So for getting beginner patterns is ravelry still good? I know I've seen various drama about the knitting boards, and especially as I'm really just paying for collections of well known patterns, I can be a bit choosey and make sure I'm not funding Chuds.
For the most part, those folks left ravelry bc their rhetoric was banned. https://www.ravelry.com/content/no-trump
The owners/admins are not perfect, themselves, but I believe they mean well, and for the most part try to listen to those different from themselves.
I
DO NOT
like the new site design, and actually like the old one, but I'm not paying their bills, so.
Also def taking reccs for collections of knitting patterns that are good for beginners/good bang for the buck. For now I'm really just focused on practicing and probably making some dish towels, so they don't have to at all be project focused. Unless its way easier than I expect to make little knit stuffed toys, in which case just fuck me up with that too. But I suspect it's cast on, knit, purl and slip for me for a while.
Basically any kinda pattern based on a rectangle is gonna work for a dishtowel, just gotta make sure the stitch repeat gets close to a size you want. So if you see a pattern that looks interesting, it can be readily adapted. Or vice versa, a dishtowel is just a mini blanket or wrap, short/wide scarf, a slightly odd-proportioned cowl...
Or make a bunch of themed squares with different techniques and sew them together for a blanket or pillows (there are a lot of these, but Frankie Brown has a bunch of cute patterns): https://www.ravelry.com/bundles/frankies-blankie
Here's a pattern search for toys knit flat, and I restricted it to free patterns just for brevity. https://ravel.me/yewnw5
So, knit flat, you'll need to sew the pieces together, but you learn to increase and decrease, you're well on your way to shaping toys. And socks. And most anything knit.
As far as pattern collections or general beginner books, leaf through (browsing ravelry for patterns, and Amazon's 'Look Now'/Kindle sample feature is good for this) --
the Stitch N Bitch books to see if any patterns appeal, but iirc they had errata for patterns needing correction. (Not uncommon with craft books.)
I gotta get some cheap models to practice on still. I gotta find ones wearing some kind of plate armor with bladed weapons ideally. Possibly with fur trim.
I would like to do at least two test models before trying on my chaos guys. They are extremely detailed and a bit larger than average so any mistakes will be pretty noticable.
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Brovid Hasselsmof[Growling historic on the fury road]Registered Userregular
Sort of finished my brother's thing
I say sort of because I might redo the "expert" in lighter thread so it's less obvious, and I might add outlines to the tools, I dunno.
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StraightziHere we may reign secure, and in my choice,To reign is worth ambition though in HellRegistered Userregular
I feel like doing expert in like, an off white or something would be good
The tools all look really distinct though, I don't know if they need outlining - they'd pop a bit more, but I do like them as is
I actually found some old sword knights for war machine that I'm going to use to test my paint scheme on.
They were dusty though so I had to clean then up a bit and they have to dry before I can prime them this evening. Then tomorrow I can pull the paints out.
I need to learn to crochet again. I haven't done it for ages in part because working in an engineering department I've been making things at work using the laser cutters and mills and whatnot.
But we're coming up on the best part of a year of only on site if essential so I've not done much hands on.
I wanna make something. I wanna create.
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lonelyahavaCall me Ahava ~~She/Her~~Move to New ZealandRegistered Userregular
Craftsy is having a sale for $2.50 right now I think for a year of membership.
You get access to all kinds of classes.
And I can highly recommend their basics things for knitting and embroidery.
Brovid Hasselsmof[Growling historic on the fury road]Registered Userregular
edited February 2021
The two new patterns I bought arrived, the old-timey folksy ones. So old-timey that they came on paper through the post instead of as a downloadable PDF. How quaint.
The one I want to do for my nephews is the alphabet with different animals for each letter. Some of their choices though are a bit suspect so I think I will modify them. A lot of them are pretty standard, like E for Elephant, F for Fox, Z for Zebra. But then it has J for Jackrabbit, N for Nine-banded Armadillo, U for Upland Sandpiper, and X for Xantus's Murrelet.
