiles, which took me a considerable time to complete. I used a lot of stitches, beads, small pieces of fabric, all kinds of odds and ends. Some of those have real meaning, like a button of an old family sofa, for instance, or the clapper of a small ceramic bell that broke.

For now, this is my favourite piece. I loved every hour I worked on it, creating a world of abstract but tangible magic. Making something like this is like meditation more than anything.

Some details :

Sweater becomes mittens and cowls

I had a sweater that was still in reasonably good condition but had become too small. I loved its fabric and colour so decided to walk the recycling path here.

I should have taken a photo of the original sweater, but I cut it up before I even thought of that.

From the sleeves I made long fingerless gloves. I cut them from the main body, picked up the stitches with my circular knitting needle and cast off neatly, cutting an opening for the thumb and sewing round it. Really happy with them!

The shawl neckline of the sweater was kind of special so I cut it off in its entirety and made it into a cowl. By sewing round the edge with a nice yarn (Manos del Uruguay Serena alpaca cotton blend) I managed a ruffled edge. With the same yarn, I embroidered some flowers. I added an invisible press stud so it stays well in place. Not completely my style, but I still think it is a successful project and hopefully will make someone else happy.

Then there was the body of the sweater, which I cut into broad strips, sewing them together into one loop cowl that wraps around the neck twice. Again I picked up the stitches, and added a small knitted edge in a colourful yarn (Mayflower Egyptian organic cotton Print). The colourful edge makes this a really pretty cowl, I think!

 

So instead of an unused sweater, I now have 3 nice accessories 😊 

Paper glove

This glove is the result of an assignment set by Jennifer Collier, via TextileArtist.org. At first I was not that thrilled about making a paper glove, because it didn’t seem to make much sense to me. However, the process was very enjoyable because I love paper and finding the colour combination was fun. Besides, I found yet again that stitching through paper is great. 

I used a wallpaper sampler, a bit of decorative paper from my stash, a soap wrapper, a bit of plastic waste, three small buttons and some ribbon, and of course some thread and wool yarn.

This made me think about how I can use more paper in my work. There are so many more possibilities than you might think at first sight!

The memory of a picnic

We often visit Cambridge in the UK because our son lives there. It is such a friendly and beautiful city! We love to picnic and one of our favourite spots is Jesus Green. 

This folded book depicts a memory of one of these precious moments where everything felt wonderful and everyone and everything seemed to be smiling. 

It is a fabric and paper collaged piece, with hand stitching and embellishment. I also used some watercolour paint.

The technique used here, I learned from the textile artist Anne Kelly. A PVA glue solution gets used to attach paper onto fabric. At first I was a bit hesitant about it, but I found myself loving it: the technique makes a "fabric" that is really great to stitch through! And I get to use some of my lovely paper pieces I have been collecting for years!

The cover of the book is a piece of a kitchen towel and it has a button and beaded cord to close it.

I hope to have the time and energy to make many more of these memory-books!

I made a little video where you can see me opening the book, which you can watch it if you click here.

The Moon with Janneke for Dad

My Mum asked to take my Dad's favourite shirt and turn it into something he would like. This way it wouldn't have to be thrown away, but it also wouldn't be worn anymore, because, honestly, that ship had definitely sailed...
So I made this moon, with its single resident, Janneke. Janneke has a pocket watch, so he always knows the right time to make the moon shine. He also has a rope ladder, for when he is a bit bored on the moon and wants to visit friends.
I used parts of the shirt, some cord and twigs for the rope ladder, some felting wool and yarn for Janneke. And all the mismatched buttons my Dad himself had sewn to his shirt every time he lost one, I just had to give them a place too. So I sewed them onto the top.
Happily, Dad likes his moon. And so does Mum.

Pockets on a string

I was looking for something useful I could make from the patches I got practising crocheting and using up my yarnscraps. At the same time I found myself inspired by the dangerous pockets project, by Paula MacGregor and this poem by Sharon Owens :

Dangerous Coats

Someone clever once said
Women were not allowed pockets
In case they carried leaflets
To spread sedition
Which means unrest
To you & me
A grandiose word
For commonsense
Fairness
Kindness
Equality
So ladies, start sewing
Dangerous coats
Made of pockets & sedition

It is true, womens garments often don't have useful pockets and to carry a handbag just isn't handy all 

the time. So I thought, what about pockets on a string? Little bags for phone, keys, card, a bit of money, so you have the little things you need close at hand, but also freedom of movement!

Making these pockets, I can try out different techniques, different materials (some recycled fabric and yarn leftovers), adding haberdashery, tassels, and so on, which I think is a lot of fun!!

Duttons for Buttons

Some years ago, I visited Harrogate in Yorkshire (UK). There is this wonderful shop, Duttons for Buttons. What a treasure cove, or in their own words : "For haberdashery & lace & spare-time & needles & thread & ribbons & rainy days knitting with friends & wool & needlewordk & making stuff with the kids & just about every needlecraft thing you'll ever need…" Along with some beautiful and unusual buttons, I bought the shop's environmentally friendly souvenir bag. I
customized it, as is the idea, with lots of buttons from my button box. It took a while to sew them all on, but for what's now my favourite tote, it was totally worth it!

Bootcuffs-gone-wrong cowl

This is the story...

I wanted to make a pair of bootcuffs out of some leftover yarn (Rowan Lima Colour and Lang Minerva Merino). Their colours turned out too different to be acceptable though. I hadn't realized that this kind of variegated yarn doesn't have a recurring colour pattern.

What to do, what to do....??

I decided to make a cowl out of the two pieces of knitted fabric, by sewing them together. It's a nice and soft fabric and feels great around my neck.

But still, I found the seams a bit weird. Perhaps a few buttons would make it work? So I searched my button box for some buttons that would fit together and sewed them onto the seams.

I think it works, it's not haute couture off course, but nice :

Rosa Scarf

The minute I saw the photo of this scarf on Ravelry (you can find the free pattern here) I wanted one. I love the simplicity of the rectangle in garter stitch, the snug and also slightly vagabondish style. And now it's finished, I am very happy with it. It was a very boring knit though, rows and rows of garter stitch. The yarn is Pure organic by Veritas  : good quality yarn and I really love the knitted fabric. But I didn't really enjoy working with it, a bit too fluffy for my liking.
The button is a wooden one.

Sooo many rows of garter stitch…

Boho bag number 2

First, I knitted two pieces of fabric, inspired by a pattern for legwarmers in the Dutch book 'Breien en haken met dikke naalden' (p.56). The yarn is Sirdar Kiko, a wool-acrylic blend.
Sewn together, this knitted fabric has become the outer bag.
For the inner bag and the carrying strap, I used a well-loved old shirt of my husband.
I added a zipper, a ribbon with a hook for wallet and a small pocket for my phone.
To finish up, I added a beautiful wooden button I bought at Bunyip Beads in Exeter (great shop, very friendly people!). It's a bit smaller than the first one (check it out here), but still perfect for a city trip.