Mix-Tape of Emotions

Remember MixTapes? I barely do, having not been an 80's child.  I do remember mix CD's but that's not even the same.  I have fond memories of recording myself singing crappy stuff on my dad's tape player however.  Some days I even find myself wishing to go back to those days.  

I am rambling today because my life is pretty much at that point - a MixTape of emotions and events and really no clear definition.  Ever feel that way?

I guess it starts with these mitts, which I cast-on after finishing the hat, but have sadly reached a point where I am not going to have enough yarn.  My LYS has more BUT it's expensive....decisions need to be made, for I really do like these....

Back on the discussion of MixTapes, the above shawl is titled "Mixtape". It's a design from the Hill Country Yarn Crawl last fall and I have been wanting to knit it for awhile. It finally felt like time and I cast on a few weeks back.  I love the texture and feel of the Shibui yarns - a merino sock held with a lace mohair - as well as how fast this pattern is working up.  

Mixing is a pretty common theme right now.  I needed a mindless knit and finally got around to contributing to the Knitting Guild's charity project - knitting Twiddlemuffs for dementia patients. The idea is simple - using washable scrap yarn create a cuff that has pulls and bobble and texture so they have something to do with their hands.  It's so cleaver!

Back in my studio I'm also mixing things up.  Working big again AND trying new compositions.  This is the first of (hopefully) many painting involving floating forms.  In this case we have a cliff with the pink tree looking over the water.  It's going to be more obvious once I layer on some color to make the forms fall back into the water. 

Weekly Inspirations:

Knitting:  A member of my Guild brought some of these DPN Holders last week. How clever is that? I want to learn to sew just so I can make some!
Art: I visited Houston yesterday (and what an amazing day it was!) and saw this amazing artist - Janavi Folmsbee - at a local gallery.  Isn't it just SO PERFECT for what I am doing in my own art?!!
Food: I've been baking a bit more at work (so far I've struck out most times due to dry cakes).  Last week I decided to do a mint marble cake for St. Pat's day and used this recipe.  Replace the vanilla with mint in half and add green color. It's actually really good :)
Life:  The Gallery I mentioned above is the Samara Gallery in Houston, and it is amazing. AND I talked to the owner and gave him my card.  Fingers crossed something happens!

 Hope you all have a wonderful week!

~Lisa

My Knitted Life

Lately it seems like I have been (even more) obsessed with my yarn and needles.  It's like if I am not working, I am knitting.  Maybe it's because I need a bit of control in my life.  Things always seem out of control lately, but when I pick up my needles, all of my control comes back. Do you ever experience that?

I started this hat a few weeks back with the intent of using a woven motif (here) for the body portion.  The yarn had other ideas and I changed it to a slipped stitch checkerboard.  The yarn is a couple of 150yd mill end skeins from a local alpaca ranch, and the hat ended up a bit tight.  It's still warm and still fits, but I would definitely add about ten stitches next time.

Pouting because it's tight :( 

Oddly enough, those skeins lasted through the whole thing and I even had extra! Enough to cast on a pair of mitts.  The first mitt is already done and I know I will have more than enough to make it's mate.

Because my life revolves around all things knitted, I finished another knitted landscape. This one is only 9x6 - I'm enjoying this size!  My current theme within the landscapes is "Lollipops and Gumdrops".  The idea came to me randomly one night and I am running with it.  I am hoping to do lots of Lollipop Trees and floating "Gumdrops" (Knitted balls). I have a show in September and I want this to be the show title. 

If you've read any of my previous posts you may remember that I am involved with a local poetry group.  While I am not nearly as impressive as many of the others, I am excited to say that I finally got up on stage and read FROM MEMORY. And the poem? It's about knitting! haha! Even my poetry life has yarn in it!

Listen here if you don't mind a crappy recording!

Weekly Inspirations:

Knitting: One of the ladies in my knit group mentioned she likes to get on the top 20 trending for Ravelry, which tends to include a lot of patterns that are limited time on sale. What a genius idea!
Art: You should see what Scotty Gorham is doing! He was in the last group for the residency I did last year.  He just finished installing one of the largest neon installations in the country!
Food:  I made this coconut curry yesterday and it was fantastic.  Although I overcooked the vegetables, it turned out super delicious!
Life: A friend recommended the book "A Creative Habit" by Twyla Tharp.I'm two chapters in and already seeing some major inspiration. 

