Teaser photo--here's what I sent to my partner moxydawg:
So... I had so much fun in this swap. This may have been my most fun swap package to put together thus far. When I got the questionnaire I learned that my partner really liked "royal" colours like bright reds and purples and that her favourite Downton character was Lady Rose. I took that, gave it a big huge grin, and ran with it!
To start (and if you've been reading the blog you already heard about this) I decided to knit the High Tea Cuffs and Jabot out of the Unofficial Downton Abbey Knits 2013 by Interweave.
Since my partner said she liked bright reds I chose to knit them both in Knit Picks Imagination Hand-Painted Sock yarn in the Ruby Slippers colourway. You can read all about the saga with resizing the mitt patterns to match the new yarn weight in an earlier post. These were both easy knits and really fun to create, and I love the way the Ruby Slippers colourway knits up. I'm glad I have a bunch more of it in my stash. Bonus! My swap partner loves these and said she can't wait to wear them the next time she attends high tea at the Drake in Chicago! I'm hoping she sends me photos!
To go with the jabot, since my partner mentioned that she really loved the beautiful hair combs and decorations that the Crawley ladies got to wear, and since the pattern in the book is styled with a small pin at the throat to keep the three layers of the jabot together, I browsed around Etsy and found this vintage pin that's reminiscent of the hair ornaments seen on the show. It matches really well with the yarn I used for the jabot, too!
Next, I thought I'd make a project bag (as I do) but when I asked on the forums what sort of project bag people wanted, my partner responded that she's got a TON of project bags and would much rather have a double-pointed needle case. This intimidated me for a bit, as I had no idea how to go about such a thing, but I looked up a few on the internet and finally settled on this one from Crafty Avocado. The directions were nice and clear and I'm really happy with how it turned out. Because my partner said she liked Rose, I went in search of Rose-inspired fabric and found a Lady Rose of Downton fat quarter bundle from Sisters and Quilters on Etsy.
Since I needed several different fabrics and none of the pieces was larger than what I'd get as a fat quarter, the bundle was perfect and I could mix and match them to create the full DPN case. And it was much easier than I thought it would be!
Next...yarn! I was flipping through my Hand-Dyeing Yarn and Fleece book a while ago and found a technique for creating what's basically a tonal yarn using basic chemistry (dilutions) and hand-painting (pouring) the dye on, then setting it in the microwave or via whatever steam method you want. So I played around with it a bit and I figured out the ratios of dilutions I like. Then I ordered a few Downton-esque colours to get started creating the Downton Yarns (as referenced here) until I got some that I liked. Since my partner said she likes Lady Rose and at least in her early appearances on the show Rose seems to always be wearing a medium blue or slight lavender colour, that's what I decided to go with. So I pulled out a 100g skein of DK weight merino I'd bought quite some time ago when I first got the dyeing bug and some things were on sale, and I created the first full skein of The Girl Who Crafted's new Lady Rose MacClare colourway.
I love the colour so much and the technique is a ton of fun. Basically, you create three dilutions (make up the dyestock and then put different amounts of the pre-made stock (e.g. 2 tbsp., 1 tbsp, 1tsp.) into a cup of water.) Then, starting with the lightest, you pour it onto a section of yarn and massage it around until it's all absorbed. Then you do the next one ~5cm from the first, massage it around and blend the colours together. Then the darkest one, same process. You can do as many dilutions as you want, and repeat as much as you want until the yarn is the level of saturated you want it. Then you steam set it either in the microwave or in a steam bath, however you want (though I wouldn't use a microwave you also prepare food in) and then let it cool and rinse it until the water's clear. Tons of fun and really easy once you get your head around the dilutions.
Finally, no Downton swap is complete without tea. I made a stop to my favourite local tea shop and picked up some Yorkshire Harrowgate black tea (because it HAS to be Yorkshire) to round out the package.
Then I wrapped it all up in this charming Downton Abbey inspired wrapping paper I got from Spoonflower and sent it off.
After some (it should be predictable by now, but it isn't) drama with the US Postal Service, my partner received it and she says she loves it. This swap was so much fun and I really hope Maria decides to run it again next year!
No comments:
Post a Comment