Sommaire pour Summer 2024 de PieceWork

Repetition: from the simple rhythms of rising each day and sleeping each night to the unfettered drama of waves crashing against a shoreline, repetition permeates our lives. As crafters, we cherish the familiarity of working with fiber in age-old ways, and we find comfort in techniques with recurring motions and designs with recurring elements. We marvel in the story that a nice, even line of tiny white stitches on a cloth tells, in the same way that we are mesmerized by a needlepoint tapestry covered by thousands of the same stitch rendered in an array of painterly colors to form a piece of art. We respectfully copy the methods of the needleworkers of the past. We continue to be inspired by their designs, and I like to believe that we…

Norway's Knitted Heritage The History, Surprises, and Legacy of Traditional Nordic Sweater Patterns Annemor Sundbø Atglen, PA: Schiffer Publishing, 2023. Hardcover, 400 pages, $60.00. ISBN 9780764366154. Craftland Japan Uwe Röttgen and Katharina Zettl New York: Thames & Hudson, 2020. Paperback, 288 pages, $39.95. ISBN 9780500295342. Lace Knit Shawls, Sweaters, Socks & Hats 26 Designs Inspired by Japanese Stitch Patterns Birgit Freyer Lanham, MD: Stackpole Books, 2022. Hardcover, 152 pages, $29.95. ISBN 9780811770989. Inspiration Kantha Creative Stitchery and Quilting with Asia's Ancient Technique Anna Hergert Atglen, PA: Schiffer Publishing, 2017. Hardcover, 112 pages, $24.99. ISBN 9780764353574. The Intentional Thread A Guide to Drawing, Gesture, and Color in Stitch Susan Brandeis Atglen, PA: Schiffer Publishing, 2019. Hardcover, 224 pages, $39.99. ISBN 9780764357435. Hardanger Filling Stitches A Step-by-Step Handbook Yvette Stanton Westminster, MD:…

You are renowned for your mastery of color and the fact that you take inspiration from all your surroundings. Is there a particular tradition that beckons most to you? Do you find inspiration the same way for your work in needlepoint, knitting, and quilting? First, each textile I design is a separate challenge. Knitting requires simple images to facilitate the knitting process. Many colors across a row are fine, but I avoid too many color changes within each motif. You can achieve almost any effect in needlepoint that you can in a painted image. When it comes to the imagery I choose for my patchwork prints, I usually go for vintage or antique representations from many different cultures. Often, I jump from one country or time frame to the next,…

Throughout the nineteenth century, home and professional dressmakers, and especially textile industrialists, invested considerable ingenuity and creativity into methods for ornamenting clothing and household objects. One technique—applied braidwork—saw a particular spike in popularity (in both the United States and Europe) during the mid-nineteenth century, although it had certainly existed for centuries. The intersection of several factors contributed to a fresh interest in braidwork in the 1850s and 1860s, including the wide publication of patterns in women's fashion magazines, the invention of sprung steel-cage crinolines that provided a large surface area begging for ornamentation, and the industrial production of a wide variety of braids for creating different effects, alone or in combination with other braids, ribbons, or pieces of velvet or satin appliqué. In addition, braid trims associated with military uniforms…

Tartan is a fabric, eminently warm and hard-wearing in the damp and blustery Scottish Highlands. But it is also so much more than a colorful striped textile: it is a tie to the past—both a historic reality and a mythologized vision. It is a symbol of rebellion and power, used for military uniforms and political statements. It has been worn by royalty, fashion models, and remote peasants. Tartan has an unmistakable allure and a very interesting history. TARTAN VS. PLAID Many North Americans will see the fabrics depicted here and call them plaid, but Scots will refer to them as tartan. But what do these words actually mean? Tartan is a fabric, generally woven in a 2/2 twill, made of bands of color repeated along the width and length of…

