Showing posts with label Spring. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Spring. Show all posts

Monday, March 5, 2018

What I'm Knitting

Hello, Hello! And Happy Monday! For me it's the last Monday before the week off known as Spring Break.  And man am I ready.  But let's not go into that.  Instead, I wanted to do a quickie post on several projects I currently have on my needles.

First up is a pair of socks I am working on for a good friend who recently moved back home to Florida.  Jayde was here for about 8 months participating in an artist residency and we became really close while she was here.  Before she left she gifted me with some art and I am returning the favor with socks!



She claims to wear 7.5 shoe, but we measured her foot and it's longer than mine.  However, her ankle is the same measurement as mine so I am doing what I know fits me and adding extra foot length.  The yarn is Fortissima Socka Mexiko Color and the pattern is Hermoine's Everyday Socks.  Actually my first pair with this pattern, but won't be my last!

Next up is something I started on a whim.  I was at my LYS and found this yarn in the bargain bin and decided I wanted another Lucente Tee.  This will be my 4th one!  It's such an easy project to knit up and looks good over almost everything, that I love having multiple in my wardrobe. Plus the sheen of the Silkystones yarn is just beautiful.


Finally, I have an art experiment that is also on my needles.  I have decided to play with light in my installations and I think I finally found a way to make my forms glow! I am knitting with a white, light fingering weight and using larger needles to create a nice airy ball.  Once the ball is done, I decided to blow up a balloon inside it and then covered the whole thing in glue.  I let the glue dry and held my breath as I popped the balloon.  Thank God it worked! The final result is very fragile, but with an opening in the bottom, I am able to place a lamp fixture inside and make it glow!  I'm hoping to make more of these and find a way to install them on a wall or even from the ceiling someday.




Isn't that awesome! I am so excited for where this can go!

Well, I hope that spring has come for you, it has for me! It'll be 70-80 degrees here all week and I am so ready for it.  Nice weather always trumps cold weather in my book.  Plus I can wear all my spring knits!

Have a great week!

~Lisa



Thursday, May 3, 2012

Speaking to the Trees.

Well, I am one class, 2 crits, and 1 final away from being done with the semester. Too bad one of those crits and the final are both NEXT Friday :/

I want to start this post with a disclaimer, that it is very image heavy. Also I am sorry they are so small and tinted weird. I highly recommend clicking on one of them and letting the image fill your screen. You won't regret it, I promise. These drawings are epic.

But what are they exactly? Well I will give you a hint:

Ok, so let me explain this a bit. Our last assignment in my drawing class was to research an artist and have a visual conversation with him/her. The artist I chose from the list of them my teacher gave me was Tim Knowles. Tim Knowles attaches pens to trees. Naturally, my mind started thinking about my spindle drawings and how much this related.

So for awhile I was just hanging sharpies from trees and putting the paper undernigth, while I just sat there and watched. That's basically what Tim Knowles did. Well my teacher wasn't a fan of that, even though the images I yielded were pretty nifty.


I was pretty frustrated that day, but looking back I am so glad she pushed me forward, because the drawings I ended up with are so much better than the above image.  I took a bit of time to brainstorm and such, for I really had no idea how to take these to a different level. Then I was at the book store getting print making paper and I stumbled across Velum, which is a thin, somewhat transparent paper (not to mention on $.65 a sheet!) and I had another of my many art epiphanies. 

I bought a few sheets and decided to experiment. I used them instead of the normal paper I had been using and let the trees blow for a bit. What happened next was pure genius (or I think so). I decided to start drawing on top of what the trees had already done. At first I started by just drawing directly onto the same sheet as the tree had, and then layered 2 of those together, like this one:

                                     
Then I realized, "Wait, the paper is transparent, why not draw my own lines on a different sheet?!?!" and that's where the magic started happening. It began with just geometric lines, like connect the dots.





 As I started experimenting I realized I could do whatever I wanted. I could make nothing but dots, or connect the lines, or make shapes, or leave the lines by them selves. I could put my drawing behind, or put the tree's drawing behind. I could make a few marks in response to the tree, then take it away and make my own from there. I could flip mine over to have the 2 drawings contrast each other. I can use different widths of sharpies, or even brush and ink. Seriously, the possibilities are endless.  And the best part about these drawings?


I ABSOLUTELY LOVE THEM


Maybe even more than my spindle drawings...Holy cow did I just say that? It's so weird, but every time I look at them or think about them or work on them I get this amazing sense of pride that I am finally coming into my own as an artist and am doing something original and fun! 














