Playing with a Few Ideas

I’m currently working on getting everything I have already started on Knitting-and.com finished (Singercraft, spiritualist scrapbook, hairpin lace, home work book, get the wiki working as a wiki should etc) but I thought I’d throw around a few ideas for new techniques I would like to cover in the future.

What do you think of these ideas?

Macrame Lace

When we think of macrame these days it’s more likely to be thoughts of dodgy plant hangers, chunky wall hangings in the shape of owls (I love those owls, but that’s beside the point) and tragic disco era handbags. However, in the late 1800’s (and possibly before) macrame was used as a style of lace-making. Using the same knots as the dodgy plant hangers and strange metallic handbags, they created everything from gorgeous shawl edgings to insertions to fancy fringes for furnishing (try saying that three times fast). These types of edgings are still going strong in some countries, I have seen some lovely work in a Portuguese language magazine and some references in a recent issue of Keito Dama from Japan.

I wouldn’t go as far as attempting to make a Victorian era macrame lace desk (hi Dad!), but I thought it might be nice to try and revive this old lace craft and give it back the level of respect that it deserves all over the world.

Netting

Another lace making craft, netting is incredibly simple and takes only a few tools. I’m thinking of investigating the technique and it’s versatility. When we think of netting, if at all, we tend to think of cotton, string bags, fishing nets, and wartime era hair snoods. But what about yarn scarves, decorative laces, embroidered netting, doilies and other uses it was put to? I think that would be a fun technique to explore.

The Sure-Fit Designs System and Pattern Drafting

This one is just a maybe.

I was thinking that I could document when I use the Sure-Fit Designs system to draft different types of sewing patterns.

Since I’m only what I would term an adventurous novice when it comes to sewing, this idea may or may not pan out. It would also mean that anyone using the tutorials would have to own the Sure-Fit system or Winifred Aldritch’s drafting books since these are what I use, so I’m not sure whether or not this is a good idea? These ideas could be used with any self-drafted patterns though, so we’ll see. I certainly wouldn’t be giving any instruction on drafting basic blocks. This would be more of an investigation into how I’ve changed basic Sure-Fit blocks to make different garments or solved fitting problems.

So what do you think?