I was giddy

Yesterday I went to the opening of the Institute for Figuring's Hyperbolic Crochet Coral Reef at the World Financial Center's Winter Garden. Here are some not so good images of the event.
Members of the Harlem Knitting Circle checking out some of the work that they contributed.

People getting a look.
And the true reason I wanted to go to the event. The amazingly wonderful Rockpoolcandy (who I met on Ravelry) and her equally amazing husband Andy. This is a photo I took secretly of them before we officially met. yep, I am a stalker.
So, if you're in NYC and able to get to see this, I'd recommend it.

How'd I meet Rockpoolcandy in the first place? She contacted me after seeing this.

an idea

Not fully formed but I'm thinking of this image in the Gods and Goddesses series

A meme

Because I want to post today - but am having trouble being creative

1.) What was I doing 10 years ago?

Living in Woodstock, NY. Opening a shop, knitting recipes.

2.) What are 5 things on my to-do list for today (not in any particular order)

a. Walk the dog and take a photo (of the dog)for a future post
b. go to Lancaster, PA to deliver furniture for refinishing
c. PM Richard on Ravelry - let him know how much I appreciate that he posted his baskets
d. check facebook
e. work on the PINK PINK knitting (photos soon)

3.) Snacks I enjoy
soft pretzels, pop corn, liquorice

4.) Things I would do if I were a billionaire.
establish trust funds for Francis and I, and for the nieces and nephews
buy a house in Mexico

5.) Three of my bad habits

let's see, I use to smoke, I'm lazy about getting my work out there, and I don't exercise enough

6.) 5 places I have lived:

Woodstock, NY : Boston, MA : San Francisco, CA : Analomink, PA : in the us and Amsterdam, The Netherlands

7.) 5 Jobs I have had:

Store owner
Library Assistant (Gov. Docs cataloger and University technical liaison)
Phone Sex operator - this lasted exactly one shift
Law Firm Temp.
Accessory designer (a slight exaggeration)

8.) I'm not going to tag anyone but if it fills a need.........

My random Life

I woke up this morning thinking about

Frank O'Hara - the ocean - and the passage of time

Fun Monday

ThomBeau pointed me in this direction enjoy

and dance

Funplex

Cheryl's new sweater

Here's the sweater Josh's mom knitted for Cheryl.



In case you don't remember. Josh and Cheryl were our Woodstock neighbors. Their images turn up in the gods and goddesses series.

Yep, that's them. + josh is responsible for the video ---->
that one, the one you can view from the profile ---->

this is true

There is a bath tub in the closet of my studio, It's built in so I either have to take out the wall or break it apart with a sledge hammer.

It's not plumbed so I use it to store knitting machines.

I've submitted mine

you should too

My Gayest Look for Jay Leno

I do a meme

From TheAmpuT

The Rules:

1. Pick up the nearest book of 123 (or more) pages.

The Alice B. Toklas Cook Book, Anchor edition, 1960, by Alice B. Toklas

2. Open the book to page 123 and find the 5th sentence.

Be sure that no skin remains.

3. Post the next 3 sentences.

It is very unpleasant to encounter. Tie the fish together. Roll out the dough, place the fish in it, moisten the edges of the dough.

4. Tag 5 people.

If you're feeling it run with it.

podcasts

I think that I've mentioned it before, but....


Listen to the Yknit podcasts.

If you don't listen through the site you can subscribe on itunes.

The latest installment is with Jess and Casey ... so go, hear them talk about Ravelry.

HizKNITS and WONDERMIKE are doing a fantastic job. and they both take such loverly photos.
I am almost ready to become a copycat, knitting in the bath. I'm a little afraid though, since my machine is electric.

So while I have you zipping around the interwebs... one more thing to check out...

Quelle Erqsome is having a contest.

Get your moustache on and submit!!!

My mind takes flight

Since this weekend I've been thinking about the designer
Tony Duquette.
Browse around this site.

Today the monograph arrived.

I'm swooning.

156 feeds

I'm back, spending all of my time catching up on my blog reading.... and Ravelry forums and messages and hey,

I need to get some knitting done.

