Sarah London, an Aussie crocheter has come up with an idea of helping those people so badly affected by sending as many “crocheted rainbow blankets”  as possible.  If you’d like to help out, you can find all the info you need by going to this website

But that’s half the fun – if I make mistakes then it’s no big deal.  Just like knit & crochet freeform all mistakes tend to become design elements anyway or covered up with another fragment of fabric, a few strategically placed stitches or a bunch of beads!

Here are a few of the pieces I’ve done over the past couple of years starting with the older work and ending with the most recent.

Freeform stitching and beading on crocheted background

Various fabrics needlefelted to background then stitched and beaded

Strips of hand-dyed silk, knotted then stitched and beaded to background

Fibre needlefelted to background then stitched and beaded

Crochet elements, wrapped mulberry paper cylinders, fibres, fragments of scrim and organza needlefelted, stitched and beaded

Knit fragments needlefelted to background, stitched and beaded

Hand-dyed silk strips and fibres needlefelted to background then stitched and beaded

Fragments of fabric stitched and beaded to background

Mulberry bark paper, ribbon yarn, scrim and organza fabrics stitched and beaded to background with fabric flowers added

Last April I once again attended the annual Textile Fibre Forum this time doing a workshop with one of my most favourite people, Effie Mistrofanis, Embroiderer Extraordinaire!  The workshop was called Threadwork: Silk, Stitches, Bead & Cords and was based on her book of the same name.

Absolutely fabulous inspirational book!

You can read more about this wonderful book at the publisher’s website

I’ve been to lots of Forums and all the ones I’ve attended as a student have been fantastic.  Effie’s however inspired me as much if not more than the one way back in 1997 when I learnt how to “freeform” with Sylvia Cosh and James Walters (and believe me THAT is saying something!).  I can never aspire to be as great an embroiderer as Effie whose expertise in this field is legendary here in Australia (and hopefully overseas) but I learnt enough of her techniques to produce several pieces that I am totally thrilled with.

 

 

First sample from Effie's class

 

 

 

Second sample done in Effie's class

 

 

Third sample done in Effie's class

 

 

Fourth sample from Effie's class

 

and finally

 

This is just one way of creating a wrapped cord - Effie's book has many more incredible samples

Just for fun I googled ‘magic ball’ and the first result on the list was this one where you get to ask questions of a….uh….ball!  Yeah I know it’s weird…However since the sun was out I asked if it was going to rain and the answer was “you can rely on it”.  And guess what?  It started raining just minutes later!  Then I googled ‘magic yarn ball’ and got completely different results….Most of the results describe a swap where the swappers hide little gifts inside the balls of yarn as they wind them.  Never heard of that version  before! But I digress…..

The reason I’m talking about ‘magic balls’ as they relate to freeform knitting and/or crochet is because members of my Ravelry and Yahoo Freeformation groups are participating in a Magic Ball Challenge.

I’m  just experimenting at present because I quite often have “what if?” moments and the best way to answer myself is to play and experiment. Apart from wrist warmers I’m not sure if any of my explorations will result in an actual item but nonetheless it’s so far been an interesting experiment!

I’ve chosen to use the same colours for all the experiments as an experiment in itself,  just to see how much the different techniques I’m using change the overall look of the fabrics.

Image #1 – Firstly, for the wrist warmers ( my #1 experiment) I used shortish lengths of yarns – anywhere between 30-40cms – and knotted them together leaving ends of approx 5cm(2.5″).  I cast on 38 sts and continued knitting until they were the length I wanted. I left all the ends alone to be worn on the inside of the warmers as they create extra warmth without too much unnecessary bulk.

Magic Ball Experiment #1

Image #3 – Next I knitted a diagonal square.  This time I didn’t want the ends hanging out so I used them to embroider French Knots over the surface.

Magic Ball Experiment #2

Image #3 – My next experiment is a sample of my “any which way knitting” technique – I’ve included the image of a one colour sample to illustrate directional changes as well as the simplicity of the stitches I use.

Single colour 'Any Which Way Knitting' technique

Image #4 is a sample using both knitting and crochet (in the ‘any which way” method).  These last two pieces were not made using a magic ball.

Sample of normal "any which way knitting' with some crochet

Image #5 – The final image is my magic ball version of ‘any which way knitting’, again with the ends used to embroider french knots on the surface.

