WIP Wednesday Round-up

I haven't done many WIP Wednesday posts as of late, but it seemed fitting for today because I have so many WIPs happening around here and being home for the holiday this week is giving me lots of time to work on them!

I'm still knitting balls, and although this photo looks exactly like the last one, I promise it's a different ball. I'm discovering different ways of making them using short-rows. I even made a square by accident last week!

This scarf has been on the needles for a couple months now. It's my "movie theater" scarf - I take it with my anywhere that I can knit without looking. It's been to three movies, a couple of knit groups and of course my couch! I'm really excited to finish it and I'm hoping that will happen between the movie tonight and the plane ride Saturday. 

My "Texas Tell it!" is going well also. It's so easy (Although those short rows aren't the most fun when you have to purl). I finally hit the second color - the blue - and it's turning out really beautiful. I didn't bring the light brown with me back to Kansas though so if I get to that point before the weekend I'll have to put it on hold.

Finally, I was going through my yarn stash here and found this scarf that I started over four years ago. When I started it I was only about a year into my knitting career and I was struggling through it. I decided to pull it out and take a crack at it, and now it's flying off the needles. I guess that goes to show how much better I've gotten over the past years!

Weekly Inspirations:
Knitting: I have a few Christmas presents on the horizon, including another one of my cat hats (for my sister) and a market bag (for my secret santa).
Art: Some of my former classmates are having their BFA shows coming up. I'm really sad that I am going to miss them (being in TX) but I can't wait to see the photos from the show. This one in particular I am really sad about missing!
Food: I had planned on making this pumpkin/pecan pie for the holiday tomorrow, but extenuating circumstances may change that. Either way, this recipe is on my radar.
Life: Speaking of extenuating circumstances - my dad fell at work this morning and broke his knee. So the holiday is pretty much shot for us and he's pretty much bound to his chair for the next month. I am really feeling for him and everything he's about to go through...

If you are in the US, I hope you have a Happy Thanksgiving tomorrow. And if not, I hope you are enjoying your week.

~Lisa

Keeping Warm

Brrrrr. It's been in the 30's and 40's the past few days here in Texas, and it's also been drizzling like crazy. It's days like today when I really just need some tea and a good knit project to keep me happy. Luckily, I have several.

I'm working on making my sculptures larger. Thus larger balls are needed. As much as I love working in the round, sometimes you need to change things up. So I'm doing short row wedges. It's actually really fun!

Playfully titled "Texas Tell it", my sweater is going really fast. I cast-on last Sunday and am already past the arm holes and working the short row body. I didn't think I'd knit this fast, but I was also waiting on more white yarn to arrive via snail mail before starting more sculptures. The initial cast on and sleeves sounded really confusing, but after doing them, they weren't that bad. I'm excited to add the blue soon!

Another fun adventure I'm having is with poetry and publishing. If you haven't seen my site lately, I have been writing poems to go with my art (Go to oil paintings, and click on on to see). Also, this is just a black and white proto-type, but I am working on a 'zine that includes my art and poetry, as well as a free knit pattern and recipe. I am hoping to sell them around here for a bit of extra cash. 

 I went up to Austin yesterday and had probably the best day I've had in Texas so far. The weather was nasty drizzle, but not too cold.  I went down for the E.A.S.T. Austin open studio tour, which is a weekend when over 200 artists open their studios up for people to come tour. I am so happy that I went because I met some amazing artist and got a chance to finally see Austin. Safe to say I want to move there.  Above is my collection of cards and such from the day.

 Weekly Inspirations:
Art: I can't decide which art I saw that was my favorite yesterday, but I did meet some great people. The ones that stood out were: Micheal Garcia . Rebecca Klier, Kanya Lyons, Miabella Mojica ,Brandon C. Ellis, Save the Humans, Jennifer Balkin
Knitting: All the ladies in my knit group seem to be working on scarves and shawls. And man there are some pretty ones. One of my favorites is Ashburn
Food: I made roasted vegetables for the first time last week, with this recipe. It turned out amazing!
Life: I've been revamping my Etsy store. I added even more cards and also changed the logos. Check it out !
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I hope that whether it's cold or warm on your part of the world, you are having a good week :)

~Lisa

Life is...

Life is...

A good book and a warm cup of tea.

(Allegiant by Veronia Roth and Orange Senacha Green from Two Leaves)

Perfectly cooked black beans with brown rice and cauliflower.

(Beans from a kit that started out dry)

A new and exciting sculpture/installation idea.

(that came to me at 1am Saturday)

Meeting gauge and winding all the MC yarn for my next sweater.

(Tell it Slant by Mary Annarella) 

Two full bags of pecans picked from my own backyard.

(Now what should I do with them?) 

Discovering a new love in the form of poetry and open mic.

(Mic Check Poetry, downtown Bryan)

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A studio full of new art.
(Open house is this Saturday!)

What is life to you? 

~Lisa

Nearing November

Is it really only a week until November? I cannot even begin to say how fast time is flying here - I have already been in TX for two whole months and yet it seems like so much less (or more, depending on the day and my mood).

