A Bluestocking Knits

Page 8

Finished page 8 of the "Quaker Virtues" sampler this morning!  The line runs down the center of that big motif just below "SIMPLICITY", with the top of the page through the word itself -- which isn't crooked, I assure you, the fabric is just a little stretched there!  I'm finding a rather surprising number of mistakes in the chart, and not just subjective things like spacing (which I admit to having tweaked here and there), but missing or extra stitches, one of which took me quite a bit of picking-out to fix, since the error was near where I started the particular motif, and I didn't realize it until I got to the next cardinal point.  Oh well.  I'm still enjoying the piece immensely!

Being so very near to finishing Laura's quilt (!), I felt justified the other day in starting a small knitting project (!!) -- having had a conversation with Brittany by way of the comments about Stephen Maturin's comforter, I thought, "well, I must have some suitable wool, let's just see what one of these 'comforters' looks like, eh?"  This one will be the "Figured Comforter" from the 1840 edition of Miss Watts's 1837 book -- about twenty-five years after the events of Desolation Island, but presumably things didn't change overmuch between.  This particular comforter's shape will narrow a bit where it rests at the back of the wearer's neck, then widen out again at the other end.  (I was a bit concerned at first that it wasn't going to lie flat, but once it got a bit of heft behind it, as it were, it settled down nicely.)

This miniature sampler was finished some weeks ago, and again I put off making the frame, had trouble with same, etc. etc. etc.  The chart is the "Heritage VI" by Annelle Ferguson -- I lightened all of the colors by one step, which result usually pleases me very much though in this case I suspect wasn't quite successful, but there it is.  I had great difficulty getting the picture-frame molding mitered properly, so rather than keep wasting it I ended up using plain strip wood (this is 1/8 x 1/4") and "scratch carving" a simple line around the opening to make it look like a home-made frame.  This didn't turn out too badly -- it looks old-ish, at any rate!

I have been reading quite a lot -- I keep meaning to write about that, then find myself absorbed in yet another book --

Page 5, Triangles, and a Handful of Samplers

This is page five completed on the "Quaker Virtues" chart, with a bit extra -- I worked most or all of the large motifs that overlap the page breaks, in order to orient myself on the adjoining pages, and most of the smaller motifs.  There are nine pages in the chart, but luckily for me the three along the right-hand side are less than half the width of their neighbors, and I think the ones along the bottom edge aren't full sheets either.  It is not a particularly user-friendly chart, I'm afraid -- I've quickly become used to the modern charts with an overlapping few rows, which mean that you don't have to keep flipping back and forth between two pages, counting and re-counting to make sure that you're in the right place -- nor does this one even have a darker line every ten squares.  I think that pretty soon I will be drawing in the latter myself, having already had to work a couple of these motifs two or three times after counting wrong!

Still -- I'm enjoying it immensely --

This is the first step in the star quilt for Laura.  I admit that I am already getting a-weary of little triangles -- it is very slow-going and fiddly, sewing these together.  I keep reminding myself that once all of the triangles are together, it's straight lines from there on!

I'm having trouble getting hold of a cream solid fabric that more-or-less matches this cream print -- apparently all of the Joann's stores in Southern California are sold out of all Kona Cotton creams and whites so thoroughly that they aren't even offering it online, and although the word on the vaccines is encouraging it still isn't a good time to go traipsing about to quilt shops (much as I'd like to, she said wistfully), so I've ordered a carefully-curated -- cough-guess-cough! -- trio from Hancock's hoping that at least one will be all right.

I got a pair of miniature sampler kits for Christmas and worked one of them last month, the "Heritage XIX" chart by Annelle Ferguson.  I was so pleased with it -- the one at bottom left, "dated" 1798 -- that I resolved to mount and frame the other two that have been sitting in a box for over a year while I wrung my hands over the possibility of any number of things going wrong.  The other two samplers are the "Boston Band" by Nancy Sturgeon at upper right, and on the left "Southern Heritage" also by Annelle Ferguson (which was a NAME souvenir from a decade ago, that one of my club members gave to me).  I tweaked both of these, eliminating the "V" on the "Boston Band" and shifting the "Z" up to join the rest, in order to add faux initials, and switching out the lower-case alphabet on the "Southern" one for a motto and another faux signature.  I had the dickens of a time cutting the moldings, as even a fraction of a millimeter on one piece of the four at this scale can make the frame out of true, and sometimes it was a choice between a true rectangle or a slightly-too-big rectangle -- you might be able to see that at least once I chose "true"! -- but on the whole I'm very pleased with these, mostly because the charts are so charming!

