Holes, holes, holes.

One of the things that I love about textiles is holes and what is revealed underneath them.  A combination of being inspired by the cover technique of this book

Image courtesy of Amazon

and then watching the BBC production of Great Expectations over Christmas and being fascinated by the wonderful Miss Havisham

Image courtesy of  The Telegraph

made me want to have a play and see what I could create.

I'm not sure if it's finished or what I'll do with it, but I do quite like the holes and the fragility of it (although it's ended up pinker than I was expecting) and it does resemble a piece of old fabric from a worn out dress.

Fragile Lace (18cm x 15cm)

The top layer is Crash fabric which I stencilled onto using soft molding paste before blasting it to distress it and make the holes.

The base layer is silk scrim and silk carrier rod strippings and it's held together with beads and french knots.

Detail from above

I'm not sure what this fascination with holes says about me, or where this technique might go, but I think it's something I will return to.

A First for the First

On this first day of a new year I thought I'd show you something that I finished a couple of days ago and am quite proud of - my first ever piece of lacy knitting!  It's not really complicated lace like some very clever people can knit as I've tried that and kept ending up with the wrong number of stitches, so this was a simpler pattern which meant I only went wrong and had to unpick it twice!  It's called a "shawlette" - and the pattern was a free one from from Ravelry.

I had to learn about blocking, cue towels and pins on the bathroom carpet, which really helped to shape it properly.

It's a lovely variegated 4ply yarn and feels wonderfully soft - I shall definitely enjoy wearing it.

I hope you've all had wonderful Christmases and that 2012 brings happiness and fullfillment to you all - it'll soon be Spring!