tara's stitch*illo project 2017

 Yes! I finally finished my Stitchillo project. I managed to finish the binding before the holiday, much to my relief. The caps of the spine are goatskin leather, and the leather paring gods were not with me for this the first time around. The second time went smoother.  I started by backing the knitting with paste and a thin sheet of Japanese paper.  Next I constructed the spine with pieces of 20pt. library board. I wanted the knitting to be at least flush with the leather or slightly recessed.  Here we are the second time around. The leather at the tail of the spine is darker because it is still wet from paste.  In the middle of all this I had to chase Jacques out of the paper drawer. My fault of course for leaving it open, as you can clearly see by those eyes - total innocence even though the rest of the photo else is blurry. Finally the spine is ready for boards.  In order to both hide the edges of the knitting and make the...

 The knitting is finished. And I can't tell if I skipped a row on the second "T" or just pulled the stitches too tight for them to come back out in the blocking. At this point though, I'm going to live with it. The next step is to add the Uppercase Magazine symbol where it belongs. This was way too small to knit into the pattern so I decided to embroider it. The black is a satin stitch which went smoothly. The Uppercase U with arrow - not so smoothly. I lost count after pulling it out after 5 tries. You wouldn't believe how hard it is to stitch a straight line and not get a "v" at the bottom of your "u". I also cheated a little with the steeking. Since the edges are going to be hidden under the boards they don't have to look good. I'm terrified of this unraveling so I put a good bit of PVA right where I was going to cut it. It worked! Then I went to make the case and found that the knitting is not wide enough. I need 5cm to reac...

Do you know that feeling? That awful feeling when you realize, you are not as on track as you thought you were? That's where I was last Wednesday morning. I already knew by the "C" that the flower section was too long and I would probably have to pick it off and just use the title. The spine of the book is only 8.25" long and at the "C' the spine already measured in at 7 inches. No way was I going to be able to squeeze the S-T-I-T into an inch and a quarter, never mind the bee motif at the top of the design.  But I persisted... And then, on Wednesday morning, with a strong cup of coffee under my fingers, and the "S" knitted snugger,  I realized that the quality of the knitting was not acceptable. It was far to loose and no matter how well I blocked it, I was never going to get the piece to look as good as it would if had I knitted all of it better. I took a break and ran the last minute Thanksgiving Day errands in hopes that I wasn...

  One of the earliest decisions I made about this project was how I was going to actually bind it. The best way to construct a case incorporating the knitting on the spine is with a binding I learned from Todd Pattison - organizer of this project. This is an easy leather spine binding. Above are two of the books I made in class. The structure is brilliant and hides a lot of problems.  The cover is constructed so that the boards allow you tuck the spine covering underneath them.  Voila! When I took the workshop I made a sample of the structure for reference as well as note taking. Because the knitting will be so much thicker than pared leather I have to put a filler board under the covering board to keep things even.  For my teensy little knitting    I made a weensy little text block. Rounded it, and constructed the case. My idea of putting a filler board in place worked very well. I used thin mat board instead...

A good friend of mine has a mantra, Practice makes Practice. To me that means that the more I do something, the easier it becomes, the more I can do something easily, the quicker I am, the more I can get done, the more I can polish the skill and so on.  The text block is sewn together.  But wouldn't you know I had to do that twice. I decided after the first go around I didn't like the thread thickness. Now it is pasted up and waiting for rounding and backing.  Thread has also been ordered from Colophon Book Arts Supply and has arrived!  In hindsight I should have finished my design first so that I would know what colors to order, but having chosen the rainbow, I think I'm covered.  I am enjoying the process of designing the spines even if it is slow going.  I managed to recreate Elizabeth Drinker's poppy and now need to see if I can scale it down enough to fit on the spine. Possibly the poppy will go sideways, not up and ...

If there is one thing I've learned in knitting and book arts it is to make mock ups. Always knit a swatch with the yarn you will use, in the pattern you are using, the way you are going to knit the project. If you are trying to see if what looks fabulous in your head for a book, really is?... make it in real life. Chances are there will be problems you haven't anticipated or details you have to work out before starting the actual project.  I have learned to enjoy this part of the process. Even if your mock up doesn't work out for the final project it was intended for, chances are what you learned from it will come in handy somewhere else down the line.  I've been planning how I want to knit the spine. I'm going to do color work and include the title of the book and I'm not sure what else yet. Do I reference Elizabeth Drinker's poppy pattern, or do I use the cornflower pattern inspired by the Pennsylvania Dutch illuminations in choral books we have a...

I am thrilled to have been asked to participate in Uppercase Magazine and Todd Pattison's binding collaboration. Last year, as I understand the story, Todd proposed that Uppercase leave a few copies of their new publication on Feed Sacks unbound.  Todd asked friends who are book binders if they would be interested in binding a set anyway they wished. A friend of mine was asked to bind a copy and I loved it!  This round is called Stitchillo, a book of artistic needlework and embroidery.  Right up my ally. I have used many different needle work techniques on my artists' books in the past including crochet, knitting, and embroidery.  The minute I received the book I knew I wanted to reference historical needlework. Working in an archive, I am surrounded by evidence of women's needlework through the last four centuries.  But how to bind the work?  When I was young, a pet-peeve was when cover illustrations of books didn't match the actua...