Even in this heat I ran the kiln. This is the first of two kiln openings. One small disappointment on peaking - I totally forgot to add the seaweed on top of the deep sea in the bowl on the top :( I will probably add it and reglaze.
I will be at the Lyme Community Days Craft Fair this Saturday July 30th in Chaumont, NY. Not taking everything up this weekend, but will have the Chaumont mugs and bowls that I made a few weeks ago as well as some other mugs, plates, spoon rests, sponge holders, etc. If you're in the area stop on by!
Recently on Clayshare Jessica showed making a hand built cake stand. It was so simple that I kicked myself for not figuring out how to do this on my own and making one sooner. It's just a plate with a nice rim and a really large foot. That's it. Really. It takes a while to setup before you can turn it over, but how pretty is this??
Will definittely be making more.
I toyed with the idea of calling this the Frankensweater because the pattern I was working towards morphed so many times, but no one would get it but me. I started this over the winter and I think that what I was making then was a poncho, but I ran out of yarn. I tried to stretch it as best as I could, but the lemon peel stitch uses a lot of yarn. I went to buy more yarn, but they were out of stock. When I went back to it, I had no idea what I was doing. I started by ripping back to just the big rectangle portion, but then it felt like it wasn't wide enough for a poncho. It did feel like the start of a sweater....so that's what it became. The pattern for this is very notional because I took terrible notes as I kept changing things.
This pattern uses Into the Whirled DK Yarn in Captain Tightpants. Yes the yarn is gorgeous, but also Firefly! One of the best shows of all time. If you haven't watched it and like SciFi, I highly recommend. This used about 4 skeins of yarn.
I used a 5.5 mm hook for this pattern.
This pattern uses the lemon peel stitch which is alternating double crochet and single crochet stitches. As you increase rows - you're always double crocheting in the previous rows single crochet and single crocheting in the previous rows double crochet. If you ever find yourself doing the same stitch into the previous row - you've gone wrong somewhere. This stitch makes for a very warm sweater, but uses a lot of yarn.
Stitches:
ch - chain
dc - double crochet
sc - single crochet
hdc - half double crochet
hdc blo - half double crochet back loop only
Back Panel
Cast on to your desired width. For a large
Row 1: sc in the 3rd loop from the hook, dc, *sc, dc. Repeat from * - end with a dc
Row 2: ch 1 (this counts as a sc), *dc, sc. Repeat from * - end with a sc
Row 3: ch 3 (this counts as a dc), *sc, dc. Repeat from * - end with a dc
Repeat rows 2 and 3 until you reach your desired length. For a large/extra large I make my sweater backs about 23 inches wide. The front panels then need to be half that.
Side Panel (make 2)
Same pattern as the back panel, but slightly less than half the size. For example, if I cast on 70 stiches for my back panel then I would do 30 or 32 for my side panels.
Sew the sides onto the back. At the top it will sew to the middle and have 2-4 stiches between the panels (depending on how many stitches you used for your side panels vs back). Leave about 8 inches from the top down the side for the arms. I also left 2 inches at the bottom open, but this was purely asthetic.
For the sleeves I always start at the arm pit to hide the join. Repeat the lemon stitch pattern around until you get to about elbow length. Then for the last 4 stitches only do 2. So if you were ending with a dc for a row. You're second to last stitch would be sc 2 together and then the last stitch would be dc 2 together. Do this 2 rounds in a row.
For the bottom of the sleeve I did the same pattern I was planning on for the collar.
Cast on 16.
Row 1: hdc in the second stitch from the hook. Hdc across - you should end with 15 stitches
Row 2: hdc blo across
Row 3: hdc
Repeat rows 2 and 3 until you have roughly the desired length to go around your wrist area. I did 18 rows.
Sew end to end and then onto the bottom of your sleeve. Do this again for the other sleeve.
Next we're going to make the collar. First turn the sweater right side out. I used the same pattern as the end of the sleeves alternating rows of hdc and hdc blo. Make sure the sweater is right side out. Then lay it down on a surface in front of you with the opening on the top. You're going to start at the bottom right corner. The first row will be hdc. The second will be hdc blo. If you start at the wrong corner or if you don't turn the sweater right side out then you won't see the ribbing when it's worn. You can make the collar whatever width feels and looks good. My sweater has 7 rows. I always end with a hdc row because it seems to look more finished that way.
Pockets (make 2):
Cast on 7. Do the same as with the sleeve ends. I did 8 rows alternating the hdc and hdc blo.
This will be ribbing on the top of the sleeve. Now you're going to pick up the stiches across to make the rest of the sleeve using the lemon peel stitch. Make it to your desired length. The most common thing I put in my sweater pockets is my phone so I usually make it about the height of an iPhone. Sew on the pockets where they feel comfortable for the arms. Mine are about an inch back from where the ribbing starts and 2 inches from the bottom.
I know that this pattern isn't all that specific, but I hope that it's still helpful anyway.
I know it's the middle of July, but I've started thinking about fall. I made a leaf bowl last year that turned out great and I made another one this week.
I also decided I wante dot make another piecemeal leaf bowl to sell. I love how these look. They take a bit of time, but the final result will be worth it.
Leaf vases using my clay puzzling molds.
