made for adventure

transfer

2008-11-14T19:21:00.003-06:00

I hate to do this, but I'm switching to a different blog, and for the lamest reason: I just want a different name for my blog. Silly isn't it? But the situation is that I'm going to be opening an Etsy account and I thought of a much better selling label than "made for adventure"--it just doesn't sound right. So from now on I'll be posting over at cristae. It's a nickname of mine from college, actually pronounced just like my real name, but the nickname was "kris-tay". Long story short, we were extremely bored in biology class. But the cristae are a very important part of the mitochondria which make cell energy and I thought that was a sweet idea. So please, keep visiting me over there. I'll be endeavoring to post more frequently too.

--Christy

sneak peek

2008-11-06T18:56:00.003-06:00

Scarves for wiksten's winter collection. I've been working on these for a while now and they came out quite nicely. They are warm soft alpaca and cotton, woven in a twill combination pattern called "gothic cross". I like to think the pattern looks like stars in the deep blue winter sky. I love looking at constellations in the wintertime and this pattern seems very fitting for wearing on a frosty evening of stargazing.

dyed scarves

2008-10-30T17:16:00.005-05:00

Well, I finally have something to show for all of the dyeing I've been doing in the past month. I did the first dyeing session in which I dyed all 20 of the scarves a light to medium color. It took most of a day, (probably 7-8 hours, ugh) and I had some very interesting problems arise. I haven't done any dyeing for at least 2 years, and so I may have been a little arrogant in my assumption that I knew what I was doing. Half of the first colors came out right, but my yellows were neon orange, my browns were really dead looking (not nice browns), my blues were neon blue, and my reds were neon pink. So after I figured out all the colors were neon, I adjusted by over-dyeing them in compliments to tone them down, and got some better results.

About 3 weeks later I found the time to start on the "top layer" or pattern color. I had a rough start because I couldn't remember how to make my pattern technique work. After I re-figured that out, things went better. My favorite result is the dark maroon one with orange underneath. I wish the others had turned out darker, but they do have a nice subtle effect.

I'll be selling 5 of these at a local handmade show next month. These 5 I tried a technique in which the scarf is sewn to itself on the bias, which creates a nice drape effect. I like it, but the scarves are skinnier and shorter than originally.

Creative Hand Show
sponsored by the Kansas City Weavers and Fiber Guilds
Friday, Nov. 21, 4-8 pm
Fashion Show at 7 pm
Saturday, Nov.22, 10-5 pm
@ Sylvester Powell Community Center
6200 Martway, Mission, KS

So if you're in KC the weekend before Thanksgiving, check it out! I always find cool stuff every year, especially for Christmas presents.

New Book

2008-10-22T16:27:00.004-05:00

I got a book in the mail today: Clothing from the Hands That Weave by Anita Luvera Mayer. She's practically a legend in the weaving community, and yet I can't seem to find much about her on the web. I did find an interesting little article by her with some old pictures.

I made a version of this shirt a few years ago when I first learned to weave.

I just love the concept of this dress. The gores are crocheted and the strips are woven.

Fingerless Gloves

2008-10-17T12:22:00.003-05:00

We are going camping this weekend! And it's just turned quite chilly out, so I had to finish my fingerless gloves to wear. The pattern I used is from ravelry, "twisted maiden". In the picture, the left glove was the first try in which I followed the given pattern for the placement of the thumb gusset. It came out that the cable pattern was off-center. So for the right one I moved the thumb gusset over 2 stitches and --hooray, it worked!-- the cable is centered now! I'll be remaking the left one, but for now I'm wearing them camping. We're going north of Kansas City to Wallace State Park, which I've never been to before. I'm pretty pumped about hiking, cooking over the fire, and trying out my new bow and arrows! Off I go...

Iridescence Workshop: Day 2

2008-10-12T21:42:00.006-05:00

There's not as much to talk about today, just that I am very inspired and wanting to try out a few different ideas on my own. We continued weaving today and I finished my green-yellow green-yellow plaid with every other color. What I am wanting to do is weave some iridescent yardage in maybe a deep blue and brown together and then sew a dress from it. (we'll see how soon that happens...)

