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| Timur wearing one of his creations in Vegueta |
I had seen various videos with bleach applied to dark fabrics, leaving rust-colored patterns on them. We spoke with Timur about it and he set off cutting stencils from a sheet of thick transparent plastic. By now he has made three of them. The result of the application of the last one is pictured above, worn by Timur himself.
I keep thinking up and trying out various types of 3D-knitting where the volume is created by the tendency of stockinette stitch to curl in and the reverse stockinette stitch — not unexpectedly — out. My previous attempt to utilize this property of the basic knitting stitches can be seen here.
This time I decided to do something a bit more complicated. I find the result interesting and reminiscent of a Renaissance ruff, but I think I need to a) overcome my dislike of knitting samples next time and b) generally work more on the idea. As with the previous version, it is reversible. Explanations to follow.
"I don't know how it is, Christopher Robin, but what with all this snow and one thing and another, not to mention icicles and such-like, it isn't so Hot in my field about three o'clock in the morning as some people think it is. It isn't Close, if you know what I mean — not so as to be uncomfortable. It isn't Stuffy. In fact, Christopher Robin," he went on in a loud whisper, "quite-between-ourselves-and-don't-tell-anybody, it's Cold."
"Oh, Eeyore!"
When we were coming to Finland for a winter, it was pretty clear that we will need some warm clothes. Warmer than ones we had in Canaries for sure; warmer than ones we used in the UK. But, while I like to shop, I hate to waste money on something that possibly will serve one season.
So, soon after moving over, we discovered a few second-hand shops that we started to comb methodically. The problem we encountered is that you can find quite interesting brick-a-brack there, but not so much clothes — it appears the Finns tend to get the full money worth out of theirs before finally throwing them away or trying to sell them on. No matter, eventually I found this heavy canvas padded coat (which reminds me in general idea of телогрейка, "bodywarmer", except that telogreikas usually came in "one size doesn't fit anybody", while this one fit me rather snugly. Thick leather belt was soon found for it, and I could have stopped here I suppose.
Except I wanted something a bit more interesting. My original idea was simply to paint something bright, possibly floral, in acrylic over the canvas:
I don't know about you guys but I love charity shops. Charity shops is one of the things that I am missing badly on Fuertevetura, so during this year's holidays in the UK I kept buying and buying stuff in the charity shops. Fortunately, by now I learned stopping myself from buying something that I definitely not going to use — woollies. I concentrated on summery things, with one exception — this jeans jacket, which hopefully will be useful when Canarian winter strikes with its usual fierceness.
Now to "what I've done" bit. Charity shop things often have small defects on them, which I guess are reasons why the previous owners part with their much-loved stuff in the first place. This jacket was no exception — although in good condition, it had a small hole on the back of the right sleeve. And that was a good reason to exercise my (not-that-extensive) embroidery skills.
Of embroidery I know very little, practically nothing, and do even less. But one thing that I do I learned a while ago — creative darning using the chain stitch. It's an extremely useful stitch, as it is very flexible and once you've decided what figure are doing, you just sort of fumble you way along, correcting and adjusting as needed. I did my first cover-up years ago embroidering a little lizard on my best, but by-then-old, sweater. People who know me and Kirill personally might now go "ah-ha!" finally discovering the explanation for sudden appearance of color matching animals, flowers and other patterns on our garments.
This little tribal sun is not the best thing I did, but it'll do and this jacket will hopefully serve another few years.
