Friday, October 21, 2011

Moving!

I have decided to try this blog on wordpress, as the posting of pictures (which I seem to be doing quite alot of lately) is much easier over there. Join me there for the journey!

http://pragueparchments.wordpress.com

Thursday, October 20, 2011

Twisted Cord

So I decided to take some of these miles of embroidery floss and make some of my own twisted cord for my next 8 tama kumi project (since I still haven't gotten my damn book). I'm NEVER ordering from that frigging Amazon vendor again!!

Wasn't sure how to make twisted cord (using embroidery floss for anything other than, well, embroidery or cross-stitch is completely new to me), so I googled it. I love the intarwebs! Found a seriously easy slideshow how to from an Aussie here.

Pic of the twisted cord:



Started with a 6 ft length of two strands of #5 DMC in "blanc" and "498". Twisting them yields 2.75 feet of usable cord.

Will take another pic once I've braided it.

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

My Kumi spirals





So I have started working these patterns, yo. The book I ordered still isn't here after three weeks, so I'm just experimenting, trying stuff out. I'm also documenting it.

Here are the pdfs for the "Chaos Braid" and the "Ocean Spiral".

Wednesday, October 5, 2011

Braids - the Genoese Bar (1st attempt)

Since I'm into Kumihimo now, when I purchased my kit, I also bought a couple of books, one of which is this one by Jacqui Carey.

On page 37 is instructions to make the "single Genoese Bar".

My first try:

Monday, October 3, 2011

Kumihimo

A year ago to the day since I last posted! Weird!

I know I said I'd do better, but mundane life is...well, mundane.

The good news is that with the Queen Pig Bitch of the Universe gone, people who should have known better have realized I'm not a cheating whore, everything seems shiny and new, and I can have some fun again. Huzzah!





My latest infatuation: Kumihimo. 'Manda brought it up last time she visited, and well, you know how I am. I got this kit on Amazon and these books, and have completed the following projects:








First: the "test" I did on 'Manda's loom while she was visiting me. It's now on my keyring.

This is an 8 tama (strand) spiral round braid using fibre cord obtained from Wal-Mart. It has a firmer, matte finish because of the cord.





This is the first thing I did on my own loom. It's a half round braid, 12 tama. It's ECU colors: Royal Purple with Gold hearts. On one end is a split ring (like keychain ring) with a bulldog clip on it. The other end also has a split ring and that has a plastic "snap strap" on the end.





You clip the one end on the baby's shirt, unsnap the strap and put the pacifier handle through then re-snap it. Voila! Pacifier leash! Thinking about selling these at ECU home games.






Then I made a flat braid on the flat loom and sent that to my daughter before I took a picture of it.




Then I decided to try a purpley-green braid, where the green is varigated thread.




Which becomes this --------->











Then I made an all black spiral and a red and black spiral (don't have a pic of the black one):

















And now I'm working on the "Cathanar Heart". This is a 12 tama half-flat braid.



Here's how to thread the loom:

(Blue lines indicate white thread).

To make the pattern:
32 - 10
1 - 23
16 - 26
17 - 7
move 31 to 32 and 2 to 1
move 15 to 14 and 18 to 17
8 to 15
25 to 18
9 to 2
24 to 31
move 7 to 8 and 10 to 9
move 23 to 24 and 26 to 25
repeat, do not rotate disk.


This will produce this braid:





I just got the pattern for the Atlantean Opal pattern from Dar at Raven's Cove, and will work that up when I'm done with the Cathanar Heart pattern (once the bobbins are empty). Still have loads of patterns to try, and I have a Kumihimo book on the way. Will post when it gets here.



(Update: Opal Braid with pic of my Opal badge, cross-stitched:)