Author Archives: Harpa

Tatyana Yanishevsky – The Knit Garden

Posted on May 7, 2013 | 1 Comment

I have recently discovered the wonderful work of  Tatyana Yanishevsky.  Her Knit Garden  features anatomically correct flowers and plants. Each piece is hand knit and as Tatyana says:  ”The process of knitting, stitch by stitch, mimics the growth of a plant, cell by cell.”

Tiger Lily yarn, steel 2011 60” x 60” x 50” photo by Karen Philippi

Tiger Lily
yarn, steel
2011
60” x 60” x 50”
photo by Karen Philippi

The Tiger Lily above is from her Knit Garden and the Umbrella plant below is from the All hung up series.

Love At First Sight (Umbrella Plant) yarn, resin 46” x 20” x 20” 2012 photo by Karen Philippi price available upon request

Love At First Sight (Umbrella Plant)
yarn, resin
46” x 20” x 20”
2012
photo by Karen Philippi
price available upon request

My offering is from Tatyana’s fascinating and original Rupture series of exploding anthers, where yarn-blood and light are emitted instead of pollen.

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My Offering
yarn, resin, steel, lights
2010
58” x 39” x 11”
photo by Karen Philippi
price available upon request

These are just three examples of Tatyana Yanishevsky’s work, there is much more to see on her homepage. Tatyana can be contacted here.

All photos are posted with Tatyana’s kind permission.

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Posted in Knitting, Photographs

An Adventure in Cross Stitch

Posted on May 3, 2013 | Leave a comment

I have just finished a cross stitch picture.

It was pretty neat, if I may say so myself. On it was a single rutabaga, which was not strange at all, since it was a birthday present to a rutabaga farmer and a know rescue hero

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(but thankfully the rescue part has  nothing to with the rutabagas, what so ever).

I came up with the idea a bit late (as usual) and I spent quite a bit of time making a pattern. First searching in vain for a suitable photo and then (crudely) photoshopping the greenery and the bows out of this one.

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I made the cross stitch pattern here.

I could have saved that time, because I did not use the pattern at all. I should have known, I like to embroider freely and I never use patterns. But it’s been so long since I did anything in cross stitch that I felt I needed one.

I finished the picture just in time. Or not in time actually. The party had started when I took the last stitches, and I framed the picture in less than ten minutes.

But the picture made it to the gift table, even though the finish was perhaps not quite perfect.

Unfortunately I forgot my camera so I have no photo of it. I had plans to ask someone to take a picture, but the gifts were cleared away pretty quickly to make room for the dance floor so that did not happen.

So you just get to see some of the colours, I finished most of the yellow ones…

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From this we can learn the following:

a) Begin sooner (one can always hope)

b) Don’t spend time making embroidery patterns (unless making a face or something very complicated. Perhaps then.)

c) Photograph the projects on progress.

d) Don’t forget the camera!

And here is a completely unrelated photo, just to brighten your day:

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Posted in Embroidery, Family

Reykjavík

Posted on April 24, 2013 | 4 Comments

Untitled-34c Untitled-15c Untitled-8 Tun thjonn skraut Si vagn Rauttc krotq Koggac gluggi gangacAll photos: Kristinn J. Níelsson

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Posted in Photographs

Poncho with Insertion Stitch

Posted on April 24, 2013 | 1 Comment

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I’m not entirely sure that I like this garment. (The photo is bad. I broke the remote, and since then I have been have trouble taking decent photos of myself) I’m wearing the poncho right now and it’s nice and warm, but I haven’t made up my mind if I like the look of it or not yet.

The idea was to combine the rawness of the cut, unfinished slits with the delicateness of the embroidery, but I’m not sure that it worked out as I planned.

Should you like to do anything similar, you need fabric of some sort. I used thin wool that I felted ever so slightly in the washing machine, before I cut out two pieces, each 90×56 cm (35.5X22 in) and in turn cut rows of roughly 6cm (2in) slits into them.

I cut the slits freehand, but I folded the fabric and made a tiny 3 cm (1 in) mark in the scissors to make the work faster and easier.

The pieces are sewn together with a insertion stitch called Italian faggotting.
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It’s described here (just scroll down a bit) and there is an excellent article about other insertion stitches here.

Here are detailed tutorials for three types of insertion stitches, knotted insertion stitch, twisted insertion stitch and buttonhole insertion stitch.

The poncho is hemmed (the raw edges were just a bit too ugly) by hand with buttonhole stitch.

So what do you think? Ugly and unflattering or passable? Be honest, I can take it.