Hooray! It's Ray-Ray-Raining

Well -- we had another generous few hours or so last night, it's not raining now, but the air has that clean feeling and the garden has got a pleasantly-surprised perked-up look.  I'm also starting the "Rae" pullover, so there's a nice little pun for you.  Julia and I settled on an adjusted color scheme, and after I had to winkle some glue down into the crack in my only pair of wood 2.5mm circs, I was knitting away on the ribbing.  The original gauge is 30 sts per 4"/10cm, and I'm getting 28 (in the round), so I'm recalculating a bit. 

After my success with the Crazy Rails quilt, I dove straight in to the new quilt for our bed, fabrics for which have been sitting in a drawer untouched for a year.  For some reason, though, although I still really like the Cross and Crown I had decided on, it seemed a bit more-advanced than I am at present -- perhaps I'm wrong, but neither do I want to stretch myself too far.  I decided on something simpler, half-square triangles, and so I am cutting and pressing this week.  And at the same time, I thought about Laura, who at twenty is making plans to go away to college in September, and I wanted to make her a quilt to take with her.  She liked the idea, and after I proposed a few patterns I felt I could handle, she said, "You know, I'd like something with stars."  I nodded, and went to another room and came back with my copy of this magazine --

which I've been daydreaming over for quite a while.  The one on the cover was what had come to mind when Laura said "stars" -- so she likes it and we've conferred and ordered fabrics.  I'm kind of glad that I decided on something simpler for our bed quilt -- the stars one is I think a bit less-complex than it looks, but still I don't want to overwhelm myself.

A 1:12 scale sampler kit from Annelle Ferguson, on 48-count gauze.  I have had a bit of a slump this year where miniatures are concerned, but I got two of these kits for Christmas, and they are certainly very charming!

I admit also that knitting on this vintage pattern has got me thinking about knitting myself a little vintage something, perhaps in that KnitPicks Palette that didn't really work with the crocheted vest thingy last summer.  I really like the sleeveless vest/pullover style, as it's more versatile here, where real winter lasts only about three weeks, if we're lucky.  I'm very taken with the one on the left here --

or maybe (rather wildly!) this one --

for which I actually have the pattern -- "Simonetta"! -- unlike the first, which I guess I will have to make up as I go.

And because the title of this post has me singing the song, here is a version of it sung by Disneyland's Dapper Dans --

 

Kurdistan Prayer Rug in Miniature

I have been utterly delighted with this piece from start to finish, I admit.  It has always been one of my favorites in Frank Cooper's book -- Oriental Carpets in Miniature -- and so it was a pleasure to add it to my queue at last, and then to work it, and even better, to have something charming to make in these worrisome times.

Here again is the late 18th-early 19th century original now in the McMullan Collection at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York (accession no.1970.302.8) --

I think Cooper did a fine job here, reducing and (necessarily) simplyfing the design without losing any of its charm.  It is my good luck that he worked his version on 18-count canvas, and that converting that to 40-count silk gauze -- which was only a matter of my using a different fiber, one strand of DMC floss instead of Paternayan crewel wool, and converting the colors -- makes the rug a more-delicate scale for 1:12 miniatures, and very like the original proportions of a prayer rug.

For colors, I used these --

• dark blue 3750
• medium blue 931
• light blue 3752
• ivory 3033
• red 815
• green 523
• gold 680
• yellow 422
• coral 3722

The green and light blue are very pretty but together their value is so similar that it isn't easy to distinguish them, so perhaps a darker green might have been better -- though on the whole, I don't think it spoils the effect at all.

I worked mine in continental stitch, which I find makes a neater back and an all-around more pleasant experience than working half-cross in tiny scales!

