Brown Girl Studio

From The Brown Girl Studio

2007-01-17T17:16:00.000-08:00

I always admire people who have the time and inclination to upload photos of their works in progress and completed projects. Though I have the inclination, I almost always lack the time. School, homework, kids, dog, work .... you name it. By the time I even get to the computer, the last thing I have time to do is select, edit, and crop photos. But today I stole a few minutes just to become one of those people and show off a few of the trappings of the Brown Girl Studio:

First up is the dress I've been designing. Here it is just draped around my model. I haven't yet cut the fabric because I need to buy a dress form first. I want to make absolutely sure that I get this dress right because I stumbled on this beautiful fabric over two years ago and only have enough for the dress and possibly a wrap. My design includes darts (of course) and a knitted cumberbund in the center, a simple seed stitch to be sure it maintains the form, made with Empire Silk Karabella Yarn. I love this fabric and this dress. I stumbled on the gold silk/satin at the top when I was in Manhattan. Initially I only bought it as a lining but when I went to drape it I thought, gee, this is a gorgeous possibility to have a band at the top. So I'll make a decision about it once I get it on the form. I plan to order a Singer from Jo-Ann's at the end of the month when they offer the free shipping again.

Here are some other views:

Okay, next up is a simple garter stitch ponchette knit with an organic cotton. This was actually my first knitted scarf that now, looked so incredibly boring, that I decided, Hey let's do something with this. A little asymmetric embellishment and voila! you have a wrap. I like the V shaping on this and am going to add a small little clutch purse to go with it:

Next up is a super-soft scarf done again in a simple garter stitch. Sometimes it's just not about the stitch but the yarn itself. This is Fiamma Cervinia yarn bought in New York over the holidays. I must have kicked myself a thousand times as I was making my way down the Jersey Turnpike to get back home - I had only bought one skein of it, figuring I could always order more from the store's online portal. Yeah right, until I discovered that they REQUIRE a minimum of $40 on every order. Since I am really trying to get my business off the ground this year and am on a tight budget, I decided to check e-bay. Thank God for e-bay. I found more. I plan to make more scarves and simple wraps in this, which I'll be offering in the shop too:

and of course, if you're stylish, you can always fashion it as a belt/band:

and I finally picked up all the super bulky yarn I need for that yoke dress in the Fall 06 VogueKnits:

which I can't wait to get done. Hopefully that'll knit up pretty quickly.

And lastly, I decided against the Sew U book, and accepted this gift that my Mum gave me over the holidays. It's a little dated but it's got everything you ever thought you needed or wanted to know about patternmaking, design, and constructing a garment:

Back to the studio! See you soon ...

ANGEL

...And The Winner Is...

2006-12-20T22:40:00.000-08:00

....me! Finally finished what I am now calling The Husband Scarf. A seventy two row pattern that repeated four times!! It's gorgeous and just waiting to be blocked. Will do that tonight and am going to try to whip up his matching hat before Monday. Pictures forthcoming.

Meanwhile, I was in Books-A-Million the other day and picked up this:

and will probably go on and order these two from Amazon:

Neither one are new releases but I like to check things out in the library before I make my purchases since so many books wind up being huge disappointments....from patterns not being written in a logical way to just projects that really look homemade. Not that I'm a whiz kid knitter or seamstress but I figure if I'm spending this much time and money on fabric and yarn, I want my project to look as well made as possible. Plus the fact, I'm kinda past the cutesy age.

I was also browsing around my favorite place and saw this:

the essential "Little Black Dress" and this:

that I want to try to make by spring and this:

by Junior Trends that is just so sexy. Thinking I may just purchase it and then try to deconstruct it so that I can make a pattern and go from there.

Who woulda thought I'd be having this much fun? Friday (school break) can't get here soon enough!

Cheers!

The Amazing Race

2006-12-13T20:00:00.001-08:00

Okay, so I've officially decided that next year I will do things much differently than I did this year. I'll do one of two things. I will either A) wear a string of garlic around my neck to ward off any impulse to knit a holiday gift for anyone, ever again or B) just start my holiday knitting in, say, July? Who knew I'd be up against the wall like this? Who knew that the fifth grade teacher would hand out three exams in one week and the husband would decide to do double overtime and the car insurance bills would be due necessitating Mom to pull an extra shift or two, not to mention two open houses for middle schools that Mom and Dad are considering for the fifth grader. Oh, and did I mention the three December deadlines for three seperate journals and an essay deadline for the 31st? Yeah, okay.