So what do you think? I am just so excited to get to share these with all of you! I have one heck of a semester, I feel like I discovered so much and this project just brings it to an amazing close.

Not to mention my teacher loved them too :p She has some stuff she wants me to think about this summer, but it's safe to say I may be doing these for awhile...

~Lisa


Sunday, March 25, 2012

Happy Spring!

Well Spring has just begun here, even though Spring Break has just ended. I spent the last week at home, enjoying the much needed break from the crazyness that is college. Most of my time was spent knitting, and I managed to get quite a bit of work done on my newest project, Spring Green Abalone. I'm already in love with the color changes and I bet I'll have this done by the end of March. (Don't want to give myself a deadline, I have A LOT of school work to catch up on this week, plus Relay stuff...).
All that's left is the back, other side and then sleeves and border!

In other news, as I mentioned, Spring Break was last week. One of the highlights of my week was getting a chance to stitch and bitch with an old high school friend, Ashley. She is very new to knitting, still just doing garter stitch scarves with Hobby Lobby yarn, but it was so much fun to pop in a chick flick and knit and talk about life. I officially am in love with the idea of knitting with my friends.
Ashley is super excited because she finished the first section of color on her scarf!

My family also took a much needed break by taking a weekend break to Wichita, Ks and visiting the zoo. It was really nice because it was such a beautiful day and also a place we used to go every year growing up, but I haven't personally been there in years. It's amazing how many of the things came back to me as we explored, yet many things have changed. I really enjoy visiting zoos and seeing all the animals. It's such a nice way to spend time outside.
Aren't penguins awesome?

In fact, I wish I had gotten a chance to spend more time outside, but the weather had other plans. It rained all week, up until this previous Friday. I finally went outside yesterday and did a bit of knitting while watching my kitties play and chase birds. Sasha makes me laugh so much with her antics. Did I mention she liked to get into my suitcase and leave trails of my underwear from my room to the litter box while I was sleeping? I think it's really cute.
Sasha watching the birds!

With Spring Break coming to a close, I plan to conquer some of my homework, as well as many Relay things (3 weeks till Relay!) this week. Hopefully I'll get some work done on my Abalone, I really want to wear it this spring!

I wanted to thank everyone for the amazing comments on my last post, I have never received that many and I loved reading and responding to them all! I hope you are all having a great start to your Spring!

~Lisa

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

First FO's of Spring

I feel like it has been forever since I have shared a finished project with you guys. But I am proud to say that today I have TWO to share!
First up is my Effortless Cardigan, which many of you probably remember me talking and blogging about. I have been working on this since November, 2011 and I probably could have had it done sooner, but I lost interest quite a bit with other projects. But, I still finished it in a decent amount of time, given that it is my first large sweater type project. 

If you look close enough, it is a little bit big on me,but the size choices were weird on the pattern and I was not about to alter it on my first big project.  Overall, I think this will be more of a lounge around the house sweater than anything else, but maybe once fall comes again I will wear it out more; the color doesn't really shout "Spring!" to me.  I wish I could show you guys better pictures, but it was hard to get good pictures with out zooming in too much.

Did I mention that I can now cross something off my 2012 Fiber Resolutions? I have finished my first full sweater successfully!


The next project I want to share is something I casted on right after I finished up the cardigan. Everything But Vintage Socks.  I have had a ton of Berroco Vintage scraps in my stash and needed to use them up. Since Vintage is my go to worsted weight sock yarn anyways, why not make socks? I decided I wanted to use it all up in one pair, so I went for it and made knee highs! They tend to fall down when I walk, but that's probably because I increased a little too much. Either way, they're very warm and are full of memories. There are 4 pairs of socks, a hat, a pair of mittens and my sweater all knitted into a striped pair of socks! Oh and I forgot to mention that my kitties like them too :)
Since I can't NOT be knitting something, I began work on my next project last night. Using some Manos del Uruguay that Ivy sent me for Christmas, I began swatching this very cute and simple cardigan, Abalone. Although the knitting will be simple, it has a bit of seaming and shaping I haven't had any experience with, so that will be a bit of a challenge when I get there. But after the last cardigan, I am up for the challenge!

I hope everyone is having a great start to Spring! The sun here has disappeared and probably won't come out for the rest of the week. It's so sad, because I really want to sit outside and knit, but I can't in the rain. 

~Lisa