This has always been meant to have pride of place in the carpet shop, so the next thing is to install it!

10th Update

Here is the status as of this afternoon of the main projects I've got going.  I usually wake up early most mornings, and so after breakfast I stitch for an hour or so on the miniature Kurdistan prayer rug, before I put in my contact lenses.  I continue to find this an utter pleasure to work.  The strange white diagonal lines are the traveling threads on the back!

Granny Sampler Afghan all stitched together -- at last, she said wearily -- and the border almost finished.  Still have about two-thirds of the ends to weave in, though.  Sigh.  On the bright side, it was looking very, um, extemporaneous for a while, and looks much more cohesive now, so I'm quite pleased with it.

A loaf of Finnish rye bread, from Nigella Lawson's How to be a Domestic Goddess -- amazingly easy, since there was almost no kneading, to my surprise.  Even better that it tastes delicious and used 180g of the rye flour that's been lurking in my freezer for years.  (I might have to buy more now, actually, this is so good.)

Swatching with the KnitPicks "Palette".  I wrote here quite some time ago that I wanted to knit the Victory Jumper with it, and I still think the yarn would suit the pattern well, but I think what was bothering me at the back of my mind so much that I've left it for a full year was that it's just a bit itchy to want to wear against the skin.  What I'm thinking now is something more like this lacy waistcoat/vest from DROPS ...

These faux tiles would obviously look a bit more "realistic" when attached more snugly -- I've started gluing them to a paper base, which is curling a bit when just propped up against the front façade of the tea-shop-to-be -- but I'm just not very happy with them, I'm afraid.  I could live with the uneven surfaces, but the fraction-of-a-fraction difference in sizes is quite glaring at 1:12 scale.  So it's on to plan B, but unfortunately I don't yet know what plan B is.

Still pretty happy with this.  I'm really fascinated by Quaker samplers -- I think what pleases me most about this particular one (aside from the ligatures, of course) is the combination of complex motifs with serene colors.  I've made a few tweaks of the chart here and there, and haven't yet filled in the empty spaces with their smaller motifs.

Tomato seedlings, hardening off the last few days before getting planted.  Some of the seeds didn't sprout along with their brethren, and so I put another seed in those pots -- then lo, up came the first one! and now some of the pots have two seedlings.  With limited space in my two new raised beds, I had ordered seeds of two heirloom dwarf varieties, and then the seed company sent a third packet "similar to my selections" free, so I have eight little pots altogether, the purple cherry tomato "Dwarf Velvet Night" and the bicolor beefsteak "Dwarf  Beauty King," plus "Dwarf Sleeping Lady".  (I think I wrote "Sleeping Beauty" on the stick!)

The arroyo lupines and the lacy phacelia in our front garden are looking a bit decrepit now, since being the first ones to appear they have been setting seed for some weeks, but the mountain garlands are in full glory at the moment -- I think they are what I was most looking forward to, so it's lovely to gaze across the field of them (stopping before one's eye gets to the line of cars perpetually resident along both sides of the street these lock-down days, as so few of our neighbors are going anywhere at all).  Though this photo doesn't really convey the delicious colors (nor the hum of the delighted and slightly drunken bees), I've left the photo full-size, so you can get the full effect!  The shrubs that I can still find (!) are all doing well, and the little California wild rose has buds on it, hurray!

Ups and Downs

Little blessings seem to mean a lot more these days.  I generally keep this blog apart from the messes of life -- not so much the little messes, dropped stitches or painting mis-steps or the knitting projects that just don't work no matter how many alterations one tries, those are all part of making things -- but the world is a bit too much with us at present.  David has been furloughed, along with thousands of others who work with him and like him in a place where crowds of people are literally a daily occurrence, and in fact the sine qua non of his career, so that with no end yet in sight for the covid-19 lockdown, there is nothing ahead but uncertainty.  Life is not horrible, mind you -- but it makes me appreciate even more having a little corner away from it all, that is filled with spring flowers and books and miniature desks and yarns, solaces all.  The little prayer rug is progressing nicely, apart from the increasing obviousness that the last bit of 815 floss would not be nearly enough, not even to finish the center section let alone the more red-hungry borders.  I had resigned myself to working everything but the red, not wanting to put it away entirely until who-knows-when.  And then after a full month of her not working, Laura's boss phoned and asked, just as suddenly as the shifts had stopped, if Laura could work the next day.  A great many things have been postponed indefinitely for us now, re-prioritized so that necessities can be managed -- Julia's 4-H lamb must be fed, Postcrossing can be put on hold, we can use bargain shampoo for heaven's sake, painting the house will just have to wait a bit longer -- but since Laura's store carries DMC threads, I scrounged up the 53¢.  A small pleasure, to be sure, but a not insignificant one.

