Midwest Fiber Arts Almanac

Last spring (2013) I met with the editor of the Midwest Fiber Arts Almanac, Jennifer. Every year she selects 12 artists to interview and photograph their works for inclusion in the yearly planner, newsletter and blog that she produces. My works were featured in the October newsletter and in November in the planner.

It has been a most gratifying and heart warming experience working with Jennifer. The interview definitely probed deep and prompted more thought about my intentions as a designer and artist. For a long time I had worked and designed because I felt a driving need. In our conversations I put words to my intentions: I create as a way to express my desire for beauty and functionality in those items I work with or use daily. As a way to challenge myself ... And thereby supply knitted hugs (sweaters) for loved ones. The intention you hold as you create matters.

I encourage you to read the Midwest Fiber Arts newsletter and blog. There are so many talented men and women sharing their vision of the world through a variety of medium. It's a blessing to be among them.

Thanks Jennifer.

 

Also, this is the photo of me that Jennifer used in the article ... I'm glad I went to the Renaissance Fair this year. This definitely fits my internal image of myself as an artist, or a bit of a weirdo.

 

Be excellent to each other!

 

Love your nerd

Nerd, geek, dork, and weirdo are all affectionate terms in my house. They connote someone that thinks about a thing and loves it passionately. (Wil Wheaton's blog post and open letter about being nerd are simply fabulous!) Everyone is passionate about something in different ways. Lucky for me many friends share some passions and are totally stoked about others - such that they are inspiring.

My most recent inspiration comes from a friend's and my own past experiences with chemistry. (Not quite as wide spread a passion as doctor who, I know!) I'm quite fond of the seamless yoke sweater, and have concocted a way to make another sweater with a new chart - a chart based on mass spectrometer readings! (Or the element read out that becomes a line graph not lines in a bar chart format.) Something like this, but not rare earth minerals.

The yoke portion will be repeating charts of the line graphs representing a chemical compound. My current plan is to use iron oxide, rust. Those charts seem to be quite varied, visually appealing, and meaningful to the recipient.

Yes, this is a man's sweater. And my current challenge is to add a zipper to the front instead of doing buttons. I think a zipper is totally doable. It is more enjoyable to start a new project when there is some challenge, but I'm not quite ready for steeks, they still terrify me.

In other nerdy news I would like to share a photograph from a BBQ this weekend where a friend kindly brought her lawn sized version of Settlers of Catan. I had tried to imagine what it be like to play on a giant board, and now I'm planning more giant versions of games. Imagine if candy land was giant and there were real fudge pits?!?

That's all for now.

Be excellent to each other!

 

Into the wardrobe

The weather has begun the slow shift from warm evenings and ample sunshine to soft golden rays and a cool breeze that sends me running to the closet for a shawl. Oh, fall. I'm already rummaging in my closet for the bin of sweaters and other warm articles. I spent some time last weekend playing with the shawls and thinking of how to use the new found space (vacant as the sweaters were unpacked). I theorize that the space will now be used to store Christmas gifts.

After going through all my shawls this week, selecting favorites, and wearing them again I realized that I have made over two dozen shawls. To commemorate I put together a collage.

Some I've kept, others have been given as gifts. I am quite pleased that there is a rainbow of colors.

Circling back to above, Christmas gifts. It's the season to plot, plan, and buy the yarns. There are a few projects lined up for this festival season. A sweater, maybe a shawl/hat and another hat. Lucky for me one project is done! A hat! But as its a Christmas gift, even if the recipient doesn't read this blog, I can't post pictures yet. Darn. Because it is so awesome!

Let me chat about it, even if I can't post full pictures.

I started designing the hat last year as an entry in the WWMDFK, What Would Madame DeFarge Knit, online publication. They do nerdy/literature themed project collections. And they are fabulous! A key component to all projects submitted is the ability to customize or enhance the pattern in some way as it is created, blocked or dyed. I remember a project that was knit in natural 'un-dyed' yarn and dyed after it was finished.

I devised a pattern with modular charts. These charts could then be used in a variety of projects and yarn weights. The charts themselves would only be about 10 wide x 20 stitches high. Being the same size would mean you could pick any number of the charts to use in your project and be sure that the finished dimensions could work. There are a total of 26 charts, hint hint. Oh, and one other chart to mark the 'end' position.

Charts in hand I picked ones I wished to use and cast on. I knit the brim of the hat and stopped. How in the world could I finish this design in some intereting yet uncomplicated way. I hunted, I searched, I checked every stitch dictionary I owned. I stumbled across an awesome slipped stitch colorwork cheat pattern in a Japanese stitch dictionary. I figured it out and set the hat aside for a year.