But we did learn one lesson: all of us who were using table looms (like the one in the picture) have sworn we'll never use one again. Take my advice, they're not worth the trouble and the weaving takes twice as long as on a floor loom. Everyone using a table loom had some sort of tension problem.

I did find a neat flicker account that had a ton of iridescent pictures that were both natural and unnatural sources. This ball was my favorite.

Color Iridescence Weaving Workshop: Day 1

2008-10-11T17:28:00.004-05:00

One of the best things about being in the weaver's guild is that we get to have these awesome workshops a couple of times a year. Well this weekend we have weaver Bobbie Irwin giving us a workshop on creating iridescence in woven fabric by combining contrasting colors in the warp and weft.

Picture a room full of different kinds of looms all going at once. (It's pretty loud!) We've been weaving all day today after Bobbie lectured for about an hour. Each of us received a predetermined warp of 3-6 colors and everyone set up her loom beforehand. Then, we wove 3" bands of every color in the spectrum. Each two-color interaction is different. Some produce a lot of iridescence, others only a little.

Iridescence is defined by Bobbie as "a play of colors, where the apparent fabric color changes with the light and angle of view." There are also examples of this in nature, such as motor oil showing the rainbow from different angles (but really being black) or a peacock feather shimmering blue, purple and gold.

Unfortunately, I don't think my pictures show the iridescence very well, but you can get the idea of each square in our sampler being a different combination produced.

Here is Bobbie Irwin, wearing an iridescent shirt she wove. The warp is blue, the weft is fushia, and so the colors are constantly varying in the light between the two and the purple is also produced as a visual mixing.

I'll post more tomorrow. We'll be experimenting with different weave structures in one color combination. (Today we just did plain weave.)

felted cloche

2008-10-06T08:16:00.003-05:00

Apologies for the lack of entries lately. I really have been busy making things though. The first one I'll post is my new winter hat! I've been meaning to get around to felting a hat since last winter and last Friday I finally did. I have a friend from the KC Weaver's Guild that is an expert felter and makes hats to sell locally. She invited me down to her studio and gave me some tips and information that I didn't know about felting. She also has a huge collection of old hat forms and she let me borrow this one in the picture.
As you can see, my hat is unadorned at this point. I'm still thinking about how I want to embellish it. I know I want some color along the edge, to make the flare stand out. But I'm thinking of doing some intricate embroidery around it as a sort of band. I can't wait until it's cold weather to wear it, I am so happy with how it came out. Cloches always make me think of the 20's and girls with bob haircuts.
Oh, some notes about the felting: This hat is made straight from the carded wool fiber, it's not knitted first. The wool I used is a grey New Zealand wool and you can see that it's quite a bit more fuzzy than most felted wools. (Merino is the most popular to use for felting.) The whole process probably took me about 4 hours from start to finish-a very short project actually. But the felting is all done by hand and so it's a quite strenuous activity.

Renaissance Festival

2008-09-22T08:53:00.007-05:00

Every fall, one of my favorite weekends is when my dance group performs at the Kansas City Renaissance Festival. This year we had gorgeous weather and a great time dancing. These pictures were all taken at the last performance on the second day, so we don't look as bouncy as we normally are. (Most everyone's feet and legs were pretty sore by then.)

I thought this one was a good shot of my costume. (I'm dancing with the guy in black.) I made my vest and embroidered on it, and my head scarf is an old woven shibori experiment of mine. The skirt I borrowed from someone because it matched so well, and my shirt is actually from the Gap. Obviously one of the funnest parts of doing this is having an excuse to dress up. Because our group is on the performers list for Scottish weekend, we are required to dress in peasant garb. (not that anyone minds doing it)

I caught the birds of prey show in between performances and got this picture of the cutest little screech owl. He wasn't nervous like the other big birds were around crowds of people. He just sat there looking around at everyone, calm as can be.

We've had so much rain the past couple of weeks that all the hay bales had sprouted and this one had mushrooms growing out of it. I took the picture early in the morning before all the patrons were let in, so the background looks so nice and peaceful.