J for Jackrabbit is fine but not something my nephews will know and it just looks like a rabbit, so I think I'll swap that for Jellyfish. The others are like, c'mon. So I'm going to do N for Narwhal, U for (sea) Urchin, and X for Xenopus.
I accept that Xenopus is still not something most people know but it's better than Xantus's Murrelet, like what the heck is either of those things?? (It's a bird, apparently)
I'm also looking at wee benchtop CNC mills/engraving machine becuase I've found some that will do that (and have an addon laser head) for <£500 rather than the £2K+ I was expecting.
Yes they're limited especially compared to the industrial grade kit we have at work but I think they could act as a good training tool. I'm gonna see if I can persuade my boss that the company would benefit from buying me one. It'll probably be a no but hey, "don't ask dont get" right?
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StraightziHere we may reign secure, and in my choice,To reign is worth ambition though in HellRegistered Userregular
You could also do U for Urchin (archaic term referring to hedgehogs)
I'm also looking at wee benchtop CNC mills/engraving machine becuase I've found some that will do that (and have an addon laser head) for <£500 rather than the £2K+ I was expecting.
Yes they're limited especially compared to the industrial grade kit we have at work but I think they could act as a good training tool. I'm gonna see if I can persuade my boss that the company would benefit from buying me one. It'll probably be a no but hey, "don't ask dont get" right?
If work could pay for it, it might be better to push for one of the ones that would be a bit more beefy/robust. Not sure what materials you prototype in, but the cheaper 3040 might not be as timely on doing something in aluminium compared to getting like the Nomad 3 or Bantam tools new machine.
Related to the 3040 but some guy just made a big fixture plate for his and I love it: https://www.reddit.com/r/hobbycnc/comments/lmusxz/heres_the_build_video_to_the_fixture_plate_i/
My buddy just got his snapmaker 2 a while ago (which has the ability to 3d print, laser, cnc all in one). And I've been wanting to figure out a project to put my machines against his to sort of see how they work out.
All that to say that I'd be really interested in seeing what you are going to do/if you're able to get a robot!
A little disappointed in how I did on the color transitions on the highlights. Glad I'm practicing it first. It does look kinda like iron though which is a neat effect to get without any matalic paints.
I gotta learn how to blend colors I guess to get a good gradient instead of a high contrast edge? I'm not sure how to do that.
Edit: to be clear I was focusing on the armor on the shoulders primarily for this test. I'm trying to make essentially black knight cast iron plate armor. I'm pretty close here. Just need slightly less contrast and a smoother blend.
Dropped everything to knock this one out as quick as I could, gf loves Ursula and I love silhouette patterns. It still amazes and frustrates me how long these take though, I didnt time it exactly but I'd estimate 25 to 30 hours.
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Brovid Hasselsmof[Growling historic on the fury road]Registered Userregular
Mate you aren't kidding. How does it take so long.
I am one week in to my big stupid project, it's not much to look at but it is quite satisfying. Just over 3,000 stitches, only 177,000 more to go. I think this maybe took 20-25 hours, I dunno exactly. Definitely did a couple of 4 or 5 hour chunks as I'm binge-rewatching Deadwood
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lonelyahavaCall me Ahava ~~She/Her~~Move to New ZealandRegistered Userregular
There's no gusset to work, it's literally knit a tube, do some increases on the heel, decreases for the heel turn, knit another tube, and then decrease the toe.
I finished my first sock in 5 days. and the second sock is going to be pretty close to that time as well.
I can totally see being able to add more to this as well, maybe a cable or some texture down the leg and foot, but still be just as simple.
I wasn't sure about socks before, but this pair has honestly changed my mind and i'm really looking forward to working through my *huge* collection of one of 100gram skeins of sock yarn and just making myself more socks.
