Project Spectrum

I hafta be kinda quick this morning, but I want to say a few things about Project Spectrum. For anyone new to the blog, I'm a commercial artist. While I do like almost all aspects of photography, design is my first love. So any chance to play with colour is a treat for me.

Last year I didn't join because I stupidly thought it meant only knitting with purple for August. Or whatever. I hate purple, by the way. I love violet and raspberry and aubergine, but I dislike the blue-purple "I'm 9 and not afraid to say I don't like PINK" colour. The princess purple. Ick. The lavender tulle of Disney dresses and Limited Too clothes is like a Jen-repellent. You know, THIS purple. I much prefer warm colours, warm lavender (like the real thing) and warm grapey hues.

Colour is just unlimited fun and interest for me. I love that I can see colour better with one eye than the other (you can too, probably). I love the logic of a colour wheel and how beauty can be very structured and logical - two colours that are matchy-matchy with a little surprise of something else makes me happy. When I'm in a bad mood, I wear bright colours. When I'm designing at work, I wear happy, bright and fun colours. Colour affects mood. It reflects up on your face and makes you look happy, tired, energetic or washed out.

So I like it. And the project spectrum colours scared me - blue and gray? Civil war colours? Every colour carries both mood and connotation, and the connotations of these two for me - sky, ocean, military, machinery, modern box-shaped boring architecture, Tiffany's and the lot just didn't seem to have anything in common for me. I could literally not think of any more boring colour combination than blue and gray together. I don't care if it's stormy skies and sunshine - I just could not get into it.

What I didn't realize was that instead of going into shutdown mode, those clever little fellows who live in the back of my brain and occasionally send up ideas (which are, luckily, usually good ones) have been sending up little flares of ideas for about four weeks. I started to realize - my Calorimetry is a stormy ocean blue. The bunch of t-shirts I just got at Old Navy? Blues. My favourite Crane's paper stationery? Cream with a tiffany blue border. New jeans? Light blue. Crochet granny squares? Neutrals and throw in a bit of blue. Lucy socks? Blue and brown - a neutral. Grannies 2.0? Blue and brown. The Elsebeth Lavold Silky Tweed I just pulled out of the stash for some Endpaper Mitts? Blue and brown.

I realized I do like warm blues, and I especially like warm, bright blues combined with a neutral (brown) right now. I know brown isn't on the official list of PS colours, but I think because I see so much of it - jeans, sky, cars - that blue became quite boring to me. I've never been bored with snowy, icy, iron-y, bleached-wood greys. Gray to me is one of those comically underappreciated colours because so many BAD grays are used. But if you really look at steel, at the slight blue undertone that makes it seem cool and strong at once?

Nature doesn't use a lot of gray. I often say it's amazing that God created so much beauty that is disposable. Leaves and flowers fall off trees and get trampled, grass dies, a sunset is only good for an hour or two. Every creature and created thing comes to an end, but that didn't stop Him from making things almost recklessly beautiful. How many days could I work, with unlimited time and budget, and never come up with something to equal the beauty of what God does every night at sunset? I know there is a scientific explanation for it, and I don't care - many people think music is the highest human form of worship. For a non-musical, visual person like me, a sunset carries much more worship potential for reflecting on the beauty and perfection of God. One of my favorite bible verses is Jeremiah 32:17 - Ah, Sovereign LORD, you have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and outstretched arm. Nothing is too hard for you.

So, gray. Not a lot there. I love gray but it hasn't been speaking to me lately. It's one of the colors of twilight, of death, of winter. It can be comforting, cool, and safe as well. Add yellow to a gray and you warm it up. Add a little red on top of that and you get brown. So I went with brown as a foil for my blues. I'm happy with that. I'll try to collect some photos of what I am talking about colorwise.

Take today to reflect on how much beauty surrounds you. If it doesn't, take the time to make something beautiful with your hands or needles. Stop and really look at the yarn you're knitting with, and marvel that it came from a sheep, or a cotton plant, or a piece of bamboo. Try to notice some details you haven't before, and get a little lost in the process of just looking.

You might be inspired! Thanks for listening to me.