Pumpkins of all sizes.
This is a stand of trees. I love my set, they live on my coffee table.
Also, a garden gnome just because.
I'm so excited about this. I've put up new pages that have all the examples of what I've created for various glaze companies onto their own page (vs the kiln opening blog posts). I've been wanting to do this for a while, but had an issue with the menu I was using that prevented sub menus. After much hunting and pecking (this is why I'm not a software developer any more) I found the problem and voila!
Each glaze company has their own page and then on the page I've segmented it into the different clay bodies that I use. Anywhere that I've used multiple glaze companies on the same piece, it will show up on both pages. There were a few stragglers where I didn't feel like I had enough of a particular company to make it's own page so they are all in "other".
I know that some of the pictures aren't the best (I'm working on getting better), but it's my plan to keep adding to these pages as I have new pieces coming out of the kiln.
Hope this is helpful!
As I put all the pictures on these pages I made sure that they all have links to the bigger picture, I didn't start doing this until about a year ago so some of the older posts didn't have this functionality.
I've gotten a few cucumbers from the garden, but this is the first real harvest of the season. There were 4 cucumbers, some turnips, a green pepper, banana peppers, and some spinach.
I hesitate to call this a pattern because it was so quick and simple to do, but it's exactly what I wanted and intended so I'll share. I have a lot of sleeveless dresses that I like to wear in the summer. Maybe it's just in my head, but it feels like they aren't dressy enough. I usually wear something over them to make them more work appropriate. I wanted something that dressed it up just enough, but didn't actually add any warmth. This is a cover up for when its really hot out and you just don't want to be wearing anything.
I chose a yarn that would work work my black, navy, and grey dresses the Fire in the Evening color way from Dragonfly Fibers on their Pixie fingering weight yarn. The skein is 430 yards and I used probably about 2/3 of it.
There was a pattern that I made a cardigan with a few years ago that I can't find that was the inspiration for this. I really wish I could find it because I'd love to give the woman credit. I modified it a bit and changed it into more of a poncho, but I loved the stitch. The diamonds are basically chains with single crochets. You can do any odd number of chains and then you single crochet into the middle stitch on the next row.
For this I used a 4mm hook.
Stitches:
ch - chain
sc - single crochet
I decided to use 11 for my odd number, but you could do more or less depending on how big you want your diamonds to be. For the first row you want the number of skiped stitches to be half of your odd number, but round down. So since my odd number was 11. 11 / 2 is 5.5 so I cast on in multiples of 5. When I got to 80 that felt like the right amount for it to drape nicely just above my elbows. I then added 11 stitches for the first stitch for a total of 91.
Cast on 91 stitches
Row 1: sc in the 6th stitch from the hook, * ch 11, skip 4 stitches, sc in the next stitch. *Repeat from star to the end
Row 2: chain 6, sc in the 6 stitch which is the middle of the 11, *chain 11, sc in the 6 stitch which is the middle of the 11. Repeat from * until end
Repeat row 2 until you reach your desired length. I did 20 rows. The great thing about this is that you can mostly eye what is the middle, I didn't go crazy making sure that I was always in the 6th stitch (vs the 5th or the 7th).
Make 2 panels. I sewed them together leaving 10 inches for the neck and about 8.5 inches for the arms.
One of the serving bowls is going to have to be a re-fire. I tried to pour the glaze and I knew it was too heavy when I put it on and it was. I got crawling on the front and drips on the back. Other than that I really like it.
Kiln sneak peak! I actually finished this kiln last weekend, but with the craft fair on Sunday I didn't have time to do anything with it. I did pull a couple of pieces for the fair. There were some lavendar appetizer plates to finish out sets in here. This has the rest of the custom mugs/bowls for Chaumont as well as some small glaze tests.
As I was using my ferns I decided that for any forms I was making that I was going to have to do joins I decided not to use the slip. I thought it would just get too messy on my hands. I might end up doing the reverse on the bisque where I wipe it away on the fern part.
Before we left I tried to make a big picture, but I fiddled with it too much and it collapsed. This one I let it setup a lot longer so that it wouldn't collapse when I shaped it. I also let it sit overnight before attaching the handle to prevent collapse. I'm really happy with how it turned out.
I also made a giant mug. This mug will be only for SERIOUS coffee drinkers :)
Then a normal size mug for those of us who can't handle that much caffeine any more.
I'm really please with everything that came out of this kiln. There's one plate that I'm a little meh on, but even that I think is pretty cute. I'm really excited for the Chaumont Craft fair coming up on 7/30 and there are a bunch of pieces in this kiln that say Chaumont on them for that. The maple leaves also came out really awesome, kind of abstract. I'm also really pleased with the lavendar plates - both the square and the hexagon.
The speckled clay is all Laguna 60 and, as always, the white clay is Bmix 5. I recently switched my underglaze over to Mayco Foundations. A lot of the mugs have the black wiped back. A few of the Chaumont ones have other colors.
This was my first time using the Colors for Earth Color Concentrates which are more like an underglaze than the Color Strokes. I did two versions of the lavendar, one with each. I actually really like both overall. For this particular project I think I like the Color Strokes better, but I think that's because I like the laurel green better than the jade.
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