Martha Marques Threads of Meaning Martha Marques Threads of Meaning http://www.marthamarques.com/index.php/ Sun, 05 Feb 2012 18:58:38 +0000 Joomla! 1.5 - Open Source Content Management en-gb Threads of Meaning is Moving to Threads of Meaning http://www.marthamarques.com/index.php/Threads-of-Meaning/threads-of-meaning-is-moving-to-threads-of-meaning.html I AM MOVING.

I started this site as an individual--Martha Marques and have since become a company -- Threads of Meaning llc

I will be gradually moving articles and pictures from this site to www.threadsofmeaning.com and for the latest information on what I am doing you should go to the newest website.  After 3 months or so, when I've moved everything over to where I want it to be, this site will be closing.  If you are a regular visitor please change your settings so that you can visit me where I am currently hanging out.  If you are new please go to www.threadsofmeaning.com immediately and check out my things there.

 

]]> frontpage Fri, 11 Feb 2011 14:27:01 +0000 Christmas Socks http://www.marthamarques.com/index.php/Knitting/sensory-deprivation-or-the-golden-socks.html My sister Peg gets Christmas Socks every year because....because I love her and that is what we do.  These are the Christmas Socks 2010 and are knit up from yarn that I originally purchased from KnitPicks.  It is Stroll sock yarn in Grasshopper which is a discontinued color.  No worries though since I overdyed it anyway.  If you want to make your own pair just match up colors in your stash to get the shades you like, or overdye as I did to create the shades you like.  You'll need a full skein (100 grams - 462 yards) of the background color although you'll have plenty of leftover.  And then you'll need about 100 yards of each of the three pattern colors.
The pattern is from Folk Socks which is also available from KnitPicks.  These are the Mamluke Socks on page 76 which Nancy Bush has done in blue and white.  I changed the heel and the sole of the foot but kept the toe pattern which is extremely clever and will be showing up on the toes of future socks.These FairIsle patterns really take off and become something wonderful when you use hand dyed yarns.  If you just aren't ready to dye your own there are many wonderful hand dyers out there.  Three 100 gram skeins of hand dyed sock yarn will make you three pairs of these socks handily, with bits left over for your stash -- enough for at least one more pair. Down below are The Golden Christmas Socks which I gave to my sister in 2009.  I spun up the yarn from a superwash merino/cashmere/nylon roving from portfiber and there is no way that I can technologically convey to you the wondrous feeling of merino/cashmere handspun and hand knit wonderfulness that the socks possess in person.  It is only because of my great love for Peg, and the complete lack of anything yellow in both my own and my daughter's wardrobe that I was able to wrest them from our grasping hands and place them on my sister's feet.  And because my sister is nobody's fool she retained them on her feet and wore them continuously all afternoon until we had safely left the premises. 



 



Here is another picture of the socks from the side.  The pattern for these socks can be found in A Gathering of Lace by Meg Swanson and it is a great pattern that I have knit up at least a dozen times.  I have, of course, doctored it a bit in terms of the back of the heel and the toe closing but it is substantially just as it was written.  This book can be purchased at Knitpicks here and is a great compilation of lace objects by a variety of designers.

 

]]> frontpage Mon, 19 Jan 2009 20:58:17 +0000 The Shawl that Belongs to Us http://www.marthamarques.com/index.php/Knitting/the-shawl-that-belongs-to-us.html

Here is a nice shot of Devan sitting in the garden at the Fred Heutte Center in Norfolk Virginia.  We hung out there a bit when we were living in Norfolk, since the gardens were right around the corner from our townhouse there.  The gardens are lovely, Devan is looking pretty good herself, but I would like to direct your attention to the Lavender Knitted Lace Shawl.

