The weeks in the summer seem to go by so fast.

The heat, rain, and humidity left me feeling wiped out. I spent most of my time knitting swatches. A sort of mindless activity with no pressure to complete something.

The work got to the gallery. The show opens tomorrow.

Kleinert/James Art Center
34 Tinker Street
Woodstock, NY 12498
845.679.2079
www.woodstockguild.org

THREAD BARE
Tradition Unraveled

Sally Agee Elana Herzog Beth Humphrey
Paula Lalala Robyn Love Lee Musselman
Mark Newport Donna Sharrett Devorah Sperber
with Paul Leone of The Woodstock Wool Company

Curated by Stella Chasteen, Heather Hutchison and Portia Munson

Opening Reception: July 1, 5:00 - 8:00 pm
Gallery Hours: Fri-Sun 12-5 pm and by appointment
July 1 - August 6, 2006

My favorite part of the invite is that My name is missing. I'm thinking of myself as a stealth textilist. I like it that way.
Once again you all are invited. I'll be there after work... 6:30ish.

I've been getting the pieces ready for the show coming up next weekend.

I have also been trying to get a good image of the newspaper piece one week. It's one week of the New York Times knitted.. This is the best image I've been able to come up with.
sorry
somehow all of the detail has been lost


Otherwise I had a very blank weekend. Summers in the shop don't give me as much time as I would like to do studio things. I sometimes knit in public, but at the shop I get too many questions to keep concentrating on the work or sales.

This week on the agenda is making lemoncello with Cynthia, and getting a new group of Hand, Face, Body pieces together to send to Toronto.

Off to work.

I hope everyone had fun at Janice's party. Where are the pictures?

This week has been busy and surprising.

The leaks aren't as bad as they have been, the bathroom leak seems to be fixed, I haven't had puddles in the shop. The bar has a busy schedule up so we'll see what happens over the weekend. I'm nervous about it.

Other stuff has been good.
Someone was in the shop on Monday and we were talking about my work and she is interested in showing it at her shop in NYC. That is pending and I'll update as I know more.

Yesterday a woman who is curating a show at the Kleinart / James Arts Center in Woodstock came for a studio visit. She picked out seven pieces for the show. All of the newspaper ones including this. One Day. Which is one day of the New York Times knitted.

She also pick all of the text pieces. So I was happy and sad about it. She didn't want any of the machine knitted things because their scale was too large for what she wants in the show. So it's all of the small things (and the older work).

Anyway the show is up July 1 through August 6 and the opening is July 1, 5-8 if any of you are around Woodstock NY that weekend. I'll be there.

I also have five of the pieces ready to send to Melissa in Toronto for that project. The blog about it isn't where I want it yet but that's being worked on too.

I'm wishing I lived close to Vancouver BC. I think the party there this weekend will be great.

Today while I was lying on the sofa napping working on ideas for the Toronto project I heard Fran giggling in the office.

He was being all Jackson Pollack at this site I just had to share it with you all.

Yes, it is another wonderful time waster.

I really am working. Photos soon.

I am calmed down after yesterday's post and the store flood. The way the shop stands now.... The bar is closed until the plumbing problems are fixed. I can hear the plumber working upstairs right now.

My diversion from yesterday. The Peruvian or Bolivian hat from the 50's

knitted of a fine wool.


And the other hat and Lucia's haiku. For some reason I have the urge to knit one of these. I ask again, Is that wrong?

Post deleted

deleted, too negative

I have had a busy week.

1
I don't think that I have fully recovered from the flood from upstairs. I think that the problem with the bar isn't being addressed by the landlord (not to mention the leaks!). Today there is suppose to be someone in to work on the back room leak. It's all driving me nuts.

2
I have been involved in getting the project for Toronto started. We are going to have a little blog about the project and we are ironing things out with that. Hey ! Does anyone know how I can get some chat into the blog? Melissa and I are thinking that more than posting to each other we want some type of discussion going on that is transparent to everyone watching us work. I thought maybe chat in the sidebar or something.

3
I have been knitting the socks (they're done but I don't love them yet) ripping and redoing the toe.

4
I've been reading Everyday Genius : Self-Taught Art and the Culture of Authenticity, by Gary Alan Fine. Tina -who remains blogless- recommended this to me and.... Where can I start.

It has got me thinking about both my business and my art.
- if you don't know- we deal in decorative objects and accessories and art. Most of our interest is in Folk art and other forms that aren't a part of the everyday dialogue in art. So this book is about what we do. On top of that it is about the other types of art communities that are marginalized by the "Art Elite".
That includes textiles. I don't know where I'm going with this, but can you see the connection and why this is relevant to me?

I think it also applies to anyone who is knitting as a hobby. Why is knitting undervalued as art? Why is some work art and some work a hobby?

I here-by declare you all are doing art. I should curate a show, I should curate a show about socks.
hmmm.... more to come. My brain is about to explode.

There are some strange patterns for garments in some of the old knit books.
But, who ever knit this?

Summer tourist season

People are out and about even today, a Monday.

I haven't been able to get into the studio to do any work.

Melissa and I have been having discussions about the collaboration project. We're thinking of documenting the whole thing on a blog. When we get that set up I'll let you know.

Hopefully you all will give comments on the piece as it develops. The idea is to look at it as an on-line bee. Or maybe it's more of a performance and everyone can drop in and see what we're thinking about, what we're making, how it evolves.