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Posted in Embroidery, Sewing

A Tale of Three Dresses (part two)

Posted on April 22, 2013 | Leave a comment

Several days ago I was entrusted with three lovely dresses from Togo and asked to alter them. The dresses are made in the Divine Providence sewing room in Aneho, Togo. The first part of the Three Dress Tale is here.

Finishing the last dress took embarrassingly long.  And still, I altered that one the least.

I left the neckline and armholes just as they were, but I did remove the dreaded shoulder pads.

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The pleats are lovely and not too stiff and I think they suit the bold pattern very well.

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I shortened the dress and gave it a little waist definition with a narrow elastic.

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And last, but least, a tie belt.

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Posted in Recycling and repairs, Sewing

A Tale of Three Dresses (part one)

Posted on April 11, 2013 | 2 Comments

Several days ago I was entrusted with three lovely dresses from Togo and asked to alter them. The dresses are made in the Divine Providence sewing room in Aneho, Togo.

Clothes produced there, for example dresses like this,

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Photo: Tau frá Togo

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Photo: Tau frá Togo

shopping bags,

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Photo: Tau frá Togo

aprons

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Photo: Tau frá Togo

and more, are sold here in Iceland and all proceedings go undivided to the sister Victorine Orphanage in Aneho , Togo.

The dresses I got to alter had not sold, they were too long and frankly a bit like potato sacks.

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I have been looking at them and wandering what to do with them. I did not want to alter them too much. They have a special character that I didn’t want to ruin. But the first thing I did with all of them was to rip out the outmoded shoulder pads, they had to go.

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I shortened them all, too to lighten them a little.

The yellow one got elastic in the neckline and in the sleeves instead of the stiff folds it had before.
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The self tie belt makes it more modern, but it is still quite large and suitable for several sizes.

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The blue and brown one also got elastic in the neckline but I left the sleeves untouched.
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I did a little shirring under the bust to make an empire line, and there is also a tie belt, not shown in the photo.

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There is one more dress, that one is going to be shown in part two…

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Posted in Recycling and repairs, Sewing

The Embroidered Picture is Finally Done!

Posted on March 30, 2013 | 6 Comments

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I don’t know how to frame it yet, but the embroidery is (finally) all done.

The next one is not going to be done on wool. I can’t wait to start that one, but first I’m going to make some sketches, something I don’t normally do.

 

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Posted in Embroidery

How to Fix a Small Hole in Jeans

Posted on March 29, 2013 | Leave a comment

Quite some time ago I fell on one knee and frayed my jeans a bit. Not much, it was barely noticeable at the time, but it weakened the fabric, and last week I noticed a small hole in that very place:
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Here it is on the wrong side of the fabric. You can see it is all the way through, but it is still small so there is time to strengthen the fabric and delay the damage.

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So I found some floss in my stash and got to work.

How to Fix a Small Hole in Jeans

 

You need sewing thread or embroidery floss. I used floss, since I have it in many colours.

Repair the hole from the wrong side, that way the stitches will be less visible.

Try  to find a colour that blends in with the fabric.

The repair is easy enough and very quick.

Use a sharp needle and start by using small stitches to stitch horizontally across the length of the hole(see photo).

Once your horizontal stitches are done,  start weaving your thread vertically, in and out of the horizontal stitches.  Keep going until your hole is repaired.

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When finished, there is very little visible, but the hole is closed and the fabric around it is considerably strengthened.

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Posted in Recycling and repairs

In Very Good Company

Posted on March 24, 2013 | 5 Comments

I like living in the city.
Although I do miss the wonderful nature of the village and the great friends I left behind there, living in the city has some great advantages. Much better libraries, cafés and restaurants, galleries and concerts, museums and all sorts of cultural delights, yarn shops, many of my friends live here, and I could go on.

But best of all is the possibility to spend more time with my family, for example this little guy:

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Posted in Family

Altering a Second Hand Dress

Posted on March 21, 2013 | 2 Comments

My son in law bought this second hand dress at a market a while ago:

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It certainly had potential, but it was several sizes too big for the young lady, way too long, and let’s not start on those sleeves!

It has been hanging in my closet for a (long) while now, but this week I finally did something about it.

Altering a second hand dress

First I ripped the skirt off and cut about 15 cm of it. I shortened it from the top so to speak, the hem was beautifully finished and the lining comes with tulle edging that I didn’t want to alter, so this was the easier option.
Then I removed the enormous sleeves and tightened the bodice.
The shoulder elastics from the sleeves were ideal to turn into shoulder straps and with them fastened, I only had to finish the top of the body and refasten the skirt to the bodice.,

Voila, a “new” party dress for the young lady:

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Posted in Recycling and repairs, Sewing