My new favorite show

Have y'all seen Acceptable TV? It's a great concept - short, attention-span length "pilots" of tv shows. Five are shown in a half-hour, and then voting begins. Two get chosen each week to come back; the others are replaced by three new shows and the whole thing starts over again.

My favorite this week was Homeless James Bond (especially the mug shot).

See what y'all think. Fridays at 9. Be part of an interesting social experiment.

Now with photos!

I finished the granny square blanket tonight. I am exceedingly and abundantly happy with it. And check out the pattern for how I arranged the squares - I didn't really do this on purpose. It's a teensy bit scary how well it worked out. I didn't plan what colours went where when I made the squares, let alone when I arranged them. So ha. I'm a weirdo!





Also, a confession. Though I really liked the Pomatomus pattern, I don't think this yarn was right for it. I was having a lot of gauge issues, ugly striping, and ultimately the sock was too big for me. So...I've got a skein of STR in Beryl that I may just use for a Pom 3.0. I frogged the socks, and knit this:



That's 2x2 ribbing, and I am just letting the yarn be what it is. It's hand-dyed...it's going to pool. Whatevs.

And poor Fee! Fee had to go to the doctor. When I came home tonight she had even more fur missing from her ears and they were bright red, so I called the vet and took her over. The poor dear has some little blisters on her face that I didn't see! Also her face and eyes were very puffy. It's an allergic reaction to something, but we don't know what. The two best contenders are the new ionic hairbrush and tree pollen. The vet gave her a shot of cortisone and she's feeling better. The shedding may last another day or two but this should take care of it.

Poor girl, I hate seeing her ill. I am so glad I took her in, she really did need to be seen.

new new new!

I got some new makeup last night. The gal at the Bobbi Brown counter was so nice and patient...it's really hard to find lipstick that looks good on me. Pinks get much bluer, and goldy colours get reddish. It's hard for me to not be a red lipstick girl. If I'm not careful, though, an 'everyday' colour for winter can get to be about the same as my skin tone in warmer weather. I have on Natural Beige right now, and it's kind of a sheer light pink on me. I also got some Petal eyeshadow and this super, super cool mascara-y stuff for your eyebrows that REALLY REALLY takes care of my blonde eyebrow problem. It looks so much better. It's been a really long time since I've changed up my makeup, so this was long overdue. I don't want to be stuck in a rut!

Now if only the pollen would let up and I didn't have red eyes and wheeziness. I am fine in my apartment, really until I get to work. Then I get all this craziness. I think the parking structure I parked in must have toxic concentrations of pollen or something. Pollen is blowing and drifting! We are having the warmest spring on record and also the driest. Rain washes pollen away - pray for rain! My air cleaner is really really helping me, since I feel absolutely fine till I leave my apartment.

Also, Fee has a bald spot on one ear. I am trying to get to the bottom of it. I don't think Grady bit her.

I spent a few hours last night watching 24 and seaming together grannies. First I lined them up how I like, then I seamed them into strips. Now I'm putting the strips together. Grady has been laying on it pretty much non-stop since I started seaming. I guess I'll put it on the couch while i'm gone so he gets cat hair on that instead of the couch.

Anyway. Wish I was more interesting, but really I'm just kind of sneezy and boring today. Next post: a confession, and some pictures!

PS: I would also like to say in response to recent comments that a) I am amazed at the injuries y'all have had with knitting needles!! I feel like such a whiner and my hand is MUCH better; b) I'm really glad you like my table!!; and c) I live a little south of Nashville.

Destash

These are a lot of little odds and ends I'd like to pass on to new owners. If you like, email me at meangirl at comcast dot net and I'll hook you up! I HAVE TWO CATS. These yarns aren't covered in cat hair or anything, but the animals do live here. Click to see them bigger. All yarns are sold on a first come, first served basis. $3 US shipping for each order and I'll combine shipping if you buy more than one. (If you're international, I'll have to figure out what the shipping actually is.)

1. 2 skeins Schachenmayr Crazy Cotton, 50g/125m/132yd each, 100% mercerized and gassed cotton, pink, red, orange, gold and plum colour 86, dyelot 51055, $10 for both. Sold!