Yup, that's my life.  How is your's these days? 

~Lisa

amen...

Christmas Knitting

It's been so long since I posted about my knitting life - there have been so many other things happening and so little time to really blog about anything. Things are finally slowing down, and I'm headed back to Texas tomorrow, so now's the perfect time to share my recent projects.

With the holidays this past week, I found myself making lots of holiday knits for my family. The first was for my sister. When I was home over Thanksgiving, my sister loved my Temple Cats hat, and casually mentioned wanting one in purple and blue.  Luckily the LYS had a Black Friday Sale and I was able to get the yarn I needed for a great price.

Happy Cats Hat

The yarn I chose is Cascade Yarns Elysian, a nice blend of 60/40 Merino/Acrylic. It's really soft and worked up great, although it was a bit splitty at times. I decided to use the purple for the base color, so the cats could really pop. And I also added the aqua stripes to the top because I thought it would add nice accent. She really liked it :) 

My sister has a birthday three days after Christmas, and I had extra yarn, so I decided to knit her a pair of mittens to go with the hat as a birthday gift. I reversed the colors and found that I really liked the cats against the blue. The patter was completely charted from scratch, with only a basic mitten pattern to give me stitch numbers. She has really long fingers, and thus they turned out super long. But working on these really made me a colorwork master! 

Happy Cat Mittens 

When I asked my brother what he wanted for Christmas, he replied "A black hat would be nice". Of course he chose black - the one color that I didn't have wool in my stash. Luckily the LYS is five blocks down the street and they had exactly what I needed. I have since lost the label, but it was a nice super wash, aran weight wool. I paired it with some leftover handspun alpaca for the brim (originally used for this hat) and then I found some simply soft here in my KS stash that I used to pair it with for the top. Considering that I improvised the design, he really likes it and I know it will get good use. 

Warm and Wooly

As for me, it's not winter in Kansas without a nice warm scarf. I finally finished my Scotland scarf a few weeks back, and have been wearing it everywhere since. The yarn is a nice angora blend and so warm and scushy. I am really pleased with this scarf because it was also my "movie theater scarf". I took it with me to four different movies (Plus a couple of knit club days) and only had eight mistakes through it all. I learned that I can knit basic in the dark, which is a huge plus for me. I definitely plan on taking more projects to movies from now on. 

Weekly Inspirations:

Art: On my trip back home last week I stopped in Fort Worth. I was lucky enough to see some amazing art by really famous artists at The Fort Worth Modern, The Kimbell Museum , and the Amon Carter Museum. Seeing works by Georgia O'Keefe, Keith Herring, Paul Gauguin, Picasso and the likes was really inspiring. 

Food: Although I didn't get good photos, I made some really good Italian Chicken Panini's last week for my family and even my dad liked them!
Knitting: I am dying to cast on more socks after reading so many posts about socks the past few weeks. Specifically after reading Kiwiyarns Knits post about her year in socks (thanks Andi for sharing) I have so many lovely yarns to try out also. 

Life: I start driving back to Texas from Kansas tomorrow, to finish up the last 2 months of my residency. I am ready to get back into painting, what with a couple of shows coming up. When I get back, I will of course share my new works with you all.

I hope the New Year finds you making happy, healthy resolutions and finding new adventures in knitting and life. I know that 2014 has been so life changing, I can only imagine what 2015 will be like.

~Lisa 

FO Friday: Feeling Blue?

Ok, so I'll admit, I could not think of a good title for this blog post at all. But that's besides the point.

Since it's Friday, I want to share with you the vest that I finally finished. It's actually been 'done' since about January 2nd, but I didn't get the button and block it until yesterday, since I wanted to get the button from Wildflower. And so, without further ado, I present to you my Blue Eco Vest.

Knitted using Cascade Eco + yarn, the Eco vest was a fairly quick knit for me, something I will blame solely on 3 weeks of winter vacation with nothing to do but work and knit (and watch How I Met Your Mother on Netflix....). Trust me, if this was during the school year, it'd take a whole semester.