Fast forward a year and I picked the hat back up. I finished the faux colorwork with the slipped stitches (see below - cause I feel safe posting that). And blocked the hat to within an inch of its life. I have never made a hat that fits anyone besides myself. If I'm giving it as a gift it has always come out too big, too small, too short, or too tall. Cross your fingers that this one works. But worst case scenario, at least it fits me.

Once completed the hat went ... Into the wardrobe. As it is for a friend I did not want to risk it being seen if left in my usual piles of completed projects around the apartment. So, hidden away, it is safe until the snow flies.

Now I shall begin preparations for the holiday sweater, for which I am so stoked! Nerdiness here I come!

More about it next post.

Be excellent to each other!

 

All the things

My roommate was out of town for a few weeks, leaving the apartment to myself and the cat. You can see how he spent his two weeks ...

I'm not quite as lazy as my cat. So I entertained myself with lots of projects, of note starting a new sweater and beginning a new hobby of jarring.

First, the sweater. Two weeks ago it looked like this:

Yes, it looks vaguely like something reminiscent of Georgia O'Keefe, but we don't always have to be twelve. Because after some good effort over a few evenings, it now looks like this:

It is the Amande cardigan, by Atelier Alfa. I purchased the yarn some months ago at yarn shop hop. It seemed the perfect project to pull out after finishing the sweaters for the state fair. First, it starts so small with just the sleeve caps.

Knitting isn't the only thing that's been keeping me company while my roommate travels the globe. The weather has finally turned warm and the produce has been flying to my house from the farmers market and the coop. A few weeks ago I taught myself canning with 5lbs of Colorado peaches. Mouth watering lay good, I wanted to keep some for the winter.

That's the canning pressure cooker ... And a stool, because I am not tall enough to reach into the pot safely.

And those are the glorious peaches. And they are glorious. Lucky for me some of the peaches bruised slightly meaning they had to be eaten quickly. Oh no. But enough remained that I got a few good jars, in total four quarts and two pints! (Which, yes I know, is 5 quarts.)

Once I mastered the peaches I ran along to the farmers market and bought a large basket of tomatoes. An afternoon in the kitchen saw the tomatoes in their own jars. I blanched them and removed the skins, and then quartered them to ensure they would fit in the mouth of the jar. Once quarter I pulverized them with the end if a wood spoon until they more closely resembled crushed tomatoes. There shall shortly be more jars joining them on the shelves in the pantry. Maybe some beans? Beets? More peaches if they are still good?

Then there was the cake, because we definitely needed a cake to cheer up a few weeks ago.

The last few weeks have been so filled with activities, friends, baking and knitting that I was desperately glad to have my roommate back to keep me sane. I realized that I'm a darned busy body when left on my own!

And just because, here is me at the mn renaissance fair! In front of the caber toss, and oh it was glorious! There is something about watching grown men heaving a giant log up and chucking it end over end into the air. The word heaving sticks with me ...

Be excellent to each other!

 

Sweaters on the brain

The state fair sweaters are done, but two of the entries are personal designs. I'm starting the process of writing the instructions up. As always, knitting and trouble shooting are far more enjoyable than writing everything down. This time I was smart, in two ways. First, I took copious notes along with diagrams as I knit Cloudberry (the more complicated of the two designs). Second, I've been attending a work night with friends where the entire point is to bring your laptop and get things done. So, I've been working on the writing while drinking beer in the company of fabulous people. Win win!

One beer and most of a cupcake later I have the instructions finished for: the picot hem, starting the main body, knitting the sleeves and joining the two together!

Luckily, almost all of the instructions for Cloudberry cardigan will overlap with Dancing Elephants. I've almost determined how best to explain joining the sleeves and main body together with a handy diagram. As a visual knitter I would have loved this diagram when learning this technique.

To distract my brain from the tedium of writing a pattern I started another drawing today of a new sweater. It follows the seamless, bottom-up yoke sweater format. And requires searching for more buttons. Oh darn. (Not!)

I don't know whether that sweater will ever be a written pattern, but I really want a sweater that uses some sweet ribbons a friend gave me for my birthday.

There's also that rosy Amande yarn burning a hole in my stash. I wound it today. Isn't it pretty? Someday it will be a sweater!

As I contemplate knitting more sweaters in this 90 degree heat...

Be excellent to each other!

 

Idle hands do not live at my house

The state fair is less than one month away. The three sweaters are registered. Two in the machine knitting category (green Amande and dancing elephants) and one in the hand knit (cloudberry). Photo below.

Since I finished the big summer knitting I've kept occupied by baking (some of which occurred with Belgian beer in hand).

But didn't the bars turn out beautifully?

The cookie bars are the chocolate oat bars from the joy of cooking. I'm modified a few things: I use 1/2 of the dough on the bottom not 1/3 as the recipe suggests and I added 2 drops of orange extract to the chocolate mixture. You couldn't identify that the extract was there, but I've made these enough times with the same ingredients every time to notice something was extra yummy about this batch.
Then there were the gnomes I made for the gnome gift exchange. My random giftee liked miniature cartoonish things. Did I succeed?

