Experiments with polymer clay

When I was about 10 years old, my parents gave me The Incredible Clay Book (which incidentally, I still have, and I see someone on Amazon is trying to sell it for $76 – collector’s item? lol.) It came with clay, and I loved it. It was super fun trying to replicate some ideas in the book. Some were a great success (I really liked my sumo wrestler), and some were not. But all in all, it was fun.

I recently got the itch to try polymer clay again, because I finally have a use for it (strangely enough, the sumo wrestler was not all that useful) – stitch markers! I have many polymer clay stitch markers that I have purchased from talented designers on Etsy, but I wanted to make my own.

Serendipitously, I found the book Make Clay Charms at a local store. What are charms if not stitch markers? 🙂

I got sucked in pretty hard and probably spent about 3 hours that first day I had it making some things from the book and then trying stuff out on my own. And now that I’ve started, I have SO MANY ideas.

The first thing I designed were roller skates! I’m nothing if not a child of the 80s.

But I’ve realized that the clay that comes with the book is just not sturdy enough for the way I use stitch markers (chucking them in bags and dropping down them down the side of a recliner anyone?). A few of the “charms” have broken before they’ve even been used, just by my daughter gently moving them around on the table.

So I’m experimenting with some better quality clay. I’ve made some testers with Fimo Professional, Fimo Soft and Premo. I haven’t had them finished long enough to have an opinion yet.

I’d love to hear from you if you also use polymer clay – what do you think is the sturdiest brand? And are there any “must-have” tools you recommend?

FO: Chain cardigan

A couple of months ago, I started looking for a pattern that would work with a large quantity of Cascade Longwood Sport that I won at my LYS during a Cascade event at the shop. It was the perfect neutral color and it was enough for an adult sweater with 3/4 sleeve (a pattern was included). But I didn’t like the pattern. Plus, as much as I probably shouldn’t say this as a knitter, I’m not really a sweater wearer. However, my daughter loves a handknit cardigan to throw on, and she’d outgrown the last one I made. So after a little Ravelry browsing, I settled on the Chain cardigan pattern because it was lovely and classic with just a little detail.

I have to say that I found knitting with the Longwood Sport frustrating. It was fine to knit it, but if you had to tink back at all, the yarn basically would completely untwist and then it would get very splitty and it made it unpleasant to get back on track. Given that I messed up the cable quite a few times (since you’re on cruise control stockinette for a couple hundred stitches it’s easy to forget the twist on the last few stitches of each row), this was an issue for me.

I left this sweater unfinished for several weeks, though I just had to do the bind off, weave in the ends and graft the underarms. On a very unseasonably cool day a few weeks ago, I was bummed I’d put it off. The next day, I finished it all off and gave it a bath so I wouldn’t be caught out again!

My daughter wears a size 6 or 7 depending on the brand, and I knit a size 8. It turned out to be nearly dress length (only about an inch shorter than her favorite dress).

The sleeves have almost 2 inches extra. Since the sleeves are slim, you can get away with wearing them without folding them back and they don’t look bulky, but you can also fold them back.

I took my daughter with me to my LYS and she picked out these multi-color heart buttons. I asked if she had a preference on the order they went on the cardigan, and she did! I love her little notations on the paper the buttons came on.

We only needed four of them, so only 1-4 made it on the cardigan. I think they add a really sweet finishing touch.

Given that she wore it all afternoon when I finished it, despite it being a very warm summer day, I’m considering it a win! I think it will be perfect when the temperatures cool down. And look at that twirl power!