 

]]> frontpage Thu, 02 Oct 2008 11:43:31 +0000 The Hawaiian Quilts http://www.marthamarques.com/index.php/Quilting/the-hawaiian-quilts.html Ahi o' Pele (Flames of Pele) is my very first Hawaiian quilt.  This is a scan of a photograph, which is all I have as an image of this quilt.  It was purchased by the State of Hawaii for it's Art in Public Places program and I was blown away by the fact that a piece of my work would be left in Hawaii after I was gone.  The background is black cotton and the foreground is cut from one piece of red fabric, like the snowflakes we used to cut out of paper in grade school.  The stitiching is done in red thread and echoes around the image.  It evokes the red lava glowing in the cracks between the folds  of the pahoehoe lava. Imagine my surprise when Lau Puka Puka (Leaf With Holes) was purchased by the State of Hawaii for the same Art in Public Places program and was hung outside the governor's office in Honolulu!  I have a better image of this one since we had upgraded to slides.  This quilt is 7 feet square and the leaves are about two feet across, which is exactly the same size as the leaves are in nature.  In fact my son Blake and I went for a walk and picked a few leaves to use as patterns when I designed this quilt.  It is a winter quilt, and the tiny green specks of the echo quilting stitches suggest the winter rains falling on the vibrant green of the wet leaves and the shiny black of the lava rock. Li'i Li'i Ahi Pua o' Lehua (Little Flame Flower of Ohia) is another winter quilt and was my third Hawaiian quilt.  It, too, is 7 feet square and I used the green stitching as I had in Lau Puka Puka to suggest the winter rains.  The Ohia trees have little paintbrush flowers that glow bright red against the olive green of the leaves and the greyish black of the Ohia trunks.  This quilt was the last time that I used commercially dyed fabrics for my work.  After this I switched over to hand dyes.  This quilt is also the point at which the Hawaiian women in Hui Kapa Apana o' Hilo (The Quilt Group of Hilo) gave up on getting me to do Hawaiian quilting properly.  My black backgrounds were non-traditional and the use of a third color is also not orthodox.  This is when my friend Sharon Balai said I did "Irish Hawaiian" quilting. ]]> frontpage Sat, 02 Jan 2010 19:57:50 +0000 Ann's Red Hat on Many Faces http://www.marthamarques.com/index.php/Patterns-for-Sale/anns-red-hat-on-many-faces.html

These are pictures of one hat, Ann's Red Hat, on many faces.  The pattern can be uploaded at Ravelry or at etsy where you can also get some of the yarn I used to make it.

 

Ann made the original hat herself from a pattern that I designed for her.  Unfortunately it was tucked in the sleeve of her coat when it was stolen a couple of weeks ago.  She was waaay too sad to make it again herself so I made this one for her.  It is knit from a hand dyed red alpaca/wool blend.  The green edging is the same blend, also a hand dye.  After it was knit up I washed it in my front loader with some towels and, when it wasn't quite small enough, tossed it into the dryer for 15 minutes.  An hour later I remembered it and went to check.  It was perfect!!  Evidently my karma is very good, unlike the karma of whatever scofflaw took Ann's original Red Hat.  I then did the embroidery with scraps of sock yarn and tossed in a little needle felting to fill in the flowers and leaves.  I was so happy with the results that I took it with me to my Tuesday spinning group for Show and Tell.  Here are the results of that, Ann's Red Hat on a variety of faces.  As you can see it looks quite good on everyone.  Tuesday night before the Studio Knitting Class I presented it to Ann.


It looks spectacular on her, but unfortunately I took no picture so you'll have to take my word for it.

]]> frontpage Wed, 12 Jan 2011 15:12:59 +0000 Pictures of the Hooded Jacket for Everybody http://www.marthamarques.com/index.php/Threads-of-Meaning/pictures-of-the-hooded-jacket-for-everybody.html

Here are some photos of the various versions of the Hooded Jacket for Everybody that have been knit up.  I posted this pattern on Ravelry about a year ago and since that time some lovely ones have been made.  For the Ravelry pictures -- which I don't have access to -- you can go to this link if you have a Ravelry membership.  If you love to knit and you don't have a Ravelry membership you should sign up.  It's free, fascinating and useful which is a rare combination.

This version was knit from a locally sourced hand dyed wool/alpaca/mohair worsted weight.  The hand dyes work very well for this pattern because the shifting color makes the garter stitch more interesting to look and and to knit.

