New year's knitting resolution

My new year's resolution is progressing nicely. The Hedera socks are now finished, though they don't quite match - curse you Zauberball yarn with your colour repeat that doesn't repeat properly and your tendency to split without any provocation. Still, it's a nice pattern and they are very soft.


Next up? Another sock pattern from Knitty - bmp.

Intro to dressmaking at Sew Over It, Clapham

After a couple of less-than-successful attempts at making clothes on my own, it became apparent that it was time to get some guidance. Thanks to a voucher I received for Christmas I could afford to attend the Introduction to Dressmaking class at Sew Over It in Clapham.

It was a great class, very relaxed and with a practical approach to things. And I've finally sewn an item of clothing that I could actually wear, (if it wasn't snowing at the moment).



I picked up a second skirt pattern while I was there - this time for a gathered skirt - so I can practice what I've learnt. I fear that sewing in a zip without Lisa Comfort in the same room to help me may be a bit trying.

Screen-prints that aren't skeletons

As promised, I finally have some screens that don't have skeletons on them. Below are the test prints I made with the first screen, (I wasn't really applying enough pressure, which is why one printed so badly).





These prints aren't based on any of my own drawings; the images come from a second-hand copy of Jost Atman's "Pictorial Archive of Decorative Renaissance Woodcuts" that I picked up for £1.50. There are pages and pages of knights demonstrating different forms of combat and I spent an afternoon photocopying them and sticking them together to create one long battle scene. I've had to split the image up into four parts in order to fit it onto my screens and lining everything back up when I'm printing is going to be tricky!

Paper stencils

The following three images were cut from single sheets of A4 folded in half. They're all loosely based on drawings of armour I've made over the last few months.




I also combined the helmet stencil with heat transfer paper in the heat press to print onto acrylic fabric.


One last stencil - a full suit of armour cut from an A2 sheet of paper. Hopefully, the ruler gives a sense of scale.

Screen-printing onto handmade paper

I think the title of this post is pretty self-explanatory... Screen-printing onto paper is a bit different to printing onto cloth; it requires a hard, flat surface underneath. My screen-printing tutor also advised that I tape the paper down and put some card on the frame of the screen to create a slight gap between the screen and the paper. The results were pretty good so it looks like it was sound advice.

Bear!

Paper-making

I made some more paper this week - a lovely light pink paper that I later set about turning into rather serial killer-esque Valentine's Day cards. My original intention was to make a stencil, but the more-or-less anatomically correct heart I'd drawn proved too complicated for this. In the end I photocopied the drawing several times and then cut the hearts out and painted them.