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!

Ammonite

These pictures were taken of me by my good friend Janice, who journeyed up to visit me from New Jersey to New Haven, CT, where I was participating in our annual "Open Studios".
She has a rather spiffy i-phone and took these images of me at work on my large-scale "ammonite" pillow, based on Beth Skwarecki's brilliant design "Nautie"(see Knitty.com for pattern). I am using absolutely GORGEOUS sea green/blue thick and thin yarn, hand spun and dyed at Done Rovin' farms in Maine. I really like these pix, which is no mean feat as I am notoriously unphotogenic, and have a huge head cold, swollen jowls, and generally feel pretty shirty all-round.
I ran out of cotton balls for stuffing, so had to stop mid way on Sunday.
Too bad, knitting is PERFECT for such events,
and puts the nervous public at ease as they enter one's work space.....

so long!!!!

It has been simply ages since I last posted, but this does not mean that I have not been knitting....
during my travels this summer I added considerably to my yarn stash, by purchasing:
lovely sport weight Shetland wool in a peaty brown and a deep indigo while in Cornwall, UK.
While in France, in La guilole during Bastille day, I bought some superfine mohair/silk mix yarn in a glowing milky white and a deep night blue. This was purchased from the Farmer himself at an outdoor market in the town square. I have been using it to make my "eclipse" scarf based on the moon chart calender at MOMA...
and lastly, Dun Rovin' farm in Maine- always my downfall.
here I bought thick-and-thin hand spun wool in a really odd light blue with greeny bits. It was the last she had and she did not remember they dye recipe, so it may be the last of it's kind. I bought all she had-300 yards, not much. It is really sea weedy looking, and is kind of more patinaed than dyed, really. It looks sort of organic and a bit dirty, which I really like. Most light blue is so horribly clean and chemical looking. This, looks like the sea. Not having much of it, I am a bit limited. I have started a larger ammonite pillow with it, based on the "nautie" design. so far so good, the chunky yarn gives great texture, but the thin bits do leave some holes....

Meanwhile, fall finds me in New York, where I have been prowling around the fabulous Yarntopia store, located on Amsterdam ave, at 108th street. Yarntopia is that rare bird, a really good boutique yarn store: ok prices, great atmosphere and wonderful range of goods. The store features really cool projects in the window, including some very sculptural hats, hipster mini dresses in chunky yarn and a selection of knitted dessert cakes. Very inspiring indeed, and handy(or dangerous, depending on your perception), as I live around the corner...

Knitting nature:

There is something I’m after, something ephemeral and richly patterned but discrete.
It’s there in the elegant forms of nature- somehow graceful AND endowed with a sense of humor, whimsy in a good sense. No mean feat.
I see it in feathers, insects, fish scales, snake skins, rocks and leaves and very rarely in art.

I keep circling round this theme with my knitting interests: the random frenetic electric stripping of my sweater below, the nautie pattern with its increasing built out form and these spider webs- the one from the park, and this one here from needle beetle patterns, by Liza Souza.
Ingenious yes, but not quite there yet.

I first started really wanting to knit having seen the books of Kaffe Fasset. I loved his fearless use of millions of colors and elaborate patterns and all photographed in lovely complex natural settings: among turning leaves and against lichen incrusted stone walls.
I too wanted to knit Turkish carpet designs and world maps and moss patterns!
I still do, though I’m not sure what to do with them exactly.

Clothing-wise I really do prefer spare, minimal and monochromatic garments.
The problem for me with Fasset’s patterns: while I adore looking at the books, I don’t actually WANT any of the sweaters- they are, for the most part, too bulky and unshaped for my short, pony-like frame. But it’s not just a question of flattering my body type: the structure of the garments lacked the wit and imagination of the patterns. I chose the sweater (the one shown below) because of its ingenious no-seams construction, and the way the garment works with the wearer. 1940’s patterns have a way of being thrifty, interestingly constructed and generous to women’s bodies all at the same time. This is what I care about from a fashion angle, and it does also make for interesting knitting- this is after all supposed to be a therapeutic activity.

So I began with complexly colored and textured bags and mitts and other accessories- rich extravagant things that look good with dark simple clothes.
Here are two of my bags ”Klimt” and “Diane”. Klimt was made using lots of needlepoint yarn, which comes in wonderful colors and is pure wool, something alarmingly difficult to find in England where I was living at the time. But they have all those sheep!

You say- I see them in the fields near the motorways…
Yes they do.

What they do with the wool is a mystery, but it’s largely cheap nasty acrylic stuff in the UK LYS, sadly.
Diane was made shortly after, for a friend of that name who wears the colors shown- soft grays, browns and pinks. I played more with velvety textures here too, and lined it with some lovely oyster colored panne velvet from a pair of hand me down trousers that I wore to death but could not throw away.

Klimt too has a recycled interior and fringe- a beautiful charcoal lamb’s wool sweater that accidentally found its way into the washing machine and became doll sized. I used the ribbing for fringe, cutting in between ribs and part of the body for the inside. The sleeves I still wear as, well, sleeves. As arm/wrist warmers- very practical actually. The pattern was based on one of Fasset’s designs which I modified.

In homage to him I am also including these photos of Burgundian roof tiles. I was in Burgundy in June, near Dijon, and was delighted by the color, variation and daring of these roofs! Why are most roofs so darn dull?
They really reminded me of knitting, and my bags and the kind of aesthetic spirit I’m after- I love the way they play with the geometric patterns one can so naturally make using repeated overlapped shapes. Instead of looking shabby if the get a bit mossy and overgrown, or a vine takes over- they look even better for it- now that’s good design!

nautie by nature....

Here she is!
My finished nautie!
The eyes are larger than those specified in the original pattern.
I am traveling now, so am making do with what is at hand, which happened to be these particular buttons, lurking in my travel sewing kit.
I justify this aesthetically by thinking that it gives an appropriately large, light-deprived eye for an animal that lived in the profound primordial depths of the cretaceous sea.
Also, the right scary/cute Japanese anime quality.
One worry:
Aren’t buttons a choking hazard?
Can I safely give this to a baby, especially the baby of a beloved friend?
I DID sew them on extra tight and well, but I know babies can be strong, willful and persistent when it comes to self-endangerment…

I have started a mate for her, one with a blue ribbed (ooh la la !) shell and red body…