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!

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!

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.

peruvian vampire cats in action!

Here is little H in her sweater!



Given as a baby shower gift, and posted here as a finished item on 2/17/08, she is finally big enough, and it is finally chilly enough for her to wear it!

I think she looks stunning, and am delighted with the fit, color etc. Little H has lovely large blue eyes that go very well indeed with the body color of the sweater.

The vampire cat design is one I made using an ancient peruvain textile as inspiration. Anyone wanting a copy of the design, graphed out, just contatc me and I will be happy to pass it along.

I am well pleased.

Here's hoping it washes well!

blue belle's arms...

Here, once again is the lovely Myrna showing off my progress so far.
The plunging stock markets, world wide economic crisis, and the bankruptcy of ICELAND have done wonders for my knitting. Now, more than ever, I need to knit.
The sleeves, hem and neck are not done yet. all of that has to happen before I get to the STEEKING!!!!

Here's a good view of the back gussets(with string looped through the stitches

- not very photogenic, I know).


I am very pleased so far- it's just working beautifully.
HOWEVER:
I have just been reading alarming and worrisome reports on other people's blogs about alpaca- it apparently stretches and sags like crazy, making all of my elegant shaping for naught.
here is hoping that MY alpaca will not behave that way????
not too happy about this- after my fiasco with the Debbie Bliss chunky cashmerino for Teva Durham's corrugated vee neck, am still feeling burned.
So much work, and It looks like a stretched heavy floppy pill-ed Muppet after only one washing!
Argh!

blue belle!

Here are the first photos I've taken
(as modelled by my lovely assistant Myrna)
of my current project "blue belle" Myrna is a bit slimmer than I, so the work is a bit drapier on her than me.
On me, it is quite fit-and-flair, and very flattering indeed.

This is knit entirely in the round with increases and decreases for shaping. I was under the impression that I'd posted my sketches for this one, but that does not seem to be true.

So, see below for my artist's rendition of what I'd like this to be like:

Still to come are: Arms- sleeves- I've got 'em, even if Myrna doesn't, and I intend to cover them. They will be long, slightly flared with purled trim.

Also to do:
A high ribbed turtle neck, purled trim at the hem, and, the coup de resistance( or, perhaps, the coup de grace), steeks up the front and a zipper!

In layman's terms it means that after all of this hard work, I will risk it all by cutting up the center seams to open the garment up into a cardigan!
whoopee! I do live for danger....

This project has been so much fun-
and the beauty part? No Pattern!

just knit, try on, knit try on, adjust, add, try on.
how freeing....
(I take NO credit for "designing" this garment-The basics for this came from Stephanie Japel's excellent instructions on her Glampyre knits site for the raglan swaeter from the top down, plus many other inspirations and advice already out there. )

What does not show up well in the photos:
how lovely the llama/alpaca wool is, how rich the color, and how unbelievably frigging cool those gussets are!
I love gussets anyway, and these just shape the whole thing so marvelously....
this is (famous last words) truly painless sweater making.

This is indeed the same yarn I had in my shower all those months ago- for once I did as I said I would, and am USING UP MY STASH!!!

How very virtuous I feel. Not really- this stuff is so lovely and tempting it would be impossible NOT to use it. I have lots of other stuff that require more imagination and foresight...

Okay, so onwards- sleeve it is!

spheres...

OK, so here is my "soccer ball" in progress, an odd, knobby affair with pointed sticks and glowing green rubber ends.
Now I am in the stuffing stage, and hope to post the finished object very soon indeed.
I learned a lot doing this project, and feel very confident about making all kinds of 3d structures.
However, this project was likened by it's author on the site "needle exchange" as being "the Garfield the Cat of Knitting projects", translated, this means it's easy and great for the very lazy among us. I am not lazy but am, apparently quite stupid: I had to redo constantly on this- I would blithely knit up a 5 sided shape when a 6 sider was needed, etc....
this is luxuriously knit in hand spun hand dyed goods from "Done Rovin'" farms in Maine- the dark red is wool, the Monet colored hexagons are silk and alpaca. The wool was nice, but the real reason for the silk and alpaca becomes clear the minute it's on the sticks: it glides and flows like water cascading, and it pure tactile poetry on the fingers....



