Where has the time gone?

It's a bit embarrassing, this. Disappear for months on end, all the while working fastidiously on projects in the background.

But there ya go.

Some things of import: cats are still adorable, but no longer kittens, of course. Still producing stellar breadstuffs on a weekly basis. Latest is whole wheat sourdough, which is not only fab when uber-fresh, but enjoys a second life when the stale bits are made into savory bread puddings or added to soups.

But what you really care about, if you care at all, is the yarnstuffs. And I have been making stuff, cranking it out, some dismal failures, like the Anthro Inspired Capelet and Rosa's Sleeveless Cardi Jumper:

 some lovely as all get out. See?  Just to be clear - the above failures are my fault, not the patterns or the designers.  The capelet was way too small and the cardi, way too big.  I plan to revisit both.  Stuff that went well include the Tea Shawl from Lion Brand, Tosca by Dora Ohrenstein, and a couple of Animekko cats, made as gifts...

 

But for some reason, I've lately glommed onto a desperate need to complete the UFOs what have been cluttering my new and fabulous workroom. They are piled in the corner like turds. And really, they deserve much better.

 So here is one of the first, rescued from the turd pile and quickly completed:

That's the Scalloped Cowl from Lion Brand.

Below is the hibernating Shipwreck Shawl.  Distressing side note:  My Knitpick's circular cable snapped right below the connector on the damn R train, freeing a bunch of stitches in its wake!  Sorry Knitpicks, but I'm pissed off about that!!!  I mean, what the hell?

And here's the kicker: This isn't all!  I've also been trying my hand at needlefelting, urged on by the gift of a gorgeous Japanese book on the same.  Started by making some beads, then graduated to what was supposed to look like a clog, but ended up looking like Grandpa Simpson's lost slipper.  Ah, well. 

And there are more projects, too!  Here's hoping I get and keep my ass in gear and get back to posting weekly...

Art THIS!

So I have been on a bit of a craft/art binge as of late, cooking up some interesting ideas in my mini moleskine (will they get executed? Smart money is on no), and looking at stuff online that I find inspirational and exciting. First up is the most recent edition of Surface Design magazine, which is dedicated to knit and crochet and contains some amazing work by some wonderful artists. In fact, the curious stitcher could lose a few hours scoping out their website looking at the work featured there. Par example:

Call To Love by Catherine Armbrust

Blood Veil by Pip Brant

Palm Trees Marionette by Pip Brant

These were just snatched from dipping in a few pages into the gallery. Check out more yourself here.

Another artist using crochet as her medium, at least for some of her work, is Mary Carlson. Check out a few pieces she's done in crochet, starting with the crocheted octopus, to a couple of squid, to blood splatters that use beads, to a willow (which is not crocheted, but stunningly beautiful):






Across the pond, in Brighton, is a charming exhibit of fishy goodness by Kate Jenkin, all knitted and lovely:
Here is a link to more of her food-inspired work.

While not needlework per se, I was also quite taken with this exhibit of work by Edwina Bridgeman, also in England, that is a contemplation of the disappearance of so many orchards in that country:

Don't know how many of you get a chance to see or buy Inside Crochet, but they have been featuring the work of my lovely and gorgeous friend, rockpoolcandy, most recently her Pebble Rug. For me, this piece is a work of art, subtle and beautiful.

And on ravelry, there is always a ton of cool stuff being churned out. Just today a new pattern was posted for this antique phone by Sally Byrne:
Is it art? I wouldn't call it so, I guess, but I think it's an interesting interpretation and a great use of crochet's sculptural qualities.

There is so much more to discuss about all this. While I am fascinated with the past history of the needle arts and feel this extraordinary connection to the (mostly) women who have toiled over their work in joy or necessity or both, I am equally interested in what the future holds for these crafts (and sorry, but I hope washcloths don't figure too highly there). At some point, doilies were cutting-edge needlework, too. With such rich histories, the work of our hands bring depth to the arts in which they are included. While men have had a hand in this too, it is mostly a woman's art and as such, alludes to our history, our triumphs, and our joys.

