Crochet
Crochet is a needlework technique performed using a crochet hook plus fiber or other similar material. Most typically, this material is yarn or crochet thread, but it might also be fabric, wire, twine, or other innovative material.
Materials:
1) Yarn
2) Crochet hook
The basic crochet stitches are as follows:
1) The chain stitch
2) The slip stitch
3) The single crochet stitch
4) The double crochet stitch
5) The half double crochet stitch
6) The treble crochet stitch
7) The double treble crochet stitch
8) The triple treble crochet stitch
The similarities between knitting and crochet
Both crafts utilize yarn or fiber, and you can make the same sorts of projects– sweaters, shawls, wraps, blankets, afghans, scarves, hats, mittens, socks – with either technique.
The differences between knitting and crochet 1) The supplies
Knitting: We use pointy knitting needles for hand knitting, this pointy needles can appear in several different types of configurations they often exist in sets of two, although this is not always the case.
Crochet: Crocheters don’t use pointy needles or machines to make their projects; they use a single crochet hook. The hook can be small or large, or any size in between.
2) The yarn
The yarn we use they can all be used equally in knitting as in crochet, although some fidgety yarns lend themselves better to one craft or the other. For example, thread is typically reserved for crochet which will spent a lot of time if we need to knit it.
3) The structure
Knitting: The loops will build on each other which requires multiple active loops to be held on the needles. Each stitch depends on the support of the stitch below it.
Crochet: There usually only one loop, or possibly a few loops. The stitches build on top of each other, but the active loop is the only spot from which the fabric is susceptible to unraveling.
What is knitting?
Knitting is a method of forming fabric from a single strand of yarn, using two needles. The resulting fabric has more give than woven fabric. When you look closely at knitted fabric it is made up of rows of loops that interlock with neighbouring rows, that is what gives the fabric its stretch.
This method allows fabric to be shaped for the intended purpose, unlike woven fabric which is flat and needs to be cut to shape.
Of course there are advanced techniques that use multiple needles, or a pair of needles attached by a cord, that allow tubes to be knitted, or textural and multicoloured effects can be created by using multiple strands of yarn.
Knitting materials
The knitting material are very simple. You just need the knitting needles and different kind of yarn, for example wool yarn or plastic yarn.
Here is some examples being shown in class:
How to achieve the techniques
For the beginner, we need to start from the basic step for knitting. It is good to handle if you know that how to hold the knitting needles, how to make a slip knot or even knit a row or purl a roll.
1) Hold the knitting needles
There are a number of ways to hold the needles depending on where in the world you have been taught and what feels comfortable. There is no right or wrong way just choose which is most comfortable for you.
2) Make a slip knot
There are also several ways to do this when I was watching to the Youtube tutorial, each of the tutor actually had their own way to make a knot.
3)Cast on the yarn
4)Start knitting or purling
To knit a row:
Insert the tip of the right needle into the stitch on the left needle, from front to back.
Take the yarn in the right hand holding the needles where they cross, take the yarn forward to the tip of the right needle.
Wrap the yarn around the right needle from back to front.
Draw the tip of the right needle back pulling the looped yarn.
Slip the left hand stitch off the left needle. You have now completed a knit stitch.
To purl a row:
Insert the tip of the right needle down and through the loop, then pull it up so it crosses in front of the left needle, from back to front.
Hold onto the needles where they cross with the left hand needle.
Take the yarn forward and wrap it behind the front right needle.
Draw the tip of the right needle back through the stitch on the left needle, together with the looped yarn.
Slip the original stitch off the left needle. You have now completed a purl stitch.
Repeat, in and up, round, down and off.
Complete the row purling each stitch.
5) Cast of the yarn
When you knit until the size you want and you can end your pieces by casting off.
The examples of how the knitting being used in our daily life.
I found these different types of knitting stitches and they all are so beautiful. If I have enough time I will be interested to explore more!
The tiny baby knitting hats and so cute!
Knitting process Okay the knitting process starts! Basically what I had done in class is just exploring different material to knit. I started with clumsiness and went lots of trial and errors throughout the process.
