klimt bag

This one burns the eyes: it's a heady mix of reds, pinks, oranges and magentas, with some eye-popping gold, turquoise and yellow accents. It it warm and not at all subtle. Sometimes things take on a life of their own, a personality which dictates the direction for itself. I did the actual knitting over a year ago, and was a bit non-plussed by the final objects. It rested untouched in my UFO box for AGES, until a week ago, when I finally got myself together enough to sew it up into a bag for my niece F, who loves pink and purple (gawk), and who is the loveliest kid on wheels.

She is a teenager, so therefore quite choosy about how she adorns herself- we'll see if this graces her presence or not. It's a tough call- but I DID ask her about colors, and she gave me a very very clear, firm response of "pink and purple". Duly noted.

I lined it with some very soft silky stretch oyster colored velour (left over from a pair of palazzo pants a friend had made and passed onto me, until they got too worn in the seat and ended up in the craft-fabric bin. It's lovely stuff, but did I really ever wear these??
did they look good? It's hard to imagine- I am rather short, and long drapey light colored flowing pants do not really sound like a good idea...)

I then caged several vintage buttons from friends I am visiting. These I stacked to make the clasp, which has a velvet ribbon stitched with silk yarn to wrap around it. I am away from home, finishing this, so it is the product of improvisation and unforeseen results.
Yes Virginia,
this is another last-minute-before-Christmas-on-the-road-craft-project ...
I did my usual three-ribbon strap, a rather gaudy mix of coral Velvet, pink giant rick-rack and orange grosgrain ( Thank you local Jo-Ann fabrics in the mall!) I am not so sure about the colors, but hey, it's not for me.

The bag is knit in a soft mixture of chenille, wool, angora, metallic yarns and a few fluffy novelty bits and pieces. It is tactile to the nth degree, and the design of the big ovals was inspired by the wonderful knitting of Kaffe Fasset.
I hope that she likes it.

The perfect Coat....

I love this coat by Koos Van Der Akker, available as a Vogue sewing pattern!
See here for details on the pattern.

I saw this and laughed- it is terriffic and is missing just one thing to make it a truly great look: knitted accessories.

This coat is the perfect foil (and vice-versa) for the crocodylia scarf,
and a pair of really smashing fingerless mitts.

Winter time means a lot of rather boring bundling up and facing chilly winds. It gets old really fast, but I am thinking that a smart, quirky ensemble might just keep a grin on my face as I brave the great outdoors...

However, this is "dream sewing"- I don't actually have time and between work and the holidays there is SOOOOOO much to do, none of which includes embarking on big sewing projects.

The Crocodylia scarves on Ravelry look so great- I am just delighted and amazed. I am hoping to actually see someone walking down the street wearing one!

I made a chunky cashmere eggplant colored one for my Mom- looks great on her,
but the drape is a bit too, well, drapey. The stiffer wool version is still better, more sculptural....

Crocodylia aftermath

It has been a curious sensation having my pattern published online. Knitty links to Ravelry, where to date 15 folks are knitting or have already knit one for themselves. There are also blog postings and general musings, some of which refer to Crocodylia.

I hadn't given it much thought, and therefore did not have any clear expectations, but there have been some surprises-to me at least. There might be a significant "duh" factor here for some of you who spend more time on knitting chat rooms then I do....

• Almost no one used the yarn I specified!

I am not sure if that has more to do with yarn shops touting more upscale varieties, or a general elitism among hand-knitters, or if it is that as a scarf pattern, Crocodylia is viewed as a good stash-buster?

Lamb's pride bulky is very nice and all that, but I have noticed that the rather upscale yarn boutiques I have gone into in New York and New Haven, don't seem to carry it. This is a bit of a stunner to me because my original yarn for the project was something I bought in France, unavailable here, and I specifically looked for something with similar qualities that would be widely available, and not too expensive!*

This would not matter a whit- who am I to try and control other people's craft projects?

EXCEPT that using thin floppy yarn won't make the pattern do what it is supposed to do: make solid ripples and fins. It just doesn't come out "right". So, while I have been getting lots of happy positive feedback (this is a total rush- I really like it when I've made someone happy!) there are the odd, disappointed comments or faintly dissatisfied postings.

So I guess I'd like to say:
It really does come out a lot better if you use a chunky firm-bodied wool yarn. Really, really.

• Almost everyone "customizes" the pattern in some way:
  

I love this! fringes, edging, more rows...
you name it. I had (erroneously!) thought that everyone would be using the pattern like a kit- get the yarn, go straight through the pattern as directed and voila!

NOT SO.
This is the same-but in my view more positive-impetus as the one to try any number of kinds of yarns, and it is really nice to see what people have come up with.

• Last surprise:

Is there some sort of prejudice out there to chunky yarn that I did not know about?
If so WHY?
it's, well, YARN, and often better quality yarn then some of that skinny shiny glittery furry novelty stuff. Though I suppose that those who oppose chunky yarns wouldn't be caught dead with their digits sunk into anything synthetic either...

I, myself am feeling very anti snob and very proletariat these days.
My latest project uses fiber not from ANY yarn store, upscale or otherwise.
My latest project uses butcher's twine (untreated cotton!) from my local hardware store.
Soft, creamy white, and costs almost nothing.

It is very cool to see what people have made, and they are very lovely to boot!
I am really enjoying this, above musings notwithstanding.