Enjoy.

Whimsy

I have this awful tendency to keep piles everywhere. Drives the Brit nuts when they get too high. So as I was working from home yesterday, I took a break to reduce the height of my nearest pile consisting largely of vintage pattern books.

Now, quite of few of them deal with making accessories of one stripe or other. As crochet lends itself to structure more readily than knitting, there is a preponderance of vintage crochet hat patterns to be pored over. And it doesn't take long to see that hats (and bags too, I guess), lend themselves to more whimsical designs than, say, sweaters. Or put it this way, they are more successfully whimsical than sweaters (my proof point being those godawful christmas sweaters that get dragged out every year all mothball-scented and embarrassing).

Seeing some of these makes me wish that we still could entertain these little flights of fancy in our lives. I think the single hardest thing to wear is a hat and I always admire the brave souls that do and carry it off. But how fun would it be to raise the bar even on that and wear some of these treasures?

Yarn Shrink: Overcoming the Crap

Do you have a million UFOs in your abode? Well, do you? I do. Okay, maybe more than a million.

Why does a UFO become one? Is it boredom of the same stitch over and over? Is is the thrill and excitement of the new and sexy project glittering in the distance? Is it the smell of new yarn and its seductive powers holding sway over your widening wallet? Yeah, I'm there.

It's also the project somehow not quite holding up to its promise, isn't it? You're following the directions, whether they are in your head, on the screen, in a book, or a crumpley piece of paper. The beautiful lines are not quite what you'd hoped. The color is boring. Too many mistakes too far back to fix.

I usually fall somewhere at either end - falling for the come-hither project in the periphery or seeing the project falling short of its promise. In either case, I'm screwed.

So given that we are trying not to squander our dough on every yarny-come-lately, I've taken a mini-oath to revisit my dormant dears and see what I can do to fix them, or revive my interest in them.

Case in point: Forest & Frills. I love this adorable little shrug. I love the colorway of the yarn I"m using. But it didn't seem to look like what I thought it would. Somehow, it looked heavy, like a blanket, though I carefully followed the directions and the gauge seems to be fine. So I dropped it in favor of something else - I don't even know what.

So today I'm pissing away time that I should have been spending putting summer bulbs in the window boxes on a perfectly spectacular Spring day (I did plant a bunch in the garden proper, but the window boxes need love, too) poking around ravelry, and I came across a bunch of people's versions of F&F and lo! they looked just like mine! I mean halle-freakin-lujah! So I wasn't off the mark, after all!

So I am winding down my work on this gorgeous shawl (again, another UFO, but it looks like I might be short on yarn, dammit), and will commence on forest & frills right away.

So for all of you who, like me, act like magpies with the lure and promise of shiny new projects, take a look at what others are doing. If you are dropping them because of frustration or boredom, taking a closer look at the finished project in the various forms created by your fellow hookers/knitters might give you the kick in the panties you were looking for to pick it up again.

Hey, it's worth a shot, right?

Creatification

Geez, where to start?

Well, let's pick up where we left off a couple of posts ago. My KnitPicks needles have arrived in all their speedy, non-kinky glory! I LOVE them! What a difference they make in ease of knitting. I mean, holy cow! Well done, KnitPicks! Buh-bye, Susan Bates -- you will be relegated to stitch-holding and little more. I have struggled with your horrendous kinky cables long enough!

Forest and Frills Shrug by tiny owls knits

In the meanwhile, as much as I was enjoying making the Nicky Epstein Roman Holiday Shrug, my mind started wandering and I've started making this Forest and Frill shrug by tiny owl knits instead (her completed version is above and the section of mine in progress is at the top of this page). It is the very definition of easy-peasy, and I need me some quick gratification. And if that ends up being a stashbuster AND involves some pretty crochet edging to boot, so much the better. I'll get back to Nicky later.