So anyway, I've been wanting to upload some pictures of the handbag that I finished, the McCall patterns that I bought for this sweet little skirt that I'm planning to make and the fabric I bought to go with it; been wanting to talk about my plans to go to Philly at the end of the month, to Fabric Row, to do some touching and feeling and buying of more fabric (not to mention my plans to check the yarn shops too); been wanting to upload some sketches I've been working on.....but whose got the time? Right now I've got to finish The Husband Scarf with matching Beanie Cap for the husband who says to the other parents in the pick up line, "Oh yeah, she loves to knit but she never makes anything for me."

By the Bug

2006-12-04T06:00:00.001-08:00

....so as I was saying, I've been seriously bit by a creative bug this fall. Not only have I been buying way too many magazines

and way too much yarn and knitting more than I can keep pace with (in terms of photos to show you), I have also been struck with an urge to design my own patterns. For everything. I've been teaching myself to crochet (1/4th of a scarf done !!!) and have turned back to my absolute passion for sewing and designing. Yeah, Spouse added fuel to the fire when he surprised me with a brand new sewing machine for my birthday. Yeah, he's just that kind of guy. I had only said in passing, Gee I would love to have my own sewing machine one day to get back to my sewing and bam! there it was, next to my desk in my wee-little room that I call My Space with a card and a note that reminded me to make something for him too. It's not a Serger, it's not fancy, but it's enough to get me back on track to where I always wanted to be. I've been buying fabric and cutting shears and sketching my little butt off, too.

I have a sketch that I'm working on now for a halter dress in a beautiful fabric that I found almost two years ago and put aside for that One Day. At the middle of the dress, just beneath the breast, is a seed stitch knitted band, cumberbund style, designed to cinch the waist and to add a little sexiness. I'm going to cut the pattern in muslin first, just to make sure I get the right fit and shaping, sew it up and see what I get before I cut the real fabric. What I'm hoping to do is blend the three disciplines in my designs -- sewing, knit, and crochet. I absolutely love clothing that has just that one little added touch that makes it special. A simple blouse can be turned into something entirely different if it has beadwork or some kind of enbroidery or an interesting collar or border. I'm also working on several girly-girl purses. Some for my daughter and some for me during the summer, when you just want a little flirty something, just enough for the wallet, the book, the phone and maybe the planner. I even stumbled on this little joint here, that'll has lots of really nice handles at good prices.

So anyway, that's where I am now, if you've been wondering ....

Music to Knit To

2006-11-13T15:00:00.000-08:00

...in case you haven't already discovered it, there's a juicy little spot called Pandora that lets you create your own listening station. music you can knit to.

i'm stuck on:

for obvious reasons. It ought to be a FEDERAL CRIME to be this fine.

Lock me up
Make me do time
for my black on black crime ....

Don't You Just Know....

2006-11-13T00:03:00.000-08:00

....when you need a change? That just about sums up how my Fall has been. Full of 360 degree turns, hard turns left, then right, then left again. A sewing machine for my birthday, a big black sketchbook, colored pencils, and more ideas than I can handle in a day. But it's good. It's so damn good to feel my Self coming back to me again.

Anyone who's spent the lion's share of their life working in a profession that they really don't like will know what I mean. The hustle, the bustle, the putting up with people and personalities that you wouldn't wish on your worst enemy. The worriation (I know, I know....that's not a word, but I like it and I'm using it) about whether or not you're making enough money and whether or not you should do that corporate jig to move up the ladder to make more money to spend on stuff you don't really need. That profession you picked because you're the direct descendent of women who burned their bras and told you that you better not even THINK about wasting time or money - you were going to get a REAL job (read: something that involved a suit and too-tight stockings). Or that profession that you picked for money, not for love.

But soon enough, if you're paying attention .... if you have just the SLIGHTEST understanding of what it means to be mindful....you start hearing that little voice inside you getting louder and louder and louder still .... the voice of your wildest, childish dreams .... that AUTHENTIC you just waiting to find its rightful place back in your life. Front and Center.

You know when it's time to make a change.

Return On Investment?

2006-10-14T07:18:00.000-07:00

Okay, so is Addi the ONLY one that makes size 19 circular needles in 47 inch? That's what the Yoke Dress in Vogue Knits is calling for. And the Addi's are $25.95 - for ONE friggin pair of needles. So I've gotta either a) check my LYS to find out if they have any (the online places are adding an extra $10 to the price of $15.95 and I don't know if that has something to do with shipping) or b) decide if I really want to make this Yoke Dress cause I can't imagine when I'll need another 47 inch cable. There are lots of others that have 19 inch needles but none with a 47 inch cable that I can find. Argh!

I know, I know....it's an investment .... but hey....aside from my winter knits...am I really gonna get a lot of mileage out of those needles?

Just thinking ....