I celebrated my birthday last week, and with it came a bit of a yarn shopping spree at my new (and favorite!) LYS, WC Mercantile. The owner, Stephanie,is super nice and even brought cookies. One of the perks is also that you get 20% anything you purchase once during your birthday month.  So I used that to get yarn for my next sweater. The sweater is "Tell it Slant" and the yarn is Simplicity by HiKoo. It's a nice blend of merino, acrylic and nylon and I can tell just by squishing it that it will hold up well. 

I have also been off and on spinning on some local Texas Alpaca and finally finished the singles of the my brown the other night. I decided to get some black tussah silk at WC to pair with it, and was given some natural white alpaca for free, which I will also be pairing it with. I just hope I have enough of them all to make a nice yarn. 

Speaking of spinning, I had an accident about a month ago involving my smaller spindle and the concrete at the art fair. I've tried super glue, but it's not working. Anyone else have a suggestion? I love this spindle so much I hate to see it un-usable! :( 

And finally my basic scarf is speeding along. The color in this photo is totally off (but don't we all experience that at some point?) but I'm done with exactly half of it. I plan to put it aside to start my sweater, but pull it out when I need mindless knitting (like at the movies!). It's so soft that I can understand why angora is addictive. I know it will be my favorite once it's done.

Weekly Inspirations:

Knitting: My mom sent me the latest issue of KnitScene and once again I am in love with at least 75% of the magazine. Specifically: Gothic Gloves, Lise Hat,  Ravenna Cowl and  Paros Hat

Art: I went to a couple of openings in Houston this weekend. Although the networking I needed didn't happen, I did see some great art. I was truly inspired by Alexa Kleinbard and her gorgeous partial abstract landscapes. The way she paints really got me thinking about my own works. 

Food: Last week I made eggplant parm with some local grown eggplant. I decided to cut the carbs and used quinoa instead of pasta. The result? FANTASTIC! 

Life: I'm seeing a Physical Therapist now about my shoulder and spine. She's given me a ton of moves to straighten my spine, which is apparently very curved. I'm kinda freaking out to be honest, because that also means I need to start sitting straighter and working on it more. Anyone have any tips on how to sit straight and knit at the same time/???

A huge thank you to everyone for reading my rambles from week to week - even those who don't comment. I really love blogging and sharing my thoughts, and I am so glad that there are people out there who are the same way.

~Lisa 

Blast from the Past

Anyone ever feel a sense of nostalgia when they think about the past and everything that has happened over the years? What about when you reach into your yarn stash and find a special yarn or pattern that has a story and history?  That's how I'm feeling tonight as I post this. All of my projects as of late have some sort of history that goes back at least a couple years, if not more.

Growing up my mom crocheted (among other things) and started to teach me when I was in late elementary/middle school. I tried to like it, really, but I never liked how the stitches looked. I always wanted to learn to knit so I could get the "v's". But some things never leave you and I found myself itching to crochet something, anything, a few weeks ago. As I mentioned in a past post, I reached for the closest yarn and just went for it. Well half way through a basic scarf I discovered the Chi-town crochet cowl and decided to try that. Overall, I like the end result, even though I am pretty sure that I did a different type of single crochet (is that possible?) each go round. Whatever. I do wish I could wrap it twice. I always have that issue with cowls. 

I actually can't believe I haven't blogged about this hat yet! It went faster than I thought it would. And was definitely a learning process as well. The pattern is Temple Cats, and it made me feel really nostalgic as I knit because it was one of the first patterns I received in a RAK way back when I used to do those.  At the time, I was scared of colorwork but knew I wanted this hat someday. Well a couple weeks back I finally decided to tackle it and there was no better yarn then the left overs from my artsy Stephen West shawl. I doubled the yarn and it was perfect with gauge. I added an extra cat repeat because I knew it wouldn't stretch well enough to fit me. 

Once I bound off, the bottom was curling really bad, so I knew I had to block it, even though it fit my head so perfect the way it was. After soaking, I realized how much the yarns I was using stretch (and also fuzz a bit) and found myself with a hat at least two sizes too big. I was so sad because I really loved how it came out. I slept on it and woke up deciding I would try to felt it. No harm, no fowl. Every time I've tried to felt in the past, I've failed, but this time around I actually succeeded. After a run through the machine on hot and the dryer on hot, I ended with the results above. And it's not even felted too bad! I'm so happy, because this hat really is the perfect pattern and the perfect colors. I think it's the world's way of saying to never give up!

Finally I have had no real project on the needles for a few days now and was itching for something, anything. Mick and I were going to a local film festival today and I wanted something to take. I decided to pull out this angora/wool blend I got in Scotland back when I went three summer's ago. Talk about nostalgia, that was such a great trip! But anyway, I decided to go basic stockinette scarf and this is the result after about three hours of knitting in the dark. Only 2 slipped stitches!!

Weekly inspirations:

Art:  I am 2 "likes" away from 100 on my Facebook page. You should go check it out, I am constantly updating with all kinds of art news!
Knitting: I saw this pattern and bought it instantly (it was on sale...). Now I just need to break down and buy the yarn. 

