memorial day blues

I finished knitting my blue and green checkered intarsia bag, and now I am preparing it for felting! Lots of loose ends to tie in and shoulder handles to sew on.

Well, it's Memorial Day Weekend! The weekend everything on our tiny tourist Island begins. The crowds will be flooding in tomorrow, the restaurants will be crowded, the boats off schedule and traffic galore. but summer on the vineyard is always fun, too. and coming home from work and sitting on the deck, having a beer and working on a craft is what I look forward to all during my busy day.


That, and Sundays off to go to the beach.

Button Up! Bag

You may recall I started sewing this bag almost a year ago! Then I put it aside never to be finished... until today. I had never really thought of a clever way to attach the handles and not have my sloppy hand stitches show. Today I got the idea to sew on these buttons when I saw some Lili Pulitzer bags in a shop window downtown Edgartown. I'd never thought I'd be inspired by a Lili purse, but I must admit I am a fan of the vintage look. And it was the perfect way to finish off my design!



The fabric is old, found, or more so 'gifted' to me by someone who knew I liked to sew things. There is more scrap fabric where this came from and there should be more bags! I like the way this came out, too bad it took me a year to make it. If I make more in other colors/prints and you think you would like to own one, leave me a comment below. I'll think up a price. And I definitely could whip one up in much less time than it took me to make this!

inside is lined with the same print, but next time I think I will make it a surprise!

xoxo. v

arrivals.

4 more days until my love is here with me!

less blogging, more making

I must say, I've been spending a lot of time online lately, and less time making stuff. I have been updating my website and just looking at crafting projects, shopping for fabrics, reading blogs and getting ideas. But I have been knitting my square tote bag which I will felt soon, perhaps after another row of squares. It's fun to work on while I watch tv or ftp files to my server.


Today was the first really nice day of the season. I can only hope for more!

A Summer Quilting Project!

I always spend less time knitting in the summer. I think it might be the time to begin a quilt, as I have been wanting to do for some time now. Finally, I've chosen a pattern from Denise Schmidt Quilts that I really want to make and picked out some colors that I liked together. Its so hard deciding if the color scheme is good so I made a little mock-up in photoshop.



The fabrics are from purl soho and I have not seen them in person, only online. Will I still love the combo after months of working on it?

knitting in squares.

Here's a preview of the new bag I am working on:


I am using the intarsia technique to create 5 x 5 st squares in lime green on the front and back of this blue tote. When I am done it will be felted and the stitches will not show, but the pattern will. I am hoping to do 6 rows of 5 squares, but thinking I may quit at 3!

It was hard to get used to this technique at first, and the yarn gets all twisted up which is a pain, but I am beginning to like it more and more and can't wait for the end results! I have been thinking about making a felted bag like this for awhile and even if it takes me all summer to construct, I am glad to be bringing it to life.

More pictures as it takes shape. It's sort of shapeless now.

shoulder style.

Here are some photos of my newest bag -- an orange felted shoulder tote. Handknit, felted and ready-to-wear. I will be putting it up for sale before I get too attached to it. In the mean time, any takers?


$45.

april showers...

i'm excited because:

-after eight long months i finally have the internet at my house! as my friend briana put it, i could have had a baby!

-also, it is almost summer! even thought it doesn't feel like it. cold, wet, windy, dark. well... almost.

-i got a new digital camera. i used it to photograph my other new camera. see...


-i have been reading lots of good books. join me on goodreads.com.

-i have also felted a new bag (pictures soon!) and a cute, short but sweet scarf. I am about to start stitching this tee.




that's all for now. isn't it enough??

when i'm not knitting i'm reading.

I was excited when I spotted this book in the store:


not so much for the stories, but for the cover. It is an image by one of my favorite photographers and aib teacher Cig Harvey. Take a look at her work online. You, too, will be enthralled.

march.

it's spring!

I have not really been doing much in the way of needles and yarn, but I did have the time to scan some negatives and create some photographs last month! I added them to my website and they can be seen under "current projects." check it out!

February.

Thanks for checking in to see what I have been doing. I haven't felt all that much like taking pictures and then writing about every little thing I have done in the last few weeks. There have been bigger things going on. But maybe one day I will get back to it. It was nice to track my progress, you know? And nice to get messages from you all.

Be in touch.

evoking new mediums.

I said to myself, when I started blogging or whenever I blog, that this was only going to reflect what I was doing, that I couldn't just blog about wanting to do things or talk it up. This was supposed to be a reflection of my productivity, not in place of. But ideas have been swarming around in my head so much lately that I need a place, besides sketch books and notepads and just talking to others, to spill them! I am this excited, that I want to start blabbing before I have even made anything yet!

