Tabla de contenidos para March - April 2017 en PieceWork

Next year’s March/April issue of PieceWork will commemorate our twenty-fifth anniversary! As we approach that milestone, in an ongoing celebration, we will include articles and projects from past issues in the remainder of 2017’s issues. For this issue, I selected my favorites from the November/December 1993, March/April 1994, November/December 1995, and November/December 1996 issues. While I was poring over the back issues, I was struck once again by how very timeless needlework is. Much of the work created over the centuries painstakingly produced labor-intensive items of beauty. The article “Kalagas: The Golden Tapestries of Myanmar” (among the handmade items used to make the tapestries are sequins; how they were made is fascinating) is a prime example. In “Nineteenth-Century Embroidery on Net,” we see the rise of technology: the ground net…

Wash and Dry Easy-care 220 Superwash® Merino from Cascade Yarns is available in 38 colors. It’s perfect for washable adult and children’s garments and accessories for today’s on-the-go families, yet doesn’t sacrifice softness or durability.www.cascadeyarns.com. Colorful Cocoons All of the vivid shades of a rainbow tumble out of each 1-ounce (28.3-gram) bag of Halcyon’s Dyed Silk Cocoons. Soften several in hot water. Then reel the filaments adding a bit of twist to create your own floss or add them as an embellishment to your next felting or craft project. www.halcyonyarn.com. Perfect Picots Tatting consistent rings and picots will be a breeze with Clover’s Picot Gauge Set. Seven sizes are included: 1mm, 2mm, 3mm, 5mm, 7mm, 10mm, and 13mm. These will become an indispensable tatting tool. www.clover-usa.com. Summer Blend Blacker Yarns’…

The knitting culture of the Faroe Islands continues to thrive. It is now a tradition that, at the beginning of each school year, children wear a new sweater. Many as young as five years old are keen on knitting. Designer Ann Hojgaard (www.heimkaer.dk), who generously shared her knowledge of the history of Faroese knitting with me, has three daughters aged ten, twelve, and twenty—and they can all knit, with the youngest daughter being the most enthusiastic. Faroese knitting now ranges from homemade socks to high fashion, including some of the clothes by Guðrun & Guðrun (www.gudrungud run.com) that grace the catwalks of New York and Tokyo. (My host, Begga Vang, wore a stylish Guðrun & Guðrun sweater to the closing banquet of the Faroese Knitting Festival (see “The Faroese Knitting…

Despite the absence of written documents, colchas suggest the concerns, styles, and circumstances of earlier times. However, the historic, cultural, and aesthetic meanings of these embroidered textiles are rather fragmentary because colchas were most often created privately and in the home. Political and economic changes in the northern Rio Grande region during the mid-nineteenth century altered the style and appearance of Hispanic colchas. Although the word colcha is Spanish for bedcover and therefore can refer to quilts and other coverlets, during the Spanish colonial era in what is now the southwestern United States, the word referred specifically to a densely embroidered wool coverlet. Over time, the term also came to refer to the characteristic stitch used for the embroidery as well as to other textiles (altar cloths, altar carpets, wall…

Adapted from an 1887 pattern that appeared in Florence Home Needle-Work, published by the Nonotuck Silk Company, this version of a miser’s purse is worked in silk thread with #11 seed beads. The intricacy of the design comes from the placement of the beads. The crocheted foundation uses only basic stitches. Bone, metal, or wooden rings suitable for the closure may be found in costume jewelry stores and bead stores or online. For more on miser’s purses, see the preceding article. MATERIALS • Kanagawa Embroidery Silk, 1,000-denier silk thread, 20 meters (22.0 yd)/card, 9 cards of Dark Green; www.lacis.com • Miyuki 11/0 Round Seed Beads, 22 grams (0.8 oz)/ vial, 4 vials of Metallic Bronze; www.artbeads.com • Rings, bone, metal, or wooden, 2 with an inside diameter of about 7/16…