Sample with ends used to embroider French Knots

As you can see the difference between the last two images is quite striking.  I expected there to be a difference of course since in the first piece I had total control as to when I changed colour whereas the colour changes in the 2nd piece were determined by the lengths of yarn in the magic ball. In this case the lengths varied from between 30cm(12″) and 40cm(17″)

I’m rather keen on the embroidered ‘any which way’ fabric and I expect this may grow to become a yoke for a vest or a jacket.

In the meantime there are more experiments to do!

Inspiration for design can come from anywhere.  A child’s painting, your backyard, a street in Italy, a brick wall in Cornwall, the Australian outback, a wrought iron fence in any suburb in any city, a favourite painter or a favourite fibre artist.

Doodling and brainstorming can boost creativity although the latter usually requires a group of people sharing ideas but I’m a freeformer so I believe that anything is possible

This site might be worth a visit. And don’t forgt to click on the 10 Creative Myths link on this site!  Brilliant advice and I couldn’t have said it any better myself!

I particularly like this suggestion I grabbed from Step 4 at the above site …..“freedom inhibits creativity. There are nothing like restrictions to get you thinking.” I occasionally run creative challenges on my Ravelry and Yahoo groups which begin with a certain criteria which could easily be looked on as a restriction.  For example the current challenge is based on a “magic ball” of yarn where differing lengths of yarn are knotted together and then crocheted or knitted. They can then add whatever extras they like and what each participant does with this fabric is entirely up to them.  Past challenges have proven that the above quote is very true.

Some of my favourite painters who I turn to are:

Paul Klee

Wassily Kandinsky

Hundertwasser

Robert Delaunay

Sonia Delaunay

Marc Chagall

Juan Miro

In fact any of the Expressionists and Impressionists are good creative fodder.  You don’t have to like any of these artists’ work but studying their use of colour and line is an invaulable exercise.

Even if you never create anything from your explorations it’s still beneficial to absorb the possibilities from this kind of creative wandering.

There are those who don’t believe that even a basic knowledge of colour theory is necessary in order to design successfully. Some of these people, the lucky ones,  fall into the category of those who were born with an innate colour sense.  The rest?  Well….as I said, a little bit of colour theory never hurt anyone….

I had to learn about colour and from the moment I painted the obligatory grey scale at art school I was captivated.  I had fabulous art teachers who encouraged me, taught me to ‘see’, to live dangerously when it came to colour choices and that nothing is precious until it is finished.

I still make mistakes but the making of these mistakes isn’t a negative.  Instead I see them as a continuation of the learning that began over 20 years ago.

Colour sites to explore…..

Colour Formulas

Colour Lovers

Back in the days when I was designing knitwear I used all kinds of different programs.  Creation 6, Kids Pix, Deluxe Paint, Stitch Painter to name a few.

Nowadays I mostly use Garment Designer and Stitch Painter from the Cochenille Design Studio which were developed by Susan Lazear and my all time favourite Gliftex which was developed by Owen Ransen.

Garment Designer and Stitch Painter each have a specific purpose in that you use Garment Designer to design actual clothing patterns for either sewing or knitting or crochet. Stitch Painter is used to create surface designs for knitwear, beading and stitchery.

Gliftex on the other hand, is super useful for many things including surface design ideas for fabric printing, scrapbooking, quilting and creating imagery for polymer clay transfers not to mention ideas for stitching.

Gliftex is my favourite tool for generating colour and design ideas and for helping me overcome creative block.

Here are a few designs Gliftex created in a matter of minutes…

As an added bonus, Gliftex can also be used as a colour scheme aid!

You can download demos of all the software mentioned above by following the links provided.

Then there are fractals!  A wonderful source of inspiration and I used them a lot for my knitwear designs many years ago. They are also incredibly beautiful!  At first the very idea of having to write mathematical formulas scared the hell out of me but I needn’t have worried because there are programs out there that do all the work for  you! You just have to click your mouse buttons!

You can download freeware versions of fractal generators including FracTint and Fractal Explorer from here – I used Fractal Explorer to create the above three images and Sterlingware for the two below.  If you look in my Favourite Things column you will also find a link to a fractal site that will take your breath away! Another site for downloads (including Sterlingware) and great imagery is the Amazing Seattle Fractals site

Warning: As with any download from the Internet, please remember to run a virus scan on any file before opening it!