2. 2 skeins Cascade Pastaza, 100g/132 yards each, 50% llama/50% wool, grey colour 006, lot no. 0634, $14.50 for both. Wound into balls but not knitted. Sold!



3. Hand-dyed sock yarn. Henry's Attic Kona Superwash base, gauge 7-8spi, dyed by me. About 350-400 yards. $15.00. Sold!



4. Hand-dyed worsted yarn. Paton's Classic Merino wool base, gauge 4-5spi, dyed by me with wilton's dyes. 220 yards. $6.00. Sold!



5. 1 skein Schoeller + Stahl Fortissima 100 Socka, 100g/420m, 75% superwash wool/25% polyamid, green tweed colour 2090, lot 251140, $9.00. Sold!



6. 2 skeins Jaeger Matchmaker Merino 4-ply, 50g/200yd, 100% merino wool sock yarn, cappucino colour 0693, lot 7B2, acquired from another stash sale, $8 for both. Sold!



7. 1 skein Lang JaWool superwash, 45g/190m, 75% new wool/18% nylon/7% acrylic, bright blue colour 83, lot 39938, knitted a teeny bit and frogged, comes with reinforcing thread, $3.00. Sold!



The following yarns come together in bags, but if you want them individually let me know.
1. Green/blue DK wool bag - 2 skeins Classic Elite Beatrice 100% merino wool tweed, colour 3272, lot 588, 63yd/50g each; partial skein of Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran in gunmetal; partial skeins of Debbie Bliss Wool Cotton (green and blue solids); partial skein of Debbie Bliss Merino DK (I THINK) in light tan. Beatrice is knitted, frogged and rewound - full skeins. 40g each leftover of each Wool Cotton. 35g left of Merino DK. 25g of Cashmerino Aran. $50 of yarn originally - $27 for the lot of it.



2. Knitpicks Palette / Misti Alpaca DK bag: 2 full skeins Misti Alpaca Sport (?), no labels, one bright orange, one olive, wound into balls, 50g each. 3 skeins KnitPicks Palette, 50g each, Bark, Nutmeg, Twig. These were wound double into cakes to be used with the Misti Alpaca in a fair isle project. 50 Palette in Blue, not double-wound. Seems like I used about 5g of the alpaca for a hat, then frogged and rewound. Haven't used the Palette at all; I cut it, but it can be put back together. The lot - $15.



3. Crazy anonymous bag - most of this acquired in a contest win elsewhere. 1 ball of what looks to be Manos or Malabrigo but feels more thick and thin. Colour - blood reds, worsted weight single-ply, 100g. Partial ball of brown worsted wool, feels like cushy merino, 50 g. One full ball black DB Baby Cashmerino, 50g. One ball totally unidentified black yarn, 50g 4-ply sport weight (I think). $20 for the lot. The red has been knitted and frogged.



If you've made it all the way down here, you deserve a treat. Look what Angela did with my arch-shaped socks pattern! Much prettier, don't you think! Maybe we can get someone to translate this for us into English!

The cat toys have got to go

But here's what I've been up to.



IKEA, people. This is a new table, the replacement to my old dining table, which was a black card table from Target. I know, I know. Let me start by saying I have a massive coffee table, 48" square and most nights I sit on the floor at it for dinner. I'm not a dinner table kind of gal. The card table was supposed to be a placeholder, but ended up lasting three years. It really wasn't very nice to look at or sit at. So anyway. Today we went to Atlanta on a business errand, and ended up eating lunch at The Varsity and then just kind of at a loss about what to do. The zoo sounded great, but it was too late to enjoy both the gorillas and the pandas, so we went to IKEA. For a really long time I've been eyeing a black pedestal table at Crate & Barrel, but the shipping never worked out, or it was never in stock. So for the last six months or so I've been looking for something else.

I have always loved square dining tables, and I have a strong affinity for French art nouveau advertising (the Cappiello umbrella ad). The chairs are just plain old schoolhouse chairs I bought at Lowe's and assembled and painted a few years ago. I'm pretty sure I also put some matte polyurethane on them. I think the placemats and napkins came from a Crate & Barrel outlet that was on the way to Joshua Tree National Park. The bowl is from Pier 1. (I have to do something about those cat toys.)

I love it completely. I put it together MYSELF. Roar!