Inspired by the embroidered kalagas of Myanmar (see the preceding article), Marie Risbeck has created a whimsical horse ornament. She has captured the rich glow of the kalagas with matte gold sequins and metallic threads couched onto cotton fabric. The stitches used in the ornament are not difficult, but because you will find yourself working with some awkward shapes and maneuvering your needle in tight spaces, this is a project best suited to those with previous embroidery experience. MATERIALS • Kreinik Metallic Ribbon, 1/16 inch (1.6 mm), 10 meters (11 yd)/spool , 1 spool of #021 Copper; Kreinik Metallic Fine Braid, 10 meters (11 yd)/spool, 1 spool of #003 Red; Kreinik Metallic Cord, 50 meters (55 yd)/spool, 1 spool of #002C Gold; www.kreinik.com • DMC Embroidery Floss, 100% cotton 6-strand…

—Editor Curls 2: Versatile, Wearable Wraps to Knit at Any Gauge Hunter Hammersen Cleveland, Ohio: Pantsville Press, 2016. Softbound, 68 pages, $21.95. ISBN 978-0-9849982-7-2. Danish Night Shirts Vivian Høxbro Japan: Bunka Publishing Bureau, 2014. Softbound, 88 pages, $23.79. ISBN 978-4-579-11499-3. The Secret Stitch: A Crochet Companion, 9 Historically Inspired Accessory Designs Laurinda Reddig N.p.: Createspace, 2016. Softbound, 72 pages, $16.99. ISBN 978-0692678015. The Secret Stitch: Unraveling: The New World C. Jane Reid Camas, Washington: Spinning Tales Press, 2016. Softbound, 292 pages, $14.99. ISBN 978-0692660126. 17th-Century Men’s Dress Patterns 1600–1630 Melanie Braun, Luca Costigliolo, Susan North, Claire Thornton, and Jenny Tiramani New York: Thames & Hudson, 2017. Hardbound, 176 pages, $55. ISBN 978-0-500-51905-9.…

Rebellious and frugal by nature, Virginia Woods Bellamy (1890–1976) designed the handknitted Puffbunny Wardrobe as an innovative and economical way to clothe her two small children during the Great Depression of the 1930s. The Puffbunny Wardrobe appears practical and rather sweet to twenty-first century eyes. Predictably, there is far more to the story. The Wardrobe reveals both a revolutionary change in attitude toward dressing children and the earliest steps in the remarkable career of Virginia Woods Bellamy. Although a notably creative designer and knitter, Virginia considered herself first and foremost a poet and author. Born in Providence, Rhode Island, and educated at a Quaker school, she established herself in New York City, married into literary circles, and bore three children during two marriages. She wrote short stories and poetry that…

Inspired by the preceding article, this project provides an excellent introduction to this technique. When you embroider on net, you’ll use many of the same stitches you’re familiar with from other types of embroidery. The difference lies in orienting the stitches on the net’s hexagonal mesh. Stitches can be worked crosswise or at 60-degree angles. MATERIALS • DMC Tatting Cotton, size 80, 100% cotton thread, 100 yards (91.4 m)/5 gram (0.2 oz) ball, 1 ball each of Ecru, #353 Light Peach Coral, and #954 Emerald Forest Green; www.dmc-usa.com • Kreinik’s Cable, 10 meters (11 yd)/spool, 1 spool of #001P Silver; www.kreinik.com • Cotton tulle, 28 mesh, ¼ yard (0.2 m), Black • Sewing thread, Black • Needle, small-eyed, blunt or ball-point INSTRUCTIONS Notes: For each of the lines of pattern…

EXHIBITIONS Irvine, California: Through June 10. Sun-Drenched Style: California Mid-Century Women Designers, at the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising (FIDM) Orange County Campus. (949) 851-6200; www.fidmmuseum.org. San Jose, California: March 8–April 17. Embedded Pattern: Three Approaches Deborah Corsini, Alex Friedman, Michael Rohde, at the San Jose Museum of Quilt and Textiles. (408) 971-0323; www.sjquiltmuseum.org. Minneapolis, Minnesota: March 9–April 29. Commemorating His Purple Reign: A Textural Tribute to Prince, at the Textile Center. (612) 436-0464; www.textilecentermn.org. Albany, New York: May 4–7. Artistry in Stitches, hosted by New York Capital District Chapter of the Embroiderers’ Guild of America, at the Carondelet Hospitality Center. judya1643@gmail.com; www.nycapega.org. New York, New York: Through March 19. Native American Masterpieces from the Charles and Valerie Diker Collection, at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. (212) 535-7710; www.metmuseum.org.…