Brovid Hasselsmof[Growling historic on the fury road]Registered Userregular
I have accumulated a lot of embroidery thread already and it was kind of just haphazardly piled on my coffee table so I needed a storage solution. I can't be arsed to use bobbins and I needed to be able to keep the colours separate so most boxes I could find don't have enough compartments. Then the idea struck me to use a trading card folder. I bought a binder off Amazon with a load of those plastic pocket sheets, the small ones which are 9-to-a-page are just the right size for a skein. And then the whole thing just sits upright on my shelf and takes like no space. I am so proud of myself right now.
I like the darker colors and the gradient better but my hand was less steady for some reason so particularly on the right shoulder it looks a bit messy. The knee plate looks pretty good though.
Still gotta try out the other colors as part of the scheme. Red and gold mostly. That only leaves brown for leather and bone for horns and skulls and flesh for the severed heads a few of the models have. Oh and the skin on the lizard mount and the fur for the horses and cloaks.
I did a thing that was maybe not great for my machine. But it was super neat...well the project was neat. The reason, not so much. My daughters best friend had a dog that passed not too long ago, and today was a little get together/memorial thing. So I got some marble and was going to carve the heck out of it. Turns out it's super messy, and I'm going to have to take my machine apart and clean it (which I probably needed to do anyways).
Result:
Here's the setup/process stuff:
Setup:
I used some diamond coated stone carving tools I got from amazon like 3 years ago:
I started with carving text and also vacuuming up the dust:
Vacuum ended up not being the best idea, more for machine not sounding terrible than anything else. So I swapped to dripping water on it with a pipette:
Things got super messy though:
Super cool to have a machine I can do dumb stuff with like this. Not sure I'd treat a new machine with such....wrecklessness?
Though I do want a new machine!
Alright I've gone through like 50 pages of this thread, and couldn't find the psots I was looking for. But I seem to recall someone was doing stone carving and wanted to ask a few questions. Maybe @Dedwrekka or @Caulk Bite 6 ?
I think I'm going to do more CNC stone cutting, but wasn't sure where to get stone stuff (also not at all opposed to synthetic stuff). Like I found a store on etsy for synthetic opal, but was looking for like tigers eye or other neat stuff. Ideally they'd have a flat portion to I can secure it to the CNC. Any thoughts/suggestions on things to look for.
Again synthetic opal is on the todo list, but currently my project account is a bit money light, so I'll have to wait to either sell some stuff or like next month when I get my allowance. But just wanted to find out where I can buy stuff from if you have suggestions.
Also may need to ping ideas.
I need to clean the machine and then get back to keycap for bowen.
Radiation on
PSN: jfrofl
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Caulk Bite 6One of the multitude of Dans infesting this placeRegistered Userregular
Generally speaking, for the stuff you do, you’d do best to find slabs at gem and stone fairs, though it can get fairly pricey, but that depends on the material. If you have the means to cut slabs yourself, you might be able to save money on raw materials. Keep an eye out for folks selling raw slabs under “lapidary” or “cabochon” on list sites.
A possible alternative is that a thing right now in home building is faux marble countertops, which uses some kind of resin and dyes (don’t know the name of it offhand, my folks had it installed during their recent renovation).
Sorry I can’t help more, I ended up not going in this direction for now.
So I bought yet more fabric, but I actually made the caftan.
It's kinda huge, like, beyond the other projects I've seen using the default pattern, more akin to the oversized dresses I've seen, but moreso. Which is really interesting, because I kinda accidentally sized down to near what my default size would be. But I suspect:
Since I did not cut it square, part of the weight, and the way it billows, is due to extra fabric (including the hemline), which can be amended
Because it is a decorator fabric, it was stiff and did not drape proper (somewhat improved with washing, but it's a thick cotton and just not as drapy)
Because the custom sizing uses your highest circumference and adds 13 inches, that helps explain why I'm swimming in fabric
the original OS pattern (graded for 0-14, US i presume) calls for 1.5 yds. one lady's front panels were 16.5" when she "went big." (a difference of 2.75")
mine, with the custom sizing, only slightly oversized by adding a 1/2", were 25"...