I didn't really find any problems with this pattern, something I'm really glad about, but I wish there was a better way to fasten the front. I LOVE the button I picked, it's pewter with a little flower, but I think it would work better with a button hole and not a crochet loop. I also should have moved it down a bit....

The cables did get a bit tedious after awhile, but that is part of the drive that kept me going, wanting to just get them done.  Overall, it was a quick, easy knit that I highly recommend to anyone wanting to branch into garments with minimal shaping and work involved.

In other news, I have started some cabled wrist warmers. They started as gloves, and then I decided I hated doing fingers, so changed my mind and decided to do wrist warmers to wear over a pair of store bought gloves (the one knit garment I don't mind buying...). I'm knitting them in Encore Worsted, the same yarn I made my headband out of. I was seriously going to just go basic, but I am a cable fanatic so one thing led to another and now they have cables. I may submit these somewhere, so I am just going to give you a peek at them for now.

In the world of non-knitted things, I baked my first homemade bread on Wednesday, using a recipe from the amazing cookbook Ivy gave me. I think one of the two loaves is underbaked, but I may be able to fix it later. For now, I am enjoying every bite of this honey wheat bread, and I may seriously switch from store bought to homebaked for awhile.

I hope everyone is ready for the weekend like I am. It's been a busy week and I'm ready for a break, even though the coming weeks involve school....

~Lisa

Don't forget Tami's Amis!

WIP (and 1 FO) Wednesday.

Wow, it's Wednesday already? Where did the week go? It always seems like once Wednesday hits the rest just flies by!

I'm excited to share my latest FO with you all today. I've only worn them once but they are already keeping my wrists nice and toasty! Beribboned Wrists by my good blogger friend Alicia Landi. I fell in love with this pattern the instant I saw her publish it and when I died some dk yarn this summer with berries I knew it was the perfect match. To finish them off I had some pretty blue ribbon left over from a needle case my friend Ivy had made me!

Berry-boned Wrists

After completing these this weekend and still having a whole skein plus a little more of the berry yarn, I thought "Why not make a matching headband" and so (after asking for permission) I started my improv Beribboned Headband! It's coming along pretty nicely, but a little tedious with all the stockinette stitch.

Finally on my list of WIP's for the week I have the shawl I started last week as part of Evelyn's Project: Stash KAL. I worked on this the whole way to and from my Grandma's birthday get together last weekend and made significant progress. The plan is to just go until I run out of yarn; hopefully this will be enough to make it a decent size.

Finally Fall Shawl

My mom's wrap is currently going nowhere fast. I worked on it at Knit Night last week and ended up frogging out all I had completed. That lace, as easy as it is, is messing me up. So I'm putting in a life line and hopefully I'll get to it this weekend again!

I've spent quite a bit of time at studio this week so far and it's really paying off. I am very proud of where my painting is going that's for sure :) I hope everyone enjoys the rest of their weeks and is as productive as I am!

~Lisa

For more WIP's check out Tami's Amis!

WIP Wednesday: Busy, Busy, Busy!

Ok, where did the week go? Seriously??! It's already Wednesday night, which means the tomorrow is Thursday (my last day of classes for the week) and then the weekend, in which I am going home for my Grandma's 90th birthday. WHOA.

As of yesterday I have not one, not two, but THREE WIP's on the knitting front, plus some more spindle drawing spinning, a painting, and a new drawing project.  How do I have time for this and stay sane? Really?

First on the list is my Berry-boned wrists, a pattern by a good friend and fellow blogger, Alicia at Woolen Diversions. I started these over the summer with yarn I dyed with berries, but got a bit bored. Well I picked them back up last week and finished the first and started the second! I can't wait to finish them. Looks like I will have lots of extra yarn too!

Then there is my Mom's Millanese Wrap.  This would be so much further if I'd stop casting on other stuff in the process.  Contrary to the shortness of the pattern and the repeats, this pattern likes to mess with me. It's not mindless, that is for sure! It has some issues with the YO's and decreases.  There are already a few mistakes. In fact the reason I haven't picked it up in awhile is cuz of a mistake.....

I didn't think I'd cast on anything new until I finished the Berry-boned Wrists, but then I saw the fall KAL for the High Plains Drifter Shawl on Eveyln's Project: Stash KAL and had to join in! This is such a simple project and I've been loving my shawls/light weight scarves a lot lately, so I can always use another! This is being made with some amazing Malabrigo Sock yarn that Ivy sent me for my birthday last year.  It took a bit of coaxing to use it but I am so glad I am!