Although knitting is now more a pastime than a way of life, it is still a popular activity in many Faroese homes. Knitting clubs (bindaklubb) are social events for women of all ages, and at regular get-togethers in friends’ houses, the women knit and chat over coffee and cakes. The Faroese Knitting Festival must qualify as the biggest “knitting club” ever. Every April, hundreds of knitting enthusiasts gather in the town of Fuglafjørður on the east coast of the island of Eysturoy to drink coffee, eat cake, socialize—and knit! Although there are few htels in this area, the Faroese have a tradition of welcoming people into their homes, and I was made welcome in the beautiful home of Begga Vang and her family. The large community hall at Fuglafjørður is…

The Weldon’s Practical Needlework collection put together by PieceWork is a wonderful glimpse into the past. Originally published in the late 1800s, they are a collection of patterns for various handcrafts, including crochet, knitting, tatting, needlework, and macramé. The two scarves shown here are a new spin on edgings. The crochet pattern is worked from the center out in the round and uses the Wave Braid Edging from Volume 2 (Weldon’s Practical Crochet Edgings, Fifth Series). The knit pattern is only a few stitches wide and worked from the short edge; here, I used the Striped Border from Volume 5 (Weldon’s Practical Knitter Edgings, Fourteenth Series). SCARF TO CROCHET MATERIALS • Handy Hands Lizbeth, size 10, 100% cotton thread, 122 yards (111.6 m)/25 gram (0.9 oz) ball, 6 balls of…

I’m a lace addict—there’s no doubt about it. From my first class with Galina Khmeleva at the Estes Park Wool Market in 2006, I was hooked. It didn’t come easily. I’ve definitely put in my 10,000 hours (according to Malcolm Gladwell’s theory) to develop this skill. But after making more than seventy shawls from patterns designed by others, I decided to attempt my own design. Using what Galina taught me (what she learned from her teacher, Olga Federova), I started combining Orenburg gossamer lace construction with design elements from my hometown of Santa Fe, New Mexico, and the rich textile traditions from the American Southwest: Anasazi, Navajo, Pueblo, and Mimbres. I’ve lived in Santa Fe for almost forty years, and I came to New Mexico to work at Fiberarts magazine…

The deer and flower motifs on this blanket are based with permission on embroidered motifs on a wool-on-cotton colcha embroidered blanket in the collection of the Albuquerque Museum in Albuquerque, New Mexico (shown on page 36). I embroidered eight deer, of which seven full-size deer make a border that begins at one corner of the blanket (see diagram). The deer at the opposite corner is the same height as the other seven, but its body is shortened to fit it into the corner (take a “tuck” in the body of your deer motif pattern to create the smaller deer). MATERIALS • Textile Reproductions Lightweight Wool Twill Fabric, 1¼ yards (1.1 m) of Off-White; www.textilereproductions.com • Textile Reproductions Crewel Yarn, 2 ply, 100% natural-dyed wool yarn, 40 yards (36.6 m)/skein, 1…

beg—begin(s); beginning BO—bind off CC—contrasting color ch—chain cir—circular cn—cable needle CO—cast on cont—continue(s); continuing dc—double crochet dc3tog—double crochet 3 stitches together dec(s) (’d)—decrease(s); decreased; decreasing dpn—double-pointed needle(s) fsc—foundation single crochet foll—follow(s); following hdc—half double crochet inc(s) (’d)—increase(s); increased; increasing k—knit k1b—knit 1 in back of stitch k1f&b—knit into the front and back of the same stitch—1 stitch increased k2b—knit 2 in back of next 2 stitches kwise—knitwise; as if to knit k2tog—knit 2 stitches together k3tog—knit 3 stitches together k5tog—knit 5 stitches together LLI—insert left needle into back of the stitch below stitch just knitted, knit this stitch lp(s)—loop(s) m(s)—marker(s) MC—main color M1—make one (increase) M1k—increase 1 by knitting into the front and then the back of the same stitch before slipping it off the left-hand needle M1p—increase 1 by…