I also bought a wooden bow and arrows set from a really nice Christian guy who makes them for a living. I'll be sure to post some pictures of it when I get a chance to practice.

I would like to note that although I really enjoy going to Renfest, there are a lot of not-so-great things about it. The majority of the people involved in running it are lost souls and therefore there is quite a lot of distasteful content. Improper exposure is the most noticeable, but most of the shows have adult content in them and there are plenty of evil influences amidst the whole thing. I personally just ignore these things when there, but if I did not have the reason of my dance group going, I probably would not attend it. It makes me very sad that such a neat way of living history (although not very accurate) is so very corrupted to be distasteful. People like Rod from the bow shop give me hope that there are at least some Godly influences there.

Cleaning out the Attic...

2008-09-18T15:07:00.005-05:00

...what a fun way to spend the day!?

So, my parent's attic is pretty much full of my stuff. Today all I went through was fabric and clothes. I can't believe all the tiny scraps of fabric I saved. Some of it was more than 10 years old. I also found a lot of failed projects thrown into bags.

This is all that I actually saved from that huge pile in the first picture. The bags on the right are all alpaca wool that I have been meaning to send off to get cleaned and carded.

Lesson learned: only save a fabric scrap if it's at least 12". (Unless you're a quilter I guess.)

(Thanks for the posting help, I figured it out!)

Supplies

2008-09-14T13:51:00.003-05:00

Last week, I took a trip to Lawrence, KS to one of my favorite stores: the Yarn Barn. It is the only place in my area that carries weaving supplies. It is an hour's drive to get there, so I only go a couple of times a year. So you can imagine that I usually buy a lot when I go there, hehe. I got a lot of yarn, which means I'm going to be weaving a lot more in the near future. In fact I've already set up the loom and started more of the Finnish twill scarves for wiksten. The Yarn Barn also carries fabric dyes and I'm gearing up to dye a batch of silk scarves, so I had to stock up on those too.

I also went to another great store across the street: Sarah's Fabrics. They carry a huge selection of designer fabrics that are hard to find. There I got some pretty patterned fat quarters to make my friend Rachel a knitting needle case for Christmas, which I've already completed. (bottom picture) It was very easy thanks to a tutorial I found.

All in all, a very productive trip, and I was such a good girl, I didn't buy anything that I didn't need for a specific reason. (this time)

**Side note: Can someone tell me how to get text in between my pictures? I can't seem to figure it out and so I'm forced to put all the pictures at the top and all the text at the bottom.

Needle Felting

2008-09-11T15:02:00.004-05:00

At the Kansas City Weaver's Guild meeting today we had a mini-workshop about needle felting. If you've ever done regular wet felting before, this is quite different. You're using very small amounts of wool to "paint" a picture onto a wool/fabric background. The felting is done by stabbing special barbed needles repeatedly through both layers to attach them together. You have to have foam underneath it to cushion the stabbing motion. It's really easy and pretty fast. The action of punching the needle in and out is officially called "needling", but we decided it was funner to call it "stabbing" and say things like, "This stabbing is so therapeutic."

It was fun to do, but I don't see myself doing anymore of it anytime soon. I hate to say this, but I don't really know what you would use it for except to make cutesy pictures on stuff, which.... is not my cup of tea. You can use a similar technique to make little felted animals though, and that would be fun to make with or for children.

The pictures are of me using my fancy needle felting tool (with 5 needles in it), my friend Becky using a single needle on her project, and my finished flower. I think I'm going to sew it into an eyeglasses case for my grandma. She loves putting flowers on everything she wears.

Failed Projects

2008-09-09T07:25:00.006-05:00

Just so no one thinks I'm that great, I thought I'd post what I've been doing all week....failed projects. First, I made two shirts from Vogue pattern 8392 and note in the picture above, it looks like a sack on me, even after I tried taking in the waist a bit. (I didn't even bother finishing the second shirt.) (And I didn't even bother taking a decent picture.)