i keep looking at the pattern feeling like (as a newb) i must be missing something, but
Largest circumference measurement:
Bust , Waist or Hip:_________= M
M+ 13 = length of fabric needed ____________=X
X - 1/2" is the back panel, X + 1/2" is the front panel
maybe I'm misremembering a measurement, I'll check again. but I'm not gonna unpick it for now regardless, and try another fabric and/or attempt a mask.
pooka on
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lonelyahavaCall me Ahava ~~She/Her~~Move to New ZealandRegistered Userregular
I think I need to switch to weaving for a bit.
My fingers are really feeling the arthritis and the knitting is starting to become uncomfortable
Brovid Hasselsmof[Growling historic on the fury road]Registered Userregular
Progress. Nearly 5% done.
Picture includes my stitching companion, who when not asleep likes to periodically headbutt my hands for strokes, which is not as helpful as I'm sure he thinks it is.
Picture includes my stitching companion, who when not asleep likes to periodically headbutt my hands for strokes, which is not as helpful as I'm sure he thinks it is.
As someone who occasionally does cross stitch, I am floored by how fast you're knocking this out!
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Brovid Hasselsmof[Growling historic on the fury road]Registered Userregular
The secret is to not have anything else going on in your life.
So I bought yet more fabric, but I actually made the caftan.
It's kinda huge, like, beyond the other projects I've seen using the default pattern, more akin to the oversized dresses I've seen, but moreso. Which is really interesting, because I kinda accidentally sized down to near what my default size would be. But I suspect:
Since I did not cut it square, part of the weight, and the way it billows, is due to extra fabric (including the hemline), which can be amended
Because it is a decorator fabric, it was stiff and did not drape proper (somewhat improved with washing, but it's a thick cotton and just not as drapy)
Because the custom sizing uses your highest circumference and adds 13 inches, that helps explain why I'm swimming in fabric
the original OS pattern (graded for 0-14, US i presume) calls for 1.5 yds. one lady's front panels were 16.5" when she "went big." (a difference of 2.75")
mine, with the custom sizing, only slightly oversized by adding a 1/2", were 25"...
i keep looking at the pattern feeling like (as a newb) i must be missing something, but
Largest circumference measurement:
Bust , Waist or Hip:_________= M
M+ 13 = length of fabric needed ____________=X
X - 1/2" is the back panel, X + 1/2" is the front panel
maybe I'm misremembering a measurement, I'll check again. but I'm not gonna unpick it for now regardless, and try another fabric and/or attempt a mask.
Fabric weight makes a huge, huge difference with something like a caftan. I have one made of light Indian cotton that is fabulous. I made a different one out of a flannel for the winter and NOPE. It doesn't hang right, it's weird, and it feels like so much fabric even though it used less yardage overall. I really need to figure out some alterations to make it work, but it's eeeeffort. Bleh. I have so little creative anything after 2020. But I suspect that it's a combo of mostly the heavier fabric and somewhat some extra fabric that you could pull out by taking in the sides or doing a graded center seam up the back and front.
Caulk Bite 6One of the multitude of Dans infesting this placeRegistered Userregular
Oh right, yeah water cooling is basically essential, always wear a respirator (though I figure you do anyway), especially if you get into any crystalline materials
Fabric weight makes a huge, huge difference with something like a caftan. I have one made of light Indian cotton that is fabulous. I made a different one out of a flannel for the winter and NOPE. It doesn't hang right, it's weird, and it feels like so much fabric even though it used less yardage overall. I really need to figure out some alterations to make it work, but it's eeeeffort. Bleh. I have so little creative anything after 2020. But I suspect that it's a combo of mostly the heavier fabric and somewhat some extra fabric that you could pull out by taking in the sides or doing a graded center seam up the back and front.