In a topic switch, I have been thinking about my parents a lot lately. Part of it is how I miss them, part of it is how I am having a harder and harder time mentally conjuring my mother (she passed in 1985, so it's been a while), and part of it is how much like them I am turning out to be. For instance, my mom was a knitter and crocheter and made up a lot of her own patterns. I remember this beautiful blue crocheted coat she made me when I was about 12. It had Juliet Sleeves, a particular favorite of mine, and was long and oh-so-hip. She loved to garden, cook and to experiment with new foods, spices, herbs, and cooking techniques. So I know where all THAT comes from!

My dad, on the other hand, was an ideas guy. Nothing charged him up like a book that challenged the standard notion of world. During my daily visits with him, we'd talk about ocean exploration, outer space, history, homeopathy, radionics, dowsing, and alchemy. He loved to surround himself with books (and he did!) and was at his happiest immersed in ideas or tinkering with his experiments. To the very end of his life, he never lost his enthusiasm for his books and ideas. So it should be no surprise to those who knew him that I am afflicted with this same disease. I am surrounded with books (though of a different nature than my dad's), and am happiest when immersed in them or tinkering with my needlework, jewelry work, arty, foodie, or costumey pursuits. Oh, or traveling.

All of which is a long-winded way of getting to talk to you about this week and why I'm so excited about it.

First, I received a book this week that I'd ordered from a Dutch bookseller called "Zelf je kleding haken," by Lis Paludan, author of the wonderful "Crochet History and Technique." I saw one of the projects in it on ravelry and thought the book was a little unusual in its design approach. And kids, it is positively filled with wonderful ideas for those weilding the hook! Is it dated? Yes, absolutely. Are the ideas big enough to be translatable into more contemporary versions? Again, yes. Is it in English? Hell, no. But it is beautifully illustrated, complete with clothing patterns in the back of the book, so the savvy hooker should be able to glean the ideas needed into their next project.

For example, these mittens look fresher than a lot of new stuff out there:

And this jacket, while clearly dated, is a fascinating shape that could be easily updated:
Also, I bought the new issue of Vogue Knitting, which has some extraordinary patterns in it, including Elizabeth Zimmerman's amazing Snail Hat, Jared Flood's cabled gloves, and the amazing work of Sandra Backlund. I love almost everything in this issue, and only wish I had the time and talent to make all of it.

Sigh.

While shopping at KnitPicks for my needles, my fingers accidently added Wendy Bernard's Custom Knits to my shopping basket. I have no idea how that happened! :-) But what a fantastic book! I cannot recommend it highly enough! I love Wendy's website, Knit and Tonic, and her senses of humor and style. As a result, I'm once again trying to figure out how the hell I'm supposed to grow the limbs needed to do all the projects I want to.

Sigh again.

Clothes. I love clothes. I've worked for years as a costume designer, and I adore weird clothes, new clothes, old clothes, you name it. But I have this crazy predilection for buying the most boring clothes imaginable. In my youth, I'd come up with the craziest outfits. In my old age, I'm two steps away from buying jogging suits for my husband and me to wear to the mall. It's sick. So I am looking to change up what I've got, creatify, if you will, my existing wardrobe into something new and distinctive. Except that I'm not starting with my existing wardrobe, I'm taking a pair of grey striped pants that my husband wants to chuck and turn it into something adorable for myself. Here they are as they currently exist. I'm thinking skirt (so bloody obvious, though, isn't it?), possibly jacket (saw something like that in a Roman boutique last month), but think I'll try for the thing that will likely have more wearable results. So skirt it is.

Back to books for a minute.

I mentioned the new old book from the Netherlands before. Here is a book from England that I am enormously fond of. It's dated, yes, but positively brimming with ideas and techniques that are literally crammed into its pages. Lookie!


So this week's loaf is in the oven (is it just me or does that sound like a euphemism?), a seeded rye, and it's heavenly scent is teasing my nostrils as I write. Later today, I'll make apple bread for the man to enjoy for the week.

On the diet front, for those keeping score, I'm down around 4 pounds. Not a huge amount, but respectable. I know from experience that the slower losses tend to take hold a bit better. So slowly I go...

Till later!