My crafts and styles are always evolving which I think is pretty cool. But it's also because I get bored so very quick and cannot focus on one craft for too long. This prevents me from really ever mastering one particular thing. Getting a degree in photography was probably the closest I ever came to focusing (literally, haha) on that.

But there comes a time artistically, that all paths lead home. Whatever new idea I get, or new hobby I evoke, I start to notice little details that link me to projects of my past. My bags, for example, from last winter, that I became obsessed with designing, knitting and felting, all mocked the colors used in my senior thesis project, which involved photography, text, cutting, sewing, layering and assemblage.
This winter, I have become been inspired to use similar skills: cutting, assembling and sewing a quilt! I have been admiring Denyse Schmidt's gorgeous quilts that have quirky patterns and use lots of contract stitching as subject matter. The idea to do something different, yet familiar, surfaces and I am liking the thought of using patterns with words I choose and abstract text (like in my senior project) to create my own originally patterned fabric.


In the past I have printed these images and words onto material with a simple photocopier and stitched right over then with my sewing machine, but I may introduce myself to something fancier like silkscreen and work with some kind of paint. The idea of the screen being like a film negative is exciting to me and makes the two projects feel very connected. In the end I will have a very memorable piece of work, both in its process and result. I like the idea of tying together the threads of my many different crafts and taking on something big with new things to learn. This may not be completed this winter, the text I want to use and colors and fabrics are not all decided on yet. But inspiration and ideas don't seem to hard to get. Now I won't say another word until I know.

Knitting in New Mexico.

Well here I am, winter in Las Cruces, NM, visiting Nick and spending our lazy days in the sun. We have been taking long walks, visiting parks, cooking yummy meals, reading plenty of books and, of course, I brought along my knitting! But this glorious vacation cannot last forever... after a quick trip to San Francisco (to see Stella on my birthday!) I will be heading back to New England to get back to work, winter and my family and friends there.

In the meantime I have been knitting a simple scarf for my Dad. He wanted something specifically 26" long and 4-5" wide. A short scarf that he could tuck inside the collar of his coat and keep out the chill. Nothing hanging, no fringe, no cables, buttons or frills. I think I completed that task!

Seemed a little dull at first, but after I started knitting in the 1 x 1 rib pattern I found a calming beauty in the simplicity and a meditation in the monotony. It came out quite nice and I am excited to give it to him. In the meantime I have let Paco model it for you (above.)

I have also been busy at work making my first pair of mittens! well they aren't quite yet a pair. Still just one mitten, but I am happy with it's turnout and ready to begin the second. They are made out of the same grey speckled "tweed" yarn, which was all I brought with me. I am thinking that after this mitten i am going to need a new fiber badly and was glad I discovered Unravel, a gorgeous little knitting shop in the downtown mall. If anyone ever visits Las Cruces, be sure to stop in there!

Merry Christmas!

...from my desktop to yours.


Cards are all made and sent out, gifts are wrapped and ready to give. My suitcase it packed and I am off! To New Mexico for the rest of 2006 and some of 2007.

See you in January! Happy Holidays!

busy fingers.

This time of year I always start making my christmas cards. Last year it was cutting out lots of tiny mittens from red and green paper that I fastened to string with itty bitty closepins. The year before I simply made colorful squares and threaded through silky ribbons to tie on top.

This year, it's trees.
Lots and lots of trees!




I worked on these when I was visiting my parents house this week. They hardly ever get a tree anymore and sometimes I really miss it. This is what I always remember it being like.



Happy Holidays!

plant one on the seed stitch.

I don't have time to knit everybody stuff for the Holidays, so here's something fun to make and wear from a pattern I made up. Consider it my gift to you! Or you can make one and give it to someone else. You can thank me later.

I have a very small head and I always make hats that are TOO BIG. Hats stretch out easily, too, so I started here with only 58 sts. You may choose to do 60 or 64 even, but just make sure it is an even number and keep in mind that the ribbing on the brim is going to look MUCH smaller than it really is…

Ok. So cast on 58sts. Size 10 needles strait needles (even tho the yarn calls for 11 or 12s)
Knit 1 x 1 rib for desired length of brim approx. 1 - 2”

Next, to begin first row of seed stitch begin knitting onto size 11 needles. Now knit in a knit purl pattern that is OPPOSITE of the rib. The stitches will not sit nicely on top of each other like in the ribbing, but will create a pattern of bumps and dents.