Give yourself time, your mojo will come back. But brofist, it is frustrating.
I think the weight does affect the drape, but having done even more calculating, I think homegirl straight up forgot a step in writing the formula.
Largest circumference measurement:
Bust , Waist or Hip:_________= M
M+ 13 = length of fabric needed ____________=X
X - 1/2" is the back panel, X + 1/2" is the front panel
My edit:
largest circumference Measure: bust, waist or hip = M
Length of fabric needed: M + 13 = L L ÷ 2 = X
Back Panel: X - 1/2"; Front Panel: X + 1/2"
So if I'm right, my panels were double the size of the default fit.
pooka on
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Brovid Hasselsmof[Growling historic on the fury road]Registered Userregular
One thing I'm finding really frustrating with this cross stitch is how much fabric I can see through my stitches. I see other people's work on Reddit or wherever, where they're using the same fabric count and same number of strands as me, and their stitches look so tightly packed you can't see the fabric at all. I occasionally get tiny sections where they come out like that but mostly the whole thing is gappy and I kind of hate it.
I'm considering starting again and using 2 strands. But when I tested that before it felt kind of hard to get the needle through so I don't know if it would be enjoyable to do thousands of stitches like it. And it's just annoying because clearly I shouldn't need to use 2.
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lonelyahavaCall me Ahava ~~She/Her~~Move to New ZealandRegistered Userregular
I wonder, are you pulling the yarn through too tightly? So it's not filling out?
One thing I'm finding really frustrating with this cross stitch is how much fabric I can see through my stitches. I see other people's work on Reddit or wherever, where they're using the same fabric count and same number of strands as me, and their stitches look so tightly packed you can't see the fabric at all. I occasionally get tiny sections where they come out like that but mostly the whole thing is gappy and I kind of hate it.
I'm considering starting again and using 2 strands. But when I tested that before it felt kind of hard to get the needle through so I don't know if it would be enjoyable to do thousands of stitches like it. And it's just annoying because clearly I shouldn't need to use 2.
1 strand on 25 might be a little sparse for darker colors, I do think doubling it will fix your issue. But I 100% agree that 2 strands on high count aida is not fun, I have a piece in progress where I've done the opposite, started out on 2 but switched to 1 because I got so annoyed with struggling with it. (I'll take a picture later, I think it's a good concrete example of what a difference just 1 strand makes)
Also consider that not all fabric is made the same, a cheap walmart aida is not going to end up with the same result as a more finely crafted fabric. Hell I've had at least 1 piece where the fabric itself wasn't uniformly consistent and it's definitely noticeable which section is which.
lonelyahava's observation of pulling it too tight is a good one, it's an easy mistake to make when starting out. Not only will doing so reduce the color presence, it can actually warp the fabric if you keep doing it. My first big piece has waves in it from tightening too much lol
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Brovid Hasselsmof[Growling historic on the fury road]Registered Userregular
I don't think the fabric is the issue, this is zweigart lugana which from my very limited understanding is a decent brand. And I think my tension is ok, it's hard to say, but I will try to make it a bit lighter and see if that helps.
It does seem to only be the dark colours where it's bad enough to really bother me. And the corner I've started in is the darkest section of the picture so hopefully it will start looking better as I move away from this corner. Unfortunately the object that is the main focus of the picture is mostly dark brown and black so it's probably going to really irritate me there.
I'm considering starting again and switching to a different brand of floss for the black and dark brown. The first bunch I got is DMC but I got some other colours in a different brand which are a bit thicker. I've read that DMC black in particular is a bit thinner than the other colours which won't be helping.
Seems a bit mad to just ditch something that's taken me so many hours, but it's a tiny fraction of what it will end up taking and it would suck to put all that time in and then hate the result.
