a link

here's the link for the book on amazon .

I'm not too happy that I'm not even mentioned in the description.

Really I'm in it.

I hear the publisher was a little afraid of having something not functional or clothing or "traditional" - anyway fingers crossed for Karen. and pre-order.

It's official

The Camera is no longer working. Grrrrrr.

I can't even import the last group of unfocused shots. no pics.

What am I working on.?
Socks, yes, socks. I'm going to actually finish a pair of plain old socks. Not too plain, they are being knitted out of Mountain Colors, Bearfoot, Wilderness colorway. I splurged one day.

I have also been working with the wool from Wilde. I'm trying to develop a pattern with a sort of spiral paisley thing in it. This I wish I had the photo to show.
I'm not sure where it's going. Part of me thinks it's the busy work that allows me to think while I head towards the real project. It's playing with numbers and it lets me see how some patterning acts in 3 dimensions.

I also got a fantastic gift from Dutchjan.
it's the pattern, with some history, for Groenlo mittens. sorry I can't find a link so you can see them. What's so interesting to me is their history, as a pattern derived (probably) from norwegian patterns. The dorky, history, me has been looking and looking at the North Atlantic styles of knit designs lately, Somehow it's all going to come together in the new work. Rugs.

I'm still a little bit lost on Ravelry, I keep meeting new people,
even had a little bit to play in Jacey's super secret no longer project
it's eating my time.

There is other stuff on the needles, plain old worsted wool socks, in Pink. plain old cotton socks(I might try an argyll). nothing on the machine.

Daffodils are up but not blooming.

spring.

Podcast recommendation

If you haven't been listening to the Yknit podcasts you should start. The first is an interview with Debbie Stoller and the second features Sabrina Gschwantner of Knitknit.

Michael and Stephen are doing a great job. Go listen & join the ravelry group Y Knit.

Who went to Stiches West? I'm jealous, let's hear some reports.

I know this is short, I'm trying to be inspired in the studio, but had to take a sec out to mention the podcasts I've been listening to.

Frida Kahlo show

I am so glad that I got to this show. I think it was trying very hard to bring the artwork to the forefront, away from the cult of Frida. Not so successful at that. Especially when you walk out of the show into a gift shop with 3-d reproductions of the work from the show. crazy. Seeing the actual art was fantastic. And there even was this painting of Dona Rosita Morillo, I thought it would be of interest to all of the knittery folk.

The museum also has up a couple of shows related to Kahlo, and Mexico and the art that was going on there in the mid-20th century. Super inspiring, It made me want to jump on a flight to Mexico, TONIGHT.

Alas, no funds for that. ....

As we walked into the door when we got home the phone was ringing. It was Thom, in Mexico. Strange right. ? We yakked about the show, and the lenten season in Mexico. (I have him hunting for a crown of thorns for me). It really made me want to be in Mexico even more. There are so many great festivals and religious dances and super masks at this time of year. whiiiiine, okay, I'll stop.

The show was great. If you're close to Philadelphia you should try to see it.

Not dull here

Fran and I are so excited.
Tomorrow we go to the members preview of the Frida Kahlo show. Yes, it's the one we were suppose to go to in Mexico City, but we missed. now it's here in Philly and we see it on tuesday.

The Philadelphia Flower Show - starts on March 2-9th

The International Fiber Symposium - March 6-8 - the title sounds much more formal than I expect the event to be.

My mom's 75th birthday party.

........there's a trip to Woodstock planned for next week.

and maybe, just maybe the Connecticut shop will get it's C of O and we can get our stuff moved into it.

More stuff I'm looking at and thanks

I want to thank TheOtherAndrew, doing a great guest stint at Fabulon, for sending me to look at the work of Sandra Backlund. Time for me to get knitting.

And once again to everybody on Ravelry Thanks! for all of the attention.

I'm a bit overwhelmed with the number of comments + mail about my work. I'm trying to get replies to everyone. But if I miss you don't be offended just remind me. I will eventually get to you all.