It is my first more completed pieces but it doesn’t come out very nice because I didn’t well manage to the strength for each knot. Some of the knots I knit it too tie but some of them just very loose so thats why the pieces look like an irregular shape. BUT this is what I learnt to create special shape towards your pieces, you actually can manage the strength while knitting. For example, if you want the part be smaller, the you can make the knots tighter.
When I were more familiar with the basic steps of knitting, I try to replace different color of yarn to make the gradient effect. Although it is still look clumsy but I will completely keep it up!
When I went to shopping at Daiso, I saw these attractive yarn. They are so beautiful and I can’t wait to explore them!
When I got bored with the basic stitching, I went to research the different stitches and I decided to go for the raspberry stitch which I found this techniques via youtube.
When I first saw the video I thought it will be very easy but throughout the knitting process I found that this technique is challenging to me as it still have a lot of things need to consider of. I started with small example before and it was a thinner yarn. The yarn will bifurcate into more loops while this stitch needs to have the accurate loops. So I tried with the bigger yarn which is the yarn below but I found that when I knitted with the bigger yarn the raspberry surface doesn’t come out very nice.
I was inspired by the yarn color changing techniques so I bought this gradient string to knit.
As I really like the raspberry stitches which I mentioned earlier, I went to tried more to get a better outcome. I was very careful for every stitch as if I missed any one of the steps then the knitting will be failed. Finally, it looks more completed!
I like knitting but the previous pieces I not really felt the joyful to them so I decided to knit a random pieces to relax myself. I was addicted with knitting as it really can destress even though I had a lot of project need to work on. This piece is actually bigger than the picture shown as I just spent my free time like I knitted while waiting bus and knitting is so fun!
My learning point for this cool techniques is although the steps to knit looked complicated at first but when you are proficient to the process, you will feel very satisfied and can’t stop knitting.
Smocking
Smocking is done by using small stitches to gather fabric in a pattern. You can use it to create little rows of pretty pleats with colorful stitching, the perfect detail for a child’s dress or the bodice of a blouse. This smocking pattern doesn’t involve any special skill, just hand sewing and lots of time and patience.
Smocking Material: fabric, needles, thread, the smocking template
How does it works?
1) Choose fabric and thread.
Smocking can be done using any type of fabric, but it works best if you use thin fabric that doesn’t have a lot of stretch. Try thin cotton or linen if this is your first time. The stitches are meant to be seen to create a pretty dotted pattern.If you’d rather not have visible stitching, choose a regular sewing thread (rather than thick embroidery floss) in the same color as your fabric.
2) Draw a dotted grid on the fabric.
Use a fabric pen or a pencil to draw a grid of evenly-spaced dots covering the area that you want to smock. You actually can refer the smocking template.
3) Thread your needle.
The first step will be to use a needle and thread to gather the fabric and hold it in place. Thread a needle and tie the end so that it won’t pull through the fabric. If you have a template then you can just follow the steps on it.
4) Pull the threads.
Pinch the petals together and take another stitch across the middle. In this stage, you can add the decorative accessories like pearl to make the smocking more interesting.
Practice in class!
Work with another pattern!
There is some professional examples that the smocking has been used in fashion. They are so pretty!
Stitching with elastic Elastics are able to resume its normal shape spontaneously after being stretched or compressed. By using this technique, we can come up with incredible surface that we cannot imagine at first!
Material: fabric, elastic band or thread, sewing machine
In class demo Elastic stitching on different materials which are foam paper and felt.
Sewing with elastic is a common technique which usually be used in fashion. These are few examples of kid’s clothes.
My initial theme is childhood memory and the surface I am going to look at is durian. The reason why I chose this is unlike other kids, I have been raised under kampung environment. My uncles worked as planting durian so my childhood was fulfilled by durian and I do know a bit knowledge from them.
Inspiration:
More examples:
I chose this theme with a great courage and try to challenge something is difficult. In order to have the theme more close to my life and something I can touch it with my observation, no matter how difficult it is, I will still stick with it. Throughout the process I was very disappointed to myself and many times want to give up but thanks to Galina’s encouragement to help me return my confidence.
What is wool felting?
Felting is a simple process of separating, tangling, and relocking animal fibers found in items such as yarn or wool while wool is a magical fiber that has tiny scales that help it to stick together. The felting needles are a special kind of needle that has tiny barbs on the end. The barbs are going in one direction and when the needle is stabbed into the wool the barbs pull the wool in, but not back out again.There are several methods to agitate and tangle animal fibers into felt such as wet felting, needle felting, nuna felting, and knit felting.