Apologies for unanswered comments.
The disappeared contact link is driving me mad,

but I look fabulous.

Away

Working in NY until Monday. Later...

napkin please

O.K. I know that I promised that I wouldn't be adding videos.

But I had to...

can I get a napkin please

feeling = unfocused

in a different colo[u]r way.

muses

The image that I'm looking at and thinking about today while I process all of the information from the symposium this week.

When I wake up wondering

I'm in one of the not sure moods. That isn't a very good thing for the day I have ahead.

This evening starts the symposium. hmmm.....

I have a few things going on the needles. I will borrow a camera so you all can take a look at some of the ideas. It's all very raw still. I can't seem to get to the image that feels right.

I want it to be something that seems very familiar to everyone, but I don't want a cliche.

I'm now leaning towards the traditional types of knit Fair Isle patterning, but, ...

amped up somehow (I've been playing around with mathematical sequences) not working though.
and I still want to translate what I'm doing by hand to the machine, or combine it with the machine.

soon soon

I think my age

lowered my price.

Powered By Adult Toys

If only I made that an hour.

hyperbolic crochet

The New York Times has an article about the coral reef project and hyperbolic crochet today. My ribbon brain things don't seem so crazy to you now right?

look alikes

taken from craftyboy's blog

and no John Travolta

I sat up in bed, two a.m. , heart pounding, palms sweating, with this thought.

I've got to get some Malabrigo.

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.

YMMD awards

TheAmpuT has given me a You Make My Day award.
It did.
Many Thanks. So now it's my turn.
The Instructions: "give the award to 10 people whose blogs bring you happiness and inspiration and make you feel happy about blogland. Let them know by posting a comment on their blog so they can pass it on. Beware you may get the award several times."

AmpuTeeHee - It's not about being a mutual admiration society. I look forward to TheAmpuT's writing everyday. It's confident, with little self doubts creeping in from time to time. It's funny and thought provoking, and one day we'll sit down to a family meal. I love a good cook.

Rabbitch - I laugh out loud. I spit my coffee. I worry that rats might be moving into my house. Rabbitch is the cause of all this. A great open hearted person and fiber color artist with the best curse words.

Davis Studio - MaryAnne, I've known her for (shh i won't say) years. Always thinking always concerned. and I love her dinner ware.

Barefoot Cobbler - Carrie is someone with so much energy I sometimes need to sit down and rest after reading her blog.

itgirl - I might never know the lyrics, but I always read the blog. I think I was first caught when gov docs were mentioned. I thought that I was the only one who toiled cataloging these.

Rachael - The first blog I ever read. She makes me want to move back to California and take the dogs running on the beach.

Zoe Strauss - I love this work and it's impetus.

Anne - Anne keeps me thinking about food. I'm going to have to delurk now that I've linked to her.

now silly but 2 new bloggers (to me) that I've found since joining Ravelry

CubistLiterature - Where is this going to go? fun , funny, creative and smart.

WormSpit - There is something about a silkworm cowboy that I just couldn't resist.

The orchid is bloomimg

The camera is broken

Today I went shopping

I was in a yarn acquisition mood today, I've been feeling this way for a week.

So I went to Wilde Bros. a nearby spinning mill and bought a little bit of wool./ 8 lbs.

I had the brilliant idea that the 2-ply rug yarn would work in my machine (secret I'm working on some rugs) Ha, the texture was all wrong for the machine, not enough give and too bulky. --------I almost said too big and hard.

I like the roughness of the wool. So some type of hand knit will come out of this.

I was really hoping that the local would work. I get tired of ordering the jagger spun from maine all of the time.

This place had tons of roving and if I were a spinner I would have been tempted.

It was a very interesting, but sad place. Two buildings, the 1st one receives the wool, washes, cards, dyes(I think), and then the roving is sent to the second building were there are about uhm... I don't know it was one large room of industrial spinning machines. after the spinning it's skeined and sent to the next room for coning and then packed and shipped. The sad thing about Wilde's is that they are the last mill in Manayunk, pa. and they have their building up for sale and the equipment, too because they're closing down after 150 years of being a family business. They say they just can't produce cheaply enough to really compete.