This picture shows it semi-stuffed- I ran out of cotton balls mid way.
It has, as you can see, a charming sputnik-like quality, pointy but not terribly fierce.

what I am thinking about making...

Okay, so here's the problem with using MODELS on these pictures....

I KNOW that I do not resemble them, and that they have nothing to do with the garment they wear, but I suspect I am still swayed by them and that their attitude and good looks have a stake in my selection process...

This one below, is the sweater I THINK I am going to make next, after I finish the dauntingly long and big cardigan coat I am currently plowing through...

It is pretty but tom-boy wearable enough for me, a good summer knit, and a chance to play with cables. Plus, I want it.







These pictures are all from from Taki/Stacy Charles

(SEE: http://www.tahkistacycharles.com/dyn_category.php?k=74276)

which has some really stunning patterns and wool that comes in colors I'm not really fond of. Lots of bright mixes. However, their patterns rock...Here was my second choice, which is from the most-excellent genius Teva Durham. Loop-d-loop has yarns and patterns on the Taki/Stacy Charles site. This one, which really looks SOOO Joan of Arc to me, is only marred by the model and what she is wearing with her gorgeous jacket.

(see- it DID affect my thinking...)

this in some tweedy/mossy/muddy color or maybe a garnet red...

mmmmm.....



I swear half of the charm of knitting is THINKING about knitting (and playing with one's stash- oh- and hoarding...)

Ok, this last example, above, also from the Taki/Stacy Charles site, knitted in something called "cosmos", is really fetching, but not me.

Really- when and where would I wear this????

I love this slit sleeves and shell buttons, but think this is WAY too feminine a look for me.

Also, I am SURE in this instance, that it is just because I would like to look like this model: look at her coloring, that mouth! she is really, really pretty, and it's getting in the way of my sweater judgement. If I make that sweater, I do not automatically gain her coloring or looks, I just get me in that sweater.

Conclusion:

despite how really alluring gorgeous photography of beautiful models in lovely settings is- I would really prefer to see the garment plunked onto a bust form with a plain background.

Except that- bust form don't have arms, have idealized bodies too, and no skin tone at all.

so-

what's the answer?

Dunno.

I have been enjoying Interweave Knits "Knitting Daily" messages, which often post "galleries" of different women with different body types wearing the same sweater. They discuss how to make various adjustments for better fit to each type, and it is illuminating to see how different everyone looks in the same garment. The way the color works or does not work with the wearer is also fascinating...

WHAT I AM MAKING now!:

This beautiful cardigan Flicca, is from designer Anna of "My Fashionable Life" (see: http://needleandhook.co.uk/journal/fashionable_life_knits_patterns_to_buy/)

I pinched this photo from her site and hope that she doesn't mind as I am no end of complementary about her work!

Her company , Needle & Hook Offers stunning and subtle patterns to buy, or you can commission her to make one for you. She has excellent, restrained but stylish taste. I am really looking forward to wearing this coat, which I am making in charcoal grey wool. It is not, however, so exciting to knit. I like more variety. Having said that- I am not at the challenging bits yet: the short rows, which I've never tried, doing the collar on huge circular needles... many challenges await with this one. Her directions are clear and easy-to-follow and it's nice to be buying an original pattern form a talented and real person not a huge company. I thought I was ok with a bigger project, but am getting daunted...

peruvian vampire cats!

Well, I've finished it-
though I did not get a picture of the back, which features a mama and baby cat...
it is super-soft, and should fit for quite a while, given that the ties can easily expand the circumfrance of the wee one.
The shower was today, so I can safely post this.
I am really pleased with how it came out and hope that it keeps baby H cozy and snug.
That "Baby Yoda" pattern is a wonder-
look it up on "Dogs Steal Yarn".
I love the web for the way people are so willing to share, and how one can see how many really talented, creative and generous folks really are out there. Quite heart-warming, really.

All about Gilded Lily

"Gilded Lilly" is the rather over-the-top evening bag I just finished.
Here is how she came about....















When I started working on "Gilded Lily " I had two completly different aesthethic
influences at work.

The First one was:
1950-1960's Hollywood, as epitomized by Natalie Wood...
This picture in particular, or rather a variation of it, were what stuck in my head.
In the other version ( unavailable on-line) she is sitting at a dinner table checking her makeup with a knife. You can seel the whole place setting, crockery, etc.
As is this version, she is very pretty in a fresh way, and yet, not. She is self-conscious of her beauty, perhaps anxious about it, and has chosen to check herself out in the reflection of her dinner knife.