We are both really excited about this.

For now, that is where things are.

oh and btw..... no water streaming into the shop. That (as Martha would say) is a good thing.

It seems that I spoke too early when I said that Melissa + my proposal for the show at the Gladstone Hotel wasn't accepted.

It has been. Yep a good thing. Looks like I'll be in Toronto in October for installation and the opening. This should be exciting.

... and I was feeling very happy and lucky this morning... then I got to the shop.

A major amount of water was in the front 1/3 of the store. The bar is leaking on me! The good part is that I had just rearranged everything and the upholstery was all move to the rear of the shop. None of that was ruined. Everything else that got wet seems to be ok. Glass tables and stuff.

So what was to be a happy singing type of a post is now terse and I've got to go and mop some more.

The fug and the fuglier

Since I'm documenting a process here I'm posting these photos of a dyeing experiment.
This knitted then painted.....

becomes....This when unraveled and reknitted.


Sorry examples I know, But I learned some stuff from it.
1. to make an ikat type of pattern for knitting in the round you've got to start off with knitted in the round.
2. Painting dye on the already knitted base leaves way to much un-dyed area.
3. I like the bamboo needles

I may still try some stuff on a flat fabric, but I've got to think a lot more about how the stitches will move in the round.

My 100th post

Just making a note of that.

The rude people have started coming into the shop as soon as the sign is turned. I think that there is an auction preview in town today. That may drive me over the edge.

I've been busy knitting the sock yarn experiment. I don't think that it is quite working. But I'm continuing.

I woke up last night thinking about George W. Bush and what an asshole he is. This attempt at an amendment to ban gay marriage has left me feeling bashed. How hateful can people be? very it seems. I 'm not going into that..............

Another entry in the small world category. Cynthia had a friend, Tomas, visiting from Mexico. He's originally from Tuscany and now lives in Mexico City. His sister also is in Mexico and has a restaurant in.... yep, San Miguel de Allende, and I've been there and I met her. So the world is a tiny tiny place.

So off to knitting and acting aloof, this is a snooty shop after all , isn't it?

Oh one other thing. Josh's film a/k/a Tommy Chong is going to be at the Film Forum June 14th - June 27th. EVERYBODY go and support this!

We now continue with our regularly scheduled knitting day.

The experiment has been painted, set, and wound into balls. The test swatches will begin tonight. The painting went so so. I think that vat dyeing will work out better. I'm a bit afraid of a tie dye affect.

Other wise I've been doing things around the house. Like mowing the lawn and doing laundry. Yawn, boring I know, After putting stuff off for so long I thought that I should get my life into a little bit of order.

More knitting today on the machine. Experiments and tests in various yarn, weights and tensions. No photos, just imagine a big pile of mess.

The truth is,,,, I have just been wanting to sleep. Yesterday afternoon I laid down at 2 and the next thing I knew it was 3:30. hmm.... I'm blaming it all on the tension of the store getting to me.

O.K. I'll stop now I feel that I might be getting too close to wallowing.

Machine maintenance

After days distracting myself from doing any work and playing with DFILM, (I'm not linking to this if you want to go and make films see my previous post), I worked on cleaning up the machine today.

Then I began doing some plain knit things that I think I'll dye in some sock yarn experiments. If they work out there will be photos.

The other socks are progressing I think this week I should have them finished.

Weekends at the shop are wiping me out. I have to be so social and talk to tons of people. Most of them aren't interested, but I try to keep myself up.

I am also back to embroidering the knitted faces. That always seems to be troublesome but I'm pushing through with it.

So I'm busy and doing stuff and, wow, the grass in the yard is so high I'm surprised the neighbors haven't said something.

I've been doing the usual knitting. I've decided that I don't like the toe of the sock so I'm ripping it out and trying again.

I've also been playing and thinking about the ravel knit rugs.

For play I've been going here.
If you make a film send it to me. iknit at hotmail dot com.
I'd love to see ya'lls distractions.

I doesn't look like Melissa and I will be doing the project for the textile symposium in October. We haven't heard from the jury yet, but I would guess at this point that we aren't picked. The idea will continue though.

If I haven't told you we are planning a project based on the idea of the exquisite corpse. We are each beginning a piece and sending it to the other for a response and then back again. For lack of a better word we are calling the finished object/objects a quilt. It really will be a collage of textile ideas.

Some of my imagery will be the stuff you all have seen, the portraits. This one of M and me and who knows what else. I'm playing with the idea of putting the things up on the blog as I work on them. Showing the process.

So that is my thinking this friday morning.

I have also been looking at pet finder dot com . I found a little affie but when I mentioned it to Fran he poo pooed the idea, I guess we aren't ready to have any pets at the moment. I'm not positive about it either. I was just looking.

I did finish a sock. I will finish the pair.

Other than that I took the day off yesterday. Fran and I went to CT to see Andrew and Michele. I missed seeing them at rhinebeck and , well, we just needed a little time off.

Today I'm just sweating it out, literally, at the shop. I am telling myself that I'll be motivated and get to the knitting machine.
But,
but,
but I am feeling too hot.

And sticky.

To distract me and anyone who thought that I might be posting some real content today here is fourfour's top ten moments from the past season of ANTM. funny but you have to be a fan.