I wanted to take over the factory and try to figure out if there wasn't some way to keep this last historical mill alive in Philadelphia. Just my craziness.
...an aside.....
Since being on Ravelry I've noticed some new readers.
Don't be shy, please leave comments.

because I could

stolen from TheAmpuT

You paid attention during 86% of high school!

 

85-100% You must be an autodidact, because American high schools don't get scores that high! Good show, old chap!

Do you deserve your high school diploma?
Create a Quiz

?

So I guess you all hated the video. I can't believe there wasn't a single comment.

What about that pretentious title? Or the blue ceiling in the house.

and yes, I really do have that collection of beauty pagent video tapes. 1990-1998

I'm taking a chance

This film was made several years ago for a TV show, but never aired.

I no longer look like this, and I don't live in Woodstock anymore

Back from NYC

We're home.

The weekend was busy and I am still working on some of the followup business.

I was on the look out for public knitting this weekend. The only person I caught on film was Kaye from the finnegan gallery in Chicago

Kaye is blogless but I tried to encourage her to explore a little bit of the on-line knitting world.

........

The cold is back, I'm not so stuffy but I've got a sore throat and feel tired. I think that I somehow managed to push the cold and any idea of sickness away while we were doing the show. Now my body's giving in.

........

I'm now on Ravelry. Johnk.... to those who are interested.

No Fever

I'm feeling better, the fever's gone but I'm still a little bit stuffy, not hot just stuffy.

This morning I stumbled across this, I thought you all would be interested. Why stop at socks?

oh, yes and make sure you check out the website.

http://ninabraun.net
lots more sneakers, and wool posters and more.

What have I been doing while ill?
not knitting

Knocked out

Wednesday afternoon - I was feeling good. I had messages from old and new friends, I read the copy of the text for "the book" and liked it, then.........

I felt a fever, I started sniffling.

BANG,

I've been out of it for a day and am only feeling slightly better at this moment.....

I think I'll have to take it slow today. I have to be recovered for the Big Show in NY , set up on Thursday.

What's going on?

Late at night I wake up in bed and have amazing things to write about.

I sit down at this computer in the morning and it is all a dim memory or even worse.... a blank.

My work has been like that too.

So thanks for bearing with me during my existential crisis.

Oh, but wait ... the absurdity of the previous group of video posts, maybe my whole use of the interwebs, mean the human condition is not to be alone in the world.

All of this is a long way of saying I am now on the Ravelry list, waiting.

I was just thinking

about Woodstock
and missing people.

Final post of 2007

This will be Philadelphia tommorrow.


Happy New Year everyone.

Or as the Philadelphians say

Happy Mummer's Day

Merry Xmas everybody

Still in the youtube mode.

Snow

Snow

Snow

Not here yet so we have to create some

Santa Claus is coming to town

video post 3

I'm lost in youtube land

Finally getting to the cookies

and thinking of vigilia.

enjoy

Christmas, getting closer

I have started shopping. I did a little bit on Tuesday with my sister and have family things pretty much done.

And I decorated the tree. (in the newly painted dining room)
dirty snowman to the right of the mouse king.
It looks much better in person.

The next thing will be making cookies, I've gotten all of the pizzelle ingredients. I think that will be Saturday.
Then a visit from Melissa and Nina.

Little bits are happening in the studio, I might even be making a sweater.

I secretly already knew this

Which Historical Lunatic Are You?
From the fecund loins of Rum and Monkey.

Thanks Rabbitch

The dining room is painted.




(walls - green, very very light, trim light light lavender, and the ceiling an even paler violet) the effect is lots of white on white with variation in tone)

Ok. so this photo shows that it's not really done, That mustardy colored trim on the left, that's what everything in the house looked like, I'm trying to find a color to paint just this one wall of windows....... I'm thinking a slightly darker green hardly a green at all.

The fire place is working, and the house is a mess.

I know none of this post makes any sense...... It's just the mood here at the moment.

Post Thanksgiving

This year Thanksgiving felt very uneventful.

