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Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Stamp Carving Roundup: Part 2 Designing and Transferring Image



Reminder: If you are looking for a comprehensive resource/ post on this topic which gives you complete information, alternatives, and comparisons then go here:
http://www.nettally.com/palmk/Rubber_Stamp_Carving_Tips.html

If you are looking for a "this is what I do/what a reccommend for beginners" then this post is for you.
Part 1 covered assembling your materials
Part 2 will cover designing your image and transferring it to your carving material (this is part 2)
Part 3 will cover carving your design
Part 4 will cover stamping your image

 Designing your image: 
Things to keep in mind

1. Start small and simple- if you get overly ambitious (small lines, super large, very detailed) for your first stamp then you will get angry like Hulk.
2. Remember- you will be carving the white/pink space, not the dark/pencil space. Therefore, the more dark the less you have to carve.
3. You can edit out items when you trace (use tracing paper).
4. I recommend staying away from words until you get used to carving drawings


Steps
Step 1: Draw a picture
Step 2: ... there is no step 2


Transferring your image:
Steps
Step 1: Lay a sheet of tracing paper over your image
 

 
Step 2: Trace ONLY the parts of the image you want to keep; note that in the picture above I kept only the owl and not the words. This is where the gritty pencil really comes in handy
 
Step 3: Cut a piece of carving material to the approximatae size of your image
 
 
Step 4: Put your tracing paper image side down (gritty pencil side down) to the carving material
Step 5: Rub the tracing paper with your finger or other object (I use the bottom side of a carving tool)
 
Step 6: Carefully remove the tracing paper

The image left on the stamp with be the mirror image of your original image (which is good!)

Next up (in hopefully January): 
Part 3: Carving your design

Monday, December 10, 2012

Man-Cowl Mystery Solved

So, I love Ravelry.

I was PMed from a user today (anna-fo-fanna) about my search for the mysterious man-cowl (original post here). It turns out that I didn't dream up the cowl, a pattern already exists! I knew I wasn't nutters.

Here is the pattern I must have found but then didn't queue and therefore went through the process of recreating from (at the time uncertain if real or imagined) memory. The main picture doesn't exactly look the same but when you open the project pictures it looks exactly the same- which is why I suppose I had such difficulty finding it again. I think the only difference is that mine has a 1x1 rib and the original pattern doesn't (so... really... exactly the same).

I deactivated my reconstructed pattern on ravelry and contacted everyone who'd downloaded it or started the project and referred them to Michael Wynne's pattern. I also encouraged everyone to link their projects to Michael Wynne's pattern.

If you still want my reconstructed version of the pattern please feel free to contact me on ravelry and I'll send you the PDF.

Now... back to work!

Friday, December 7, 2012

True Story: San Diego Stitch Pattern

I recently returned from a trip to San Diego for work. When I was there I felt inspired (I know, I know, I'm a doofus) by the boats and sand and Mexican cultural and architectural influence so I developed a new stitch pattern (at least I've not seen it before but, knowing knitting, it's probably already been developed by Elizabeth Zimmerman's cousin's roommate's ravelry BFF's third bridesmaid).
What it looks like in the nude... color yarn.
The picture above is unblocked. I have hopes that it will even out and open up with blocking. I'd also like to try it with a lighter weight yarn.
A chart that only makes sense to me.
The plan at present is to finish the nude cowl and post the pattern to ravelry. I'll likely also make a few swatches in different yarn weights and yarn types. Regardless, I like it. Maybe one day I'll turn it into a shawl...