Stitching in the Time of Quarantine

There really are some extra hours in the day lately.  (Be careful what you ask for ...)  I'm still in charge of cooking, cleaning, and laundry -- I have teenagers, not to mention teenagers who are trying to adapt to online schooling, so despite having extra hands around the house, "in charge" frequently means only occasionally roping the girls in to help and instead doing much of it myself.  I reckon it takes about 90 minutes for a weekly grocery-store trip in ordinary days, not counting the unplanned I'm-out-of-baking-powder trips one makes, and so right there I have an additional hour and a half in the week. 

But the "Friend" sampler is as a result coming along nicely as I approach the half-way mark, and I'm appreciating its peacefulness (though I'm not sure yet whether I was right in shifting that leafy circle to the right by one stitch...).

Very pleased with this so far, the 1:12 scale Kurdistan prayer rug.  I was choosing the floss colors -- converted from Paternayan wool so that I could reduce it from 19-count canvas to 30-count gauze -- right at the time when stores were starting to close down, and although I love both of the two shades of garnet in my box, I felt that the lighter one would be better.  Unfortunately, I have only a very small amount of the lighter 815 and almost a full skein of the next-darker shade 814!  I ordered a skein from Michaels when our local one was still doing curbside pick-up, but they shut literally the night I placed my order, Joann offers only a very limited number of colors online, and my "local" needlework shop is two cities away.  I was going to just accept the inevitable, as one must sometimes, and use the darker one -- it isn't that much darker, really, I guess -- and then when it came time that I had to thread the needle I went for the lighter 815, and am hoping for the best.  One of the good things about small-gauge petit point is that you use surprisingly small amounts of thread.  I think I'll just work the parts that I really need to -- there isn't a lot of it in the center field, just this outline and some petals and flower centers -- and see how far I can stretch what I have.

The full-sized "Froth and Bubble" sampler was finished some time ago, but is still hanging unblocked on a door, just being admired since I don't have the wherewithal at the moment to frame it.  I enjoyed stitching every minute of this, and am as charmed by the result as I was by the first photo I saw of the chart --

 

Beginning a Miniature Kurdistan Prayer Rug

In the interests of not overdoing any one craft for the next few months -- the recent episode of repetitive-stress strain took me by surprise, I must admit -- I'm giving myself a free pass on multiple projects while we're homebound.  We are all still well, but I'm sure that not being bored will help at least a little with not getting on each other's nerves!

Emily's Mudjar carpet from Frank Cooper's book -- Oriental Carpets in Miniature -- drew me back to my shortlist of Cooper's charts, and realizing that I have only a smallish piece of gauze left, I decided on the Kurdistan prayer rug.  Here is the original of Cooper's miniature, from the late 18th-early 19th century, in the McMullan Collection at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York (accession no.1970.302.8) --

The Met writes, "This tapestry-woven prayer rug is an example of the fine production of Sanandaj, a center in the province of Kurdistan in northwestern Iran. The tapestry technique (kilim) makes it lighter and more fragile than a knotted pile rug, and such objects were often used as decorative wall hangings. The change of colors in the densely patterned rows of flowers enlivens the otherwise simple composition of an arched mihrab, or prayer niche, filled with flowers within and outside the niche."

