Dawnwich Transformations

Dawnwich Transformations

A series of projects about transformation

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Hmm, consistent?

It occurred to me if I wanted to be consistent with my other solemn vows, I’d vow not to buy another book until I had read ten.

But that’s obviously taking it too far.

Something that isn’t knit wire

I had intended to make some scarves and hats for the show — I’ve been sketching out embroidered and appliqued patterns for ages.  I forced myself to stop knitting wire for a while to make at least a few scarves.  And don’t you know, I think I could do *this* for hours at a time too.

short fleece scarf
short fleece scarf

These are built on warm green fleece, with vintage buttons from my grandmother’s stash and some embroidery.  They look gray in the pictures, but they are a nice dark green. The one piece of random embroidery has some fabric I bought for mermaid scales on dolls — I’m not sure that it’s the right choice for this.

 

lace/bead/clock necklace

Like I said, when I got started knitting this stuff, I couldn’t stop.  I’ve been staying up past midnight knitting away.  This one is a longer necklace with a knit copper section, red and brown glass beads, and (the invevitable) clock pieces.

clock necklace
close up clock necklace
 

And another clock/ribbon necklace

This has just a bit of knit lace and some more clock pieces added to a trim that’s been in my stash for decades.

red clock necklace
red clock necklace closeup
red clock neclace closure
 

hardware choker

Again, I was thinking steampunk when I made this.  This choker is on a red velvet ribbon, and it has various beads, clock pieces, and weird stuff from the hardware store on it.  The hardware is strung on a copper wire which is sewn onto the ribbon.

hardware choker close up
hardware choker
 

steampunk silver lace

After spending a little time getting the hang of knitting the wire, and knitting with beads, I started to get more ambitious about the style of knitting.  Here is a knit lace in silver wire on a black velvet ribbon.  The dangles are pieces of old watches that I bought from a retiring watch repairman.

steampunk choker
black velvet/silver lace/clockwork choker

This was intended to show some steampunk inspiration, although I saw such great steampunk pieces at the con last week that I’m not sure that a little velvet and some clockwork is enough to claim the label.  It is however, a damn nice piece of jewelry if I say so myself, and I am loving the lace in silver wire.

 

wire knitting

I recently learned how to knit with wire.  It’s pretty easy — basically, you take wire, and you knit with it.  It does take some getting used to since wire behaves so differently from yarn.  You have to think more about the individual stitches. Also, it has wreaked havoc with the skin on my fingers.  I’ve got blisters and callouses and torn cuticles and worse than my usual winter dry peeling skin, but I don’t mind.

I’ve been experimenting with this since I learned — different knitting patterns, different wires, different beads, different forms.  I could do it all day.  Most of my projects are the sort that takes months if not years to do — this might be the first time I’ve fallen in love with something I can do fast.

Here are pictures of some of the bracelets I’ve been working on…

silver knit bracelet with ribbon
copper beads
knit wire w.copper glass beads
wire bracelet with pearls
red bead/wire bracelet

Now that I have a little inventory, I think I’ll finally set up an Etsy store.  My name on Etsy is dawnwich if you want to look for me — my name everywhere is dawnwich.

 

Solstice Surf scarf

Here is the first project, part of my Christmas knitting.  The yarn is a fuzzy merino ribbon, and it is a somewhat messed up version of Morning Surf Scarf by Jackie Erickson-Schweitzer from Ravelry.  I gave this to my older sister.  In spite of not going exactly according to plan, I thought it made a pretty cute scarf.  The two pictures are of the same scarf, believe it or not.  The color is sort of in between the two, closer to the darker one.

surf scarf
surf scarf 2
 

Er, I think I bought some more fabric

I’ve been doing really well with my not-buying vow for the yarn, clothing, and the other art supplies.  I’ve been working steadily and not buying stuff.  But, er, e-quilter had a 60% off sale, and some of the fabric that’s been in my wish list for ages was on it, so, well, I guess I might have bought it.  So now I have to make 27 sewn projects before I’m allowed to buy fabric.

With all my christmas knitting, I’m down to six more projects before I will allow myself to buy yarn.  Man, I’ve got the Noro I’m going to buy all picked out.  Plus some other things.  I’ve got one project on the needles and a couple more ready to go.

I exhibited at the art show at Arisia, a Boston SF con.  I took the week off work and made as much stuff as fast as I could.  It was a great week, and I sold three things at the show so I’m pleased.  The show was kind of slow, so I was even happier to have sold something.

I’m working on getting all the pictures of my work up… I’m going to start posting tonight, and then schedule to posts to go up once a day until I get everything done.  This should keep the blog lively for a quite some time.

Nanowrimo update

You know what I hate the most about nanowrimo (national novel writing month)?  The fact that I could write 15K words, have 8 chapters on a new novel that is looking pretty decent to me, and somehow, this is considered a fail.  OK, I do understand the concept of setting this high bar so you write without your normal internal editor and restrictions, but I am still delighted that I got such a good start on a new draft.  I suggested to Alice that we stretch this out a bit, continue to compete with each other, and try to get to 50K words this winter and a complete draft by the summer.  We shook on it.

Oh, and by the way Alice?  PWN!  I clobbered your sarcastic teenage ass.  To the tune of EIGHT TIMES as long as yours.  And all you could say about it was that my wardrobe has a “compost heap” theme going.  Yep, lose the contest, so insult the clothes.

About

I don’t want anything in my life to be ordinary any more. To this end, I have painted flowers on my car, written some books, re-worked my house and garden, and sculpted many dolls. For a long time, I wondered why I couldn’t focus any one or two of those things instead of starting so many different projects, but now I think that the multiplicity of it is exactly what I am looking for. This page is where I will document my progress on my projects. Some of this progress might be very slow, but progress will happen. Dawn Albright

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