 

Here is a picture of a beautiful baby in a version of the Hooded Jacket for Everybody knit up by my friend Ann.  The yarn here is from the same local source as the yarn above, but the red dye had a tendency to "crock" or bleed.  So Ann unraveled a bit and I skeined it back up and simmered it all in a nice warm vinegar/water bath for a couple of hours to set the dye.  It worked like a charm. And here is a picture of my delightful friend and model Una in a version that I made for a lovely lady in Quebec for her daughter.  Same locally sourced wool/alpaca/mohair blend although I used a silk/merino blend for the white parts.  These photos are taken at Pineland in Maine in the cafeteria.  This is where my spinning group meets on Tuesdays and sometimes we are delighted to have Una come with her mother.  She liked this sweater very much and went dancing around the rooom to show it off to the spinning ladies before settling by the window for photos.

There is a funny story connected with this sweater.  I mailed it off to Quebec during the Christmas rush at the post office while I was mailing out several other packages.  When I went to get back into the car -- no keys.  I searched the post office and checked with the lost and found.... nothing.  But the place was so crowded that I thought perhaps someone had just picked up the keys and walked off with them.  So I called my husband Joe and he had to walk down from work and give me his keys so I could drive the car home.  Then I called around and got everything cancelled and replaced for security reasons.  The bad news was that our Mini Cooper -- which we adore -- required a key sent from Boston and the cost was in the neighborhood of $200 which is a very high priced neighborhood indeed.  So I put in the order.

A week and a half later I got an e-mail from the wonderful lady in Quebec saying how much she loved the sweater and that she had discovered some keyw in the package -- Would I like them returned?  So she obligingly sent them back and I cancelled the order for the replacements.  Merry Christmas to me!  and Thank You Very Much to her!

And here is a picture of a version made by my friend Pat for her grandson.  Her grandson lives in South Carolina so she needed yarn that was soft and washable.  Knitpicks Swish is a super wash merino and we ordered Copper and Marine Heather for the colors.  I overdyed the Copper with a thin yellow dye to give the color a little more nuance and there you go.  It came out beautifully and I am waiting for pictures of it on her grandson. ]]> frontpage Wed, 27 Oct 2010 14:28:57 +0000 New Pattern - French School Girl Cardigan http://www.marthamarques.com/index.php/Patterns-for-Sale/new-pattern-french-school-girl-cardigan.html

Here is the French School Girl Cardigan modeled by Devan who is sitting on the deck off the kitchen.  Why the title?  I wanted a cardigan that was sturdy, warm and practical which this is.  I would like to call your attention to the pockets.  I have almost decided that I will only make clothing with pockets from now on because they are so intensely useful -- well maybe not everything -- I'm not sure how useful they would be in socks for example -- but for nearly everything.  School Girl Cardigan seemed to me to imply a certain utilitarian quality, a kind of everyday wearability.  Which is a quality that this sweater certainly has.  This is the second version for me.  The first version has been worn so continuously that it has begun to show signs of wearing out which is why I created and recorded the making of this second version.  I need another one as backup and since I found it so comfortable and useful I thought you might want to make one for yourself.


If you look at the picture below you will see why I threw French into the title.  While I was willing to have a certain frumpy quality to the front of the sweater in the interest of comfort and practicality I also wanted a kind of flirtatious feminine walking away aspect.  That is why I incorporated the pleats and the set in waist band. This is a very feminine sweater and the adaptations that you can make to the back of the sweater allow you to make it as flattering as possible to your own.....aspect.