* I did buy mine in one such a place however: Gotham Fine Yarn at 148 Orchard st. They should be applauded for including the prosaic workhorses in with the exotics.

Crocodylia!

So my first-ever published pattern has appeared on Knitty!
It's an exciting-but-strange sensation to see it up there, since I actually made and wrote the whole thing up quite a while ago...
David and Thom took these pictures in Maine in August. My original ones were shot in the Natural history museum in NYC, which made a terrific backdrop but required flash. I was upset because I had really liked the ones with the pterodactyl mural in the background and was really not sure WHAT I was going to find in coastal Maine in August that would be reminiscent of either "Deep Fall" or ancient reptiles.
The answer: caves.
on the shore line were these lovely, craggy red caves facing the sea.
So- I put on a jacket and gloves, Thom and David gamely got out the cameras and we trundled off to the shore. It was hot and wearing wool and leather was not much of a laugh, but I really lucked out. Both of them are wonderful photographers and I could not have asked for better images. I am not very comfortable in front of the camera and usually have to be surprised into a good photo, but candid shots often find me with my mouth awkwardly open or a crazed harassed look in my eye. They blithely evaded all of these hurdles to leave me where I am now: sitting pretty with my boa draped around my neck and nary a hair out of place!

Yarn theory is up and open!

Finally!
we opened on Saturday to a packed house.
I cannot tell you how hot and humid it was in the gallery- many spilled out onto the street to catch the cool air (thereby drawing even more people in)...
I think that must be a record number of visitors for PS122 gallery- usually the exhibits have fewer artists, so the draw isn't as wide....
I confess to being exhausted and glad when I got to curl into bed that night. Putting on exhibits is very rewarding, but quite a lot of work- I feel very responsible for all of the artists involved and want them all to be happy, their work to be beautifully displayed and safe, etc.
If one goes to visit the exhibit blog a PDF of the catalog is available for home printing. I am proud of what we were able to acheive on such a tiny budget-
this catalog being a prime example...
get your own at: http://ps122gallery.wordpress.com/

Yarn Theory!

I haven't posted in a while, partly because I've been travelling, but mostly because I've been in the throes of curating a show about knitted and crocheted sculpture!
Yarn Theory opens WAY too soon- April 25th- and features some really exciting work being done by artists, mathematicians and scientists. In addition to the exhibit, there are also a number of workshops, a performance and a guerrilla knitting project taking place on the buildings exterior!
we are blogging about the whole kit-and-caboodle here:

http://ps122gallery.wordpress.com/

So what am I making for this show?
I am trying to make a knitted version of Johannes Kepler's model of the solar system. He was very interested in platonic solids( hey, me too!), and attributed quasi-mystical characteristics to them. He also thought they showed the structure of the universe in some way. His model has them nesting inside each other to show the organizational perfection of our solar system's makeup.

His ORDER for nesting the shapes is eccentric- instead of starting with the shapes with the fewest faces and working outwards, or some other equally intuitive logic, they are arranged in a manner hard to suss indeed. This makes my job more complex than I initially thought.

Even more weird was his idea that the finished, bronze model would also double as a nice punchbowl- intriguing and strange. Was he really into parties?
Perhaps it was the expense to some patron to cast the model that sent him fishing for possible other (festive!) "uses" for the thing?

Anyway, after some amusing false starts I have developed a system for making my forms which "works". It invoves elastic and drinking straws as well as the glittering quick-silver yarn I bought in Venice. I knit around the straw- a bit like a knitting Jenny or, as they call it in the Uk, "French" knitting, where you use a spool with nails in it to make mostly useless knit tubes. In my case I NEED knit tubes, which has sent me on a variety of scavenger hunts throughout New Haven and NYC looking for straws of the correct circumferences.

2008 knitting in review!

As we put 2008 to rest, I thought I'd post pictures of my finished projects...

above:

sphere, Finally finished, stuffed, and given to my dad as a christmas present!

Below: "Flicca" , as modelled by a newly padded out Myrna, was knit in Elite Classic Duchess. I am really happy with how this turned out, despite my botching the short-rowed collar and ham-fistedly weaving in the ends. Some improvements to work on in 2009..

Here is my finished version of Teva Durham's Corrugated Vee neck. love the pattern, love the color, HATE the yarn. Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Bulky. it pills when you look at it. the sweater looks ok in this picture, but in reality looks like muppet fur. I was told it was hard-wearing and machine washable. what it was was EXPENSIVE.

Other draw-back- I made it too big- it stretches slinky-like and falls off of my shoulders. shoulda made it the size I originally though but was worried about being too small. live-and-learn.

Blue belle: in classic elite monteza alpaca. No complaints here- I love this sweater and wear it all the time!

it fits like a dream, best of all, I made it without a pattern, and learned all kinds of things including how to steek!

A detail of my gussets- the skirt swing flirtily and gives me a TINY waist!

Side view with belled sleeves and peplum!




Neck detail and slightly more accurate color-

I thought I'd mostly wear it zipped up high(wattle-hiding don't you know), but actually love it like this. The alpaca is a bit too warm otherwise!

I steeked(cut) the front after knitting it whole on circular needles, then put in a zipper and faced it with velevet trim. Yes, a lot of work, but I've barely taken it off since it came off the needles...

back view

I am well pleased all in all and may make another with a few variations!