Food: I found this on Pinterest and it almost makes me want to go Vegetarian - so many delicious recipes! 30 days of vegetarian recipes. 
Life: Guess who turns 24 in 3 days? Me of course! I am hoping for a good, relaxing day. I don't really like to go party, so if I'm lucky my roommates will respect that. Either way though, it will be nice to celebrate another great year of living. :) 

So there's more drama happening around here, but I am not going to get into it on my blog again. For the time being, let's call everything happy and enjoy life. Knitting is going great, art is going great and nothing can bring me off that cloud.

~Lisa

Rainy Saturdays

It's a dreary, rainy Saturday here in Navasota. Those kind of days make me unproductive, especially when plans get changed because of the rain. We were going to go paint a mural today, but obviously that isn't happening now. So instead I am going to take a bit to tell you what I've been up to.

After finishing my chevron cowl I had a ton of the blue/black and orange left, so I did some poking around Ravelry and decided that Funicular would be a good fit to use most of it up. I decided to strip it a bit more than the pattern calls for and then I ran out of the dark so I had to do an orange top. I'm still not sure how I feel about it, maybe I should have done the top solid orange instead. But I also think it depends how you wear it also. Either way, it's a good fit.

On the painting front, I started a new series. I decided to do what I've been talking about and paint pictures of my ball sculptures. These two are small but I hope to also do a third, large, painting of the same form. It was really fun and challenging working on these because of the size. I didn't feel like I could be as loose with a smaller brush. The color is still spot on though.

I am also helping out with a Halloween Party in Bryan at the end of the month. They were looking for local artists to paint window scenes for part of the decorations. The boards were provided so all I have to do is bring it to life. I'm using acrylic for this one because I need something fast and the board is made of foam. As I work I am remembering how much I dislike acrylic and everything about it. But hopefully with some layers it will all work out.  The scene isn't very original either, but that's what you get when it's not super important. 

Weekly Inspirations:

Knitting: The knitters guild here is doing a secret santa and we drew names last week. Now I have to start figuring out what I want to make and pair with it. Those are always so much fun, but so challenging at the same time!
Art: If you get the chance, you should read this article about me and my fellow residents. It's pretty good and we had so much fun doing it. The other articles in the issue are fun too - so much is happening in Bryan!

Cooking: Last week's recipe was a throwback to something my mom always makes. It was super delicious and I highly recommend it for a cool fall night. Herb Mushroom Chicken. 
Life: I finally got a new ipod after mine got stolen (ok left on the curb). I ordered a used iPod nano and it is super cool. I am really liking the Nike Fitness app - it counts my calories, pace, steps, time, etc on my runs. Super helpful!

Well, I hope you are all having a great weekend. Thanks for the input on my last post/rant - I really appreciate it. Keep being awesome guys!

~Lisa

Questioning My Motives

Dear blogging friends, I hope you don't mind if I take a second to vent/rant/ramble/etc, but I have something I need to get off my chest.

As you all know by now, I am one of three Artist-in-Residents in Navasota, TX. The experience so far has been amazing - I'm learning so many things about myself and my art and it's only been a 6 weeks.

However, I find myself struggling with the fine line between making art for myself and making art for the public. Let me explain myself:

One of my fellow residents has been living off of selling their work for the past few years, and thus is used to that mindset. I am not saying that their work isn't amazing or that they are only creating what they create because they know they can sell it - I definitely see passion behind their art. What I am saying is that their brain is pretty much wired to the idea that selling art is a priority.

The first few weeks here, I didn't really notice it too much, but I am coming to notice it more and more. The constant "Oh, well maybe you should try this - I know it'd sell!" or "Did you sell anything at the show last night" are starting to wear thin.  Would it be nice to sell one of my big paintings? Heck yes! Is that a priority for me and my time here? Hell no.

We had yet another "discussion" today about how my working smaller is a good move if I want to sell more art (because I can price it lower). That may be true, but that is not the reason I have chosen to work smaller as of late. The reason I have chosen to work smaller is because I want to focus more on the form and the color study, and I am unsure how it will all come together, and I don't want to risk it not working by going large right away.

That being said, I am a very impressionable person and was actually listening to their advice the first few weeks - I even ordered some fine art prints of my ink drawings to sell at our art fair, because I was told they'd sell - only to have none do so.  I am coming to terms with the fact that the art market here may not be the right place for me (for the record - they haven't sold much either), and I am ok with that. I have had amazing response to my works at both the art fair and the show we have up downtown right now.

As an artist my main priority (for right now anyway) is to create work that is about myself and NO ONE ELSE. If someone happens to like it enough to want to buy my work, then that is great, but at the end of the day, me making work that I know will sell isn't me being happy. Happiness comes from making art that you can stand back from and say "Did I really just make this?". Those are the moments I am most proud of and those are the moments that I hope to have many of while I am here in Navasota.

So to anyone who thinks that you have to make art that is marketable and appeals to the common man just to get by as an artist can (pardon my language) suck it. That, to me isn't art and as long as I am na artist that is something I will not be doing. EVER.

What is your opinion on this matter? I'd love to know what you have to say. :)

~Lisa