Then, I was all excited to make a dress from Vogue pattern 1044 for a friend's wedding coming up. I've had this really nice suit wool for a while and decided to use it for the dress. Well, the pattern worked great, it fits well, but.... it looks like I should be in a business meeting. This is a classic example of one thing I struggle with a lot: choosing the right fabric to go with the pattern. I'm usually attracted to plainer, natural fiber fabrics like cotton, linen, and wool. Well, none of those really say "fancy dress for a wedding". So now I'm not sure what to do with this top of the dress. I didn't even start on the skirt part yet because I don't know if I even want to complete the dress. Any suggestions on how to make this not look like a business suit would be very appreciated. I'm thinking some kind of stitching in a contrast color, like a golden yellow, might at least brighten it up a bit.

So, be aware, a large percentage of my projects do not turn out successfully. Thankfully, I think I can salvage most of the material from the shirts and use it for something else. These are the times when I take a break from frenetic sewing and clean the house, at least that is somewhat satisfying.

kimono challenge

2008-09-04T08:13:00.002-05:00

I have three used Japanese kimonos that I bought on impulse 4 years ago. Needless to say, I've never actually worn them or done anything with them. Two of them have nice patterns on the fabric but are scratchy, the third one is soft silk and very pretty. Someone suggested that I use them to make something else from the fabric. For some reason I'm not getting inspired though. So I thought I'd post on here and see if anyone has any suggestions for what to make from them. I'm mainly concerned with the silky one. It's a short kimono, and only comes to the hips, so not as much material as the other ones. Any ideas?

scarves for wiksten

2008-08-27T06:53:00.003-05:00

I'm a little late posting this, but the scarves I was weaving here.... are done! And they'll be for sale on September 3 with the other new stuff from wiksten's fall collection. I had extra warp left on the loom and wove a rather short one, but I actually really like it styled with a brooch and I'm keeping it for myself. If you end up being one of the lucky ones to purchase a scarf, I would suggest a brooch as another good way to style it.
Just as fyi, the scarves are woven from 100% cotton in an old Finnish Twill pattern. They can be handwashed in detergent, hung dry, and then blocked (ironed into shape). They should be fairly sturdy and quite durable.
Just out of curiosity, I'd like to know, what kind of scarves are your favorite to wear? Do you like warm soft ones in the winter time, or flowy silk ones to dress up an outfit, or do you like to wear a different scarf with every outfit any time of year? (I'm personally a winter scarf lover, but I'm curious what other people like.)

teaching shirts

2008-08-19T09:38:00.004-05:00

My latest project was inspired by the fact that I have no cool shirts to wear when I'm teaching art during the school year. I teach at a homeschool group and so it's a very relaxed atmosphere, but teachers still want to look spiffy so the students will be more likely to respect them. (sneaky, I know) So instead of boring polo shirts this year, I'm going to try these out. Hey, I'm the art teacher, I'm supposed to wear weird clothes aren't I?

For the shirts I used Simplicity pattern 2922 (it's a "inspired by project runway", which I didn't even realize until after I'd made the shirts). Jenny had extra of the tree/bird fabric and I really liked it, so she sold some to me and I thought it would be perfect with this shirt pattern. I was originally going to make only one out of the patterned fabric, but thought that it would probably be too busy and the yoke wouldn't show up, so I flipped the pieces and made 2.

The only problem I had with the pattern was that it called for gathering in the front and back. Well, this made it look puffy and awful, like the shirt didn't fit right. I was a little frustrated, but then thought of trying pleats instead, which ended up being excellent. I made the pleats in the back longer than the ones in the front (see photo). I definitely like the patterned yoke shirt better than the plain yoke one. But overall, a success!

guatemalan weaving

2008-08-14T06:38:00.002-05:00

I have several projects in the process, and no pictures of them, so I thought I'd post one of my favorite summer tops to wear. It's a very simple tunic that I made 3-4 years ago when I thought I didn't need patterns (haha). Needless to say, it's very poorly made and I only just got around to serging the seams last winter.
But it's my favorite summer top because of the material.
There used to be a shop in Westport called Central American Textile Company which had amazing stuff. Unfortunately, there's not many people around like me who go crazy for handwoven stuff, and she closed. But I splurged and got this material. It's handwoven ikat cloth in white and gray with blue vertical stripes and areas of green and orange. It's actually pretty subdued colors compared to most Central American cloth. It's extremely soft and comfy. I have a gored skirt out of it too, but that is for church or special occasion wear only. I'd love to buy more similar fabric, but I'd have to save up first--it was 3 yards for $70 on discount.
On the bright side, one of my friends visited Panama last winter and brought me back some stuff that she paid a whopping $10 for: a handwoven table runner, a mola, and a little embroidered dress "for my first born child". Maybe I just need a plane ticket to Guatemala...