The food was good and we had fun. The only strangeness was the weather.

The rest of the week has been about me getting images of my work out to galleries. I think it's time for me to show. That's a statement that has been taking a long long time for me to say. Now I'm working on it.

Today I feel ..... Ho-Hum.

Time to paint the dining room ( you would think I would have had this done before people came for turkey).

Mary Walker Phillips 1923-2007

photo: Glenda Arentzen

I just want to note the passing of this fun and funny lady who probably influenced me more than either of us will ever know.

The Mitered Square

In between getting the house together and preparing for the shows this weekend, I've started a "thing" using mitered squares. I'm not sure what it will become, some type of blanket.

See I am still knitting. Oh, this week I managed to get my work table set up in the studio (I decided to leave The walls purple for now) I hope a decision I don't live to regret.

What have I been Doing?????

Moving moving and moving, and then there is the little bit of trying to make some money thrown in. As I was writing the previous post (weeks ago) Fran walked into the room and informed me that we could do a 5 day show a the UPenn archeology / anthropology museum. I said "Okay" and we immediately began running around like maniacs to get stuff together. What made the entire show really interesting(ironic) was that,
1. We were doing it at the last minute, and there would be a gala preview party, a "hard hat" preview party, and the show hours were 11-8 Fri-Sun..
2.We had to have our entire inventory out of the Connecticut shop, with no where to put it except the house.
3. Our plumbing at the house was backing up and the Sewer repairs guys were there ripping out the basement floor and digging out the front yard.
4. The chimney repair crew was at the house to restore the fireplace to it's original working condition.

So, what happened?
The show went well, we sold a few things and I even sold one of the knitted recipes I had done. The Parties had fabulous catered food and drinks and we hobnobbed with the Philly elite(well, the Main Liners anyway).
Fran made it to Connecticut and in the process changed his name back to Francis, We managed to unpack the van after the show hours and it sort of fits into the house.
The plumbers were great and it ended up that things weren't as bad as we had feared and the bill (while still a lot) was thousands of dollars less than we thought it would be.

and..... the fireplace, It's weeks later the guys are still here.

They have promised that it will all be finished today and ready to go. It seems they had ordered the wrong length of liner, forgot to order a top, oh, forgot to put in the damper, had to order a new cap since the first one ordered was the wrong one. We'll soon know if we have a working fireplace.

There has been some other stuff ... the new studio
Yes, it is purple, no I haven't unpacked things. The loom won't fit. It's an attic with sloped ceilings, I'm working on it.

I've done a teeny little bit of knitting. one hat and the start of a second. (I also bought a little bit of sock yarn) which I've hidden since I've told Francis I'm getting rid of most of the stash.
That's part of the last 2 weeks. To everyone I owe emails to...... soon really.

Oh, boy

I have been trying to get myself to sit down and write a little for.... well I guess it's been weeks.

Moving is taking it out of me. We still aren't settled in even though we're comfortable enough. We've already had a visit from the in-laws. and I have been painting and Fran's a spackling expert. This week the chimney is suppose to get restored and the roof is being redone. There has also been a little extra glitch... more money flowing out, the lines to the sewer are nearly or maybe they are collapsed so that is another big expense. I guess this must be the week for spending.

I have been feeling the need to get into the studio, but that doesn't really exist yet. I had a little bit of a freak out this morning when I realized that it's been one year since I dismantled the Hudson studio, and the machines still aren't set up.

It seems that business and money and moving are always there and the time for my own work isn't. To start getting back into it I've begun some small knitting. I started a sock, and a hat and some drawings for projects.

I think that for the past year I have been in a sort of depression. Life has revolved around money and trying to have enough to live on while still making art. and the art is losing out. evidence of that is this blog. It's suppose to be documenting what's happening in the studio and there hasn't been much of that, right?

We still have a few months of money and time juggling coming up. (the one store is closing and we won't have a new location until December (hopefully) but probably January) and the other shop is slowing down now that the season is over. The NYC shows seems very iffy, but we'll be doing 2 in November. Fran will have a regular booth set up and I am going to try a booth of "outsider" and anonymous art more of a gallery thing. Who know's what'll happen.