I created this sweater for myself and I have Devan, who is more slender than I, modeling it because it is so difficult to take a good picture of yourself.  It fits me very well, and is a bit looser in fit for her.  You can make it according to your own particular desired size and most of the fitting takes place on the back of the sweater.  The knitting is very straightforward but there is quite a bit of sewing up, particularly for the back.  You also get pointers on short rows, I-cord bind off, and making of pleats.  This is a 10 page pattern with lots of pictures and explanations.  You can purchase it on my Ravelry site or from my Etsy site as a PDF download.  The sweater requires 1200-1400 yards of sturdy worsted -- I used Peacefleece for both versions for me.  The color for this one is Baghdad Blue. ]]> frontpage Thu, 01 Jul 2010 14:46:19 +0000 What Happened in the Doll Making Class http://www.marthamarques.com/index.php/Dolls/what-happened-in-the-doll-making-class.html

I just finished up a Doll Making class at Breakwater school here in Portland.  I had some reservations about the ability of 7 - 9 year olds to do this kind of hand sewing.  These are dolls based on the classic Waldorf doll, and in that curriculum are usually done by 8th graders.  I am very happy to report that my reservations were completely unfounded.  These three girls did a remarkable job over the course of this 8 week project.  They had great committment and very good focus, even after the weather turned beautiful and the spring breezes were wafting seductively through the open windows.


This lovely little face belongs to Lily.  You can't see it in the photograph but Lily has gorgeous green eyes, and so does her doll.  We tried to make each doll look like her maker.  Lily made the pants and shirt and we got them done just in the nick of time.

This is Arianna and her glamorous creation.  If you are a girl with red hair the desire for a doll that has red hair that is not some unnatural shade of Ronald McDonald orange is intense.  Arianna was very intent while making her doll and wanted to finish with an elegant dress.  As you can tell she also really likes this brilliant shade of blue.

This is Nami and her doll.  Nami came into class one day late, and missed another session because of a school commitment.  The fact that she was able to complete her doll and get her dressed made me very proud of her.  We finished the dress and popped it on her doll with no minutes to spare, but we did get it done.  I love this picture of them.  They both share that beautiful, serene expression that is so Nami.


I'm really looking forward to doing another Doll Making class at Breakwater in the fall session.  Maybe we'll do a doll dressmaking class as well.

]]> frontpage Thu, 10 Jun 2010 14:51:24 +0000 What's Happening in the Dye Kitchen http://www.marthamarques.com/index.php/Threads-of-Meaning/whats-happening-in-the-dye-kitchen.html  

 

Here are a few glamour shots of some of the results of my Dye Days.  I have a couple of crock pots in the cellar and once the weather gets warm I start to keep them going.  I usually do one or two pots a day.  The brighter colors are dyed over white wool that is helpfully grown by a nice sheep named Bella.  That would be the pink and blue in these pictures.
The ocher red and green is dyed over a mixture of a nice brown sheep named Patrick and an Alpaca with reddish hair whose name I do not know, although I have made inquiries and should be hearing shortly.  I love Dye Days -- the colors make me so cheerful.  They are drying on an old screen door propped up on some old Adirondak chairs on my  screen porch outside the studio.
]]> frontpage Thu, 20 May 2010 15:16:05 +0000 Farmer's Market at Monument Square http://www.marthamarques.com/index.php/Threads-of-Meaning/farmers-market-at-monument-square.html One of my favorite spring rituals is the opening of the Farmer's Market at Monument Square in Portland.   I love the sights and sounds, the smell of the plants and my morning coffee, the colors of the flowers, the vegetables and the passers by.  Occasionally street musicians come by and enliven the atmosphere for a while and that, too, enhances my good time.  I pack the Mini Cooper up the night before, show up at 8:00 and get my table set up, sort and arrange my colorful yarns, rugs, pillows, dolls, and then settle back and spin.  I am completely and totally relaxed and happy without any concerns about what else I might be doing -- I am at the Farmer's Market and I am free to watch and admire, talk and listen, sip my coffee and spin my fibers, for the next 5 hours.

For company I have my friend Beatrice Gilbert who is there in the background spinning and selling her pottery.  She quilts, spins, cooks and throws pots, and I'm sure that she is extremely talented at others things that I don't know about yet.  But on Wednesdays she is at the Farmer's Market selling her pottery.  Up above you can see me holding my Beatrice Gilbert cup which is filled with coffee from the Public Market.  The coffee is good, the atmosphere is wonderful, the company is great and, I can assure you, the coffee cup enhances the entire experience.

I am a very lucky woman. ]]> frontpage Mon, 10 May 2010 15:30:00 +0000