If you can find a slim enough needle, you might be able to stitch over those areas where you're bothered by the fabric show-through with another single strand? That's about all I can think of that doesn't involve unpicking but given how much you've done I'd hate to see you have to start over
that said I'm about to entirely unknit and redo a hat because I foolishly trusted the measurements in the pattern and the authors self-assessment that they "have a big head." Reader, they do not.
Posts
The owners/admins are not perfect, themselves, but I believe they mean well, and for the most part try to listen to those different from themselves.
I
DO NOT
like the new site design, and actually like the old one, but I'm not paying their bills, so. Basically any kinda pattern based on a rectangle is gonna work for a dishtowel, just gotta make sure the stitch repeat gets close to a size you want. So if you see a pattern that looks interesting, it can be readily adapted. Or vice versa, a dishtowel is just a mini blanket or wrap, short/wide scarf, a slightly odd-proportioned cowl...
If you'd like to make some (miter) squares and learn
an increase:
https://ravel.me/reverse-miter-dishcloth
a decrease:
https://ravel.me/mitered-knit-washcloth
or both in one project: https://ravel.me/grannys-favourite-dishcloth
Or make a bunch of themed squares with different techniques and sew them together for a blanket or pillows (there are a lot of these, but Frankie Brown has a bunch of cute patterns):
https://www.ravelry.com/bundles/frankies-blankie
Here's a pattern search for toys knit flat, and I restricted it to free patterns just for brevity.
https://ravel.me/yewnw5
So, knit flat, you'll need to sew the pieces together, but you learn to increase and decrease, you're well on your way to shaping toys. And socks. And most anything knit.
As far as pattern collections or general beginner books, leaf through (browsing ravelry for patterns, and Amazon's 'Look Now'/Kindle sample feature is good for this) --
the Mason Dixon Knitting pattern books (they have since renamed to Modern Daily Knitting), but they also have some of those and other patterns as PDFs: https://www.moderndailyknitting.com/product-category/patterns/
Elizabeth Zimmerman and Barbara Walker books, classics for teaching knitting concepts, and encouraging deviating from and creating patterns.
I would like to do at least two test models before trying on my chaos guys. They are extremely detailed and a bit larger than average so any mistakes will be pretty noticable.
I say sort of because I might redo the "expert" in lighter thread so it's less obvious, and I might add outlines to the tools, I dunno.
The tools all look really distinct though, I don't know if they need outlining - they'd pop a bit more, but I do like them as is
They were dusty though so I had to clean then up a bit and they have to dry before I can prime them this evening. Then tomorrow I can pull the paints out.
But we're coming up on the best part of a year of only on site if essential so I've not done much hands on.
I wanna make something. I wanna create.
You get access to all kinds of classes.
And I can highly recommend their basics things for knitting and embroidery.
Even if I haven't tried the embroidery yet.
Democrats Abroad! || Vote From Abroad
The one I want to do for my nephews is the alphabet with different animals for each letter. Some of their choices though are a bit suspect so I think I will modify them. A lot of them are pretty standard, like E for Elephant, F for Fox, Z for Zebra. But then it has J for Jackrabbit, N for Nine-banded Armadillo, U for Upland Sandpiper, and X for Xantus's Murrelet.
J for Jackrabbit is fine but not something my nephews will know and it just looks like a rabbit, so I think I'll swap that for Jellyfish. The others are like, c'mon. So I'm going to do N for Narwhal, U for (sea) Urchin, and X for Xenopus.
I accept that Xenopus is still not something most people know but it's better than Xantus's Murrelet, like what the heck is either of those things?? (It's a bird, apparently)
because, you know,
they're xtinct
Yes they're limited especially compared to the industrial grade kit we have at work but I think they could act as a good training tool. I'm gonna see if I can persuade my boss that the company would benefit from buying me one. It'll probably be a no but hey, "don't ask dont get" right?
If work could pay for it, it might be better to push for one of the ones that would be a bit more beefy/robust. Not sure what materials you prototype in, but the cheaper 3040 might not be as timely on doing something in aluminium compared to getting like the Nomad 3 or Bantam tools new machine.