Summer Reading

2008-08-05T19:29:00.003-05:00

One of my favorite authors is Sherwood Smith. As another of her fans put it, her writing is so good that she's raised my expectations too high for almost anything else. She is a writer that captures true adventure and the characters alone are intriguing enough to draw you in. Her most recent book has just been published, A Stranger to Command. I highly recommend any of her books to anyone enjoying adventure novels. (Don't be put off by the cover if you think it's weird.)

weaving

2008-07-28T18:47:00.004-05:00

I've been weaving all day, and I wove all day Friday too. It's very tedious after you get into the rhythm of the pattern, thus I've also been listening to Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility. I just finished it and I must say... it was just okay. I really think I like Jane Austen in movie form much better. That way you avoid all the excessively long conversations with annoying characters. Anyway, I'm halfway done with my project, so I'm pretty pumped. Now I just need to find another book on tape to finish with.

2008-07-24T18:49:00.003-05:00

I've been thinking a lot lately about my intentions and purposes for making things to sell. Am I just making things because of vanity or worldliness or ambition or fame or...?? What good is it to make clothing? As a Christian, could I be doing more worthwhile things? Yes. But, I am convicted that I have my talents/passions for a reason. God gave me the desire to create things and I've never felt that it was wrong or a wasteful thing. Plus, it seems to me, from my humble earthly perspective, that He has to be doing something for a reason with people in the weaver's guild wanting me to be president next year and then this job working for wiksten that just fell in my lap.
I had the thought the other day, Paul was a tent maker... and then I looked it up, it's in Acts 18: 2-3. He and Aquila and Pricilla were making tents in Corinth, for a living. And there's always the excellent wife of Proverbs 31 who does a lot of making and providing for her family. (It sounds like I'm trying to justify myself, I know, and in a sense I am, but hopefully not in a bad way.)
Then I thought about my obsession with traditional textile techniques from different countries. It doesn't seem like that much of a leap to see myself traveling, working with people making textiles in other countries, and it being a way to serve the Lord in proclaiming the gospel. Well, whether that ever happens or not, I do have a sense that this is definitely where I should be now. But I hope I remember to be constantly seeking the Lord's guidance and not just run after my own goals (like I do all the time...).
Anyway, check out this amazing kilim woven bag from Turkey. It's for sale at World Crafts Village, a website that sells products from all over the world made by people supporting their families and the gospel.

2008-07-22T08:30:00.001-05:00

I recently bought a DVD of an amazing dance troup called Georgian Legend. They do traditional Georgian dancing and their costumes are awesome! I immediately thought, those seem like something Folkwear would make a pattern for. So I emailed Folkwear my idea... and they said they're going to research it! I really can't believe it. I guess I figured they get requests like that all the time, but maybe not.
Here are a couple videos of Georgian Legend to check out. (Any of their videos are pretty awesome.)

Music Video

Shows the girls costumes that I like. (bad quality video, but the best of the costumes I've found)

2008-07-17T18:32:00.001-05:00

One of my favorite adventuring dresses, this is an austrian dirndl pattern from Folkwear. I made it in a thick cotton. It's perfect as a sleeveless dress, but looks nice with a peasant blouse under it in cooler weather.

These pictures are from our honeymoon this May, in the Great Smoky Mountains in North Carolina. The bottom one is crossing the stream further down from the waterfall. It was absolutely gorgeous there, endless forest everywhere. I haven't been to a place I liked more. All we did the whole week was hike--the perfect honeymoon! (no camping though, we stayed at bed & breakfasts)

Is it just me, or does anyone else like hiking in skirts better than pants? It's just so much cooler and I never feel like the skirt is in the way, even when climbing. Although any longer than knee length might be pushing it.