Perfect-itis

2006-10-13T19:43:00.000-07:00

Necia commented on the previous post and said something that my knit friend, JM, at work repeated....."Angel, come on out of that shell!"

I was telling JM how much I'd love to make this:

from the Fall Issue of Vogue Knits. And JM's thing is, "Well, what are you waiting for? You've gotta come out of that shell."

See, the issue with me is that I have a serious case of Perfectitis. My problem is not that I don't want to make beautiful and amazing and intricately designed beauties, it's that I want those beautiful and amazing and intricately designed beauties to come out RIGHT.....the first time. I absolutely hate making mistakes because I don't always know how to even fix the mistakes ... I have to schlep off to the LYS for help ... which is beyond annoying and, if I'm honest, intimidating. Sometimes I feel like I'm the only one still stuck in first gear. Not only that, I'm not the best with selecting yarns. Some of these patterns call for yarn that's just a little bit beyond my budget (well, beyond my budget because I spend too much on books, but that's another story) and let's face it, it's not the design that makes it beautiful, it's the yarn.

So, take this Fair Isle for instance. I don't know a thing about switching yarns from one color to the next, which is why I really want to do it in a solid first. Second of all, I've never knit off of a chart and some of these charts are just downright confusing. You'd think a person who works in an Intensive Care Unit with wires and cables and tubes and I.V. lines all over the place could figure out a damn pattern....but no. I'm just one of those visual people who has to see things, has to have it laid out and clear as water.

So, needless to say, I'm gonna look for a KAL for this one. A group of folks who'll put up with my thousand and one questions. Let me know if you find one.

Okay, So What's Next ?

2006-10-12T15:53:00.000-07:00

Lately, I've been in a real sweater-y, shawl-y kind of mood. I figure I'll always have a pair of socks on the line, but right now I really kind of want something I can rock for fall. That said, I've decided I'm going to start on this:

that I found here back in the summer. I wish I'd have started it then (looks really simple) so that I could be rocking it now, but, oh well. So anyway, I picked the Lilac right here:

in the Allhemp6 DK weigh. (You'll see, I have a thing for purples and pinks). Gonna cast on tonight and see what happens. I'll keep you posted.

And, look, have you seen the fall issue of Vogue Knits?

There are two really cute little numbers in there -- the yoke dress on page 87, which looks like it could be quick since it's done with big yarn (Cascade Magnum) and then another little sexy number on page 2, with a delightful scoop neck (I love scoop necks) that I wouldn't necesarily do with that color yarn but I like the sweater and could certainly multitask it. This would be my first foray into sweaters but hey, ya gotta start somewhere right?

I got next.

On Yarn and Hope

2006-10-09T14:33:00.000-07:00

I don't want to go there.

I shouldn't go there.

I have to go there.

The address came as welcome as a mid-summer rain. A new local yarn shop on a side of town that I used to work. Eclectic, funky, lots of college students and medical resident types. Sidewalk eateries with names like One World Cafe and Eddies and Trinidad Joe's. The multi-billion dollar university right down the block -- the one with Michael Bloomberg's name plastered across its Biophysics Building that will Harry Belafonte and Afeni Shakur this fall -- an intellectual side of town, if you will.

So on a day like yesterday, full of sun and crisp air and trees that look like they've been brushed a brilliant golden red, I set out, with Spouse and the two little ones, to find this place and see what they have in store for me.

Now, we're not short on yarn shops around here. Each has a flavor of its own -- one is so far out in the countryside you'd better check your tires and gas hand before you get on the road; another in a quaint little country-ish kind of town that borders the city line, trying to establish itself as yuppie but filled solidly with the middle class; another on a solidly upper middle class side of town owned by a set of proprietors who peer over their glasses and look at you as if you have, in some misguided way, stumbled into their shop for directions or perhaps to use the bathroom (which you, of course can't do) because you couldn't possibly be in there to buy any of their yarn. May I help you? they ask with that voice that is laced with skepticism. So I was hopeful that this new shop would be suited for the kind like me -- the still learning, flip-flop and long skirt wearing, peace loving, don't-care-what-socially-contrived-class-you-think-you're-in type.

So as we drove along, in what quickly became hard and fast circles, I realized, with a soft and hopeless heart, that this new yarn shop was in fact, nowhere near Michael Bloomberg's name, nowhere near Harry or Afeni Shakur, but rather, across the line -- on the OTHER side of town. As I watched my husband's brows grow closer and closer until they themselves began knitting a sweater across his broad, troubled forehead, I knew something was wrong.

I'll sit here, he said, as he slid the gears into park.

