musings

I'm going to try the knit a year project after hearing about it from Michelle from Reef Knot (& recently 107 projects). the aim is to knit a minimum of 2 rows each day, using a different colour to reflect my mood for the day & leaving a thread at the edge of the piece to show the start of each day

http://knitayear.ning.com

knitrageous has written a great post about the project - she travels also so has similar issues to me, ie not having your yarn stash with you all the time.
I think it'll be an exploration in colour and texture - perhaps I'll add some embroidery over the yarn, or try some weaving also.

as I'm traveling at the moment, I don't have my yarn stash available so I brought some multi-coloured sock yarn with me and will use different colours from this whilst away. it means cutting up the yarn and thereby ruining the skein but this should be OK - I can always join threads if needs be.

I cast on 23 stitches, which is different to the instructions, but 23 has a bit of maybe logic flavour to it. I think I'll leave tails on both sides too
traveling yarn stash

I've been staying in the same hotel for the past few weeks in Auckland, in different rooms each trip. I have been noticing the different patterns in the furnishings and textiles in the room. the room I'm in now has a mixture of lines and circles - none of them perfectly shaped. they have a nice feel about them, and match the nearby building's outer surfaces too. the carpet lines in the corridors flow through to match the blanket on the bed which has similar curves stitched onto the ends of the blanket.

I put the sewing machine in for a service at Chatswood Sewing Centre prior to my work trip & collected it on saturday. it's working much better! the dropped stitches problem from my previous attempts has been fixed - apparently this is caused by the timing being out, so the position of the bobbin & needle are mismatched which cause it to drop stitches intermittently.

I tried some machine embroidery and had much better results too! I haven't worked out the full control of the machine in freehand mode but I made some marks with it, and some circles. I also did another test swatch with straight stitches (in normal sewing mode) and the decorative stitches, and they're all looking much better.

the fabric is bunching a bit with the stitches. I just grabbed the first scrap of fabric from one of my bags, so I'll have to try some plain cotton too to see if that helps. also I think I need to guide the fabric more carefully and perhaps hold it taut more whilst moving it around, so it doesn't bunch up more.
zoomed in: (I need to rescan this - the scan came out blurry in parts)

this week I'm away from home, and have been sick. it's thursday and the first day my head's felt clear in ages. after a week of early night's sleep with nighttime cold'n'flu tablets I'm finally catching up on some class work.

tonight I came across these projects:

I've been looking through the craftivist collective website and some of their projects. they do many fibre / textiles / craft based activism (craftivism) projects to raise issues to people in the community. they also write about slow activism and the importance of personal reflection when making - I love this idea and it's something people can do from home without having to be too vocal (verbally) with their ideas - work on projects to highlight issues they think are important. so I purchased one of their mini protest banner kits and it arrived from the UK yesterday. tonight I embroidered a message and sewed the aida onto the fabric. it was the first time I've embroidered letters so the first couple of lines are a bit wonky (especially the "D"), and I found it easier to write in all caps so I'm probably shouting the message, but I was getting the hang of it towards the end (though I ran out of space on the last line - need to plan it out next time)

I can't get the sewing machine to do freestyle machine embroidery. it seems to sew in the wrong direction - ie sew up the excess thread from the threaded needle and then the thread comes out of the needle. :( I've tried holding the threads but still no luck. I've tried with a foot on (I think it's actually a clear buttonhole foot), the foot off, tightening & loosening the screw on the bobbin holder to adjust bobbin tension and the feed dogs down. when I put the feed dogs up again it sews normally (well, as normal as it usually does - see the stitching in this first photo, with white thread plus red bobbin thread). I tried pulling the fabric tauter on the hoop and trying a thicker fabric. I haven't tried using fusible interfacing on the fabric yet though, so maybe the fabric is too thin? basically it doesn't seem to pick up the bobbin thread at all either.

feed dogs down & feed dogs up

tonight I've been reading the following articles online

tonight I was reading through class notes again and just realised I have more to do for assignment one than I thought. I'd totally missed a whole section - project 2. I was thinking project 1 = assignment 1 :(

in other news, I came across this article / project tonight which I thought might fit with my theme of code/encryption (perhaps not glitch). Anti-loneliness augmented quilt comforts children in hospital. from Joshua Barnes' site:

"As a means to combat symptoms of loneliness experienced by children staying long periods of time in hospital, the Augmented Quilt opens up an additional line of communication between the child and their loved ones. Each animal illustration on the quilt can be linked to a friend or family member, who can in turn leave digital messages for the child to read using a smart device. This highly personal form of communication is more meaningful to the child than anything a facebook message alone is capable of. Simultaneously the intimate tactile nature of the quilt also serves as a physical source of comfort which, when combined with the personal messages, provides a greater sense of security to the child in what is a potentially distressing time."

tonight I watched videos on Zandra Rhodes' tutorial page on her website. the first video about Sketchbooks was great. I liked how she speaks on photographs vs drawing in sketchbooks: "to me, i never get to know something unless I've drawn it & suffered it"
there's also some great videos on screenprinting and making the prints for some of her fabrics. it's interesting that she uses layout paper for her sketchbooks too - I might have to try that for the pens

[embed]https://vimeo.com/58172850[/embed]

Tutorial 1 Zandra Rhodes: Using sketchbooks from UCA Learning Technologists on Vimeo.also I started reading through "Indigo - The Colour that Changed the World" by Catherine Legrand, after finding it at Potts Point bookstore yesterday. I've almost bought this book a few times online, but hadn't quite pressed submit on the order. it's a visual feast - interesting to learn more about indigo following the shibori class I did a few weeks ago.

and, a non-art-textiles related article to read is, "In Conversation with Adam Curtis, Part I" by (one of my favourite curators) Hans Ulrich Obrist - they do speak about art in the article

today I went to the Art Gallery of NSW and saw "The Sydney Moderns" exhibition. I loved the "colour music" works of Roy de Maistre - I think these would translate well to textiles. like weaving sounds and colour. he did a lot of work based on synaesthesia. I was at the gallery with my sister and 10 month old niece, who was very excited - singing and dancing in the gallery - so we walked quickly through the exhibition so as not to disturb others viewing the works. I hope to go back and see it again and spend some more time looking at the paintings. De Maistre also did some paintings based on the colour wheel.

I've been reading and browsing through the book, "Drawn to stitch - Line, drawing and mark-making in textile art" by Gwen Hedley. she has some great examples and suggestions for mark-making, which I hope to try. the first part of the book talks about how to describe lines and mark-making. adding the info here so I remember to use it when describing some of my explorations - so far I've only uploaded the pictures, not written much about them.

from pages 9-11. "Drawn to stitch - Line, drawing and mark-making in textile art" by Gwen Hedley
Line
think about characteristics and qualities of lines
are the lines:
- straight, curved, varied?
- geometric or contoured?
- man-made or organic?
- continuous or broken?
- jagged or even?
- dotted, dashed or both?
- thick, thin or varied?
- raised or recessed?

surface colour
are the colours:
- pure or blended?
- muted or grey and dusty?
- bright or subdued?
- solid or broken?
- are the edges soft or hard?
- are there layers of colour? if so, what is the colour order?

textural qualities
is the surface texture:
- smooth or rough?
- varied?
- shiny or dull and matte?
- flat or knobbly?
- complete or eroded?
- rigid, gritty, or sleek?
- opaque, transparent or translucent?

I've been thinking about what to use for my theme/s - am not sure if they'll fit yet, but here's my initial ideas:

1. encryption/code/glitch - I've read about women who've (over the centuries) added codes to their fabric to send messages to others - encrypted messages in textiles. it fits in with my work too (encrypted digital tv signals/video/audio). and glitch maybe due to something Jack spoke about (how he likes glitch in video but I try to remove it/prevent it at work - so a balance between work & home) & another class I did & the music equipment/making anomolies that turn out to be something beautiful/special/unplanned - the glitches in the code, the mistakes. I've made some (very rough) video art using glitch over the years, so thought it might fit in

2. sound art/experimental music (maybe dance music culture, hip hop too) - not really sure how I'll fit this in yet, but it's another thing I write on, so trying to think of a way to fit it in - it might end up just being a separate project & I use the things in #1. maybe the music part of it - I think a lot of experimental music/sound art could be converted to embroidery - the lines & patterns & feel of the music into colours and lines.