I have finally found the motivation to work on my painting, so that is coming a long pretty nicely, but still very slow. I feel like I am playing paint by numbers with it or something.  On the drawing front, I started my new project today and had amazing success. I think the best part is that it will keep me active as well!

For more WIP's check out Tami's Amis!

~Lisa

Almost the new year, time for reflections

It's been over 2 months since I updated this blog....and I've knitted ALOT since then. Before we get to that though, I figured I would update the world on my life (Like you all care...).
I survived my 1st semester of sophomore year, and I even managed to get a couple A's. I wish they had been in the classes that matter AKA my art classes, but I guess the professors just don't know how to grade...hahaha. Actually, I understand why I got B's in those so it's not a big deal. It's just a B, not a problem.

I've also been super busy with my life. This year has been such an adventure! I started the year as an immature freshman, still unsure on the rest of the world, very sure I'd be with my boyfriend forever. My the end of May I had decided to take responsibility and live in a house the coming school year AND me and my Bf were no longer an 'item' (his idea...). Looking back, I am very glad it happened. I have since become alot more mature, taking on the issues involved in living off campus. That's been a challenge, but I wouldn't move back to the dorms EVER. Learning to live off my pay checks, cook my own meals, and do my own chores has been a learning experience that's for sure, but I don't regret my decisions at all.

I also met the best friends I could ever meet this year, and I honestly beleive if I was still with the boy, I wouldn't be as close to my friends and I'd be a 'social hermit', if you know what I mean. All of us have done so much in the short time we've known each other (literally only about 5 months!). The memories we've made have been priceless, from Dance Party and Sonic adventure at the beginning of the year to Konza and girls day in October, out skating kids on my birthday, and who can forget the late night Walmart scavenger hunt in Halloween costumes, to the random bowling and dinner nights, to simply watching movies, we've had the best year and I can't wait to spend 2011 with Lynnsey, Kaela, Rachel, David, Alley, Kenni and well EVERYONE!

Which brings me to my next adventure, Relay for Life. Relay for life is such a big event, and I can't beleive I get to be a part of it! This is my first year on commitee and being a team captain, and I'm completely engrossed in it all. I absolutely cannot wait to celebrate, remember, and fight back with all my friends in April!

So now on to why you're probably here, my art :) I've done so much knitting and art since October when I last posted that I need to catch up and reflect.

I guess I'll start with my paintings, which is what I found myself doing alot when I wasn't in class or at work. Afterall, it was 'homework' and I had to get them done sometime! I'm only posting the decent ones.Abstract from a still life, zoomed in on a plastic toy bread, pickles, and animal cracker with a plastic chicken leg in the top left and a skull and blanket in the top right.

Interior set up. I am very proud of this painting, I feel like it's my first 'finished' painting and actually shows depth pretty well.

Final project, self portrait. I took a chance and decided to do myself in my messy room looking into a mirror on the floor. I like how it turned out, but my teacher thinks I need to make my feet more natural colored and show my face more.

And now onto my knitting. When I wasn't painting, in class, or working, I was probably knitting!

I learned how to make mittens after realizing they were pretty much socks with thumbs. This is my first attempt, I love how they turned out but I don't wear them very often :( I guess I need to more, but I'm worried they'll get messed up.

And then I made a matching stocking cap, which I actually used, and loved, until I lost it :( But it still taught me alot about circular knitting and how to do things besides scarves and socks.

I made a scarf with really pretty cascading blue yarn and I absolutely love it :) It's a little short, but I can't afford more yarn!

I made my sister a scarf with yarn I hate (but she liked) and it's a simple knitted scarf. I honestly did not enjoy making this, but she loves it!

To conclue the year I learned 2 new things at the same time. I got knitpicks interchangeable circular needles for Christmas, and with that I learned how to magic loop! From there I then knitting my brother a pair of gloves, my first ever. They turned out amazing and he loves them! What a great way to end the year!

So it's been one hellofa year, and I owe it all to everyone and everything that's happened! I hope you all have a great 2011, and I hope to keep you posted on my life and how much I am enjoying it!