Busy, busy

It's been a very busy week here at KiniB. So just a quick hello today.

The image is a Sami band (a narrow band based on the traditional weaving patterns of the Sami people of northern Scandanavia). The bands would traditionally be woven in wool so would have a denser weave than the Orlec thread I used, but as test pieces go, I'm pleased with it.

The traditional bands would be used for many things, such as wrapping the bottoms of trousers tightly to the wearer's boots - to keep the snow and cold air out. I'm not sure what this band will become, but I think it would make a fantastic light (or bell) pull, so I've plaited the ends to keep it neat while I decide what to do with it.

The pattern is a pick up type weave made using a Sunna heddle with my 10" Ashford loom. The pattern is from "Weaving Sami Bands" by Susan J Foulkes. Catch her blog at Durham Weaver.

I really love the weaving patterns of the Nordic countries. What are your favourite weaving inspirations? Leave a comment and let me know.

Mossy inspiration

I've been experimenting on and off with different ways of creating visual textures for art quilt backgrounds. I've tried felting, confetti quilting (great for using up tiny fabric scraps), painting but this week I've been playing around with digital images which I could fabric print at home, or turn into a print on demand dressmaking fabric.

The vernal equinox occurred on Saturday (20th March 2021). At an equinox the sun appears directly over the equator and day and night are the same length. In the spring the equinox marks the start of lengthening days and the promise of better weather. Blue skies and green shoots appearing on the twiglike hedges put me in the mood for a plant inspired print. I thought of the Versace dress made famous by Jennifer Lopez (among others) and got distracted away from art quilts to dressmaking fabrics.

I first dabbled with print on demand fabric a few years back when I was invited to a wedding loosely themed on the TV show, Doctor Who. For the pattern to repeat properly over the width and length of the fabric it is essential to either design a full width image or to create a repeatable, tessellating image. For the wedding outfit I created a full width image with a repeat along the length of the fabric. If you study the top and bottom of the image you can see where the repeat starts again. Trying to recall the lessons I learned back then I set about designing a new spring fabric. But first to find some inspiration.

With lockdown still ongoing my first thought was to use images of spring flowers from the garden, but I wasn't sure I wanted to look like a walking drift of daffodils. Something more abstract felt like the way forward. A few years back I used to collect textures for a graphic designer of my acquaintance. Rock formations, seaweed, sand ripples on the beach after the tide goes out... You get the idea - the kind of things a city dweller wasn't likely to get their camera on without a trip to the coast. Surely I could find something there.

Nope. - The beach textures weren't really saying spring so I eventually selected an image of some sphagnum moss in a verdant shade of green. I isolated one of the rosettes, reflecting it horizontally and vertically to create a four rosette motif which could then be repeated as a textile print. I liked the way the reddish tips fade into the black background and the contrast between the vivid green against black, but it wasn't quite was I was imagining. That black wasn't really chanelling spring for me.

For version two I chose a green from within the rosette's colour palette to create a softer colour for the background. To give the print some more visual interest I duplicated the layer and offset it to fill some of the blank space then faded it to 75% opacity so it would create some depth.

That created a more pleasing pattern but it still had a strong grid like quality to it. Perhaps playing around with scale could improve that.

Increasing the size of the background pattern created a more interesting texture which would still tessellate - could be repeated to fit any fabric width. That is the image at the top of the post.

A more densely textured image was created by enlarging and rotating an extra layer of the motif but the rotation meant that the edges of the pattern would no longer interlock to create a repeating pattern over any width or length of fabric. That would work for a quilt background but not a dressmaking fabric though it might be fixable if I crop the image along the centre of the darker rosettes. Something to play with on another day.

What do you think? Did I do the sphagnum moss justice? Which is your favourite print? Have you ever tried creating print on demand fabrics? Who did your printing for you? Why not give them a shout out in the comments. Or let me know if you'd like to see a tutorial on creating repeat patterns.

The sun's mirror

A bonus mid-week post.

Since my moon post on the 10th March, our nearest neighbour in space has been on my mind a lot. Partly that's because the new moon (or "dark moon" if you prefer) was on 13th March and the nights have been so dark the sheep are invisible. There is little light pollution where I live so the moon really is the light in our night sky.

Just as some people suffer from Seasonally Affected Disorder and crave sunlight during the winter months, I miss the moon when she goes dark. If I'm trying to photograph something else, like meteors or the Milky Way, then of course a dark moon makes that easier but when night after night ths sky is dark it feels like something is missing, even though she's still there waiting for the sun to light her up her familiar face once more.

Of course, the moon has held meaning for those who observe her for thousands, maybe millions, of years and while I can't presume to know what feelings others experience when they look up at the night sky I recently heard Sandi Toksvig talk about what it means to her.

Looking for something relaxing to listen to on the radio I came across some episodes of a show called "Sandi Toksvig's Hygge" - prounonce that "hoo-ga." What could be more relaxing than Sandi talking to her guests about what simple pleasures bring them contentment? So over a few evenings as I chopped the veg for dinner I listened to the show.

The episode that really stuck out of me was episode three - available here for those who can access iPlayer/BBC Sounds. Sandi talks about when her children were young and she was doing a lot of travelling in the days before mobile phones were in almost everyone's pockets. Sometimes she was in places where phoning home might not be possible. She told her children, "It doesn't matter where I am in the world guys. If I look up at the moon at night please know that when you look up at the moon at night we're looking at the same moon." She continued, "So instead of saying I love you, my kids and I, we say 'same moon' because wherever we are in the world, it connects us." I thought in these physically distanced times that was a wonderful thought and worth sharing. Hopefully Sandi won't mind, given that she said it on the radio.