What's funny is that I had to photograph this and blog it, but haven't sat at it yet. Hopeless, right?

Granny 2.0

And here I thought my granny square phase was over.

I was so, so wrong.



This is Tahki Cotton Classic - I bought a bunch today while shopping for yarn for Sheldon the Turtle. I have to admit I was at least partially inspired by Cara's impressive haul, but I have nowhere near that kind of cotton at my disposal.

I used a bamboo hook for the first four rings - very slow and tiring. My steel hook came back out for the brown, but it's smaller than the others. So...back to the bamboo. It's arduous.

Maybe I can make one square a week for a while. It occurs to me that some planning is in order. Do I make all the squares the same? Change them up? I don't know. These are 6" squares. I wonder if a 6 x 7 throw is going to work. Hey, that's only 42 squares! (I am not sure about the white border.)

Schmade...yawns.

Today I'm really behind

Note - the pads of my hands just under my fingers look funny because they are scars. From blisters and calluses. From rowing. I gave up a little bit of myself for it back in the day and have deep grooves worn into the palms of my hands. Ask me sometime to show you - it'll freak you out a little though. Heck, it freaks ME out a little.

Ennyway. I think I am finished with my mad crochet bit for a while. I believe I have 16 20 granny squares for my mini-cat blanket. Both my kitties can't resist sitting on the squares whenever I lay them out so I think this is a good bet. I guess I'll crab stitch them together as soon as I pick a base colour.

I worked on my pillow cover last night while I watched The Triplets of Belleville. (Tour de France movie, huzzah!) I love that it's a cartoon. I love that there is no dialog. I love the giant noses, they are funny.

I know everybody is all about March Madness and all, but how many weeks to July, again?

Don't try this at home

"Hi Mom, this is Jen."
"Hi Jenny."
"Mom, I just stabbed myself in the hand with a metal knitting needle and I'm wondering if I need to get a tetanus shot."
"..."
"Seriously. It's about 1/8" deep."
"...Have you been doing anything particularly dirty with those needles?"
"Uh...no...but hands are dirty you know. I don't exactly wash my needles."
"Keep it clean, keep it dry and bandaged and wash it every day with soap."
"The needle?"
"..."

In case you are wondering, a puncture wound from a 2.5mm Inox Express hurts like heck.



In the grand spirit of using up scraps, I give you my crazy granny square collection:



(Except that I've already bought three skeins of Patons SWS for this and used up almost two. Ughh.)

I am holding out hope that somehow I can unify it or work on the order enough that it will look like I planned this. Or, I may just scrap everything and go to solids and pick a repeating pattern for the colors. (I am kind of a weird savant about patterns and patterning. I can figure out square roots from number sequences and other crazy stuff.) There are patterns in here, but I am not sure they are obvious to anyone else. The fact that the SWS is self-striping just makes it all kinds of crazy interesting.

What do y'all think? Cat blanket?

What I'm listening to

So, what's on your playlist? Right now, this week, this very moment?

Me:
The Raconteurs, Broken Boy Soldiers
The Rolling Stones, Hot Rocks
Arctic Monkeys, Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not
Lucinda Williams, West
Gnarls Barkley, St Elsewhere
Violent Femmes: Deluxe Edition
Matthew Sweet, Girlfriend
The Libertines

Ok, you can detect a serious pattern there, I know it. I love these albums right now. I like Gnarls Barkley's version of Gone Daddy Gone better than the Femmes (sacrelige, I know). Next up I want that Talking Heads compilation and Bob Dylan's Modern Times.

Anyway, what are you listening to?

Quick update

# of granny squares I have completed since last night: 7

# of points scored by Derrick Byars today: 27

# of games won by Vandy this week: 2

I have been edging toward being a Vanderbilt fan since last fall, but the game against Florida a few weeks ago clinched it. Now I'm completely mad for the Commodores, and I love seeing them make the sweet 16. Yesssss.

Grannies

I'm rushed and running in circles this morning, way behind at work, and won't get home tonight until about 8. I didn't get home last night till 11-ish, because I was out shopping for a shoot and for myself and I ended up buying an air cleaner.

