White Threads » making stuff

Luzine’s left-handed Schwalm

yvette — Sun, 20 May 2012 20:37:51 +0000

An exciting parcel arrived here late last week, from Luzine Happel. It contained the fabric, thread, needles and thorough instructions for me to test drive Luzine’s left-handed Schwalm embroidery instructions.

This is going to be an interesting project, and I am really looking forward to getting into it. I am thinking that the best way to tackle it is to devote a little time each day to working on it. Otherwise it will get continually pushed aside by my work and other commitments, which I don’t want it to do!

It is a very pretty design. So far I have read through the first part of the instructions (which are extremely thorough!), and now am at the point where I need to put needle and thread to fabric. What fun!

For those who have emailed me to volunteer for my embroidery stitch dictionary app focus group, thank you very much! I am very grateful that you are willing to be involved with this project!

Embroidery stitch dictionary app

yvette — Fri, 18 May 2012 21:19:10 +0000

Yesterday I introduced the idea of a smartphone app based on my two books The Left-Handed Embroiderer’s Companion and The Right-Handed Embroiderer’s Companion. I also put it on my personal Facebook page (to which anyone can subscribe to my public updates), and my Vetty Creations Facebook page. Because of this, I’ve had feedback streaming in from everywhere.

Thank you to everyone who has commented, offered suggestions, and just generally encouraged me with this idea. You’ve convinced me that now is the time to do this, and because of that I will now put this app into development!

However I realise that there is a good chunk of my readership who are not interested in any smartphone app – its a whole other world for you?! – so I don’t want to keep banging on about it and boring you to tears. Therefore I’d like to return to “regular programming” as soon as possible.

So that I can do this, I’d like to ask if any of those who ARE interested in my app would like to join an email focus group for the app? I’d like the opportunity to bounce ideas off you, and you’d get the opportunity to have input into the app (though I can’t guarantee that your particular ideas will be adopted) to make it what you want it to be.

If you’re interested in joining this email focus group list, please drop me a line at yvette at vettycreations dot com dot au (changing the words to symbols where appropriate). Thanks!

I won’t be bombarding the email list with messages. Just occasionally there might be something I’d like to ask others about. And if it all becomes too much you can simply let me know at any point that you’d like to be removed from the list. I won’t be offended at all!

I’d also like to assure everyone that Vetty Creations will not be going all brave new worldish. I will STILL be writing and publishing real hard copy books, and not moving completely into the digital world. I love books, and I will keep publishing books with real paper!

cueing new projects

yvette — Thu, 10 May 2012 20:25:48 +0000

Its getting colder here, though you wouldn’t know it, with yesterday being about 29 degrees Celcius in May. But that is an aberration. Its not supposed to be that warm at this time of year!

So with the cooler weather approaching, and with the prompting of Bendigo Woollen Mills who keep sending me things in the mail and suggesting to me that I’d like to buy their wool (yes, please!) its time to cue some knitting projects. (Very successful marketing, that!)

I like to knit at least one garment a year, though this year it seems that I will be extending myself a little further. With the purchases I have just made, I have just committed myself to a jumper (sweater) for myself, a dress for Rainbow Girl, and a shrug for The Reader.

I have chosen Yoke Detail Pullover in Stone.
The Reader will have this drapey bolero (with long sleeves) in Rich Jade.
Rainbow Girl will have Oriental Lily in Neon Berry.

So anytime you come near me in the next little while, you’re likely to hear the clicking of needles. I need to get as much done on them before Luzine’s gorgeous Schwalm project turns up in my letterbox!

Left-handed Schwalm project

yvette — Wed, 09 May 2012 20:47:49 +0000

Exciting news! I was one of the three readers of Mary Corbet’s Needle’nThread selected to test Luzine Happel‘s left-handed schwalm embroidery instructions. I’m thrilled!

This comes at the perfect time for me, as I am between books, and haven’t got any embroidery projects on the go at the moment.

If you’re one of the other three embroiderers also chosen, please do not feel intimidated by me being one of the other testers. I am just like you – I have never done this style of embroidery either. We will each come up with different feedback for Luzine, and that is exactly the idea – to help her in any way we can with improving and correcting her instructions.

What fun! Thanks Luzine and Mary!

getting started with Portuguese Whitework

yvette — Fri, 04 May 2012 09:47:31 +0000

I have just finished adding the Portuguese Whitework supplies to the Vetty Creations site. You can now get all you need to explore Portuguese Whitework, in one place!

If you’re wanting to get started, I suggest you’ll need the following:

A copy of Portuguese Whitework: Bullion Embroidery from Guimarães
A fat eighth of Graziano Nuovo Ricamo linen
2 balls of white Pearl cotton 8
No 4 straw needles
No 24 tapestry needles
A hoop and stand

The book will provide you with the choice of a number of projects on which you can start. The fabric and thread will be ample to work one of the smaller projects in the book. The tapestry needles are used for the drawn thread work, and the straw needles are used for the surface embroidery. The hoop and stand hold everything nice and still for you while you happily stitch away.

So what are you waiting for? Happy days!

birdcage hair

yvette — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 23:35:10 +0000

Ok, ok, I know you’ve all been dying to hear… I am pleased to report that Rainbow Girl did indeed win a prize at Thursday’s crazy hair day. This year’s creation was a birdcage – my husband’s brilliant idea. There was very stiff competition amongst the other students, so we were not at all sure that she would win, but once again one of the awarding teachers made a beeline for her to give her a chocolate rabbit!