There are good things. I love the house and neighborhood in Philadelphia. We're in the Mt. Airy section and it is famously diverse and has worked at being that way since the 1950's. While I was thinking about diversity and the area and looking for interesting Mt. Airy things to link to I ran across this. The artist isn't from here, but somehow the work reminds me of Mt. Airy, and it's fun, too.

Yes, I am still here

What can I say, Moving takes a lot of time. We are in Philly, the house is great. It just needs some work, and a major cleaning.

Right now every room is just filled with boxes. and we're painting and cleaning around stuff. It all seems so boringly time consuming that I haven't posted about it.

No knitting, no photos.

To that certain someone who has asked in the comments twice about her room. - Back of the house third floor on the right is the guest suite.

I couldn't resist

You are Betty Grable

The ulitmate girl next door You're the perfect girl for most guys Pretty yet approachable. Beautiful yet real.

What Famous Pinup Are You?

I have no idea where I got this from. Sorry.


Anyway I thought I would be more of a Garbo,


How about you?

What have I been doing?

It's been busy around here with all of the house stuff. Packing packing packing and a quick trip to NYC to the Gift show to visit with Carole, who was exhibiting.

So the closing here is on Monday the 20th......

And we have an offer in on a place in Philadelphia......
With a few days of homelessness and then (fingers crossed everyone please) a move to this.

An actual single family house in the City of Philadelphia. Needs some work and updating, but it doesn't appear to be a money pit. I'm already seeing an English style cottage garden in the front.
So who knows how much I'll be writing here. There with be sporatic postings and then I hope back to the full Blog in mid September..... right before the trip to Mexico. This is what turning 50 did to me.

Things are moving along on the house front

No real news to report, but, we'll be in Philadelphia soon.

Maybe then I'll have the time to knit and blog about it. unti then
I thank Rabbitch for this non-thinking time waster.

I'm off to do some more packing (closing here August 20th).

Your Life Path Number is 7

Your purpose in life is to find truth and meaning You are very spiritual, and you are interested in the mysteries of life. You are quite analytical and a great thinker. You have many theories and insights. A life of solitude is perfect for you. You need time to think and do things your way. In love, you are quite charming. You attract many with your confidence and wit. While you enjoy being alone, sometimes you take it to an extreme. You can become too isolated, shutting out loved ones and friends. Express yourself a little bit more, and you'll be surprised where it takes you!

What Is Your Life Path Number?

What do you think?

This is the back of the house I like in Philly.

Another day another trip to Philadelphia

We're off to look at more houses. Last week we looked at ten and liked none. This week we have 13 scheduled, but first we're making a trip to the Hampton's shop to add some more inventory oh, and just to add another 3 1/2 hours to the driving.

So.... wish us luck, the closing on this house is August 15th, and we don't have a place to live, we haven't even started to pack. Is this what a breakdown feels like? or was the breakdown 2 days ago when I just layed down and before I knew it it was 6 hours later, or is the breakdown my calve muscle tearing and my leg swelling up to double the size and turning a nasty looking bluish yellow? If I was a certain Canadian Blogger ... you know who I mean , the one who sent you here, who I'm too lazy to link to ... I'd have a photo of the bruise up and I'd be swearing it was the exact shape of the former Soviet Union or Switzerland. But I've lost my creativity.........

So until who knows when.....

need a distraction?

You Are The Star

You represent the ultimate in truth and purity. Insightful and illuminating, you provide guidance for others. You also demonstrate unselfish, unconditional love. You posses many spiritual gifts, including the ability to heal. Your fortune: Your future is looking brighter by the day. The near future will be a time of both hope and healing. Luck is about to come your way, perhaps the best luck you have ever seen. Life is about to get a lot easier and much better!

What Tarot Card Are You?

Gay Boyfriend

O.K. I know this has been floating around the internets for a while, but I thought, well, a perfect summertime song.

I should be posting something

Stolen from the It Girl.

The rules: You go to Wikipedia and type in your birthday (day and month only). Then post three events, two births and one holiday that occurred on your birthday.