Time and technology have of course moved on and now we can phone, or message, Skype or email, even pop a bit of niff naff on Facebook to say we're still here. And I encourage you to do that. Let those you love know you are okay. But when words fail you, look up at the night sky, look at the moon and know that when those you love look up you're both looking at the same moon and you are connected.

The image accompanying this post is a composite of images I took during the 2007 total lunar eclipse. If you want to see some moon inspired crafting and are on Facebook or Instagram look up "Passyflora Design" in particular her wonderful patchwork and thread-painted image of the full moon.

Do you miss the moon? Has it inspired you in your crafting? Why not share a link to your favourite moon inspired image or tell me who you'll think of the next time you look up at the moon. It's okay - I won't tell.

Paint the whole world with a rainbow

I've been on a bit of a frugality trip when it comes to the craft cave. In part that was due to lockdown - my favourite yarn and fabric shops were closed to "in person" shopping and I find buying online a bit of a lottery unless I know the exact thing I want. I've also been concerned about the amount of waste crafting can create. Not every pattern tessellates (fits together without gaps) and particularly when dressmaking there are lots of "scraps."

I've been thinking of ways to work with those small irregular pieces so that every scrap gets used and the thing that seemed perfect for the zeitgeist was to turn them into fabric cards and postcards.

Just because you can't go on holiday doesn't mean you can't send a post card. While we were all physically distancing (I prefer that term to socially distancing) I thought it would be nice to add personal touches when communicating the old fashioned way - with paper and ink. So instead of sending commerical cards I've made my own. Some I've sandwiched into card frames, others I've turned into post cards by sewing them onto a card backing.

I started playing around with abstract designs - getting a feel for the process. Next I made a few picture cards in my favoured palette of blues and greens, but then I decided I wanted to go bold and a bag of cotton oddments provided the perfect inspiration - rainbows.

Rainbows were everywhere in 2020. They were adopted as a symbol of support for the NHS and its workers. Before that the rainbow flag was adopted as a symbol of the LGBT community and before that a symbol of peace and hope and before that... You get the idea. For all those reasons a rainbow of colours felt like an image people might like to receive.

I cut strips from the offcuts of quilting cotton and sewed them onto scraps of interfacing (or stabiliser as it is also known). While the finished design doesn't have that familiar rainbow arc I think the pattern definitely says rainbow and hopefully brings a smile to the faces of those who receive the cards.

The science bit

It occurred to me that while I knew the basic idea of how a rainbow is formed - the colours which make up white light are scattered (spread out) as they pass through water droplets - I'd never really thought about why a rainbow is circular (though only part of the circle is seen from the Earth's surface).

My first draft of this post got quite technical but I've pared it back to hopefully something a little less like a physics lecture.

When white light (like daylight) passes through raindrops it changes speed. It slows down when it enters the raindrop and speeds up again when it goes back into air. That change in speed makes the light ray bend, a phenomenon known as refraction. It's like when you go from moving in air to moving in water. Water resists your movement more than air so you go slower.

The image with the triangle represents what happens when white light is shone at a glass prism (a bar of glass shaped like a Toblerone (TM).

Light rays are refracted as they enter the glass prism but different colours of light slow down by different amounts. Blue light in glass slows down (refracts more) more than red light, so blue light refracts/bends more. Because the different colours bend by different amounts they become spread out into a rainbow. This is called dispersion. The same thing happens when light hits a rain drop, but some of the light also reflects off the back of the raindrop.

It is the reflections which produces the familiar shape of the rainbow. The light reflects most strongly, so appears brighter, when the sun's rays hit the raindrop at around 42 degrees. When you have lots of raindrops reflecting light at around 42 degrees that light forms a cone as seen from your eye and it is that cone which gives the rainbow its shape.

More information on rainbow formation can be found here and there are lots of physics sites which explain more about reflection and refraction.

I hope you liked the cards even if you didn't read "the science bit." Why not post a comment or drop me an email (the address is on the website) and let me know what you make with your fabric scraps, or what picture you'd like to see if a card were to drop onto your mat.

For next Monday's post I'm already feeling inspired by some close up pictures of moss I found. Where will that inspiration lead? Come back next week and find out.

I'm still here

It has been a while since I updated the blog. Crikey - nearly two years. So why post now? Well, a very dear friend pointed out that during these uncertain and scary times people don't always want to ring and check why you've "gone quiet" in case the news is bad. They pointed out that regular updates let people know I am still here (because despite its best efforts, not everyone is on Facebook). So here I am signing in to let you know lovely readers that I am still doing my thing.

I've been focussed more on back garden photography and writing than on painting or sewing over the last year and a bit, so to whet your appetite before a proper update here is an image I shot of the moon.

What we think of as the surface of the moon is actually regolith. Isn't that a wonderful word. It is the loose dust and broken rocks that cover the actual surface of the moon. It is mostly made up of the materials found in that area of the moon but also contains traces of material from distant impact crators.

When we look at the moon, even with our naked eyes, we see the dark areas - the maria - which are large areas of cooled basalt lava. Those areas tend to be higher in iron and magnesium. Some of those basalts are high in ilemite - an iron-titanium oxide. The areas of the moon that appear lighter are the lunar highlands. They are predominantly calcium rich rather than iron.

The colours of the photograph have been boosted to show the different colours of the moon's surface (or regolith) mineral content. The bluer areas are rich in ilmenite. So the blue areas reveal titanium rich deposits. The purple and orange areas contain less titanium. The white areas contain more calcium.

So there you go - a little art, a little geology. I hope you found it interesting. Please leave a comment if you enjoyed the read. And while you're at it why not pick up the phone, send an email, send a text, comment on a Facebook post, let people know you're still there, doing your thing.