Rib pattern – knit, purl, k, p, k, p etc!
Seed st row 1 – Purl, k, p, k etc
Row 2 – Knit, purl, k, p, k, p
Row 3 – purl, knit and so on…

Shaping the crown is difficult with the seed stitch, at least it is difficult to keep all those intentional bumps in order. I managed by beginning my decrease row as:

Dec row 1 – K1, Purl 2tog, *K2tog, P1, K2tog, P1* *to end
Row 2 – same thing!
Row 3 – seed stitch even, no decrease!
Row 4 – depending on which stitch you are supposed to start off with, I K2tog, P2tog all sts in an even rotation.
And same for Row 5.
And Row 6.

Stop when you have approx 7 sts on your needles and cut the remaining thread with enough yarn to loop through the remaining sts and to sew up the top. If you knit this hat on straight needles instead of circular (which I did and works fine!) then sew up the side seem so it is nice and invisible.

Islander Notecards Are Here!

Available in packs of 5, these adorable notecards feature the Islander ferry as it leaves Vineyard Haven harbor on a crisp October day in 2006. The well known and often traveled boat has been making trips between Woods Hole and Martha's Vineyard for over 50 years and will make its final run this January, 2007. In celebration of a visit to the Island or to commemorate this special vessel, send these cards to all your friends!

5 cards w/ envelopes $9.50.

$2 to ship.

email granary [at] vineyard [dot] net

or leave me a comment and I'll get in touch with you.

see more of my photography at www.vlephotography.com

see more of my crafty little things below....

blogger saved me.

My computer was comatose for a couple days and I had to send her off to apple to get fixed. All is fine now, except everything that was on my hard drive from the past year (I did back up on nov. 2005) was erased. Now I am slowly putting everything back in place.

Silly, but I was bummed that I lost pictures and notes from all the knitting projects I had done in the past year -- felted bags, armwarmers, the knit tank, etc. but behold -- the blog! I have it all right here. online and ready. So in a way keeping this blog was not a goofy waste of my time. an entire years archive exists in a place I hopefully can't erase it.

Did you all remember to go vote today??
i hope you did.

I made something for you.

try this pattern... wear this hat!



Knit with Lamb’s Pride Bulky – Aztec Turquoise

You need:
Circular needles size 8 (for brim) and size 10 or 10 1/2 for gauge.
Cable needle
Basic knowledge of what to do with needles and yarn.

To do:
Cast on 66 stitches – size 8 needles – join sts and place marker at the “beginning”
Knit 1 x 1 rib in the round for 1”
Switch to size 10 needles and begin stockingette stitch. Increase 1 st every 10 sts --72 sts!

Cable pattern will be as follows: K6 C6 x6 every 5 rows*
On the rows in between cables, knit the stockingette st. You will know every time you pass a marker that you completed a row. I find that sometimes making tallies on a sheet of scrap paper is helpful for keeping track of my rows. Or I just write on whatever is handy.

*also, you don’t HAVE to knit every 5 rows. You might like tighter cables every 3 or 4 rows. or longer cables every 6 or 7 rows. This part will be up to you and can make each hat unique.

For help making cables, view this helpful link. Cables are really easy and fun. They break up the monotony of knitting in the round and make winter hats even warmer and thicker. Experiment with different waves by placing the “on hold” sts in front of and in back of the project. AND if you don’t have a cable needle handy your smaller circular needles can always double in performance hold your sts!

Follow this cabling pattern for 5 – 6” (depending on how big your head is or how much hair you have. Basically, knit until the hat is about 2 1/2” shorter than what you want.

To decrease:
You will continue to cable as normal during this part. You will only decrease the sts in between the cables and you will do it every other row.
Start by Knitting 2 together (K2tog), K4, C/K6. repeat for the entire row – 66 sts.
Next row, Knit, no decrease.
Next, K3, K2tog, C/K6 repeat – 60sts.
Knit, no decrease.
K2tog, K2, C/K6 – 54 sts.
Knit all.
K2tog, K1, C/K6 – 48 sts.
Knit all -- Be ready to change to double pointed needles to hold the decreasing amount of sts!
K2tog C/K6 – 42
Knit all.
K2tog, K2 all around ignoring the cables.
Knit all.
K2tog K1 all around.
K.
K2tog until you have 8 or 9 sts left and thread a needle with matching yarn to tie them together. Place a couple sts on the top to keep it from being pointy and also to close it up and keep out the cold.



You may know or like a better method for decreasing or shaping the crown. This is how I finished my hat and I was completely making it up as I went. I based it on what the patterns say to do for other hats that I have made and liked the fit. This style may not suit you and you are always encouraged to invent and incorporate your own!!

this is sorta knitting related.

I often catch these guys hanging out on Music Street.



coming soon....
photos of at least ONE of the two sweaters i am working on.
a pattern for my blue cable knit hat.
glitsy winter warmers.
(basically, i'll get back to blogging....)