The original rug is 64 1/2 in.  long by 48 1/4 in. long (163.8 x 122.5cm), so that working it on 40-count gauze will come pretty close, at 5.5 x 4 in. (14 x 10cm), to 1:12 scale.  I actually like Cooper's colors better, so in addition to thinking that he did an admirable job of scaling down the design, I'm happy with his choices of colors, as well!  My translation of Cooper's Paternayan wool colors into DMC floss went a little further in the direction of cool dark blues and garnet than the warmer buff and orange-reds of the original, but that's okay too.  This one has been high on my list since I got the book some years ago, so I'm looking forward to it!

Gifts of Needlework

Julia and I had a gift exchange last week that I wanted to make something for instead of buying, and so for one of them I chose a free biscornu chart from the Cross Stitch Guild.  I used the same colors as on the chart, except for the little back-stitched embellishments (for which I used the dark-brown 3371 already at hand in my box because of the "Froth and Bubble" sampler, but in hindsight looks a little too dark).  I also omitted the beads, as I hope this pincushion will be used and, personally, it sounds a bit risky to me to have a pincushion covered with beads, which would either get in the way or over time dull the points of the pins.  (Anyone with biscornu experience, please speak up!)  I left a bit more room around the design as well, which ended up adding an extra row of color by way of the whip-stitched seam.  Instead of a button, I "tufted" the cushion with cross-stitches that go all of the way through to the other side.  I used the tips for assembly from The Floss Box and Carolyn Mazzeo, which were helpful as it was a bit mind-bending without first having seen how the thing gets put together!  I stuffed mine with cut-up bits of Paton's Classic wool, as full as I could, as I've heard that the lanolin in wool helps keep the pins from tarnishing.  The chart was fun to work and I think it makes a pretty pincushion, so I'm pleased on the whole!

The other was a miniature coverlet, from the Diamond in a Square tutorial at Purl Soho that I had such good results with on my 1:12 version a few years ago.  This time I used the pattern exactly as written, so the layout is a little different from the 1:12 one.  Still Kona Cotton, though -- one of my favorite fabrics, I think.  I was tempted to hand-quilt this one, but I was a bit short on time, but I thought it did need some battening-down, as it were, so I stitched-in-the-ditch by machine.  This feels to me a bit second-choice, but there it is -- and I did really enjoy choosing the colors, and the process, as the tutorial is excellent.  The color balance in the photo is really off, I'm afraid, but I didn't have time to fiddle with it or wait for better light.

These were actually worked much earlier than the first, but of course I couldn't show them here just-in-case!  I decided to work a sampler for the friend who has joined the local miniatures group with me, so I chose a free chart from Kreinik called "Love Makes a House a Home".  I converted the threads from Silk Mori to DMC, which was a fairly simple matter.  I started with the main motto and worked down the chart, tweaking the house panel a little, to make the couple look more like our friends, and I shifted the tree a little and reshaped the cloud too, just for balance.  I enjoyed that part so much that when I went back to the motto and started working upwards, I ignored the little voice in my head that was telling me that the line of hearts and the alphabet weren't quite centered.  While I was blocking the finished sampler, David looked over my shoulder and said, "Um, is that part off-centered?" upon which a small howl escaped me and I admitted that it was.  I can't give it to J like that, I thought, so instead of working the whole thing all over again, as I was running out of both time and silk gauze, I looked around the internet for another free chart, and found a modern-looking one among the free charts at La-D-Da, the "Tiny Sampler".  My friend has a huge dollhouse under construction, which is to be a Victorian house "lived" in by a modern family, so can have things of any style, including contemporary.  The "Tiny Sampler" has a definitely modern air, especially the alphabet with its irregular-sized letters, and so while my heart seems to be with the "old" stuff generally, it was fun to do something quite modern for a change.  I used the floss colors as on the chart, though looking at it later I probably should have used a slightly darker blue for the details in the bottom panel, as they are a bit pale against the natural-colored linen I used.  This is actually cross-stitch, not tent, leaving the fabric background bare, both a nice effect and a time-saver!

In the end, I thought, "Well, if she hangs the 'House' sampler on the side wall of a room, the off-centeredness would hardly be noticeable ...!" and so I ended up giving her both!