Related to the 3040 but some guy just made a big fixture plate for his and I love it:
https://www.reddit.com/r/hobbycnc/comments/lmusxz/heres_the_build_video_to_the_fixture_plate_i/
My buddy just got his snapmaker 2 a while ago (which has the ability to 3d print, laser, cnc all in one). And I've been wanting to figure out a project to put my machines against his to sort of see how they work out.
All that to say that I'd be really interested in seeing what you are going to do/if you're able to get a robot!
A little disappointed in how I did on the color transitions on the highlights. Glad I'm practicing it first. It does look kinda like iron though which is a neat effect to get without any matalic paints.
I gotta learn how to blend colors I guess to get a good gradient instead of a high contrast edge? I'm not sure how to do that.
Edit: to be clear I was focusing on the armor on the shoulders primarily for this test. I'm trying to make essentially black knight cast iron plate armor. I'm pretty close here. Just need slightly less contrast and a smoother blend.
I am one week in to my big stupid project, it's not much to look at but it is quite satisfying. Just over 3,000 stitches, only 177,000 more to go. I think this maybe took 20-25 hours, I dunno exactly. Definitely did a couple of 4 or 5 hour chunks as I'm binge-rewatching Deadwood
https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/vanilla-is-the-new-black
There's no gusset to work, it's literally knit a tube, do some increases on the heel, decreases for the heel turn, knit another tube, and then decrease the toe.
I finished my first sock in 5 days. and the second sock is going to be pretty close to that time as well.
I can totally see being able to add more to this as well, maybe a cable or some texture down the leg and foot, but still be just as simple.
I wasn't sure about socks before, but this pair has honestly changed my mind and i'm really looking forward to working through my *huge* collection of one of 100gram skeins of sock yarn and just making myself more socks.
Democrats Abroad! || Vote From Abroad
sparkly
I like the darker colors and the gradient better but my hand was less steady for some reason so particularly on the right shoulder it looks a bit messy. The knee plate looks pretty good though.
Still gotta try out the other colors as part of the scheme. Red and gold mostly. That only leaves brown for leather and bone for horns and skulls and flesh for the severed heads a few of the models have. Oh and the skin on the lizard mount and the fur for the horses and cloaks.
Result:
Here's the setup/process stuff:
Setup:
I used some diamond coated stone carving tools I got from amazon like 3 years ago:
I started with carving text and also vacuuming up the dust:
Vacuum ended up not being the best idea, more for machine not sounding terrible than anything else. So I swapped to dripping water on it with a pipette:
Things got super messy though:
Super cool to have a machine I can do dumb stuff with like this. Not sure I'd treat a new machine with such....wrecklessness?
Though I do want a new machine!
I think I'm going to do more CNC stone cutting, but wasn't sure where to get stone stuff (also not at all opposed to synthetic stuff). Like I found a store on etsy for synthetic opal, but was looking for like tigers eye or other neat stuff. Ideally they'd have a flat portion to I can secure it to the CNC. Any thoughts/suggestions on things to look for.
Again synthetic opal is on the todo list, but currently my project account is a bit money light, so I'll have to wait to either sell some stuff or like next month when I get my allowance. But just wanted to find out where I can buy stuff from if you have suggestions.
Also may need to ping ideas.
I need to clean the machine and then get back to keycap for bowen.
A possible alternative is that a thing right now in home building is faux marble countertops, which uses some kind of resin and dyes (don’t know the name of it offhand, my folks had it installed during their recent renovation).
Sorry I can’t help more, I ended up not going in this direction for now.