The side of town I am talking about is filled with painful history. Ten years ago, in this same little side of town, a black family was burned completely out of their home, after refusing to succumb to the demands of the locals that they get their you-know-what's out of dodge. Everything they owned went up in smoke to the tune of the city and lots of kind hearted people with a little extra money giving them donations for clothing and food and enough to find a home elsewhere. This seemingly quaint little town was (and some say still is) filled with the bottle-throwing, tatoo-wearing type who would ensure that a lost black man's life ended in the same way that Emmett Till's life ended if he dared to come through there at night. I don't question it since, just yesterday, there were armed police on foot patrol in the middle of a paint-stroked clear Sunday afternoon. The street that runs through the town is filled with eclectic little art shops, a yoga studio, a bookstore dedicated to selling New Age literature and notions. The call it The Avenue.

Spouse said, maybe you should just order your stuff offline.

What I wonder is if Spouse is right....do some places just "never change?" Do some places become so filled with hate that it just glows from the streetlamps, dangles from the light poles, find its way into the cement and live generation after generation after generation? or is he wrong?

What I wonder is if yarn can save us? Can the love of yarn and knitting and the act of creation shared by women carry us into a new place? Can it break down just half of the border that keeps us all on the defense all of the time? Can yarn return us to that place where our mothers held us against their breasts and told us we were beautiful and wondrous and could do anything, be anything....and we believed it?

Can yarn bring back the magic?
Can yarn bring us to a place of peace?

When I stroll around the blogosphere, this place we call a community, I see the same continual threads of elitism and cliquishness. When I open up knit conference catalogues I hold my breath, hoping beyond all measure, to see just one instructor (and one in particular comes to mind) who looks like me, who will give me the encouragement I need to broaden my scope in this chosen art and more importantly, will give me the tools and confidence to go back into the communities where creativity and the joys of creating something by hand is needed most. To the communities where 3 in 5 girls are pregnant before they graduate high school. To the communities where young girls think that the only path to beauty is on a video screen, sliding up and down a pole. But then I open those catalogues and see none. I go to the classes and see just myself. And not that it dispels or discourages the community work I intend to do, but it bothers me, somewhere inside. Is there too much history between us? Too many knots, kinks, and broken weaves?

It makes me go there.

What I hope is that yarn WILL bridge us. Not the yarn in its physical form, obviously, but the use of yarn -- the sharing in acts of creative love. That through the use of yarn somehow we, particularly women, will begin to see our commonalities and frailties and amazing strength. I'm not saying this in some melting pot, polly-anna-ish kind of "we are all one" way. I reject the notion of homogoneous living. What I am hoping for is that yarn will help us to spin new thoughts, new ways of being. That yarn will at least give us the courage to begin thinking, at the very least, about the meaning of "being peace."

A.

Do You Dulaan ?

2006-10-03T20:35:00.000-07:00

I stumbled across The Dulaan Project in the Fall 2006 edition of Vogue Knits. Dulaan is the Mongolian word for warm.
You can get the full skinny on this fantastic and ongoing project at the Dulaan Website or on Mossy Cottage's blog (just scroll down a bit till you see 10,000 or bust). And you can print your own flyer and share it with your knit pals by clicking here.

Remember what Ghandi said, "we must BE the change we wish to see in the world."

I'm in.

Pink Passions

2006-10-02T06:28:00.001-07:00

Okay, since Necia reminded me....here it is:

Ta-Dah !!

That wonderful little capelet that I was working on.....and a dressform that I bought for ten bucks from the Hechts Department Store that is now Macy's (it's amazing what you can get for cheap when you just ask!) because Macy's uses different dress forms than Hechts did/does.....and because I'm a wannabe seamstress who doesn't have the moo-lah right now for the ones on e-bay.

Annnyy-waaay....ahem....here it is:

...and as I've said many times before, I found this lovely pattern on Heather's blog and fashioned it in Estelle Watercolors.

Isn't it lovely?

That Was Then .... This is Now

2006-10-01T09:45:00.000-07:00

I always wanted to know what the big deal about socks was. Wanted to know why anyone would spend so much time on something so ridiculous as a knit sock, for goodness sake. No one's going to see them underneath your pants. No one's going to know that you agonized for days over whether you want this kind of heel or that one ... and after all, what difference does it make anyhow, I thought. Just put on the damn sock and go about your business. Are you really, at the end of the day, going to feel better with a sock that has one heel over a sock that has another? Come on. Get real.

That was then.

This is now.

Because knitting is not about who sees your work, who cares about your work, or even who puppy-dogs over your work and says that it's beautiful. Knitting is not about what makes sense to be knitted and what doesn't. Knitting isn't even about the utalitarian-ness (if that's a word) of what you're knitting. Knitting is about your own happiness and making something that, once you put it on, you feel like you're wrapped in love; something that when you stand back and look at it you say, Hey that's not made in some far off land, no sweatshop, that's made by me.