As soon as I upload my wedding pictures I will be posting a few of those. I'm so pleased with how everything came out!

pleated peasanty dress

2008-07-15T06:45:00.000-05:00

Here is a dress that I really enjoy wearing, it was a vogue pattern that seemed more on the unusual side. It's a piece of cake to construct, all except for the pleating across the neckline--it took me forever.

The left picture is the first version I made, which is out of a super soft knit. While it's quite comfortable and flowy, the pleating was almost impossible to do nicely and it clings to the body so much, that wearing a tank top under it is needed, but looks silly. Also, the sleeves were too short, not coming all the way to my wrists. After several bouts of chucking that one at the wall during construction (because of the combination of knit fabric and my old sewing machine), I finally finished it, and promptly forgot about it. Now it's a pretty nice night gown.

About six months later I tried the same pattern with a linen/rayon blend fabric that I love. It was much easier to do the pleating, I used the half sleeves instead of the long ones, and I extended the hem slightly. This fabric gave a little more structure to the full sleeves and sashed skirt, which I like. It reminds me of a peasanty look. I also like it because it's an all seasons dress, cool enough for warmer weather, but substantial enough for cooler. It would definitely work well with leggings or pants under it. It falls into my category of dresses you can run around in, but it still could work at a semi-casual occasion.

Lesson learned: stay away from knit unless you know how to use it.

ps-I just found my old bow and arrows in my parents garage! Time to go get in some practice...

a daring endeavor... or just stupid

2008-07-10T06:46:00.000-05:00

I have come to a realization. Several that are connected actually.

1. I am obsessed with sewing clothes, and there is no stopping me.

2. I am slightly less obsessed with aquiring as many hobbies as possible. (but these aren't just any old hobby, they all have a theme...)

3. I am becoming increasingly interested in all kinds of traditional folk dance. (this being one of the more dominant hobbies.)

Conclusion: It seems that all my adventure novel reading when I was a kid has really had quite an influence on me. All of my interests are related to "adventure". I put that in quotes because it means different things to different people. Example: I told my husband the name of my blog and he said something to the effect of, "so you're going to make gortex fashion for climbing Mount Everest?" Adventure means something different to him, at least his first reaction to the word.

Some thoughts on "adventure": To me it's a very multifaceted concept. Anything people do in adventure novels, including, but not limited to: any type of travel (hiking, boating, flying, riding horses, etc.), exploring, being outside in general (city or rural), working hard at something unusual (ex: gardening, blacksmithing, building something, etc.), dancing, hunting, archery, sword fighting, being brave in general. I have a feeling this list is not comprehensive at all, so any more additions would be welcome.

Now that I've sort of given my definition, I must say that for me personally I want to be dressed for adventure -- whether or not I'm actually going to be doing anything exciting. And I have noticed in my clothes making that I'm moving more and more to a certain style that is both influenced by classic/adventure literature and ethnic construction and decoration--but still not completely ridiculous to wear nowadays. (some people might disagree on that, hehe.) Oh, and I'm also in love with folk dance costumes!

So, the purpose of this blog is to consciously document my influences, projects, hobbies, and general train of thought. And to see if I'm alone in my strangeness, or there are other adventure-novel-reading-and-fashion-influenced people out there.

Disclaimer: I don't think of myself as one of those people who goes to things such as anime conventions or any type of dress up convention for that matter, or civil war reinactments, or renaissance festival obsessed people, etc. But, I have done every one of those things at least once, and I'm not saying they're ridiculous, I'm just saying those people were a little too intense for me. I'm not obsessed with one specific thing that I spend every waking moment thinking about. No offense if you are one, I know those people have a lot of fun.

So here is a picture of a shirt I wove 2 years ago. It's wool and cotton and it was a blast to weave because I just switched colors whenever I felt like it, and it came out so well. It's my favorite thing to wear in the winter.