And finally some mandalas I've been working for cards. A future design might be the final inspiration for my tattoo. Or a variation of this one.

I have this thought in my head. I'm slowly honing my ability to get this idea out of my head and put it on paper. The ability to extract an idea from my head and create is so much easier with knitting. Practice makes capable.
Keep your hands busy!
Be excellent to each other!

That darned hemmed button band

Cloudberry cardigan is ready for the button band!

My first try I had picked up the outermost edge of the front piece - which meant that I wouldn't have the other side of that stitch to pick up to Kitchener and finish off the edge. Start over.

The photo above shows me picking up every right side of a stitch on the right side if the garment. That leaves the left side ready to be used in the end. And because of the gauge I did pick up every stitch - 2/3 going down would not have given me the correct length for the button band.

Every stitch is picked up and I knit some rows.

Then I placed the buttonhole stitches on waste yarn.

How to provisionally cast on for all eight button holes?

Super long crocheted chain.

And picked up every 13th and 14th loop on the chain for my provisional cast on stitches. As you can see in the photo this created the hole for the buttons. I knit 8 rows, did the picot row and purl row, and then 8 more rows. I then placed the two stitches from my live stitches and the two provisionally cast on stitches on a safety pin to hold then while I finish the hemmed button band.

After placing those on a safety pin I picked you the two stitches from the waste yarn. This created a seamless edge for one side of the button hole.

I kept knitting until I have the six rows in between the button hole and the edge of the sweater.

This is when I picked up the other side of that original stitch. I kitchenered the live stitches with the picked up stitches to create another seamless edge.

With the kitchenered edge done I just had to resolve the other side of the button holes. See all those safety pins? I put the first two stitches from the safety pin on a needle and the last two on another needle. I then kitchenered these stitches together to create another seamless edge for the button hole.

This means that both sides of the button hole have seamless edges. I craftily used the same yarn all the way down the button holes for doing kitchener, just knotting it along the way to ensure it can't be undone. This saved a lot of weaving in later.

With a completed button band it was time and weave in all ends. AND BLOCK! I was so ecstatic putting this sweater on the blocking mat. It has been on the needles since November, 8+ months of being continually in work. Uffda.

Here's a sneak peak without buttons.

I feel accomplished.

Be excellent to each other!

 

Planning gone awry

Sweaters are best knit in the winter. Hopefully, you can finish them in a timely fashion to be worn while the weather is still cold. And as they near completion that large knitted object acts like a blanket in your lap!

Sweaters should not be knit in the summer.

Plans can go awry. This is why I still have the button band to finish on cloudberry cardigan when the temperature is starting to rise above 80 degrees. Best laid plans.

But isn't it starting to look done? The deadline for completion is August 5th. That is the date by which I must drop the sweater off at the state fair for judging.

Notes on how I shall finish: a hemmed button band with scalloped edge and button holes is not something I've made before. It's intimidating, and I'm not sure I can explain how to do it well enough to put it in a pattern. Oh well. The gist is: knit a few rows and place the button hole stitches on waste yarn. Finish the row, as I go the other direction (probably the WS) I shall provisional cast on for the stitches on the waste yarn. Once I finish the RS of the hem I shall do the picot and turn. On the wrong side I will pick up the provisional cast on to bind off those stitches. Picking up the stitches on waste yarn I will use those as live stitches on the following row.

I fully intend to embroider around the button holes to reinforce them. I'm also crossing my fingers that this method works.

 

Be excellent to each other!

 

Ball pit assemblage & maintenance

Quick notes and then the meat of this post:

-Cloudberry cardigan continues to go slowly. It shouldn't surprise me (but of course it did) that making those Estonian flowers is time consuming (3into9 lace stitches are hard).

Are there too many cookies?

-This weekend was much better than last to turn the oven on. There was definitely the first world problem of too many cookies.

 

Now, to the ball pit!

Rules of the ball pit

1. No jumping (we have downstairs neighbors)

2. No throwing the cat into the ball pit (for obvious reasons, but of course he decided he was totally cool with the ball pit all on his own.)

See the cat that went into the ball pit of his own accord.

3. No food or drink. (Again, obvious)

4. No hanky-panky. (Um... This could just say no bodily fluids. Ew. I've told a few people that asked, if they really wanted to ... They may so long as they wash every single ball by hand.)

After the rules are all the warnings. And they are serious. (My roommate did the math for how tall.)

The rules and warnings of the ball pit were easy to divise. Maintenance?

Apparently, once the balls are in the room ... They go everywhere!

When we first planned the ball pit the idea was to use the furniture as the barriers to the ball pit. This works great. People can sit on the chairs or in the ball pit! You can lay down and use the chair as a head rest.