So....

I made a sock. And needless to say, there's nothing like a tired foot slipped into a handmade sock.

This is my VERY first, knit on a not-so-socky yarn and on size 3 bamboo clovers (i know.... that's big!) but i figured that at the least i would a) have a sock that I could wear in my boots when I go skiing or tubing with the kids and b) have stitches that were large enough for me to see my errors AND be able to correct them.

I wouldn't have had this absolute pleasure without my dear friend S who helped me from the very first cast on....and the gusset, which I still think is the hardest part, which I needed a friend at work to help me with.

So every now and then I slip my little sock on, knowing now what the big fuss is all about ....

and hurrying to finish the second one before the first frost!

2006-07-25T11:02:00.000-07:00

Hello All:

Shortly after Hurricane Katrina I became connected to a yahoo group of knitters who came together to simply knit washcloths for the survivors and those displaced, homeless etc. I was overwhelmed with emotion and quickly joined in on this effort of giving and showing basic human kindness. A few months later the need seemed to lessen but the group stayed together, committing to knitting cloths "for crisis."

I posted a message to them yesterday to ask if any one in the group was connected to a church or organization that could potentially get hand knitted cloths to the Middle East. I just can't sit by and not DO something to help.

This was the response I received and needless to say, my heart hurt when I read it:

Angel,

We'll step in here and say that primarily for reasons of the expense for postage, we haven't traditionally gotten involved in world crises...(We also hate to get into anything that could be misconstrued as a political issue - we don't care whose side you're on, it'll be a problem for somebody! That's just the nature of political issues...and we really do try to keep the peace in the groups we own, and co-own.)

lololol

Certainly, if this is something you feel strongly about, you should take whatever steps you feel you should...but as a group, we think we need to concentrate on "local" issues, not global ones...

We think we'll have our plates full enough (and probably soon enough since the hurricane season is getting towards that point that is likely to be a problem!) with crises at here in North America...

Happy Knitting, Crocheting, & Weaving!
Sallee & Jane
(List Moms)

I suddenly remembered two organizations whose mission it is to work for peace and help the women and children in parts of the world that have been devastated by war, famine, under-development, etc. They are MADRE -- http://www.madre.org and WILPF -- http://www.wilpf.org . I am going to be in communication with them to ask if they have sister organizations on the ground near the refugee sites. My vision is to send hand knitted cloths to be used with the the basic humanitarian supplies they are or will be eventually receiving. If I can find a company willing to donate travel size bars of soap, all the better. If not, I know I can squeeze out five dollars to send some bars of Ivory.

My question is this: is there anyone here willing to donate a small amount of time to knitting a washcloth or two (or as many as possible) ?? I'm willing to incur the cost of shipping the cloths from my home in Maryland to MADRE in New York. The only cost on your part would be knitting the cloth (basic Peaches and Creme or Sugar and Creme yarn at Joann's) and sending the finished cloths to me in the mail.

As a peaceworker and a parent I just can't get my head around the notion that our American hands "are just too full" to help people in need is something I just can't understand.

Please let me know if you're able or willing to help.

PEACE

Progress Notes

2006-06-12T18:29:00.003-07:00

....okay, so where'd we leave off? oh right....me with a hundred and ten wrong stitches trying to figure out where the heck i went wrong. okay.

so anyway, i wake up that morning feeling like i've got to do something and that something does not include ripping out anymore stitches.....at least not with my hands. like i said, if i had to rip out this capelet one more time it was going to be black history -- or in the case of this pretty yarn -- pink history for sure. so i figure hey, there's two super good yarn shops within a quarter tank of gas (hell, with today's prices you gotta be thinking straight) and maybe, just maybe some kind, pathetic, fiber addicted soul will take pity on me and help me figure out what the hell i'm doing. i call up A Good Yarn downtown and of course, they're closed on mondays. then, like a mad woman i dial up Clover Hill and sure 'nuff i've got about an hour to get some coffee and puppy-dog at the window before they open at ten. good enough.

so when one of the shop owners pulls up her in honda odyssey (you know we fiberholics need space to haul all of our addictions) i put on my pitiful yellow-lab puppy face and say, "i'm wondering if you might be able to help me.....you see, i'm working on this capelet that the wonderful mary-heather designed....this fiber-holic in l.a., you don't know her, i know .... but anyway, you see this capelet is just so gorgeous and i've just got to make this because if i don't i'll forever be staring at this pink mohair yarn wondering what my life could have been had i just been given the chance ..... and, and, and you see i put the yarn on my charge card when i bought it....my visa...and promised myself i wasn't going to buy another skein of yarn until i made something with the one million, two hundred fifty-eight thousand skeins i already have in my closet, the one that i can only really open the door about a quarter inch .... you know, so i really do have to make good on that promise....to myself, to the community, to the world....ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country right ....??