1 Knitting in Style Be prepared for any knitting project with this elegant needle set from Gold Tip Needles. This inclusive set has interchangeable tips ranging from size 2 through 10, four different length cords, two caps, and a key to lock them into place, all tucked inside a protective, organized case. goldtipneedles.com 2 On-the-Go Enjoy the sunshine and take your project with you in this bag from Brooklyn Haberdashery. Made of lightweight canvas with a cotton drawstring, it's the perfect size to hold that summer knitting project. brooklynhaberdashery.com 3 A Rainbow of Color Add depth to your next embroidery project and paint your imagination with needle and thread with Waverly Wool Needlepoint yarn by Brown Sheep. Available in more than 400 colors and two skein sizes. brownsheep.com 4 Helpful…

In 1753, 13-year-old Mary Wright made a journey that would have been unusual for any young woman living in colonial Connecticut: she traveled 100 miles for the sake of her education. There were no schools for girls near her home in Middletown, nor opportunities for “improvement.” But Mary—or Molly, as she was called then—was the only child of Hannah and Joseph Wright, and her father was the owner of a brickyard that had made him one of the most prosperous men in Middletown. From birth, she had never wanted for anything. Perhaps if Molly had had a brother, he would have been the one to have been sent to school instead. Perhaps her parents viewed her education as a symbol of their own rising status in their community, or perhaps…

A ran Islanders inhabit three islands that sit like humpback whales at the mouth of Galway Bay, off the west coast of Ireland. For more than 5,000 years, the people have made their living from these sparse limestone-rock formations, fishing and farming to survive through the ages. They learned how to adapt to the climate by discovering ways to make use of the land: sand, for example, along with seaweed cut from rocks at low tide and carried on donkeys and horses, was layered several times to enrich the soil so that seeds could grow. The environment dictated everything, including the island dress. For hundreds if not thousands of years, sheep's wool was washed, carded, dyed, spun, and brought to the islands’ weavers, who would create tweed and flannel. Sweaters…

In the language of flowers (floriography), the color of a flower has its own significance. Roses illustrate this best: red signifies true love, desire, romance, and passion; dark red indicates commitment, passion, and love at an end (at funerals); orange, energy and desire; peach, sincerity and gratitude; yellow, friendship, gladness, and joy (during the Victorian era, it meant jealousy); white, young love, innocence, and purity; ivory, grace, charm, and elegance; green, new beginnings, growth, abundance, and cheerfulness; pink, sweetness, grace, elegance, gratitude, admiration, and peace; lavender, wonder, delight, and enchantment; and mixed colors, the combined meanings of those particular colors. The perennial rose (Rosa spp.) has a very long, fascinating, and colorful history. Fossil records show roses existed 30–35 million years ago in Europe, Asia, and North America, with the…

Richly embroidered in bright silk floss yarn on coarse cotton khaddar fabric, Phulkari (“flowerwork”) is a counted thread embroidery that is associated with Punjab, India. Historical references to this needlework can be found in the seventhcentury CE writings of Ba̅ṇabhaṭṭa and the Guru Granth Sahib, the central holy scripture of Sikhism. Although it's difficult to trace its origin—some historians believe the craft migrated from Central Asia, while others consider Iran, where it is known as Gulkari, its foremother—Phulkari belongs distinctly to Punjab. Holy Sikh temples known as gurudwaras possess exclusive centuries-old costumes and textile pieces once belonging to Sikh gurus—chaddars (head scarves), chopes (wedding cloths), handkerchiefs, shawls, and canopies, among them—that are still in excellent condition. Sikh history notes that in the fifteenth century, Bebe Nanki, sister of the first…

Orenburg lace shawls combine my favorite elements of knitting: fine yarn, tiny needles, and basic stitches. This delicate piece is made up of traditional motifs (strawberries, mouse prints, diagonals) from the group of Orenburg motifs that were shared with the knitting world by author and designer Galina Khmeleva. This project is created using the gossamer shawl construction method, in which everything is knit in one piece, with only a tiny bit of grafting needed at the end. MATERIALS ◆ Lana Grossa Cool Wool Lace (100% merino wool), laceweight, 437 yd (400 m)/50 g (1.76 oz) skein, 5 skeins of #15 Mauve ◆ Needles, size 2½ (3.0 mm), 32” (81.3 cm) circular or size needed to obtain gauge ◆ Stitch markers, 2 in contrasting colors ◆ Small tapestry…

