finger thumb

baby hat: take two

Finished the re-knit of the baby hat today. It was glorious, lovely warm fall weather today, so we really had no need of a hat, but the Baby graciously agreed to model it for 15 minutes anyways. I'm very pleased with this pattern. I can see that it will be our perfect winter hat. I knitted it in Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran, which is a yarn that I enjoy working with. The pattern called for something else, and since I only have single balls in different colours in my stash, I decided to be clever and knit in a couple of contrasting stripes so that I could stretch the yarn further. And its a good thing that I did that, because if I had knit it entirely in the blue I would definitely not have had enough. As it is, with the addition of the grey, I ended up with only 2 (!) inches of the blue left over when I cast off. I hate to cut it that close, but I'm very pleased that it worked out. It was a good quick knit too; I can totally see knitting this for gifts. The hat is very cozy, and covers up those sweet vulnerable little ears, and has its own attached scarf, so that you can tie that around his neck, so everything stays warm and tucked in. This will be the Baby's second winter. During his first winter, going outside was not something we did for recreational purposes, but mostly to get from one place to another. I foresee a lot more playing outdoors this year, especially now that we are in the country and have a place to do that. So I think this hat will get put to good use.

Oh, and note the Baby's hand gesture in the above picture. I haven't quite captured it as well as I would like, but this is the closest I've gotten to a good picture of what I call his 'Evita Hand'. Its this open handed gesture that he uses to point to things that he is curious about. But it has such grace, such poignancy that I always imagine that he is leaning over the balustrade and addressing a crowd of people, about to break into song. 

strongman

Alright, more Montreal love today. I'm working on all sorts of little projects these days, but I'm having trouble getting things done, or at least done and photographed so that I can show them to you. So instead, I'm going to show you something I finished a long time ago. Well, not a long time, but at least four months ago, and when I still lived in La Belle Province, so it feels like a long time ago.  Montreal has a lot of great public art, of both the old-school and contemporary variety, but this is one of my favourite traditional bronze figurative dealies. It is a statue of Louis Cyr, a famous turn of the century strong-man, know as "L'homme plus fort du monde" as it says on his statue (though I may well have spelled that incorrectly. My French is better spoken than written) I've been doing an intermittent, though on-going project in which I knit clothing or other adornments for sculptures. I knew it was only a matter of time till I knit something for Louis.

Et voila! Barbell ball covers. 

These were knitted out of the yarn from two second-hand sweaters that I unraveled and reclaimed. If you are interested in working with reclaimed yarn, (very environmentally friendly, and also cheap) there is are great tutorials here and here. 

It took me a bit of trial and error to work out how to do this in a way that I liked the look of. I thought about doing short row shaping, but didn't like the way that looked in the end, and finally decided on straight up evenly spaced decreases, which give that nice swirly star look on the top.  Since the dumbells are attached in the middle, I had to leave an opening in the bottom half of each ball, so that I could get the covers on, and then sewed them up by hand. 
I was very happy with how these turned out in the end. And I remember this day so well. It was really hot, and I walked over to where the statue was with my friend Sarah C. who took the pictures, and I used a dirty old gallon bucket as a step ladder to get up on the statue's base in order to sew the covers on. It was the day before the Baby's birthday, and I remember marveling at how he'd been with us for a whole year! It was also the day before we left Montreal, and this was the last piece of art that I made there. It felt like a nice way to say good-bye, and at the same time leave a little bit of me there. I knew it would not be there forever, but I was very pleased to hear from friends that it was stayed up there on the statue for almost a month. That made me very happy. It also made me think that the Parks Maintenance workers in Montreal are not very observant. Or maybe not. Maybe they are just big art fans. Here's hoping. 

lets try that again

So I've got the fall knitting itch. It always hits me at this time of year; leaves falling off trees, must knit something. You know what I mean. And with the ole' broken toe, and having to take a little time off work, I've had a smidge more free time for that kind of thing. Also, the Baby needs a new hat. His cute little grey one with the brim does not cover his ears, and its getting to be the kind of weather where one needs their ears covered. So I went over to Knitty and found a perfect pattern, dug through my stash for some yarn, and had the thing finished and cast off in two (2!) nights. I was very pleased with myself. Bordering on smug really. I couldn't wait to put it on the Baby's head. And when I did, this is what happened: Hmm, I missed the part in the pattern where it said to bind off the forehead stitches LOOSELY! So it fits him, but I'm taking it from his reaction that it does not fit comfortably. This is a problem. Sigh. So I have spent the evening ripping it out back to the forehead, and redoing it. I'm not a big fan of 'frogging' (undoing stitches that you've already done) but then again who is. And of course, what I have to redo is the K2 P2 ribbing, and I hate doing the ribbing. But I want my boy to have a hat that fits. 
I'm going to post about it again when I finish it for the second time. I think the pictures will be better with a functional hat and (theoretically) a more cooperative model.

knitting + art = my exhibit opening

So for those of you who don't already know, I have an art exhibit opening this weekend, on Saturday the 7th of November at 2:30 in the afternoon, at the Cambridge Galleries on Queen's Square in Cambridge, Ontario. The exhibit is called Young Romance and I am one of four artists whose work will be shown. Here is a description from the curator, Ivan Jurakic:

Young Romance is a look at dating and romance through the skewed lens of our self-image obsessed culture. Juxtaposing dysfunctional relationships, co-dependency, and celebrity obsession the exhibition highlights the work of four contemporary artists works including: “The Dating Portfolio” by Susan Bozic (Vancouver) a series of staged photographs of the artist spending quality time with her ideal boyfriend – a mannequin; a selection of oil paintingsby Eliza Griffiths (Montréal) that depict young women and men captured in moments of arousal and distress; “Garments for Forced Intimacy” by Andrea Vander Kooij (Bradford) which documents a series of wearable balaclavas that have been hand-knit by the artist for use by co-dependent couples; and a video lounge with selections by Jillian McDonald (Brooklyn) who has edited herself into the narrative of Hollywood films, featuring the videos “Me and Billy Bob” and “Staring Contest with Brad Pitt”.

The opening will be this weekend, but of course if you can't make the opening, that doesn't mean you won't be able to see the show. The exhibit will run from November 7, 2009 to January 3, 2010.

CAMBRIDGE GALLERIES QUEEN’S SQUARE

1 North Square
Cambridge, ON
N1S 2K6

Gallery Hours: 
Monday to Thursday: 9:30 am - 8:30 pm, 
Friday & Saturday: 9:30 am - 5:30 pm, Sunday: 1:00 pm – 5:00 pm

And if you don't live in Ontario, and would like to see the work, you can go to my portfolio website to see the works instead. Look under the 'Works' tab, and then under the 'Knitted Works' category, and the work that will be exhibited will be the Garments for Forced Intimacy series.

Hope to see some of you there!

The gift that keeps on giving!

Well, after all that talk about how to receive a hand-made gift, I have a little thanking to do. We have recently received an amazing hand made gift, and I just want to take a little time today to oooh and aaaah over it. 

My mother in law is an amazing crafter. A maker-of-things extraordinaire! She’s also one of the main reasons that my husband is an artist, because she saw, early on in his life, that he was interested in making things, and good at it too, and nurtured and encouraged those abilities in him by taking him to pottery classes and doing crafts with him at home. Anyhow, her main craft interests these days have to do with fibre, and let me tell you, she does it all.

 She spins, she dyes, she knits. And when somebody has a skill set like that, the result is AWESOME PRESENTS! These pictures are of the beautiful sweater that she has made for her son (my Hubs). And I should add that she has made and re-made it, to his specifications. As any crafter, she has felt the heartache of the un-appreciated gift, but as I have counseled, has begun asking before she makes things and the results are spectacular.  This is no small feat, as my Hubs is a very visual, and pretty picky guy. I have knit him sweaters and hats that have never seen the light of day outside of the cupboard, (ahem) and that is EVEN THOUGH I asked first and consulted on design choices. He is kind of hard to please. 

So this particular sweater has been through two incarnations to get to this point. He’d specified a sweater with a zipper and no collar and no ribbing at the bottom, and in the picture below you can see the first version of the sweater she made to his specifications. 

However, upon trying it on he decided at that point the sweater was too short, and despite his earlier request, needed a collar. So my mother-in-law went back to it and made these modifications. Now that's what I call love. I need to note that she spun and dyed the yarn herself for this. And then of course, knit it, and put in a zipper (I'm terrified of putting in zippers), so this pretty much makes her a super-hero. At least in my eyes. (please note that the leather on the collar is not fully sewn on yet, because she wasn't sure if Hubs would like it, so bonus points for making the gift customizable. He does like it, so I can sew it down now.) 

And SUCCESS! He loves it! And wears it, which of course is the true test of a successful hand-made gift. He says it is very warm, and can double as a jacket in this weather.  And it is my mother-in-law’s birthday today, so what could be more fitting than that we show off the results of all her hard work, both the sweater and the lovely son and grandson. Happy Birthday Mom/Oma and thank you so much! 

sweater rescue update

I had big plans to make a sweater for the baby for fall. Something cute and practical, a nice layering piece for under his jacket. But you know how it goes, there is never enough time. I even found a pattern and bought some yarn earlier in the summer, but now it is late fall, and I think that the largest size that the pattern comes in won't be big enough anymore. So, maybe he won't get a hand-knit sweater this year. Or maybe he will...

...because sometimes the universe does your knitting for you! I don't know who knit this, or when (though I have a feeling it was in the late 70's, from the colour scheme) because I bought it at the Value Village a couple of weeks ago. I think it is absolutely darling. It has just enough flawd-ness (I'm not sure if that is a word) to be endearing. I love the way that the stripes don't quite match up in the front. Yet it is well enough made to be totally useful. It's an excellent first-thing-in-the-morning-over-pajamas cardigan, but also chunky enough to be a little jacket in the early fall.  Here is my energetic morning boy displaying it in use over pj's. Yaay stripes. So the baby gets a hand-knit sweater after all, and I gain some time for making other stuff, and we keep one more item of clothing out of a landfill, But most important, we honour some anonymous knitter, who sat down and took the time to make this little garment, which we will use with pride.