Taking part in "Take Heart"

The wonderful Liz Jones aka Miss Betty Jo is again playing hostess with the mostess in the gallery space at Gleaners Inc. As part of the Craft Victoria Craft Cubed events, Liz put out the call for submissions. This year's theme - "Take Heart".

I got thinking about all the phrases and idioms (yes I'm more wordy than visual, huh?) - you can win a heart, lose a heart, be half hearted or whole hearted, have a cold heart or a warm heart.

But let's get to the heart of it - Do you have a heart of gold? A heart of stone? A bleeding heart? Do you cry your heart out when your heart isn't in it? Is your heart in your boots or your mouth? And most importantly... Do you have cockles???

And let's not start on the songs, "Cheatin'Heart", "Cold cold heart", "Anyone who had a heart", "Heartbreak Hotel", "Wooden Heart", "Heartaches and Hangovers", "If my Heart had Windows"...the list is endless...

These three pieces are a play on words. Made with hand dyed felt rope on cable knit. 

Framed in hearts I cut out myself from a sheet of mdf. Each measures 30cm x 30 cm

What's your favourite heart saying? And your favourite heart song?

piece of cloth part: from black and white to technicolour

A piece of cloth exhibition is hosted by Gleaners inc and curated by Liz Jones as part of L’oreal Fashion Week.

Over thirty artists/crafters/designers were given this little swatch of 70’s fabric in orange, green and brown to respond to in any way they liked - colour, pattern, feeling - whatever.

Initially, my reaction was to go into complete denial about the 70’s (yes I’m sure there are others out there who are in denial about the '70's too..) and bleach the hues away in my head...

And I made this. The poncho is 100% recycled material(even the sewing thread was vintage and from an op shop). The base is a felted cream blanket and the lines are from jumpers recycled into felt rope/yarn and hand dyed black. 

Yes. A bit drab isn't it? But then, like Dorothy going to Oz my world burst into technicolour! I embraced the Seventies. I revelled in the colour scheme.
 

 I tried all the groovy seventies crafts...

like macrame, crochet, wooden beading, latch hooking and tassels....

and then I added pineapples. Because wasn't that what you did in the Seventies? Just added pineapples to everything?

It doesn't look Seventies - which is what I wanted. I wanted it to look modern - but it strangely looks a bit Edwardian. Hmmm.

A Piece of Cloth Exhibition opening night is Friday at 6pm at Gleaners Inc

Scarf or Necklace?

I'm one of those people - you know the ones. The ones who always wear cardies, even on sunny days. The ones who are always going on about feeling cold. 

The ones who rarely show any skin! The ones who always have cold hands ("cold hands, warm heart," Mum would say.) 

On the plus side, I'm one of those people who,when it's sweltering in Summer, feels great and energetic. 

But even in Spring, it only takes a slightly cool breeze and I want to rug up.

Solution? Spring scarves. Or are they warm necklaces?

These ones are made from recycled jumpers transformed into felt rope/yarn (for tutorial on how to make felt jumper yarn/rope go here) There are a lot of recycled t-shirt scarves out there and I was inspired by Emma at Frog, Goose and Bear.

 

The felt rope/yarn from is from light weight cream jumpers. The rope/yarn was dyed with Landscape wool dyes. To make the scarf/necklace (scarflace?) I hand stitched each bundle end together then twisted and joined. The plaited piece is there to hide the stitches, but looks so good I think I'll wear it with the plait at the front.

felt jumper yarn tutorial

Here is how I make felt-jumper yarn from recycled jumpers that can be knitted or crocheted.

YOU WILL NEED:

2 jumpers

scissors

3 pillow slips

6 rubber bands

washing machine

detergent

1.
First cut the bands and seams from the jumper. You will need jumper that are pure wool and not too thick.

2.
Cut into even strips - I usually do 1.5 cm but I have also tried 1 cm for thinner yarn.

This makes lots of fluffy mess so do it somewhere you don't mind getting covered in fibres. You need all the strips to be about the same length. The shorter lengths from the sides of the fronts and backs and sleeves can be grouped together in another batch.

3. 
Place the strips neatly together with the ends together. Place neatly into the pillow slip, laying them flat into the slip.

You need to not over fill the slip - movement with in it during the wash is part of the process.I put one jumper to a slip.

4.
Put a rubber band around the ends - near the top because these pieces remain flat. Rubber bands work better than hair ties as they are stickier and are less likely to fall off.

I do three pillow slips full in each wash. Which is two jumpers -  and then a batch with the shorter pieces grouped together.

5.

Place them in a  hot wash with some detergent or washing powder.

wait.....and....

hey presto! 

The felt strips roll in on themselves to create the yarn. Sometimes they remain a little apart but you can roll them together more when they are wet by stretching them or giving them a roll between your hands - or just leave them like that. Dry the lengths of felt then stitch together. I just hand stitch the ends together and roll into balls. You can then knit the yarn on large needles or crochet it.