Oh, and just putting this out there. I'm thinking of getting a Passap machine, anybody work on one? what do you think?

St. Valentine's Day

I have been on a chocolate binge all week. Time to make some more brownies.


This is especially odd if you know me. I rarely eat sweets. I don't crave chocolate. I'm blaming the advertising industry.

search for a LYS

Since moving to Philly I've been trying to figure out a place to call my lys. I've been to many but none seemed like the right fit for me. This weekend I decided to take on an all out search for the lys I can call home.

I started out with those closest to me. Both nearby shops have great inventory knowledgable and friendly people, they invited me to knitting groups, but somehow They weren't for me. I also ventured into Queerjoe's territory. A super shop, but a bit too far for knitting nights.

Then I wandered into Sophie's Yarns, aah, yes. I could spend hours here talking knitting and just having fun. And I love the selection of yarn. Cascade always rates in my book and Jennifer had the latest.

So i'm happy to report I have a yarn home. and I'll be spending a few sunday afternoons here, when I'm not at shows. That's the only draw back. knit group on sunday and my schedule doesn't have many sundays.

Fabulon

I have nothing else to add.


click

Happy New Year

Tonight we'll be eating noodles.

Thanks for the comments on the trying to figure out what I'm doing post.

TheAmpuT : exactly right I stopped before the thought was totally developed or explained. I'm trying not to do that so much in the writing but I know it happens a lot. And I was cute as a little kid, wasn't I. There are more images from that group. I'll have to dole them out.
Rabbitch : Yep flux , that's it. I was thinking about it and my life has totally changed from where I was 18 months ago. No shop. A different city. a.... new dog, lots.

I am feeling like I'm putting my work out into public more/again. It's funny because it also just seems to happen, or maybe I'm in the right place for things to happen.
Like Ravelry... I was putting up images of my stuff . I finally got a flickr account. Suddenly it seemed that many people were commenting or connecting to me and my stuff. Then TheAmpuT pointed out that I was on the people page of Ravelry, in a list of people with projects tagged "art". Funny how that happened. I'm glad to be connecting with so many interested people.

I think the video was a big step too. It took me a while to decide that it was ok for that to be in the interwebs realm.

I have a new found favorite radio stream too. chanteurs.org

Thanks Brian

A special thanks to Brian (my cousin) for providing a new profile photo for the blog.

Rugs

rugs, rugs, rugs I've been thinking about rugs lately. I'm trying to find a way to make something on the machine that I like. I plan to first work on a couple of ravel knit things using scraps of fabric that I've knitted. {For everything I show you there is a ton of stuff that I just put in a little box labeled, Work on Later.}

I think being on Ravelry has helped me to start getting things a little more organized (someone said it might do that, who?). Plus I really want to have a new body of work started and well on it's way in a couple of months.

I'm thinking geometric patterning, derived from traditional textile patterns.
I'm looking at scandinavian things especially, but what I'm really interested in is the patterning that develops from textile techniques. I'm looking at that and then applying it to a different technique. I don't even think that I'm making any sense at the moment.

Let me see ... an example

In some traditional knitted scandinavian patterns (I'm specifically thinking of mittens here) the patterning is derived from earlier embroidered designs but translated into knitted pattern. So what we look at and think, oh, scandinavian knit, was really first an embellishment on mittens which later became a patterned structural element of them.

I should stop now. hmmm.

Someone please tell me I'm making some sense.
published without editing

Thinking about / reading this week

with some links.
I hope some writing about all of this tomorrow and the rest of the week.

Woven Coverlets of Norway
Shaker knitted rugs
Ravelry
scandinavian knit patterns
Veganomicon
Beyond Nose to Tail

Canstruction

Check out this charity that constructs fantastic sculptures from cans of food Canstruction.

and the orchid....

Francis' photo.

I tried again

I borrowed a camera to get a photo of the new orchid flowers.

The battery is dead.

It's cold and rainy here, and we are getting ready to go out to some art openings. I hope we get parking close to the galleries.