Apparently it was an extremely comfortable to wear creation, as she happily kept it in for the whole day, even going up to the shops with it in place. She said she was looking forward to people looking at her. She’s such a shy little thing…

crazy hair day 2012

yvette — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 20:36:36 +0000

Today being the Thursday before Good Friday, it is crazy hair day at school. The Reader has now gone off to another school, and Rainbow Girl has now moved into the part of the school where she participates in crazy hair day. Thank goodness they never overlapped, meaning we had to do TWO lots of crazy hair before school!

We have a bit of a reputation.

Ferris Wheel hair from 2011

When The Reader participated in crazy hair day, she won, 3 years out of the 4 that she was in it. You may remember our ferris wheel creation from last year.

One of the teachers told me last week that they’re expecting big things from us again this year. And many students have been asking Rainbow Girl what she’s having. All will be revealed later today – we always keep it a secret beforehand. But we do know that several families who have previously done well are no longer at the school.

Can you tell we play to win? This is one instance where a school assignment does not have to be the student’s work. How could they do their own crazy hair? It is completely expected and allowed for parents to go completely over the top.

The husband came up with an excellent idea on the weekend, and we were up rather late last night making the armature for it. Rainbow Girl has just woken up, seen the armature and come in to me, VERY excited!

Its going to be a fun day, and we’ll see if we can uphold our reputation!

in the mood to knit something

yvette — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 19:50:21 +0000

Yesterday, in a wonderful example of how to suggestively market to someone, I received a shade card from Bendigo Woollen Mills. And now, suddenly, I’m in the mood to knit something.

I knitted Elder Daughter (The Reader) a jumper (sweater) a few years ago, but I’ve never knitted something for Rainbow Girl. This has mostly been because she has very little respect for clothing, and I haven’t wanted to waste a good knitted, woollen garment on her. But she seems to be improving with her care for her clothing, so maybe its time for a garment for her this year. (And maybe The Reader can have one as well – after all, I am between books!)

So I headed over to Ravelry to see what I could find in the way of funky knits for kids. I found a few patterns that I would like to make. No idea if either of the children would deem them suitable to wear, so I suppose I mustn’t get my heart too set on them just yet!

The ones I liked were (and you probably need to be a member of Ravelry to get to some of these links, sorry):
Oriental Lily by Georgie Hallam (you’ll have to scroll down to see it)
Candy Twist by Tina Barrett
Girl’s Best Cardigan by Georgie Hallam (scrolling down to see it once again).

So now I’ll have to suggest the idea to the children to see what they think. I wonder if I can get it all organised in time to knit with bamboo needles on the plane trips to Adelaide and back? Hmm…

This morning Rainbow Girl and I are off to the Elite stream State Gymnastics Championships. (By the time you read this we might already be there.) She came 10th in her level at the trial, so her goal is to come 9th today. She’s so terribly excited! I’m not so excited about having to get up at 5am to be at the venue by 7am (with her hair all beautifully done in a Perfect Bun). It wouldn’t take so long if it were only me to get ready in time, but Rainbow Girl is NOT a morning person. What fun.

video preview update

yvette — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 19:21:59 +0000

I had a lovely day yesterday. Not only did I help my dad install some gorgeous new windows in our enclosed front verandah (the old ones quite literally fell apart in our hands as we removed them!) but I did heaps of work on the video preview for “Portuguese Whitework: Bullion Embroidery from Guimarães”.

In my attempt to purchase the backing music for it yesterday morning, I discovered it had increased in price by about 50% since the month before when I had chosen the music. And then, when going through the checkout, I found that price bore absolutely no resemblance to the final price which ended up being about four times more… Not sure how they calculate these things. I didn’t buy it.

So I looked elsewhere, and found a lovely upbeat, Latin style piece of music, with classical guitars, approximately the length I wanted. AND it was five times cheaper. Now, that sounds more like what I wanted!

I downloaded the low-res version, imported it into the video and got the screen transitions working with the music changes. When I was happy with how that worked, I paid for the actual recording, downloaded the full version, and replaced the low-res version with it.

Quite by accident at the end of the day, Rainbow Girl and I discovered that my computer has an inbuilt microphone (I still don’t exactly know where it is!) and by speaking in the general direction of where I thought the microphone might be, I was able to record a little voice over for the end of the video. It means that you’ll be able to hear what I sound like! It personalises it a little, so you get a bit of me as well as previewing the book.

Actually, the other day I received an email from a knitwear designer announcing her new book. I’m sure it is a gorgeous book, as all her work is innovative and gorgeous. But I did find myself wishing that there was some sort of preview I could see. That’s one of the reasons why I’m pleased to be supplying my readers with one for my new book.

So it was a really successful day. I’m really happy with the video, as despite not having very up-to-date software with which to make it, I was able to create some quite nifty things with it. And apparently the neighbours think our new windows look great.

When will you get to see the video preview? Very soon, I hope!

Knitting and stitching

yvette — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 19:40:57 +0000

Knitting and stitching, knitting and stitching, knitting and stitching. (Sounds like a Mountmellick project, doesn’t it?!)

And thinking about which book to write next… in another possible economic downturn.

Do you think the economic downturn has affected your craft/needlework buying habits? For products that you will use up, like thread and fabric, and for products like books that you can use over and over, again and again for years?