I was never much interested in paper-pieced quilts. Most were Grandmother's Flower Garden patterns with vivid green solid fabric surrounding the calico hexagons. But (designer) Kaffe Fassett and I happened on a paper-pieced quilt by Kim McLean at the Houston International Quilt Festival that knocked our socks off, and it changed my thinking about how a traditional method could have modern appeal by implementing large-scale fabrics, fussy-cutting—fabric cut so that it showcases a particular element of a design—and a beautiful palette. I have always loved doing handwork and was inspired to make hexagons. This bolster, designed for PieceWork, features fussy-cut guinea flower blossoms and is a fresh décor piece that makes use of traditional piecing methods. MATERIALS ◆ Kaffe Fassett Collective fabrics: ¼ yd (22.8 cm) each of Spot Lavender,…

When most people think of Iceland, they likely envision fantastic geothermal features such as geysers, lava fields, and natural hot springs. Knitters, on the other hand, immediately think of the traditional lopapeysa, the quintessential Icelandic knitted sweater. Although historians have traced the origins of Icelandic knitting to the sixteenth century, what we've come to call the “Icelandic sweater” came to be during World War II. It was designed to make use of the country's ubiquitous native wool supplies as a way to deal with the often harsh climate of the island country. Knitted in unspun Icelandic wool known as lopi, these garments are lightweight, warm, and naturally water-repellent. First commercially spun in 1896 by the Álafoss Wool Factory, this instantly recognizable singles yarn is now made at the Istex Mill…

I was in a Colorado antiques mall in the late 1990s when a colorful woven blanket caught my eye. It was made of squares of vivid colors-orange, burgundy, blue, green, lavender, pink-that were joined with black crochet, and they reminded me of light streaming through stained-glass windows. I unfolded the blanket and felt the childhood thrill of opening a fresh box of crayons, one of those large boxes with a dazzling assortment of 120 colors. I bought the blanket, and I was happy that I had rescued another vintage textile. I studied the 204 individually woven squares: the choice of colors struck me as unusual and suggested the use of fourply worsted-weight wool yarn left over from other projects. I saw an artist's eye at work. Both the colors selected…

Turkey is known for its long history of producing beautiful textiles, from weaving to rugs to tapestries and more. It is no small wonder that Turkey is also known for its beautiful handknits, particularly patterned socks and stockings. A hallmark of Turkish knit socks is the skillful repetition of motifs. Picture a sweater featuring Fair Isle stranded patterns and you'll likely think of patterns with multiple motifs of different sizes—several peeries, larger patterns of Xs and Os, perhaps a few more medium-sized motifs. Look at Turkish socks and you'll see far fewer motifs in a single design, with knitters artfully repeating one or two to create complex patterns.  DESIGN CHALLENGES We don't know exactly when knitting became common in what we now call Turkey, but as author Anna Zilboorg observes,…

Needlepoint is worked on a canvas or fabric that has a mesh construction. The basic stitch is formed by stitching a thread across the intersection of the canvas's warp (vertical) thread and the weft (horizontal) thread. Needlepoint goes back a long way, but it was called canvaswork initially. Canvas was also used for a type of needlework called bargello—a blanket term for a type of geometric canvaswork that can be worked as rows or as discrete motifs. The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines bargello as “a needlework stitch that produces a zigzag pattern.”1 More specifically, the stitches are usually vertical and often go over four weft threads on the canvas. The next stitch is also worked over four threads but starts up or down two threads from the previous one, which gives…

The Colorado foothills and mountains provide the perfect environment for black-eyed Susans, and stumbling into a patch of them never ceases to delight me. Bring these pollinator favorites indoors with a simple design that works as a border for towels or aprons—or a bookmark—any of which will provide memories of summer wildflowers all year long. Variegated threads provide fun color effects in the flower petals and greenery. I fussy-cut the variegated orange and stitched the petals from the outside edges to the center, light to dark, to mimic the petal colors of my favorite summer wildflower. MATERIALS ◆ Wichelt Imports 32-count linen: Sea Spray, 1 piece 6” × 10” (15.2 × 25.4 cm) ◆ DMC 6-strand embroidery floss (100% cotton), 8.7 yd (8 m)/skein: 1 skein each of #4066 variegated…