and so the woman....(god knows she's got a spot reserved for her and her needles in heaven)....the woman.....oh, gaile is her name.....gail looks at me as if i'm a leper and says, let me get the store open and i'll see what i can do.

there is a god in heaven for sure.

gail not only pulls out three rows worth of wrong ssk and yo stitches (over 300 stitches mind you) but handles my beautiful estelle watercolors yarn with such tenderness i could have bent and worshipped the ground she walked on. not only that but she showed me what i did wrong with the ssk (which i'm too ashamed to tell you what i did) AND hands me a copy of
THE KNITTERS COMPANION ..... don't leave home without it.

i leave that store with my project intact, a road map in my hands, and a plan to give my old man a little nookie if he asks for it, hell that's how happy i am. gail even encouraged me to just cast on another set a needles and work the lace pattern for a few rounds just until i feel comfortable. i clung to her every word.

so here i am now with this lovely little capelet. i'm just on round 26. i can hardly believe my hands are making something so pretty:

...and can you believe that i got so happy with the little "practice" that i was doing that i kept going and decided to alter the pattern a little bit. this one for my little girl, who loves handmade goodies. just a regular ol' jo-ann fabrics 100% cotton yarn in aqua.

maybe it was gail.

maybe it was the nookie.

maybe it was both.

i'll keep you posted ....

a.

How About Never?

2006-06-05T06:13:00.000-07:00

...well, all i can say is that it was the kind of day that you needed a friend. a friend who knows a little something more than you know, to keep you from ripping out every single stitch.....a friend who knows how to find the mistake AND fix the mistake without you losing your everlasting mind. a friend that is just as addicted to knitting as you are. real live, down the block friend ... not the one in las vegas or el paso or new york ... but earshot distance kinda friend, cause you just know what's about to go down .....

yup, i had to start over with the capelet. umm-hmm. why? because i'm an anxious, over-achieving nincompoop when it comes to knitting and i shouldn't have even had the needles in my hands after the crazy "two-children and a dog" evening that i had that night. i was tired to the bone but wanting to relax and work on my work. half asleep knitting. yeah right. next thing i know i'm doing my SSK without my YO and the whole bloody thing was a mess. i could hardly believe it.

then, to make matters worse, after casting back on and working round after round, i discover the worst ... yup, the damn thing is twisted. i could have screamed from here to madagascar.

i'm not a giver upper but i swear knitting can make you want to go ballistic on the first unknowing person that crosses your path. i told my husband that if this third attempt doesn't work, i'm donating all of my yarn and bamboo needles to charity and taking down my blog. to hell with it, i said. me, pick up needles again? yeah, how about never. i've got better things to do with my life and my time, right? i mean, just go and buy a damn sweater and scarf set like normal people, right?

i wish i could make myself believe that.

i can no more stop knitting than i can stop writing, painting, or even breathing.....

damn....

Where the Mind Goes

2006-05-29T14:07:00.000-07:00

I was sitting on my deck yesterday, plugging along at my pretty little capelet below and became suddenly conscious of how my mind was drifting away.....tipping out of the room of my current consciousness (chitter-chatter between the kids, playful screams from the kids across the way, the dog scurrying around, etc, etc -- you know the drill) and into random thoughts of this and that. My mind was making a million little mental notes but not in a stressful kind of way. It was just a tender friendliness to remember to do this or mail that or call this person or another. And I thought about how much I love knitting for just this reason. I like sitting there, productive the whole time but drifting into and out of my thoughts. I like sitting down for just a moment to be with my thoughts like that. And I like the way the thoughts come to me .... not like those morning, turn off the alarm and jump out of bed kind of thoughts .... but more of a.....oh, I don't know.....a different consciousness of some kind. Just gentle. And while I'm nowhere near the skill level that my sisterfriends are on these blogs that I jump to .... I feel happy for how far I have come. I thought I'd forever be stuck on knitting five foot scarves.

Anyhow, thanks to Necia and Josiane and Nakachi and Mary-Heather for coming to the rescue this weekend for much needed pattern interpretation help. I'm still such a newbie .... still in a state of panic when I don't understand the directions.
I suppose I'll get past that sooner or later and the language won't feel so foreign.

Hope your weekend's been a good one.

Peace,
A.

The Obvious Questions

2006-05-17T18:10:00.000-07:00

....So the obvious questions after so much time has passed are: how are you? and how've you been? and what have you been up to? and, of course.....what have you been knitting?