It's kinda huge, like, beyond the other projects I've seen using the default pattern, more akin to the oversized dresses I've seen, but moreso. Which is really interesting, because I kinda accidentally sized down to near what my default size would be. But I suspect:
Since I did not cut it square, part of the weight, and the way it billows, is due to extra fabric (including the hemline), which can be amended
Because it is a decorator fabric, it was stiff and did not drape proper (somewhat improved with washing, but it's a thick cotton and just not as drapy)
Because the custom sizing uses your highest circumference and adds 13 inches, that helps explain why I'm swimming in fabric
the original OS pattern (graded for 0-14, US i presume) calls for 1.5 yds. one lady's front panels were 16.5" when she "went big." (a difference of 2.75")
mine, with the custom sizing, only slightly oversized by adding a 1/2", were 25"...
i keep looking at the pattern feeling like (as a newb) i must be missing something, but
maybe I'm misremembering a measurement, I'll check again. but I'm not gonna unpick it for now regardless, and try another fabric and/or attempt a mask.
My fingers are really feeling the arthritis and the knitting is starting to become uncomfortable
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Picture includes my stitching companion, who when not asleep likes to periodically headbutt my hands for strokes, which is not as helpful as I'm sure he thinks it is.
As someone who occasionally does cross stitch, I am floored by how fast you're knocking this out!
Fabric weight makes a huge, huge difference with something like a caftan. I have one made of light Indian cotton that is fabulous. I made a different one out of a flannel for the winter and NOPE. It doesn't hang right, it's weird, and it feels like so much fabric even though it used less yardage overall. I really need to figure out some alterations to make it work, but it's eeeeffort. Bleh. I have so little creative anything after 2020. But I suspect that it's a combo of mostly the heavier fabric and somewhat some extra fabric that you could pull out by taking in the sides or doing a graded center seam up the back and front.
wish list
Steam wishlist
Etsy wishlist
I think the weight does affect the drape, but having done even more calculating, I think homegirl straight up forgot a step in writing the formula.
My edit:
largest circumference Measure: bust, waist or hip = M
Length of fabric needed: M + 13 = L
L ÷ 2 = X
Back Panel: X - 1/2"; Front Panel: X + 1/2"
So if I'm right, my panels were double the size of the default fit.
I'm considering starting again and using 2 strands. But when I tested that before it felt kind of hard to get the needle through so I don't know if it would be enjoyable to do thousands of stitches like it. And it's just annoying because clearly I shouldn't need to use 2.
Is that a thing?
I know nothing about needlepoint
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1 strand on 25 might be a little sparse for darker colors, I do think doubling it will fix your issue. But I 100% agree that 2 strands on high count aida is not fun, I have a piece in progress where I've done the opposite, started out on 2 but switched to 1 because I got so annoyed with struggling with it. (I'll take a picture later, I think it's a good concrete example of what a difference just 1 strand makes)
Also consider that not all fabric is made the same, a cheap walmart aida is not going to end up with the same result as a more finely crafted fabric. Hell I've had at least 1 piece where the fabric itself wasn't uniformly consistent and it's definitely noticeable which section is which.
lonelyahava's observation of pulling it too tight is a good one, it's an easy mistake to make when starting out. Not only will doing so reduce the color presence, it can actually warp the fabric if you keep doing it. My first big piece has waves in it from tightening too much lol
It does seem to only be the dark colours where it's bad enough to really bother me. And the corner I've started in is the darkest section of the picture so hopefully it will start looking better as I move away from this corner. Unfortunately the object that is the main focus of the picture is mostly dark brown and black so it's probably going to really irritate me there.
I'm considering starting again and switching to a different brand of floss for the black and dark brown. The first bunch I got is DMC but I got some other colours in a different brand which are a bit thicker. I've read that DMC black in particular is a bit thinner than the other colours which won't be helping.
Seems a bit mad to just ditch something that's taken me so many hours, but it's a tiny fraction of what it will end up taking and it would suck to put all that time in and then hate the result.
that said I'm about to entirely unknit and redo a hat because I foolishly trusted the measurements in the pattern and the authors self-assessment that they "have a big head." Reader, they do not.
It doesn't fit!!
Hopefully it fits the niece!
e: omg huge what happened to resizing, Vanilla?!