May 16

Three Events

1770 - 14-year old Marie Antoinette marries 15-year-old Louis-Auguste who later becomes king of France.
1929 - In Hollywood, California, the first Academy Awards are handed out.
1965 - Campbell Soup Company introduces SpaghettiOs under its Franco-American brand.

Two Births

1919 - Liberace, American pianist (d. 1987)
1973 - Tori Spelling, American actress

One Holiday

Middlesex Day.

We're off to Philly once again. This time we have a more serious sense of purpose..... the house is in the contract phase. So we need to find a place to live. Yikes!!
As a way of coping I'm imaging that I'm in Mexico, or moving there.

Oh, yes I'm also winding a giant yarn ball.

So far it's bigger than Chet,

Happy Pride

an image from Philadelphia's recent Pride ParadeSee we'll make lots of new friends

so so much

Be warned this is a link heavy, photo heavy post.

To refresh everyone's memory I was on my way to a Cranbrook Academy of Art reunion, and celebration of Gerhardt Knodel, and Jane Lackey as they leave the academy, with the opening of HotHouse : Expanding the Field of Fiber at Cranbrook.

Some of the folks who were also there. (links are to the websites, not the HotHouse exhibit pages)

Geary Jones, David Johnson, Hiroshi Jashiki, Arturo Sandoval, Lucille Tenazas, Lian Verhoeven, and I think I see Emiko Nagano,
Sonya Clark, Nick Cave,
Sandra Brownlee
Katarina Westlien, who just happened to be walking past as I photographed some graffiti
and Joan Livingstone - elusive.
There were so many others, Laura Foster Nicholson, Lucy Slivinski, Lisa Lockhart, Libby Kowalski just to name a few who I know from my time at Cranbrook.

My work didn't make it into the Museum but it was lurking around the academy.

Check out the link to the exhibit, and if you want to ... that is if anyone is still reading this crazy post..... here's the link to my page of the exhibit. I'm not awarding prizes for your stamina, but I'm happy to have been read.

I'm No Angel

Things seem to be moving quickly here. Any ideas on where to live in Philadelphia? I think we'll rent something first and get a feel for neighborhoods before deciding on a buy.

Off to Philly

We're off today for the initial hunt for a new place to live. Not much to post so I'll leave you with these pretty pictures.

some reasons for my absence

I have been trying to get photos of my stuff together. They've got to be good enough for publication (can't talk about the whys and where's of that yet but it's good). So far that part has felt a little bit unsuccessful.

We are also in a major life move type of mode. Fran and I have decided to put our house on the market and move to Philadelphia. The last few weeks have been filled with the craziness of getting all of our stuff organized and getting the house to look good, all while driving around to the shops and keeping the inventory up. In other words, we have been very very busy, there hasn't been a lot of private time.

Some really great stuff has been going on though, people from my past have been getting in touch. hi Anne, hi Addison, hi Stephanie. All of the reconnecting has been fun and a little bit exhausting. (playing catch-up).

I've also decided that I'm going to the Reunion thing even though I am not in the alumni show. Yesterday in a phone conversation Addison reminded me that I was never a part of that group, or even understood by them. Her suggestion, keep doing what you do. "you're the Grandpa of graffiti knitting".

I like that title, the grandpa thing doesn't even bother me, even though I rather just be the inspiration or the father, but somehow Grandpa fits my current mood.

Ho ho ho and it reminds me of the fiber bombs and little events that I began staging in the 70's. So now I'm ready for the reunion and I'll be sure to have some of my materials with me. (the pink rubber knitting hasn't been in vain)

posting may be sparse and I owe tons of emails.... later....

'nuff said

johnk -- [noun]: A person of questionable sanity who starts their own cult 'How will you be defined in the dictionary?' at QuizGalaxy.com

I'm not sure where I got this.

I'm back and 50

Provincetown, what can I say about Provincetown. It's magic and always makes me feel better.