And the answers are: fine, well, a whole lot and nothing at all.

I'm well. Doing really, really well since spring has kicked in. In truth, the feeling I get from the first show of buds on a tree or the parade of crocuses from the ground, simply can't compare to the finest written poem or even the softest cashmere yarn. When spring comes I feel alive in a way that I don't at any other time of the year. I'm often anxious to begin my garden, clear away winter's cover so that the Earth can bare Her beautiful soul. I'm like a mad woman at the garden shops, buying more perrenials than any sane person should. I can spend a whole day in my garden without ever tiring, anxious to watch Life take root and bloom into something beautiful. We've had a wonderful spring here...the temperatures no more than 70-75, most mornings filled with a crisp, cool freshness and afternoons full of blue skies and white clouds that look like soft, fluffy lambs. So far I've planted verbascum, coneflowers, blue chip campanulas, pin cushion flowers and stella d'oro daylillies. A friend who's moving gave me the most beautiful purple columbine from her garden and I've planted that too. I've got some sweet basil, oregano, and chives going in pots and big boy tomatoes waiting in the wings.

I've been living my life, too. The life of a mother who writes poetry and stories and essays and novels while her children are in school; a mother who works as a nurse when her children are sound asleep; a mother who volunteers to read to the children in kindergarten and first grade one morning a week; a mother who travels to college campuses to talk about the world water crisis; a mother who packs lunches, signs field trip notices, checks homework, helps study, shuffles children to band practice and stroke clinics at the pool; a mother who's trying her best to have it all....not all at once, but all....so that somehow, in the end, it all adds up to one beautiful life.

And the determination to have it all is not easy. There is an ebb and flow to life that warrants holding on at times, and at times letting go. I had to set the knitting aside for a little while because there was simply too much going on. But creativity has a way of finding its release somehow and some way and before I knew it I was making these:

lovely little stitchmarkers:

from beads that were just irresistable and begging to be made into something beautiful,

and as I held them in my hands I remembered how much I missed my bamboo needles; how much I wanted to feel the excitement of casting on a new project. I remembered the feeling of opening up a new skein of yarn:

and watching it slowly take root, take shape, take form into something beautiful. And so last night, as I watched my daughter and her band class perform their first fourth grade spring recital, I opened up my purse....pulled out my size ten circulars....released a foot of Soft Pink Estelle:

and casted on:

knowing that soon this little seed of yarn will grow into something beautiful:

.

Thank you, to Mary-Heather at RainyDay for both a beautiful photo and pattern.

Tag, Guess I'm It....

2006-03-17T20:53:00.000-08:00

Okay, Necia. Thanks for the tag. Here goes:

4 Jobs I’ve Had In My Life
1. Sales clerk at Arby's (15)
2. Legal Secretary
3. Registered Nurse
4. Writer

4 Movies I can watch Over and Over
1. Shawshank Redemption
2. Love Jones
3. Boomerang
4. What's Love Got to Do With It

4 Tv Shows I love To Watch
1. Sex and the City
2. Project Runway
3. The Sopranos
4. Anything on HGTV (esp. Debbie Travis)

4 Places You Have Lived
1. Flushing, Queens, NY
2. Long Island, NY
3. Virginia Beach, VA
4. Maryland

4 Places I’ve Been To On Vacation
1. Belize
2. Grand Cayman
3. Cozumel
4. Paradise Island Bahamas

4 Websites I visit daily
1. angelvshannon.typepad.com
2. scentscene.com/janeofalltrades
3. yahoo.com
4. cuteknittahfairy.com
5. too many others to name

4 Favorite types of yarn:
1. Lamb's Pride Supersoft Cotton by Brownsheep
2. Moda Dea
3. To Be Decided
4. To Be Decided

1 Website I’m Tagging

1. Emmie

The Capelet

2006-03-17T09:38:00.000-08:00

Okay, so here's a really pretty capelet that I want to make which I found here.

My continuous question is: if you want to substitute the yarn for something, uh, less expensive, how do you adjust the pattern?

New Book, Finished Project

2006-03-10T21:40:00.000-08:00

Ten voices can't be wrong and so I've decided to add this to my book wish list. I'm hearing that it is indeed a gorgeous book.
I haven't physically seen it in any of the bookstores but here's a link to some of the fabulous reviews its been getting.

And here's what one reader had to say: "There are a lot of knitting pattern books out there–new, fun, hip. This is a book that will stimulate you when the newness wears off, challenge you when the same techniques aren't as much fun anymore, and re-invent you when the hipness factor dies down. And as the author, and myself hope–will encourage you, to draw your own cultural parallels and contribute to the Global Book.”—Sahara Briscoe, Sistah Craft Blog. You can find Sahara's blog here.

