WIP Wednesday (August ‘24)
Welcome to WIP Wednesday!
The idea behind this was to post, on the first Wednesday of every month, an update of all my work-in-progresses, to document how I'm getting along with my work and hold me accountable to finish it. I admit it - I love starting projects but hate finishing them, and I am such a perfectionist that I often give up when faced with any kind of mistake I have to fix. Similarly, the prospect of ‘making things perfect to post them on Instagram/the portfolio’ stressed me out into just doing nothing. Really, this is more of a personal journal tracking my progress, but for you, dear reader, if you look at my work in this series and think ‘wow, that looks rough’ – that’s the point!
Knitting
Rico Creative Melange Chunky Jumper 952
To my shame I started this project about three years ago – I saw this image online (somewhere?) and of course HAD to make it. I thought the yarn colour and shape were so beautiful (it’s the Rico Creative Melange Chunky in 060 pink and blue for the curious!), plus the pattern turned out to be a free one from Rico Design.
Why did this take me so long? The only pattern I had ahold of was in German, for starters, and then I got the gauge desperately wrong – so now the brioche stitch has come up enormous (in my defence I was not a great knitter three years ago). Right now, I’ve finished all four parts (back, front and two sleeves), and now I’m finishing off the neckband, but honestly I will have to go back in and rework the sleeves because at the moment it looks too enormous to wear (when I fold it up it looks like a small blanket). At this stage it’s just a case of finishing it for the sake of finishing it!
Kimi Vest Top
I had originally bought the We are Knitters cotton yarn in grey to knit a different vest top, but once it was finished it was super saggy-looking and knew at once I would never wear it. So, I frogged the whole thing and remade it into this vest pattern by Trust the Mojo.
I started a fair few months ago and have had to frog and re-do the body many times over after getting the lace pattern wrong - and I knew that if I finished the piece and could see a mistake in the pattern I would be super angry with myself and never wear it/cut it up with scissors…
I think it’s looking good so far, but my gauge lengthwise is quite off so I need to keep extending the body if I want it to cover more than my bust. I’m just really hoping to finish it before summer in the UK ends…
Ceramics
Wheel Throwing
I just finished a pottery course at Turning Earth Tottenham (which is actually closing soon but I hear the other branches are very good)! Sadly the idea of the blog came to me as I was finishing the course, so I only have a picture of my bisques.
I’ve only tried wheel throwing briefly before and I since then have been wanting to get back into it for a long time. I loved the intense so I really hope to be able to get back into it soon!
One espresso cup, a tiny bowl and four slightly larger bowls!
Printmaking
‘Asarotos Oikos’ Print
My first WIP is a piece inspired by the asarotos oikos (‘unswept floor’) theme (see this example from the Vatican Museums here and here!). This was in ‘development hell’ for ages because I couldn’t find a suitable scale for the piece. It originally was intended to be a multicolour A5 print, but it seems that I work much better on a smaller scale, and this seemed to do the trick for this piece when I crammed everything into a smaller space.
I’m looking forward to seeing how this print comes out after sitting on it for so long!
Cheapside Hoard Print
My second WIP is based on the Cheapside Hoard, and it will be one of a number jewellery hoard-themed pieces I have planned.
This has been taking a while to finish for similar ‘scale’ reasons as Asarotos Oikos, but also it was so much more ambitious in technical assembly than anything else I’ve done so far. It involved multiple prints with a border and printing on fabric, which would then be stitched into a patchwork piece. My first prototype was pretty rubbish, honestly.
Now, I’ve improved the initial drawings, traced them onto the lino and now just have to cut all of the pieces. I still have faith it’ll work!
