Happiness is...

While last week seemed like a huge roller coaster of emotions, I somehow found myself coming out on top with a huge bout of happiness.  I think there are several things that contributed to this, so I would like to dedicate this post to happiness.

Happiness is...

Finishing the first of my April socks, with the second already at the toe.

Deciding to attempt a crochet garment and feeling successful after finishing the front side. 

Starting a new painting dedicated to the Moana series I mentioned last week
(yes, I use Snapchat...)

A bobbin full of super soft, super fluffy, super thin corredale yarn-to-be

Having a painting on display at my favorite Cafe...

and three figure drawings on display at a wine bar not too far off the road either!

But I think what makes me the happiest right now is the simple knowledge that someone out there, be it family or friends, is looking after me, making sure that I live my life to the fullest.  Maybe it sounds cheesy, but it's been on my mind a lot lately.

What makes you happy?

~Lisa

Let's Talk Art

Today's post is about something a little different: my art.  

Ok, not that much different, but I don't have a lot happening in knit world right now so I decided to take a moment to talk about ideas I've had recently within my paintings.  Hopefully you've seen my art.  But if you haven't, here's a quick refresher:

My art is all about the imaginary worlds inside my head, filled with knitted forms (mostly knitted balls). This initial concept was based off the idea of looking at illustrations and Disney scenes to use as my inspiration.  Lately it's become more about creating floating forms within a water-scene, which for me is basically floating the forms in a fish tank to use as my still life.

This past weekend I rented the new Disney Movie, Moana, which I have seen twice in theaters.  But anyways, as I was knitting and watching, something happened.

There are so many amazing water-based scenes in this movie, and they all have phenomenal color schemes. What if I decided to go back to using Disney as my inspiration, specifically scenes from this movie?  It wouldn't be a literal copy of course, and my knitted stuff would still be in there, but it's a fun idea.There are enough different colors/moods in these scenes I could get a whole series form it.  

It's on my mind, whether or not I choose to do it, time will tell.  I have some other ideas I'm playing with in my oil paintings right now so it's hard for me to think about switching gears to this, but it could be worth a shot I guess.

I hope you enjoyed my quick art-centric post.  I needed to get it out.  :) 

Have a great week friends!

~Lisa 

Street Art

What is art anyway? Can it really be defined in today's terms? 

This past weekend we had a street and art fair in Downtown Bryan, where artists and craftsman from all over the region gathered to promote and sell their art.  While I chose to not have a booth (a. I had to work and b. it's expensive) I was able to contribute through a little yarn bombing. 

If you're reading this blog, likely you're a knitter/crocheter/crafter and if you are such, well, I sure hope you've heard of Yarn Bombing.  

Yarn Bombing - when someone takes a knitted/crocheted piece and puts it in a public space.  It's been compared to graffiti and street art a lot, and I can understand why, but I honestly believe it has it's own category.

I wish I could say that I created all the pieces that were used in this project, which consisted of about 12-15 poles as well as some railings, but sadly I did not.   While I did learn how to make Granny Squares in the process, I was lucky enough to have some members of my guild contribute squares they had made long before this project.

I think my two favorite parts of this project were the railings that I decided to scatter with small pieces.  It was a fun way to add a pop of color in unexpected places.  I was also given some long stripes that I decided to weave between the poles. 

As it turns out, squares really aren't that hard to attach if you have the right material, and I ended up using flexible frame wire, which was able to create a nice, tight seam.  

The art fair seemed to be a success, although many artists I talked to didn't sell much. I still think it's a great tradition that our little downtown has and I always enjoy seeing our community come alive.  

I haven't decided if and when the bombs will come down, but as long as the city will allow it, they'll be here for awhile....

Oh wait, it's supposed to rain all week!

Have you ever yarn bombed? Thought about it? I don't see myself taking it "professionally",but some people do. Just watch the video below and you'll see!

~Lisa

How she puts up with that much acrylic yarn is a mystery to me...

March Madness

It's been a crazy month of madness here. No, I'm not talking about the basketball tournament that most of the country seems to obsess over.  Instead I'm talking about the amount of things I somehow managed to start and finish within the past 31 days.  Anyone else feel like March went longer than normal? I'm not really complaining, but... I sure am glad it's April!

My Lucky Stripes socks didn't get complete within the month of March like I hoped, but it was a close finish - April 3rd to be exact.  Somewhere along the line these socks just got boring.  Which is sad because they really are gorgeous.  As for the seam up the sides, well I don't mind it if it means not having to weave in a million ends.  Overall they're a good fit and I am praying that they don't shrink in the wash. 

There are several factors at play in the reason why my socks didn't get complete.  One of those was my spinning wheel, which has been pretty busy lately! I managed to finish my 2 ply merino, which comes in at just under 200 yards.  I'm actually surprised this spun up so well, as merino has never been an easy one for me. 

Painting seems to be taking a back seat lately also, yet I still got around to finishing this one that has been on the easel for longer than it should have.  Sticking with my current theme of knitted forms floating in water, this is probably the most elaborate of the series to date - including some ground plains and really pushing the space.  I like this one a lot and the photo doesn't do it justice. 

(PS if you haven't seen my art before, click the link at the top of the page, you will not be disappointed!)

Finally we have a new development in the discussion of dying from last week. I purchased some more bare yarn at my LYS and divided it up. I did one batch on Wednesday and had a fair amount of success, but not quite the way I wanted.  So I went back to the sketchpad and figured out what each one needed.  The end result is the above for skeins.  The first two are pretty much perfect.  The last two still need work. Hopefully I'll be making full skeins soon!

On the subject of dying and yarn and selling and knitting, if you are curious and want to follow all my knitty, bloggy, etsy things I created a new Instagram page specifically for my Etsy and Blog, so maybe you should go follow me? 

I hope that April is fairing everyone well so far, the weather here is so darn gorgeous it's hard to be this busy!

~Lisa