Wet felting
Wet felting can be broken down into three basic steps—getting the fibers wet, agitating the fibers, and shaping the completed project.
Needle felting
This is the method does not require wetting the fibers beforehand. Needle felting simply hooks onto fibers with specially placed barbs and forces them to tangled.
Nuno felting
Nuno felting is the art of wet felting over another type of fabric. This technique begins very much like wet felting, except with an extra layer of fabric between the fibers through and around which the fibers will felt.
Felting Application Here only shows some example about felting: Examples In-class demo Materials needed for felting:
1. Wool
2. Felting needles
3. Soap
4. Hot water
5. Sponge How does a ball felting works? 1. Take a small wad of wool and wrap lengths of wool around it tightly till the size you want
2. Wet the ball with hot and soapy water
3. Roll the ball without squeezing
4. You can add the design for example to make strips into the ball
5. Roll the ball in your palms with presure
6. Wash the soap away in cool water and let it dry For this piece, I just wanted to try out the different color of wool working together. At first, I choose and place the different color of wool. After that I wetted the wool with soapy water. I still can add more layers by using the felting needles so a I think that this technique is very cool and flexible as you can make anything you want. Yeah! This is what I had done!
More wet felting playing with colors!
This are small examples show that how felting can use in interior design.
What is appliqué?
Appliqué is the process of stitching a small layer of fabric, usually in a unique shape, onto a larger base fabric. It’s a great way to personalize your project while also adding unique color, texture, pattern. Basically you just can do anything you want on the fabric, it does not have the limitation of the types of fabrics, color and types of threads or even the pattern of stitching.
For this week, we are exploring different materials and create unconventional fabric. Here’s the examples of using water soluble fabric have been shown in class:
Research Materials:
1. Decorative fiber, yarn or thread
2. Water soluble stabilizer
3. Sewing machine
4. Pins
How-to 1. Cut the water soluble fabric to your require size and place with the different type of threads
2. Arrange it according to personal preferences, can be regularly or messy with multiple layers
3. Secure the threads on fabric with pins
4. Set up sewing machine and choose the stitch pattern that you want (eg. zigzag)
5. Stitch the fabric with sewing machine
6. Wash in warm water (If you want to mould over a 3D object, don’t take too long until the glue has been washed off. Leave it on the container and let it dry. Lastly, you can spray the arcylic spray to harden the shape. )
Process done in class:
Using colorful threads and make circular pattern.
Adding some special threads, elastic and yarn. Just exploring how the final piece will be if working with different type of threads.
Sew the blank water soluble fabric with normal thread without layering threads.
It is a nice texture when wool and yarn work together!
What is plastic fusing?
Plastic fusing is creating the new effect when layered plastic bags together and heated with an iron. It basically is a technique which turning our daily necessities into art. This is a distinct technique to learn as we can easily get the plastic bag and the process of fusing the plastic bag is so satisfying! When the plastic being fused, it become more durable material and waterproof. Besides, it also can be flexible and a cinch to make.
Material 1. Plastic sheets
2. An iron
3. Baking paper
4. Scissor
Examples of plastic fusing
Inspiration Plastic fusing is quite flexible and shapeable to form anything you want. Here’s some inspirations for example, the plastic can be turn into fabric and make clothes and necklace. The idea of turning plastic bags into more substantial and durable handbags also inspired me. Lastly, using the transparency features of plastic to make lamp is also considered as a technique. How-to 1. Gather the bags you want to fuse.
2. Layer the bags. In this stage, you can choose the way you prefer to. Whichever you can trim the handles,the bottom of the bag or cut it into small pieces. I prefer more natural way by tearing off the plastic bag to make it tattered and ragged. You can create your own pattern by overlapping the plastic. Usually I will do 2 and more layers.
3. Protect with baking paper.
4. Iron the bags. Adjust the heat gradually so that it won’t go too far.
5. Check with the outcome if you don’t satisfied with it. You still can add more parchments and increase the heat of the iron to fuse it more.