Everybody lately has been saying they really help with allergies and asthma, except don't get the ionic ones because they put out ozone, which is a lung irritant. And I read one article that even said it can cause long-term damage.

So I took back the ionic one I bought at first and got me another one, a HEPA kind with a permanent filter you just vacuum. Returns at Wal-Mart are always dicey, but they were real nice. And the filter? So far, I really like.

The cats, not so much. Fee is scared of it if I put it on medium, but seems ok with it on low. Also I bought them an ionic pet brush. They love it and are super shiny and soft after I use it on them. I need to buy a human version of it, because it will clean the pollen out of my hair at night and let me get a good nights' sleep. But if I have to use the cat brush on my hair for a while till I find one...well, don't tell anyone. :)

I had a nice time last night with some Rowan Cashsoft DK, an H hook, and some instructions, inspired by this. Beautiful work, don't you think? I'm having a lot better time with granny squares now than I was.

Retro Japanese fabrics and yet another cat picture

Grady keeps hiding from the camera. Here's another one of Fee. I keep telling him about the comments and how everybody loves Fee and you know what he does? Shows me his rear end. No kidding.



Here is a mini box pouch I bought from a really cute Etsy store that Betty recommended. It's basically a 10,000 square foot apartment for my camera. I love it! And also, the inside.





Yukiko is really great to deal with and the bag is really well made. Give her your business! If you want. :o)

8 refills before 2008

(That's from my Singulair bottle. I'm fresh out of titles.)

Hey! Hi y'all doin'? I did some spring cleaning, hope you like it!

Here are some pictures. Y'all know who's who...

1. Two princesses, one greasy, one who wants to get down RIGHT NOW. I just went for a walk and I really need some powder, ok? It's a problem. :)



2. Two fat devil cats.



3. Silky, silky fur. Use Meow Essence for silky silky fur.





4. The Schmade's best super power - the evil "feed me" eye.

Catching up

A small, blurry pillow square that is the color shown below and 20" square:



I'm sorry - the light stunk this morning. The brown in the corner is kind of a pinky chocolate. It's for the other side.

The mouse picture shows the color better. Behold, A Cat Toy.



I'm tired!

Congratulations are in order

Congratulations, Eunny Jang, on being named editor of Interweave Knits!

I am truly excited to hear this! Eunny rocks!

Whatnot

I started a pillow cover last night. This is the moss stitch pillow cover from Winter 2007 Knit Simple. I have a big stash of Araucania Nature Wool Chunky I've been hoarding for quite some time. I think this orange came from Threaded Bliss. I also have some brown that is going to be the back side. (I think.) The pattern has a flap and buttons but I am thinking of just sewing in a zipper instead.





I don't know about y'all but I am dying to know about Stephanie's home renovations.

Also here's Fee, very blurry today:

Good grief!

Good grief, I haven't posted since Wednesday?? What is wrong with me?

Today I went to an Irish festival here in town. Basic petting-zoo, funnel-cake, loud music kind of street party. It was fun. Then we went to see 300. It was really, really good. It is really, really unapologetically political though. I didn't go for the politics - I went for all the !!washboard stomachs!! fight scenes. I don't know why I'm so keen on those, but I really like a good choreographed fight scene. Much more so than 90% of chick flicks, though I did watch Fried Green Tomatoes tonight.

I haven't been up to much. My Pomatomy socks are driving me batty. I need to put them down and knit something else. What happened? Pooling. First I thought breaking the yarn would help, but it just pooled differently. Then I realized it was probably stitch count so I increased out by four, and before I could really see if that worked I got scared it would be too big and decreased by two again. Then I decided heck with it and increased two again. This is only on the stockinette part of the foot, so I have 36 each top and bottom. I am still waiting to see if it works. For now I'm getting some striping that I don't want. If this keeps up I'll rip back to the end of the heel and knit the top of the foot in 1x1 twisted rib. Either way I'll probably rip something.

I found myself today wishing I was doing some kind of plain knitting. I am pretty sure that means I need to make a quick project that goes fast and doesn't involve crazy stitch counts that change every row. While Pomato is not hard, it's definitely a project that you need your head in once you hit the foot. I haven't been very into it.