We got to town at about 3 pm on Tuesday afternoon. On the drive out we decided that we would grab a little to eat (at Clem and Ursie's) and then go right to Race Point Beach. The reason we wanted to get to Race Point was that we had heard that there were an amazing number (140) of right whales off of the point and we were hoping that maybe a one of them would be close enough to shore for us to see. Why is seeing the right whale so exciting? O.K. it's estimated that there are about 400 of the northern right whale. They are so rare The idea that about one third of the entire population was off of the Cape is mind boogling.

We get to the beach... we're looking and looking and hoping, fingers crossed, but we aren't seeing anything. Then we see a spout!!, and the whales back. There is one and we think it's probably a right whale, then we see more and MORE!!!! by the time we're done counting we guess that there were about 12-15 Right Whales just off shore. I can't tell you how excited I was, and how lucky and privileged I feel that I got to see that.

In the excitement I took no photos, To give you an idea of how close they were, look over my shoulder in this photo that Fran took about ten minutes before we started seeing the whales. Can you see the white wave looking thing very close to the horizon? Yep I do, I think that's the whale going under, we must have just missed seeing it. It's a 1/4 mile out, believe me, that is sooo close.

That was a great start to a great couple of days. More info on the Right Whales off of P'town at the Center for Coastal Studies site.

After all of that excitement we went back into town and checked into the hotel. It felt a little bit strange being in town and not seeing Thom and Mark. but, they're happy living in Mexico. We did miss them.

Any way, we check in and decide to take a walk on commercial street to go for coffee, and to see what's changed since January. So 1st to Joe's Coffee (I would link to the site, but they don't have one, [ahem ...hint to Scott]). From Joe's we walked to the length of Commercial St. and ended in the East End at PAAM. We wanted to go to the museum since we hadn't been in since the new renovations. Waa waa, it was closed and would also be closed on Wed. my birthday.

Now I'm going to have to jump ahead in the story. On Wednesday I really wanted to go to the museum in the evening so we walked up and I was planning on looking in the windows. But.... more magic was happening and there was an event at the museum and it was open. So we got to go in and see he show, and I guess I almost expected that would happen.

Ok. I'm sure you all are getting tired, and I'm feeling a little out of breathe, so I'll stop the tales here. It was all fun, I'm back and relaxed.

Not much knitting around here

We have been on the run. Flea markets, the shops, and just trying to maintain.

I've only knitting this pathetic little foam sample thing on the past 15 days, yikes.

Now I'm taking a few days off to go to Provincetown, it's the birthday celebration...... Next time you hear from me I'll be 50.

2 weeks later

We've been to Chicago and are back. The trip out there was long and the driving was difficult. We had snow to start out. It took 5 hours to drive what would normally be 2 1/2. That was it for the snow though, then the trip was rain. Fran drove and by the end he was wiped out.
Oddly, we got to Chicago earlier than we expected. That turned out to be a good thing and we unloaded the van the day before show set-up. Lucky for us, since the next day was chaotic , everyone trying to move in garden items and not much room to park. It was a mess....
The show was so so, it feels like it's been months, I've sort of forgotten about it......

The best thing about being in Chicago was getting to see my friend Lucy and visiting her studio (at midnight on a long show day but I'm not whining). Check out her work. I love it. Here is an example of another person who was overlooked for the Radical Lace... blah blah blah show.


Fast forward to us driving home... no problems and the weather was great. Remember that snow from the day we left?, well when we got home it was in the high 80's and everything was in bloomI've been back for a week, and we have been spending a lot of time running to the shops and getting the booths looking good. We really need to be making some money.

I've managed to work a little bit. I tried doing these woven things on a little frame loom. Good for the road trips. The idea is to add some growing plant material to this. I don't know, we'll see what happens. It's very in the percolating not articulated stage right now. So as a distraction I've been
Straightening up the studio. Chet's been there helping. (here he is pointing out a knitting machine and hinting that maybe 5 are just a little too many. I , of course, assure him that I need the extras for parts)
Chet is getting better. The thyroid supplements help with his appetite and attitude. He's still a Terrier - loves to growl.

And that concludes this little update..... I have a feeling that I've lost many readers and say thanks to everyone who has stuck around.