But what about balls escaping underneath that lovely chaise lounge? Last weekend I did this ...

It was so much fun, and so tedious at the same time. Perfect morning chore. First I pushed most of the balls to one side of the room. Then I placed the window screen in the middle carefully wedging it down past the balls until it rest on the floor. Then all balls on the wrong side of the fence got moved. As I put more balls on the right side (in the picture) tons and tons of balls started rolling out from under the chaise lounge. I would guess 100-150 had gotten lodged up underneath the lounge. There is now a large rectangular rubber maid bin beneath the lounge ... I'd wager that the ball pit is a good 4" higher with no balls hiding.

In a few weeks we'll take the ball pit down (or bag it up). It really isn't as much fun as the weather gets hot. The practice of shoveling balls from under the chaise has shown us the best way to clean up ... Just shovel the balls into bags. Plus, as Minnesotans we've had plenty of practice this winter. We're expert shovelers.

Finally, what everyone wants to know. What does this kind of adventure cost.

There are multiple places on eBay and amazon that sell ball pit balls. Luckily I live in a large metropolitan area close to a large chain of toy stores that all carried the 250 count balls for around $30 a bag. I bought out two stores (4-5 bags each) and picked up a few more from a third store. I have 3,250 balls in the room. Depending on your location and what's available at the time ... You could spend anywhere form $200-$800 on balls.

But this experience has been priceless.

 

Be excellent to each other!

 

 

Perspective

Happy dancing elephants!

See that beautiful unblocked sweater?! The only steps left are blocking, buttons and seaming the armpits. HURRAH!

The last row was done right before the ball pit BBQ: and sadly the blocking room is the library, whose floor is still covered in brightly colored balls. I promise myself, it will be finished soon.

Cloudberry is also nearing completion. The sleeves were finally long enough to attach and yesterday I began the lace charts for the yoke. It's felt like an extremely long haul with this sweater, and I have to remind myself that I have been working on this sweater for a long time! I finished the first version of this sweater in January, took it apart and started over. That means this current version has been on the needles since February. Perspective, it's a good thing.

Two purl rows setting up for the lace.

Ah, perspective.

At 18 I chose to travel across country for college. It was a small school in Bar Harbor, ME called College of the Atlantic. I chose this school for no reason other than, I wanted to go to Maine and it sounded like a great place. (Most of my big life decisions are made this way ... And somehow life seems to work out.)

The location was idyllic. The student body was eclectic, dedicated and all around marvelous human beings. The friends I made were for life.

I remember being so happy.

This is the view from the lawn outside the house in which I lived.

Even when I was in a knee brace for 6 weeks in January.

Especially when we swam in bioluminescence in February. In the frigid cold ocean. Awesome.

Definitely when I would read and nap on the lawn right by the ocean.

 

Recently, I've felt like I did when I was 18.

Last week a friend asked if I was happy. This winter was incredibly hard. My marriage had ended and I was trying to reorient my life.

Now, yes, I'm happy. I've probably been telling people this too often. But in perspective, I'm so much happier that I have a hard time believing my life. I have to reaffirm with myself often that it is so good. There are wonderful people in my life. A group of friends that I really should call family.

Everything is in perspective. No injury has yet been as painful as appendicitis. Nothing has hurt so bad as a marriage ending. And no year was as bad as when I was 10-11.

I hope that you also find happiness.

Be excellent to each other.

 

We're grown-ups now

I began reading XKCD in college. At the bottom of the page are five links to some of the most popular comics. One is about a ball pit.

This comic resonated within, hitting on some basic need. The need for pure and simple pleasure. To smile for hours.

This weekend, we built a ball pit.

There are 3,250 balls in a space about 4.5 x 6' and only 1.5' deep.

Luckily we had a third bedroom that was fairly small and being used as a library. To create the space we blocked off a small section with a large black chair. We left the other furniture in place, a chaise lounge and desk.

In front of the doorway I put a folding rectangular table. Whenever I set up the ball pit again I will get a baby gate.

Once the room was ready we dumped 13 bags of balls (250 balls per bag) in the room.

A bunch of balls rolled under the chaise lounge, but otherwise they have stayed in place.

They definitely rise higher when people sit in the ball pit.

Sadly, the cat has lost his favorite afternoon nap location. I made sure to put him on the chaise lounge the first night we'd built the ball pit.

He may look fine, but a few seconds after the photo was taken he was trying to walk across the balls and freaking out because the ground (aka ball pit) was moving beneath his feet. He hasn't been tempted to enter again since.

Over the weekend my roommate and I hosted a BBQ for friends and got pictures of them falling backers into the balls.

Everyone smiled.

I love being a grown up.

Thank you Randal Munroe for the idea.

Be excellent to each other.