One of the photos accompanying an article I wrote about a fibre art commission, “Da Bees”, has made the cover of March 2023 Creative Fibre (New Zealand) magazine.
My entries: “Enchanted Forest” stitched fibre artwork (behind me) and the small, bright turquoise “Swirling Summer Seas” scrumble knit work.
I’ve also made a couple of works for the “Squares, squares, squares” challenge at the Festival of Fibres event at the end of the month – see previous post.
Latest fibre artworks: for the NZ Creative Fibre “Festival of Fibres” Event challenge later this month:
Two more Silver Birch Forest works, and a couple more ‘works in progress’ – stitching is finished but still deciding whether to frame or make into a bag or cushion
I’ve just completed two more fibre artworks in my “Silver Birch Forest” series, bringing the total so far to 13. The latest are to enter into the 2023 Festival of Fibres challenge.
I’ve been making bracelets for kids – lots of bracelets in pale and bright colours: hearts, flowers, shells, daisies, shiny pearlised beads, all adjustable sizes on memory wire.
How exciting! I’ve been finding photos of some really old stitching, for a presentation I’m putting together. Kapiti Coast Quilters has invited me to talk to them about my fibre artwork – hope I’m answering the questions they’d like answers to.
Quilting seems to me to be a very planned and accurate passtime, while my work is almost totally process-driven; I think the contrast between our ways of working will be interesting, but there are sure to be similarities, too – especially in the ways colour and patterns inspire ideas.
Meantime, here are a few ‘retrieved treasures’ including stitching I’d almost forgotten about, from the “Paua dragon” bag that ended up in a frame, and “Paua Dreaming”, an experiment with fabric and beads, to “Shades of Evening” bedroom set and samples in other colours to the original “Tiffany Peony Lamp” cushions.
On Sunday 11th September, I’ll be showcasing and selling jewellery and fibre artworks at a local market. It’ll be a busy, fun-packed day, and I’m beginning to choose what to display on the day. I’d love to see you there!
“Celebration of Harakeke” was the theme for entries in the 2022 Creative Fibre education event exhibition (July 2022), and I enjoyed making a couple of fibre artworks especially for it – you can see them on my “Harakeke” page.
My first attempt didn’t work out: I knitted an oblong entrelac shape in flax-like colours, then tried to felt it. (Entrelac knitting mimics a woven look, and is great so long as you get the triangles on the edges sorted. I’ve definitely got to mark where I’m up to in the pattern next time!)
Unfortunately, because I’d used several old yarns from my stash – some of which proved to be acrylic – the piece didn’t felt well and the stitching looked quite loose. Even tacking it onto tapestry canvas and back-filling didn’t work. I’d harvested a flax stem, and planned to include it against the entrelac background in a box frame – but couldn’t find a frame deep, or inexpensive, enough. Another unfinished project, but one I might go back to some day when I’ve got nothing else to do…
In the end, I knitted Colours of Harakeke socks and a hat, incorporating a basket weave pattern, as well as making two new fibre artworks. Works in progress:
Here’s how entrelac is supposed to look (image on left); I’ve downloaded this pattern from Ravelry and plan to tackle it some time. Meantime, I’m working my way through the stash, making moss stitch tote bags, and only buying more wool to finish grandson’s stripey pullover.
Nanna says she’s started Little Brother’s pullover and it’s looking good so far. She thought the colours might be a bit much, but they seem to be working. Little Brother really wanted triangles, and Nanna says she’ll try to work some in, but in the meantime, he thinks the stripes are cool.
(By the way, Nanna says you can see Big Brother wearing his Charcoal & Mint jersey here.)
Nanna says she’s finally finished Big Brother’s jersey. She started it last year! Nanna says it was finished because it was a vest but Big Brother insisted he wanted it to have sleeves – and Big Brother is very good at insisting. So it had to wait until all her other stuff was done.
Now she’s gonna knit a jumper for Little Brother and Nanna says she’ll let him choose the colours. His favourites right now are blue, orange and red. He’s gonna look like a wonky traffic light!
Nanna says Little Brother is just the sort of Colourful Kid she likes to do her Quirky Knitting for. But she loves the colours Big Brother chose, too.
She’s also “stash busting” which Nanna says means using up all her old wonky wool. The orangey green thing might be a bag.
Since I’ve been doing more knitting and stitching for adults – especially women’s scarves, hats and purses – I’ve updated my kids’ knitting website to show off all my knitwear. I’ve modified my Instagram and Facebook pages to reflect the change and consolidate my knitted things, too.
So the website address is still littlebrotherbigbrother.com but the headline is now Quirky Knits for Colourful Kids (and Adults).
Come on – we’re here! Have a look at the crazy things #NannaKnits!
Latest stitching work in progress: fibre artwork for gallery’s “NZ Icons” themed exhibition. Started out okay, but – since taking the photo – I overdid the pāua and it’s a mess. So here goes with the unpicking, and finding a better “icon” to include. Also, the punga fronds / koru look a bit like horns sprouting out of the shell.
I’m jolly pleased with the stylised pōhutukawa and fern, though.
BronzCreative 
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