This was apparantly a habit with her, and a really odd and psychologically loaded one at that. She looks "good enough to eat", and yet as an actress concerned about maintaining her figure at a dinner party, in all likelyhood, not about to eat much.
She is not so much concerned with eating, she is narcissistically with others looking at her, and the impression she makes.
So, ultimately not-too-flattering, this.
Yet I was inspired by the odd juxtapostion of real natural beauty and youth and the kind of jaded, corrupted world she occupied.
The jewelry, eye-liner and brocade dress all add up to the message in this picture, and I can easily imagine her carrying a clutch bag like "Gilded Lilly" with her- complete with unused compact mirror!

Influence number 2:

Perhaps less odd:


















The gilded and mosiac clad San Marco in Venice!
During my stay in Venice last springI was reading the most excellent "Venetian Colour: Marble, Mosaic, Painting and Glass, 1250-1550"by Paul Hills, a superb analysis of the spectrum used in Venitian art, and the cultural and historic associations of such a palette.

The section on gold was particularly good, and the way the mosiacs shift in the light, becoming firy and vibrant, and then dull and retreating into the gloom, depending on ones angle and movemement.

This yarn i've used for the purse body , Berrocco "Quest", is truly the most metalic yarn I've ever seen, and seems to embody this quality perfectly.
The geometric lozenge shapes are somewhat byzantine, and echo some of the extrordinary floor mosiacs and the jeweled Pala D'Oro screen in the back of San Marco.




















The glass bauble on the bags front, which hold the ribbon and hides the magnetic closure is a hand-blown little something from Murano.

Which leads me back to 60's Hollywood and kitsch.
How can something so magical and intrisically lovely be used for such appalling ends?
Just the name "Murano Glass" conjure up images of swollen coffee table clowns, huge parrots on ungainly glass trees, and jelly-fish chandliers studed with flowers.

hmmm, maybe the two aren't so unrelated after all....



In that same spirit, I purchased these shoes (at a very low price, I may add- thrifty and fashionable, I am....) first ogled by me in a venitian shoe store window, and dismissed as too frivolous.
However,
somehow,
I just had to have them.
and they do go together, right?



For more photos of "Gilded Lily", please see the previous posting below.

shell pix redux

Okay, so I've already posted photos of this project, but I was unhappy with their quality...

Here is the shell pillow in all it's glory, looking very fetching on my grey-blue sofa (a felicitous, but not intentional outcome!)...

so, I am ready to start a giant one as soon as I feel justified in making another yarn purchase.

shell pix redux

Okay, so I've already posted photos of this project, but I was unhappy with their quality

pepermint twist

Note: If your name is Niece Francie, you should not read or look at this posting as it will totally spoil your christmas surprise....

This little goodie is the stocking cap I am currently attempting to make. It is taking A LOT of wool and is very thick, and possibly too heavy to really be feasible(or pleasant) as a stocking cap.

Right now it looks more like a very snarled, potentially poisonous jelly fish, and I am gamely trying to get it done on time, but am less and less optimistic. Live and learn.Perhaps I will send it out to somewhere very cold as a charity hand-knit gift- say Afghanistan- where it's qualities and aesthetic might be better appreciated.

next time I make a stocking cap I will:

• Cast on the suggested number of stitches
• use lighterweight yarn
• use equal weight yarns
• use few colors

My devil-may-care, invent and add as you go approach has NOT worked well with this project, which was intended to be portable. Instead, I have been lugging around big bulky bags of assorted tangled candy-colored wool all week. I will post a picture of the finished item, when it finally happens....

finished shell

Well!

In the better late-than-never category, here is a picture of my finally-finished giant nautillus shell. There is certainly room for improvement here, in terms of stuffing, yarn choice(thick and thin- bad idea)etc., but over-all I am chuffed!

other people's knit sites

I have been taking a fascinating foray into the world of knitted shapes and forms. This has lead me to kooky quasi-mystical sites on golden numbers, divine proportion, and to really wonderful mathematical modelling sites, which, innumerate old me can only stare at with jaw-dropped admiration. On the whole, the aesthetic end of the maths sites are a bit wanting: the just are rather awful visually.