6. Lastly, you can make everything you want with the fusing plastic!
Okay, let’s start! I started with three different color of plastic bag. Besides plastic bags, I added plastic paper to create some details.It actually depends on personal preferences, someone will prefer a very neat and clean design. For me, I like to be more free and expressive. After trying with basic method, to be more creative so I added in some threads.
The technique we learnt this week is transfer printing. This technique allows an image being transferred onto fabric, wood or other surface by heat and pressure.
It is quite easy to work on as it doesn’t need a complicated equipment and it can create complex or flexible images that you want. It is also a high quality printing! However, it has the limitation onto which types of fabrics to transfer. Printing Demo in class
Dry transfer
Materials: Paper, fabric crayon, baking paper and polyester satin fabric How does it work?
The process is so easy to learn! First, you just need to draw out the images you want. Transfer it on polyester satin fabric by putting a layer of baking paper and iron it uniformly! Final outcome:
(TO BE UPDATED)
Wet transfer Materials: Paper, special fabric paint, brush, baking paper and polyester satin fabric How does it work?
This method is similar to dry transfer which you can produce a design on paper. The design will be transferred to the polyester satin fabric carefully regulated contact pressure. The dye transfers by diffusion through the aqueous medium. The fabric paint is hard to get as it is expensive Final Outcome:
I found that the color will fade after I did a few times of transferring! But it is also the effect I wanted so that it wouldn’t look like too heavy because of the solid color.
Dry and wet technique combined At first, I using wet transfer method to transfer the images repeatedly. The background has been generated quite creatively after that I added one layer on top with the image drawn by the fabric crayon. The method combines two technique together is able to create a narrative image and I really like it.
Final Outcome (Attempt 1)
Final Outcome (Attempt 2)
During the process, I accidentally placed the iron too long on the fabric but the effect came out did surprise me. As you can see for the bottom left part, the texture of the iron has been transferred on the surface also.
Digital print transfer Materials: Printed design, transfer material(fabric, wood etc.), TTC 3.1, CPM 6.2 How does it work?
Reflection
To achieve this technique is actually quite easy and interesting. The outcomes always surprise me! I never expected that the printing will look good as it is hand-painted by us and there will be some flaws and imperfections. However, this is the good way to show our personal style and getting to know all ours characteristic in a short time. We can produce our unique product, for instance, the wallets, handbags and also pencil cases! I really enjoy having fun with this technique!
We had the chance to go for the field trip because of taking this module. It will be a good inspiration as we are able to see what is happening outside and not just stay in indoor.
The exhibition that we went is about the Modern Colony(1925-1935) in Singapore. The free admission is only valid for Singaporean and PR so I spent $10 instead to buy the ticket. It’s really worth it because I got my inspiration here. Through a series of cultural relics and characters, this exhibition presents the life of Singaporean in the historical periods. I found something interesting about the features of the cultural relics in different times are quite unique and we are still able to distinguish them although they are from different period.
I found the clothing of this period, especially women, normally they will have a loose and comfortable cut. Their costume will focus on a main color and the details will be reflected in cuffs and collar by decorating with lace and buttons. Perhaps, for them, the simplest is the representative of wealth. In addition, I also found that they will choose to use slippery clothes. From my inference, the slippery fabrics could give the impression of luxury and thereby showing their position in the society .
Blouse and skirt ensemble with trimming
The detail of collar (1)
The detail of collar (2)
The design of the shoes at this period is also the part we must put attention at. You can see the details of the sewing are very fine. Therefore, these are not the shoes that a normal people can afford at that time because it took time and cost to complete. Inside the exhibition cabinet, I also found a pair of shoes with the smallest size. Through this, I know that they might have the foot-binding custom(a vile feudal practice which crippled women both physically and spiritually), as the smaller the foot, the woman will be more beautiful and attractive.
Last but not least, this is the stage attracted my eyes when I first entered the exhibition hall. It shows the people were attending a party. I can feel how luxurious it is through their set up and costumes. I appreciated to see this part of my field trip because I was inspired by this to have an idea on how to show my weekly process presently. I decided to explore different types of surface by making “mini” costumes. Besides, my theme will be childhood memory so my model will be the Barbie Doll instead. I might combine different techniques together to come out with the best outcome.
Materials needed for felting:
