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May. 30th, 2009 02:44 pmOkay, I know what I'm gonna make with the stainless steel silk. While I would dearly love to make a knee length trench, that will have to wait until I win the lottery lol.
However.... about a month ago, I came across a sewing pattern for creating an LED tank top. I don't do much sewing, and found the idea of keeping all those silver threads from touching just a little bit daunting. But with crochet, I don't have to worry about it! I won't be able to make a grid, per se, but I can make closely spaced rows (vertical or horizontal) that won't touch by crocheting every other row with the steel yarn carried along. If I use a small yarn as my primary, the rows will be close enough together that I can probably make better LED patterns than the tank that they made anyway.
So here's what I have to do: buy the LEDs, circuit board and power supply. Solder on crimp beads (I may let my husband do this part, he has more experience with soldering) and string them onto the steel silk. Then I work the pattern as usual with the primary until I get to where I want to start adding LEDs, then start carrying the silk steel with it every other row using standard bead crochet. I'll have to end off at the end of every other row, and leave a really long tail that will have to be hand sewn into the seam, but I'm going to use a contrasting yarn color for the primary so it shouldn't be too diffiicult. Then comes the hard part. After I get all the pieces made and together, I have to run the yarn ends through the circuit board, sewing it to the fabric. All the ends have to be kept separate--they can't touch at all. Then I have to sew in the power supply and connect it, then cover the whole thing with cloth so it doesn't abrade (eiither my skin or the yarn lol).
Sounds like a lot of work, huh? But in the end, I will have a very cool shirt that will say or picture anything my husband can program into it. The person who came up with the idea wrote a program that can be shared, so that anyone with the program can send messages to her shirt, but I'm not that brave lol.
It's a pretty big project for sure, and I'm not entirely sure it will work--the silk may insulate the steel too much for it to conduct, even though it's a really thin layer. But I'm pretty sure it will, and I would love to go to Vancouver with a shirt that says"Supernatural rocks" or "I *heart* Dean" or something equally silly in flashing neon letters LOL. Though I don't know that I would wear it to the convention, I'm not that much of an exhibitionist.
If I manage to pull it off I will definitely post a pic here :)
However.... about a month ago, I came across a sewing pattern for creating an LED tank top. I don't do much sewing, and found the idea of keeping all those silver threads from touching just a little bit daunting. But with crochet, I don't have to worry about it! I won't be able to make a grid, per se, but I can make closely spaced rows (vertical or horizontal) that won't touch by crocheting every other row with the steel yarn carried along. If I use a small yarn as my primary, the rows will be close enough together that I can probably make better LED patterns than the tank that they made anyway.
So here's what I have to do: buy the LEDs, circuit board and power supply. Solder on crimp beads (I may let my husband do this part, he has more experience with soldering) and string them onto the steel silk. Then I work the pattern as usual with the primary until I get to where I want to start adding LEDs, then start carrying the silk steel with it every other row using standard bead crochet. I'll have to end off at the end of every other row, and leave a really long tail that will have to be hand sewn into the seam, but I'm going to use a contrasting yarn color for the primary so it shouldn't be too diffiicult. Then comes the hard part. After I get all the pieces made and together, I have to run the yarn ends through the circuit board, sewing it to the fabric. All the ends have to be kept separate--they can't touch at all. Then I have to sew in the power supply and connect it, then cover the whole thing with cloth so it doesn't abrade (eiither my skin or the yarn lol).
Sounds like a lot of work, huh? But in the end, I will have a very cool shirt that will say or picture anything my husband can program into it. The person who came up with the idea wrote a program that can be shared, so that anyone with the program can send messages to her shirt, but I'm not that brave lol.
It's a pretty big project for sure, and I'm not entirely sure it will work--the silk may insulate the steel too much for it to conduct, even though it's a really thin layer. But I'm pretty sure it will, and I would love to go to Vancouver with a shirt that says"Supernatural rocks" or "I *heart* Dean" or something equally silly in flashing neon letters LOL. Though I don't know that I would wear it to the convention, I'm not that much of an exhibitionist.
If I manage to pull it off I will definitely post a pic here :)