On another note: it's late and I'm tired but I did want to post one of the earlier pictures of my Isabeau purse. It's been busy on my end and I try to spend the bulk of my time writing while the kids are in school and the house is quiet. I'm about half way through. I still have to do the blocking and then finish up the handle but here's what it looked like about a week and a half ago:

... and a darling little eyeglass case that i just finished, for a darling little set of eyeglasses that never seem to make their way outside during recess. so here's a little place where they can "sleep" until the recess bell rings:

Okay, now I can go to sleep.

Why I Knit

2006-03-04T09:29:00.000-08:00

A word or two about knitting and how I started knitting and why I knit and why I decided to start this new blog.

Several years ago I told a treasured friend of mine that I'd always wanted to learn how to knit. I've always been drawn to color and fabrics and textiles, but I could only imagine in my head the kinds of things I wanted to see in knit form. The idea of creating something simply from a ball of yarn and two wooden sticks amazed me, but I felt I had neither the talent nor the dexterity to do it. I'd watch her with her tiny little size 3 needles just clicking away and I'd think, gee I'd love to know how to do that. Well, they say you should be careful for what you ask for. My friend turned up at our coffee shop date with a beautiful skein of Brownsheep 80% cotton yarn in magenta -- my favorite color, second only to orange -- and a pair of size 8 bamboo needles. In one sitting she showed me how to cast on and continue along in a simple garter stitch pattern. Learning the purl came much later -- my own tutorial -- because my treasured friend moved far away to El Paso.

That garter stitch little scarf was my very first date with knitting. Parallel to my writing, it was something I enjoyed. I began to knit for the same reasons that I write. Knitting is meditative and healing. Knitting provides a mirror for me into the most creative part of my being. Knitting connects me to a time in human existence in which we treasured the hand-made. Not the hand made that comes from sweatshops and factories but the hand made that Grandma or Aunt Susie worked on for hours and hours on end, lovingly. Knitting is progressive, like my writing. It's wonderfully affirming to have an idea and be able to bring the idea out of the mental space and into the physical. Knitting teaches me patience, not necessarily with others but with myself, which I believe has been and may always be my individual life lesson. We each have our own. Knitting is challenging. There are times that I try to work a pattern only to find midway that I've been doing it wrong the whole time. It takes a big heart to rip out twenty-five rows of stitches and start again. Similarly, it takes a lot of hootz-pah to chuck two whole chapters of a novel -- chapters that may have taken all summer long to complete. But when it's wrong, it's wrong and there's no getting around that. Knitting gives me confidence that, in turn, translates into a needed confidence in order to call oneself a writer. Writers have to get comfortable with revision. Period. Writers have to be comfortable with writing schmuck until the good stuff comes. People who call themselves writers and say that they hate revision are not true writers because it's only in the revision that you see what matters to the story, the essay, the poem and what doesn't matter at all. Knitters have to get comfortable with ripping out stitches and starting again OR doing the work it takes to learn how to revise without starting all over again. And even then there are times that the most experienced knitter will have to chalk it up and start again. Knitting produces something tangible and depending on what you're making it can be tangible in a relatively short space of time. Life is short, art is long and novels are even longer. There are times that the novelist in me needs something to cast off, to call done....finished....complete. The novelist in me needs to hear someone say, "Job well done. It's gorgeous. Can you make one for me?" Finally, knitting has been a healing force for me and the recipients of some of the things I've knitted. I joined a knitting circle that made washcloths -- simple washcloths -- for the victims of Hurricane Katrina. To know that someone who lost every single thing they owned received one of my cloths and was able to wash their face in the morning with something I made, lovingly and freely, makes me proud. To know that I was able to add just a little bit of beauty into someone's life after events that were so ugly....makes me feel happy and somewhat hopeful for this human race.

So I knit. And I read alot about knitting. And I challenge myself to learn more .... to try different patterns that require more skills. As I'm knitting, I am often struck with a poem or a verse or a new scene for my novel currently under revision.

This little purse is what I'm currently working on.

It's beautiful but it has pushed me further than I thought I was ready to go. It's a lace pattern that I found at ChezPlum and most can agree that lace patterns are not easy business. It also involves decreasing stitches and picking up stitches ... something I knew nothing about at all before jumping into this project. And it involves a little crochet work, which I'll have to learn. I'm about three quarters of the way into it, working on the sides and I have to thank Emmie and Necia and Sylvie from the Crafster Site for all their help.

I'll be adding links and wishlists and updates as I go along. Thanks for stopping in.

A.

Test Blog

2006-03-04T09:07:00.000-08:00

Test Blog