Case in point is Mark E. Shoulson's site with homemade topological shapes- intriguing yet not visually quite there yet: web.meson.org/topology/

However,
one can find wonderful knit versions of all sorts of mathematical topologies, including the moibus strip (which I am already, sadly, a MASTER at making myself) here at: www.toroidalsnark.net/mathknit.html,

which Sarah-Marie calls"The Home of Mathmatical knitting"!
How great is that????
she is coming out with a very exciting new book, in December 2007- truly a great holiday gift idea for those hard-to-shop-for knitters:

Making Mathematics with Needlework Ten Papers and Ten Projects
by sarah-marie belcastro (Editor), Carolyn Yackel (Editor)
Price: $30.00 Availability: Not yet published.Expected release: December 2007 You may preorder this item.
here is the site for ordering the book:www.akpeters.com/product.asp?ProdCode=3318



All of this("research"? "time-wasting"?) is a spin-off of my attempting to make this giant ammonite pillow(as shown in the previous posting below). I have ambitions to make a large, more tall version using the Fibonacci series and some very thick grey yarn I have my eye on at Yarntopia (http://yarntopianyc.com/)

See picture of coveted object above, and imagine

knitted in chunky pearl grey wool.

Change color as desired.
This, in turn goes with my yearning to make a series of all-knit Platonic solids.

They would be(uh) art pieces-cum-room-decor, I guess.

Above is a painting of Luca Pacioli, apparently the father of modern accounting, shown at work decoding the secret of the universe through shapes and numbers....

medieval intellectuals thought that understanding such geometry brought one closer to understanding God, which is where all of the kooky divine-proportion sites come in.

It certainly is humbling to look at the organizational beauty and total appropriateness of the geometry in the natural world, and there IS something appealing about the idea that the world can be broken down into lovely sets of digits....

Much more visually astute than the average mathematician's site, and taking the wonder of knitted geometry into the realm of really inspired children's toys is

Kimberly Chapman's gallery (and instructions!) on her site at:

kimberlychapman.com/crafts/knit-gallery.html

Her site is very nicely organized and has all sorts of useful tutorials for making your own curly tubes, torus rings, and a darling stuffed DNA toy!
My favorites are her more abstract explorations, and I think the knitted tubes toy on the cone base is pure genius- just perfect.

Her knitted spirals are on my increasingly long list of things to try( I want to make an octopus), as is the DNA model- though I think it needs clusters of balls on it...

One of the best patterns for balls can be found here: tiajudy.com/yarnball.htm

It is a pattern by Judy Gibson, and can be found along with many other gems on her website, the beautifully named "String and Air".

It's a smallish, juggling sized affair.

There are surprisingly few larger sphere patterns on the web...

Hands down my favorite is the football, at Eve's wonderful Needle Exchange site,
found here:
http://needles.guzzlingcakes.com/2006/06/11/world-cup-soccer-ball-knitting-pattern/
which I also intend to have a go at.

Her pattern is elegant and fun and lends itself to all kinds of color variations due to it's star-like construction.
Hat's off!

This "globe" pattern is (jokingly) available on the Lion Brand site:http://cache.lionbrand.com/patterns/Globe.html silly, but witty....




There is also Eric Lancaster's gorgeous and innovative "pillow" (see image below)

at Shibuiknits(http://www.shibuiknits.com/Patterns/Pattern.php?Pattern=15 ,
which is available for online purchase at pure knits:
www.pureknits.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=66_87&products_id=273

This leads me once more, as all roads seem to these days,

back to the Institute for Figuring's site, and their wonderful slide show of the gallery of Crocheted Hyperbolic Models!
this can be found here:http://www.theiff.org/gallery/index.html#....

It's crochet at it's finest, and makes up for centurys worth of awful doilies and horrible granny-square vests in bicentennial colors...

Please remember:All of the patterns talked about here, shown above, and on the sites linked, are the result of hard work and many hours labour on the part of the designer. Please visit the sites and tell them how wonderful and ingenious they are, and please use the patterns for personal and non-profit use only. A bit of respect for the inventors, please...

While I'm not convinced on the spiritual decoding end of things, I am totally entranced with what one can make with some sticks and yarn and a bit 'o stuffing: look at all of the wacky forms that can be knit and crocheted, and how wonderfully irrational they are!
What richness!
What Variety!
La Chaim!