Maybe I will cast on for some cable-and-rib socks from Hello Yarn in worsted weight lime green Encore worsted. Last fall I promised a colleague some socks for his daughter...they'll go fast.

Lurve!

Lurve.

Must find Regia Silk!

The Schmade pauses mid-snooze to stretch

Paying my crazy dues on time

One of the things about being from a small, largely Polish town in Michigan is that you learn awfully quickly that the rest of the world does not hold the same feelings about polka music you do. By descent my father is German and Swiss, and my mother is Norwegian, Scots-Irish and French. There is no Polish anywhere in our family except that all my aunts and uncles on my dad's side married Polish. And let me tell you, they already had a gigantic family to start with, but the marriages increased everything exponentially so basically everybody is related to everyone else. (There is a cemetery in one small town north of where I'm from where almost everybody in it is related to me.) I have cousins that I'm related to twice by two different marriages. At one recent family wedding we had a table, and everybody at that table was directly related to me - not second cousins or anything - and there were 80 of us. (My sister and brother weren't even there.) One of my cousins had 1,000 people to her wedding (ok, yes, that is tacky).

So you basically take this large noisy family and throw in a cause for celebration and you get one of my family's weddings. You start out at the church and after sufficient kneeling and crossing and genuflecting you go to the receiving line and then to the huge reception. At the reception there is always polka music, because polka music is happy music and a wedding is a happy time. You see your cousin's new father-in-law spinning around the floor to some Frankie Yankovic and you can't believe this old guy can move so fast, so gracefully, so happily. He's the king, the guy the accordions and tubas play for, spinning effortlessly and smiling, laughing, dancing with his wife. You sit in your chair doing the armchair polka and wish as a kid you'd done more than dance on your uncles' feet. Because for five seconds it would be fun to move that fast, that gracefully, that happily.

But there is kitsch, and a lot of it. We laugh at polka music too, at death-by-accordion jokes and the chicken dance (though we do it) and all sorts of madness that goes with it. All the kids laughed at it - we didn't steal the kishka, we sure didn't eat the kishka, but we bellowed at the top of our lungs about who stole it. (This was a huge bonding ritual between me and my cousins during our childhood. There were 15 of us not counting eventual spouses, noisy party.) The last half-hour or so of the family weddings is always polka music. Because you should leave a party feeling happy. We always do.

So, think today just a little about the Six Fat Dutchmen or Frankie Y or some of the other polka greats. Think about what a nerd I am to carry this around with me still...but you know, when I'm in a bad mood I just sing about the kishka and I feel better. Just thinking of some silly or happy music from a moment when you knew the people you love are as crazy as you are...that makes things better.

I finished the first heel on my Pomatomus socks and today is the day to knit the second. I have pictures but I woke up late so they will have to wait. Happy Tuesday.

Books

Hey y'all! Hope you like my crazy critter. I'm not so good with sewing the mouth yet, he's pretty lumpy and I hope it doesn't look like my little kitty monster od'd on collagen. But I love him and even brought him to work today.

I edited this heavily because I just went on too long...y'all please check out Heather's blog today. Heather has a friend who has devoted her life to making sure that some kids in an impoverished South African community have books, food and schooling. Heather's daughter goes to a Montessori school that is partnering with the school in South Africa to raise funds for books. Heather's story is better than my version of it, and she's being incredibly generous with a giveaway tied to donations.

Once again, yarn is involved, and it's a good cause. If you can spare some cash, I can personally vouch for the quality, beauty and general loveliness of Heather's yarn. It's nice to see someone giving back, and it's overwhelming to me to think about the books I had at my disposal growing up in the 70s, and impossible to imagine my childhood without them.

Check out Heather's blog for details, and at very least maybe post a link to her page? Don't feel pressure, just do something if you can.

How I spent my Sunday

Making a Stupid Sock Creature.

I've settled on a pattern

I had both cuffs done, but this morning I watched Kung-Fu Hustle and knitted this:



(That's one pattern repeat. I'm very happy so far.)

(Oh, and that's the quilt I bought for my couch.)

Catching up on photos

1. Tape measure:


2. Lucy:


3. That Hype Bag:


4. Green-Eyed Monster:


5. Monkey socks in daylight: