Knitting, Sewing and Handcraft Projects, Now and Forever...

[mamselle]

Have you seen they are posting mask patterns and suggesting people who can sew them do? This occurred to me yesterday, but the pattern in my head was more complicated, so yay.

Here's a link if you are interested. If you don't like this one, there are at least 2 others with different patterns/videos:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvKjgMKC7wc&feature=youtu.be&fbclid=IwAR0YXi0lIWRUSUWX4vDPVEKVwXmvoi2xlk69ZtUuBF3ymHAvHlNbXi56Yos

I was thinking of that as well.

It would sure save on the medical supply-level items.

M.

[nebo113]

What kind of yarn/what color?

What will you make?

M.

Me?

Yes. A friend from Ohio, long ago, was a weaver who did huge wall-hanging-level/art museum grade pieces. I learned from her the use of four different complementary color pairs in setting up her loom and weaving patterns, and I've always loved the depth and texture of fine woven work.

So--yes, what will you weave once you have all the requisite materials/parts/etc.?

M.

Fortunately, I found a weaving kit online with pre-measured warp.  I have twice before used chair legs for measuring warp, and it's definitely doable but a tad more stressful and uncertain than I am willing to tolerate in these stressful and uncertain times.  The finished piece will be a scarf, which I neither need nor want, but I do want to weave so...... Whether it would be considered  "fine woven work" I don't know, but it focuses me.  Before I relocated to current social distancing abode nearer my 91 year old mother, I'd been in Arizona, where I completed 4 rugs and a sample piece which I will eventually attempt to felt, just to see what happens.  Thanks for asking ~)

[mamselle]

Have you seen they are posting mask patterns and suggesting people who can sew them do? This occurred to me yesterday, but the pattern in my head was more complicated, so yay.

Here's a link if you are interested. If you don't like this one, there are at least 2 others with different patterns/videos:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvKjgMKC7wc&feature=youtu.be&fbclid=IwAR0YXi0lIWRUSUWX4vDPVEKVwXmvoi2xlk69ZtUuBF3ymHAvHlNbXi56Yos

I was thinking of that as well.

It would sure save on the medical supply-level items.

M.

A friend shared this with me, along the same lines--but the comments suggest that cloth masks may not be effective enough to be worth the time and trouble of making them.

   https://www.universalhub.com/2020/theres-virtual-sew-along-tomorrow-make-face-masks

Does anyone have a more definitive sense of this?

M.

[AmLitHist]

Mamselle, I did a lot of reading on this last night.  This Forbes article quotes the CDC:

. .  . homemade masks are not considered PPE, since their capability to protect HCP is unknown. Caution should be exercised when considering this option. Homemade masks should ideally be used in combination with a face shield that covers the entire front (that extends to the chin or below) and sides of the face.

That same article gives some links to patterns and groups that have sprung up to join crafters in their efforts, and those groups also offer patterns, etc.

Some nurses have also said they're using the homemade masks over the more scarce "official" masks, to try to help them last longer.  The places that are asking for these homemade masks are washing/bleaching/using UV light to sanitize them.  I've also seen patterns for masks that have a pocket that allows the user to insert filter material that they already have. 

Joann Fabrics has patterns, and it looks like some of their stores are even offering free supplies (though my relatively local one looks to be closed, thanks to the state "stay at home" orders in IL and MO).

Non-sewers can help, too:  there are groups soliciting those with 3D printers to help make face shields. 

If you visit #millionmaskchallenge on Twitter, or search Million Mask Challenge under Groups on Facebook, there are lots of ideas, groups, patterns, etc. about how people can help.

[mamselle]

Thanks, that's very helpful!

Clarifications are so necessary, much appreciated.

Glad the impulse to help can be channeled and become useful with the modifications you've described.

M. 

[polly_mer]

My mother is taking this opportunity to quilt up a storm.  She had a brand-new machine delivered before everything hit the fan and she is ready to make the world quilts.

I briefly had my knitting out (that blanket I started when Blocky was still just a blip on the ultrasound will be done someday, possibly in time for Blocky's children), but I'm still on the hook for regular workload to keep being paid so the blanket continues to go slowly.

Blocky, though, is getting the hang of knitting and is almost ready to start his own project.  Blocky also has options on video games, computer programming practice, and reading on a whole stack of new books so his project is competing with a lot of time-intensive options.

[Chemystery]

My craft room is also my guest room.  As you might guess, that's not an issue at the moment.  For some reason, however, I have that room for every single Zoom meeting I've had in the last week and a half.  I think there's something calming about it. 
So after giving it some thought, I've scrapped plans to record and hold office hours from my kitchen table and converted half my craft table to a work area. 

It's just six weeks, right?

[mamselle]

Ummm...I'm planning for six months.

Just to be ready: if things get better sooner, fine, but I realized I'm experiencing this as a retreat and am planning longer-range projects that are harder to do when time is chopped up by daily travel, errands, etc.

I love the idea of a craft-work-guest-centering space as well. That seems very peaceful.

M.

[Chemystery]

Ummm...I'm planning for six months.

Just to be ready: if things get better sooner, fine, but I realized I'm experiencing this as a retreat and am planning longer-range projects that are harder to do when time is chopped up by daily travel, errands, etc.

I love the idea of a craft-work-guest-centering space as well. That seems very peaceful.

M.

Ah, yes.  To be clear, I meant until this term ends.  I think it is very likely we are looking at online for fall. 

[wareagle]

Mamselle, I did a lot of reading on this last night.  This Forbes article quotes the CDC:

. .  . homemade masks are not considered PPE, since their capability to protect HCP is unknown. Caution should be exercised when considering this option. Homemade masks should ideally be used in combination with a face shield that covers the entire front (that extends to the chin or below) and sides of the face.

That same article gives some links to patterns and groups that have sprung up to join crafters in their efforts, and those groups also offer patterns, etc.

Some nurses have also said they're using the homemade masks over the more scarce "official" masks, to try to help them last longer.  The places that are asking for these homemade masks are washing/bleaching/using UV light to sanitize them.  I've also seen patterns for masks that have a pocket that allows the user to insert filter material that they already have. 

Joann Fabrics has patterns, and it looks like some of their stores are even offering free supplies (though my relatively local one looks to be closed, thanks to the state "stay at home" orders in IL and MO).

Non-sewers can help, too:  there are groups soliciting those with 3D printers to help make face shields. 

If you visit #millionmaskchallenge on Twitter, or search Million Mask Challenge under Groups on Facebook, there are lots of ideas, groups, patterns, etc. about how people can help.

From what I've read, it depends on the hospital.  A health system in a neighboring state has put out a call for masks, and I've done seven so far.  Easy to do, and they're better than nothing. 

[mamselle]

Whatever works--good for you!

I just saw a notice that it's possible to 3-D print them, and a well-off school with a 3-D printer in every room has set itself up to do just that.

They're not swift, but they're more than existed before...

M.

[Katrina Gulliver]

Anyone here an embroidery expert? I have done some basic stuff (the usual charted things), but I recently saw some tambour work and I'm quite intrigued. Seems similar to Aari work from India. I've watched some youtube clips but I'm interested to know if anyone here does it?

[mamselle]

My embroidery comes in two flavors.

1. The pillowcases for the days of the week that my mom taught my sister and I to do when we were 3 and 5 respectively. (I know that seems very young, but I remember her ironing on the transfers in the house we lived in when I was in kindergarten, and we had moved to a different town when I started 1st grade.)

2. The freeform embroidery piece my 18th c. character has worked on for the past 30 years, based on Jacobean flower forms and the then-standard sampler structures. It comes out for a few more stitches after each day of tours, while resting in the small chocolate shop near the burying grounds, before going to change and returning home.

She teaches the flower patterns to children, during the children's activities at the start of the day, and giving away the little "silver-dollar-sized" embroidery hoops, a penciled-in pattern on openwork canvas, a needle, and enough worsted to keep going on the flower...for those who want them.

Tiny kids--two were also just five or six themselves, over the years--become deeply absorbed in the stitching, and if by themselves, will spend the whole hour just learning new stitches and using them. Their delicate, fixed concentration engenders awe in the beholder.

One came back the next week, and had his mom take pictures, having decided that was what he was going to write his "What I did this summer" essay on for school the next fall.

So, mostly Western is my repertoire...but I have seen and studied other styles.

I bet the ones you're considering are lovely!

M.

[Morris Zapp]

Any needlepointers out there? It seems like the needle pointing is the easy part. It's the blocking and finishing that's got me stymied. Watching lots of YouTube videos.

[Katrina Gulliver]

It's the blocking and finishing that's got me stymied. Watching lots of YouTube videos.

Are you using a kit?

The finishing of projects is often a bit of a pest (same with knitting!).