There are a number of different ways of framing miniature needlepoint, two of which I found online, Janet Granger's and a more-complicated method at Face From the Past which I might try when I have no deadline -- I ended up using spray fabric adhesive (which I had left over from sewing my shoulder bag a few years ago) to attach the stitching to a piece of watercolor paper (because it's acid-free and stiff), making a frame with picture-frame moulding, the kind with the rebate under the inside edge since the needlework is relatively thick, and then instead of masking tape à la Granger (because I'm a librarian ... !), I secured the needlework in the frame with a glued strip of paper.

A Pair of (Miniature) Floral Area Rugs

These had me utterly charmed from start to finish.  I first saw the charts in a book of filet crochet patterns, Le Filet Ancien au Point de Reprise V, at the wonderful Antique Pattern Library, and thought, "well, those look just like needlepoint charts!" -- these are on pages 59 and 60 of the PDF -- and the fact that there was a pair made them irresistible.  Who wouldn't want a pair of French floral area rugs on either side of their dollhouse bed?

(This particular book is in APL's "Filet" section, not the "Filet Crochet" section, I don't know why, but then I don't do filet crochet, so perhaps there is something that I don't understand.  There isn't a date that I can see, but AbeBooks and WorldCat citations indicate ca.1917-1920 for the series of at least eight books.)

The charts had some little eccentricities that I discovered as I worked, some of which I changed -- a random white stitch here and there on the roses chart, and I shifted the daisy bouquet up two stitches within the border to center it a little better and smoothed out an obvious jog in one spot on the outside edge -- and some of which I left as they were -- the ever-so-slightly irregular ovals, which are surprisingly (given how easy it is to mirror design elements on a chart!) not symmetrical.  While the asymmetricality bothered me quite a bit at times, looking at the chart, happily I don't think it detracts from the charm of the finished carpets at all.

I worked them in DMC floss 815 Garnet Medium and 712 Cream, on 40-count silk gauze.  I decided while stitching the set of cushions recently that despite conflicting advice ("always use half-cross stitch" -- "never use half-cross stitch"), I far prefer using continental stitch instead of half-cross. 

Half-cross stitch uses much less thread, as your needle is going only from one hole to an adjacent one either horizontally or vertically, while with continental stitch, your needle is going two holes away and up or down one -- like a knight's move in chess.  The resulting piece of needlepoint is noticeably thinner with half-cross, which in miniature scales can certainly make a difference, even in fine cottons or silks.  On the other hand, for myself I find it rather difficult to secure the beginnings and ends of threads under half-cross, since they tend to "sink" down into the weave of the canvas, especially non-interlock ones, and frankly, again despite some experts' very strong opinions, I find that for me the tension and resulting evenness of my stitching is just enough better in continental for it to be worth the slight extra thickness.  And I suppose it doesn't really matter since unless one is being judged at some competition, the petit-point carpet is always seen from the front, but with continental stitch, it's a bonus that the backs can be very tidy! --

It was also a bit of a revelation to me that rounded petit-point shapes can be edged with an edging stitch, at least on silk gauze at smaller scales.  I had heard that it couldn't be done, that a simple folding-under of the unworked canvas was the only option for a non-rectangular carpet, but after I had worked a few pieces on this gauze, it seemed to me that an edging stitch should actually work pretty well, partly because the silk simply folds more easily and sharply than cotton or linen does, and partly because of the extreme flexibility of the fabric itself.  You can see in the photo above how very easily the square holes realign themselves into parallelograms, and they did this even before I clipped the turning allowance.  This means that while you can't use an edging stitch that proceeds in a regular manner, you can fudge it a little, adjusting as you go to get the line to curve -- you can also see above how my stitches around the curves have a little jog every few stitches, where I followed the curve.  It is possible that you really can't do this on linen or cotton canvas, or on Aida or other non-evenweaves, but it is certainly possible on silk gauze.

The "braid" effect of the long-legged cross stitch edging is lost a bit with the uneven distances, so next time I will try a regular whip-stitch -- the coverage is better with the long-legged cross stitch, which I suspected would help disguise the potential bare spots.  It may not be as tidy as an edging stitch on a straight piece -- though that may also be due to my improvising, and so would get better with practice -- but I'm quite pleased with the results.