Slow But Steady Progress

I've worked on the next session of the Collage Breakthrough course (Lesson 3) over more than one day. We're still using 3 pieces of paper representing all three values and either two patterned and one quiet or two quiet and one patterned paper. This time though, we were encouraged to overlap the various shapes and not fill the 4" square totally, leaving blank areas to add "finishing touches". Still having a little trouble working in my green scraps on all so settled on the ones on the right side working together differently from the ones on the left.

So what are "finishing touches"? These are circles or Asemic writing done with gold, black, or white paint onto tissue paper so that their placement can be auditioned before gluing down. She shows how the excess tissue paper can be scraped away if you don't like the look of the shadowing effect. Well, I watched the video of the technique but had no desire to do pages of the three different colors and decided I'd deal with it later. In the meantime, I viewed how others in the class were doing this and could see how effective adding a gold accent that filled part of the blank areas and spilled over onto the collage was. Still didn't want to mess with making these. Then a lightbulb went on; I remembered a translucent plastic shopping bag with gold swirls and stars that I'd used on an art journal spread. Oh yeah! A quick answer to my problem. I quickly cut out a swirl to audition how it would work and it would work great.

I held off on finishing up this step as time was running out for watching the last of the videos before they disappear after tomorrow. Each lesson is a 30 minute recorded class followed the next day with a live one hour Q & A and demo session which is also recorded to watch later. You can guess which I do. So this week has been devoted to the two lesson 4 videos and the two bonus lesson videos plus one last video that was a cross between two lengthy "gallery" shows of student work and promoting her next step collage course which comes with a hefty price. (I'm good for now.) I had time after that last video to finish cutting and applying the finishing touches to my lesson 3 page and I'm pretty pleased with the result. I was pretty sure glue stick, which we've been using throughout this series, was not going to work on the plastic bag; a quick check proved me right. I'm pretty sure I used gel medium on that journal spread but didn't want to deal with the mess and cleanup that would generate. So I pulled out my trusty YES paste which worked nicely.

I've made a start on the blue knee high socks, finally mastering the tricky Eastern cast-on which makes a seamless join between the sole and the top of the sock. Normally when you knit in the round, it's like working back and forth on straight needles, except you go round and round without turning your work and have a hole in the middle. This cast-on eliminates the hole which would have to be closed up later. Since I discovered I had two sets of the required size of needles, I decided to work on both socks at the same time to more easily end up with soles and tops the same length.

Increasing stitches from 8 to 56 for the toe - ready to start ribbing

I'm working on being a little more balanced with how I spend my days. I'm so guilty of being all or nothing when it comes to things I want to do, which means I'll lose track of time when I get engrossed in something which then leaves no time in the day for anything else. And if I don't perceive that I have a big chunk of time to do something, I end up not doing anything at all. It would be easy to get to the end of the day, look over at my knitting and sigh, thinking there's no time left or I'm too tired. But I'm working on snatching small moments in between the big ones. The knitting on the socks is getting worked in this way: a few rows after breakfast before heading upstairs, a few more after lunch while watching one of my news shows. More in the evening if the shows I'm watching don't require my rapt attention while dealing with these increases. While some days I may be spending an hour or more on the collage class early in the afternoon, I also have found myself unexpectedly drawn into the studio for a few minutes to pull a few paper rectangles for one square on the page before continuing on to where I was originally off to. I'm also finding myself grabbing a small project like updating the blank book I'm using to record my yarns and care instructions in order to add one or two things while watching the tv.  I can get a lot done over the course of the day if I just become aware of these odd small moments and what I might fill them with. Very gratifying.

A part of me wants to knit all day sometimes - that all or nothing tendency I have. But I have other things to tend to as well, that need to balance my time throughout the day. As I think about my resolution word of realign, that need to find balance may be key. All or nothing just won't do.

A Broken Promise

Collection of papers including some from sample packs of Khadi papers

Not long ago, I made a promise to myself that I would quit being lured into spending a lot of time on free classes All those hours watching Sketchbook Revival videos over several years were the prime culprit - mostly enjoyable but not always useful to me personally, yet I felt obligated to watch them all. And then there have been the Laly Mille freebees, just couldn't stay away because collage and art journalling are things I'd like to master better. Most recently I think was the "year of light" taster on FB - not unlike the Sketchbook Revival series but an absolute slew of artists, but this time I was more prudent about which videos I watched and did not actually do any of the lessons, just took notes and printed off info. That's it, I thought, no more falling into the trap of signing up for classes just because they were free. However, in a weak moment in December, I followed a recommendation that came via e-mail to sign up for Catherine Rains Collage Breakthrough FREE multi-session class running for a couple of weeks in January. The thought was I could always opt out if I got into January and felt too short on time or stressed to do it, but it did sound like a good opportunity to learn more about collage which I still struggles with. 

I print out instructions to add to sketchbook

This is not exactly quilt-related as my previous post might have implied I'd be realigning to, but perhaps quilt-adjacent. After watching the welcome video, I could see Kat was presenting a different more structured approach, incorporating design principles a step at a time and in small formats with the emphasis of ending up with individual collages that were also cohesive with each other. Pick two colors from a cool palette or two colors from a warm palette to work with on all collages throughout the series. Separate your piles of papers into patterned and quiet papers, then each one of those stacks into light medium dark values. Just that exercise alone was instructional. Then start small with 2 inch penciled in squares to fill with just two pieces of chosen paper - one "quiet", one patterned - of different values, using a glue stick.

auditioning placements, temporarily taped in place

I'm working in a Mixed Media Sketchbook a made back in July of 2023. That's one of the problems with being in the book club - so many of those projects produce blank books that sit on the shelf waiting for a purpose. So it is pretty delightful to finally put it to use. It's designed with spacers between the signatures to allow it to expand as layers of collage are added to the pages. As the squares increase in size to 3 inches, I had to work over the center of the signature but it wasn't too bad. And now we are picking three papers that go together, one dark, one medium, one light, either two quiets and one patterned or two patterned and one quiet. All the while, you consider how each trio works with what's in the squares beside and above/below, and trying not to put the same orientation of the pieces as are in adjacent squares. Kat suggested maybe wait to glue down pieces in a square until all squares are composed in order to give the option of changing your mind as you go. These little pieces do scatter quite easily so I found it very helpful to use removable scotch tape to hold them together and to the spot they may reside in.

Compare to in-progress pic to note changes I made

Although Kat kept correcting herself whenever she said "rules" rather than "suggestions" or "recommendations" (heaven forbid anyone feel constrained . . .), I'm a strong proponent of learning rules first, and I am grateful for these simple ones she put forth that provide some structure. I so often let all that fabric I get out to work with overwhelm me and I do not always make the best choices when putting together a quilt be it traditional or art. I think I can use what I've learned here to make better fabric choices. I also like filling the squares in a sketchbook. With fresh eyes the next day, I could study what I'd done and what perhaps didn't work so well, While choosing pairings, I noticed how easy it would be to go monochromatic even though I had two colors (blue and green) in my piles - had to keep reminding myself to grab some green now and then which I could see made the grid groupings more interesting. When I moved on to choosing three papers, I sometimes caught myself choosing all patterns or a value too similar to another as I gravitated towards ones I really liked. Making a switch did make for a better coupling, one where I could instantly say, Yes, I really love that - which Kat encouraged, that intuitive instinctive knowledge over too much brain thinking.

Two more sessions to go as we move up to four inch squares and make a final single collage at five inches as we continue to work with the papers originally chosen and learning how to use even the smallest scraps that we've been encouraged to save. This has been fun and educational and can be done with fabric scraps as well which I would like to try. But just like when I'm surrounded by fabrics and cutoff pieces when constructing a quilt, my table is a mess of piles of paper that I will be glad to clear away soon, making room for a "real" project.

Wrapping Up, On To 2026

I made one last push of completing something before December was over and finished knitting the replacement sleeve for the eyelet cardigan. However, I couldn't quite make myself actually remove the offending sleeve and stitch in the new one before New Year's day. When I did get around to it, it was much more difficult to remove the whip stitching than I anticipated and a lot of picking and tugging managed to make my thumb joints cry out in rebellion. I had to take several days off to rest them before adding on the new sleeve, and then another few days before I fixed the places along the side seam where I hadn't caught enough of the knitted edge in to hide a run of knit stitches. But that's all done now, the sweater soaked, blocked and drying. I'd tried it on before wetting it and was a little disappointed in how it looked on me - not as long in the sleeves or body as I'd anticipated, not the slouchy casual sweater I saw hanging behind the counter at the yarn store. But as I was laying it out to dry and taking some measurements, I realized it had grown quite a bit, measurements in all directions more like I was expecting. The blocking is suppose to relax things, soften them up and this really needed that. Hoping it will be more the sweater I envisioned once dry.

Pushing me along to finish the cardigan was my antsy-ness to start on another pair of socks. I bought this yarn the same day as I saw that cardigan and got the pattern for it, and have worked on the cardigan for the better part of the year, even though I'd wanted to dive into this luscious blue yarn with hints of purple and teal. But while I'm ok with having more than one quilting project going at a time, I've always worked on just one knitting project at a time, so there was much incentive to finish the cardigan so I could start these. I'm using the same pattern as I used for the grey wool socks and hoping there is enough yarn that I can make these knee high. I've rolled it into two balls so I can knit on each sock until its ball runs out, and checked the gauge last evening. It's a thinner yarn than the grey of the other socks and I'm experimenting with increasing the size of the needles so as to match the gauge. Gotta tell ya, going from heavy worsted yarn worked on average size 8 needles to fine fingering yarn on needles the size of bamboo skewers is quite the transition. But at least, off and running in the new year!

Speaking of things knitted, I've had a lovely warm lambswool cardigan bought a very long time ago that I pull out to wear around the house with a turtleneck or flannel shirt once the weather gets wintry. And the last time I went to put it on, sometime before Christmas, I noticed to my surprise and dismay, that I'd worn some holes in the elbow regions. But I can mend that fairly seamlessly I think, and have searched my yarns and crewel threads for one that is a close match to the deep cranberry of the sweater. I believe I was wearing this when I was still working at a paying job, which would make it at least 35 years old, so I guess it has actually held up pretty well. No way I am going to ditch it now - mending on the way!

So here it is, the new year, so I was surprised by a late Christmas package arriving on Saturday and delighted by its contents: a "bento box" of specialty teas and these Amy Tan books. Oh my goodness, the Chronicles has such beautiful drawings on every spread, and Amy's writing about her nature excursions and observations in her backyard strike a chord. The journal is just blank pages with room to note day, time, location, weather so that you can draw your own bird observations, and is prefaced with Amy's suggestions for supplies and procedures. Not sure how much I'll use that as in MY backyard, the birds flit so fast among the trees I often can't figure out what they are and I'm not interested in putting up feeders. I do have the occasional humming bird dip into my deck flowers but they too are so swift that I can't even get a photo of one. We'll see . . . 

And now it's time to announce my yearly Resolution Word, one that came to me as I worked on the Joy Banner: Realign. Day after day, I was surprised at how smoothly that project went because I'd been away from that kind of sewing for so long and my memory reminded me of how rusty and fumble fingered I'd been on the last few. Not so now, no hesitation as I moved through the process from one step and skill to the next. At some point I felt a subtle shift inside, hard to explain but basically a feeling that if this was going so well, I should keep going, get back to doing this kind of work. Thus the idea of "realign", and upon checking the definition, I found this one that captures my feeling: To put back into proper order. I have no lack of sewing projects waiting in the wings but they partially wait because I've expanded my interests to include so many other types of crafts and art. I enjoy them all but I can't shake that feeling that the proper order of my time spent needs to move the sewing/quilting up the ranks. And after a year of feeling so low on energy, so many draggy days and a real effort to get things done in spite of my good and helpful resolution word(s) of last year (see below), I'm experiencing a drive and energy going into January that's been missing for awhile. I surely hope it lasts. Happy New Year!

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Previous Resolution Word Posts:

• 2008 - Freedom
  2009 - Calm
  2010 - Focus
  2011 - Refocus
  2012 - Balance & Harmony
  2013 - Perseverance
  2014 - Explore
  2015 - Fearless
  2016 - Light
  2017 - Endure 
  2018 - Refresh
  
  2019 - Wing It!  
  2020 - Go! 
  2021 - Finish 
  2022 - More 
  2023 - Continue
  2024 - Organize  
  2025 - Resist Less/Fear Less