Approaching the New Year

I just got back from a 5-day trip to my own nativity scene -- that is, the place of my birth, the Twin Cities in Minnesota.  Some years ago, I was appalled to learn that St. Paul's Elders had seen fit to tear down Miller Hospital, the actual nativity scene wayyyyy back in 1944, without so much as a call to ask me whether it was all right.......and now I see that the Minneapolis Elders have radically revised my beloved University of Minnesota campus, the source of the MA and Ph.D. and the site of all of those memories (some of which involve poverty, etc.) that fundamentally have to do with who we are.........they built HUUUGE buildings, moved roads, erected a Frank Gehry building that looks for all the world like a pile of crumpled aluminal foil -- and, again, without so much as a note to ask my opinion.  I got LOST, for god's sake.   It was just unbelievable    And to make thngs worse, it seemed to me that they have erased Dinkytown, the area on the so-called East Bank where everyone hung out in small cafes and galleries and junky little book stores....GONE.   Or maybe not.  I was lost, remember.  When you're lost, you're unable to judge where things might be!!!!!

There's some kind of parable here.  It has to do with going home again.......and it's not always bad.  For one thing, we found a huge pile of truly amazing vintage buttons -- handpainted, etc. -- in an obscure Wisconsin town's antique shop.  I got to see my gorgeous (TRULY) great niece, Milana, the daughter of niece Natalie and her handsome partner, David Carbonara.   Yes.  He's not Irish.  And, yes, the family was from Milan.  And I got to have breakfast with my old old old friend Ken Moss, with whom I went to grad school, who hadn't yet screwed up the nerve to go look at the campus (he now lives and works in Washington, DC).  And then I got to visit my friend Julie Larson, the one who goes back the furthest in memory -- about 45 years, which is really scary -- who is happily living in a neat townhouse in New Brighton, Minnesota -- which, I should add, wasn't where I thought it was.  What a disaster. 

I wonder if it makes more sense, under the circumstances -- by which I mean, the fact, however outrageous, that I just keep getting older  and older and older (!!!) -- to stop trying to identify old things, to perhaps be satisfied with memories, and instead seek out new pathways, new possibilities, perhaps new cities and countries.  Why visit Rome, for example, when Rome lives in memory and can only be sullied if you go back and stay in the same hotel, retrace old byways, eat in the same old (now seedy) cafes?  Why be upset (as I was some years ago) to learn that the best yarn shop in FLorence (Beatrice Galli's lovely place on the Arno River) was no longer there? 

Interestingly, I didn't look for NEW shops when I learned about Beatrice, so shattered was I by her absence.  So in the New Year, the idea will be to settle for memories and to push into new territory -- intellectual territory, physical territory, social territory.  There are worlds, entire universes, out there that can become new memories, worlds that can't disappoint us because we don't know about them yet.  Happy 2013 to everyone.

svb

Smash the Pastel Prison!!!

I'm making a little sweater for my great niece for the holidays, if I can only find time to finish -- and I have been intersted in the response.  I bought some chunky Universal Yarn Co. acrylic one day when visiting my friends' yarn shop in Ann Arbor (Knit A'Round), but of course it's jewel tones, not those blah-blah pastels.  Twice now, I've brought out the little pieces (it will be one of my Grand Circus hoodies made out of modular squares) and an observer in the shop has said, basically, "Oh my -- isn't that for a little GIRL?" Always, I'm told that I should be working in pink, blue, insipid yellows and greens or maybe (MAYBE) pale lilac.  Even variegated pastels are suspect; something unwelcome, like the aforementioned lilac, might creep into a BOY'S sweater. 

I do think that most knitters and crocheters are moving beyond the pastel straitjacket.  But not all.  So here is why I don't pay attention to the supposed 'rule,' and wish others would do the same.  First, the pink-blue routine is no older than the 1930s.  It was originally a marketing schtick -- and then it became a kind of gender marker, like the earrings people put into little girl's ears at age X or Y to forever mark them as girls.  The gender anxiety in our culture has ebbed, mercifully, but you can still find it -- as when someone stops a parent in a grocery store to comment on the cute "little boy," and gets rebuked for masculinizing a little girl.

But, second, kids of that age can't see pastels.  So we really are doing this for us. Why not make things in colors they can actually see?  Bright colors.  Red.  Indigo.  Yellow.  Kelly Green.  Etc.

So I will continue to cook up this little hoodie, which in any case is going to be too big for little Milana, and collect some more comments.  Stay tuned.

svb

Stitches in Time....

Let me briefly describe a project that we'll be announcing soon at Artisan Knitworks:  My little company began, some of you will remember, as a celebration of the lives and stories of small producers of yarn, fasteners, and other supplies for fiber artists.  The idea, before the recession made very many things quite difficult, was to do up a series of story boards with photographs to deliver up the makers' stories alongside their wares.  Well, that part of things awaits my retirement.

In the meantime, though, I'm going to publish a booklet -- the size will depend on all of YOU -- each year, in advance of the Third Coast Fiber Arts Festival in late October, that will contain stories and photographic illustrations submitted by our customers and vendors.   It will be divided into sections (the names are not fixed right now, but will be things like Laughter, Bumps in the Night, etc.) and edited by me.  (Don't worry -- I used to earn my living as an editor!).  Some part of the proceeds will go to a shelter for survivors of domestic and sexual violence.  Be thinking whether you want to share a story (500-1000 words).  More soon.

svb

Tunisian Crochet......!

I've been thinking again about Tunisian, and especially the incredibly easy and versatile Simple Stitch, which is what we used to call Afghan Stitch when I was much younger......What an incredibly fall-off-a-log easy way to create warm accessories in a flash!  Here's a shawl I did awhile back literally over a weekend, mostly on a Saturday, on a big wooden hook made by BagSmith, size S, I think...using a strand of ancient (30-year-old) LaGran by Classic Elite mohair in Green Apple (WHY do I remember these things after three decades?) and a strand of Noro Silk Garden, supplemented at the two ends by a strand of glittery Dune by Trendsetter to vary the landscape.   The fringe is just a bunch of chain stitch, nothing fancy -- nothing a beginner couldn't learn to do in five minutes' time.

.....or if you prefer, you could cook up a really simple Tunisian hat in about 30 minutes flat.  This one will be featured in an upcoming class -- done on a huge Boye hook, beginning with fat yarn and only 8 stitches. 

So now I'm thinking about a huge huge huge Tunisian simple stitch coat worked from one cuff to the other cuff on a cabled Tunisian hook -- maybe with three strands, color-shifting as I move along -- I need to think about the array of yarns.  It might be most fun of all to work a kind of Biblical Coat of Many Colors, holding one strand (the mohair) constant, and throwing in everything but the kitchen sink, within a certain range of colors, of course, then using mismatched vintage buttons to close it.  I can even see a long, attached scarf.  I will keep you posted.  Need first to gather a pile of yarn -- and to do that, I need to unpack all of the stash in the basement (we moved!!!).  

For those who want to play, I'm offering a Tunisian class at the studio in a couple of weeks -- see the website!!!  www.artisanknitworks.com       svb

Vogue Live, Chicago -- First Entry

I promised photographs from our recent trek to Chicago for the Vogue Live, Chicago expo, held at the fabulous, old Palmer House Hilton in the loop........I've collected images in three separate entries, so have a wonderful time looking.  And have a look at the Vogue Live website.  These things happen periodically in places like Manhattan and Chicago. 

The vendor areas occupied the 3rd and 4th floors in the hotel and looked more or less like this:

I have dubbed this guy the show's mascot (see the full-length view in a later entry):

I saw some of the most drop-dead beautiful stuff I've seen in years -- as with this collection of crocheted scarves and shawls made by a French company using Madgascar artisans (a fair-trade company, I hasten to add).  Enlarge the photos to get a close look at the workmanship -- all of which was basically unaffordable for ME, but probably not for people with a bit more money, and I really do applaud the determination to give women what their labor is worth:

.....and finally, just LOOK at this amazing full-length coat:

Now go on to the next two entries!        svb

Vogue Live, Chicago -- Part 2

We found all kinds of friends, and more than a few interesting CRITTERS:

Here's the handsome Damien of Blue Heron Yarns and his partner Miguel (also handsome):

...Here is the glamorous (you owe me ten bucks, Leslye) Leslye Solomon of New York, who owns Woolstock -- a great yarn operation -- and who designs great sweaters (and teaches a fabulous Continental knitting class, not to mention creating a fab video on the subject):

Also get a look at this guy -- a yarn bowl -- we bought maybe a dozen in different styles, made by a nice couple from Russellville, Kentucky:

........but my all-time fave critter is this guy.  You figure out how they did it.  I gave up.  For a close-up of his face, see the first Vogue Chicago entry.

Now go on to Entry Three!     svb

Vogue Live, Chicago -- No. 3

From the great Vogue Live, Chicago expo at Palmer House, Chicago this past weekend.  Here are some of the more outrageous moments.   

First, one of several small crocheted baskets made from old video tape -- priced at 500 dollars and up (the one shown here is only 5 inches in diameter and carries a price of $ 550 !!!!!).  I vividly remember Kathleen, who once worked for us, making things out of video tape maybe five years ago -- if only she'd known to put huge price tags on it.  I call this outrageous.

   ...and then there was this felted art-knit, which is at least unusual and diverting, entitled "Together":

....and some pretty cool art-knitting in mobile form (click on this one to enlarge it):

...not to mention these water-color drawings of knit stitches (I'd like to own one of these):

.......and then there was the collection of KNITTED PRESIDENTS -- one of which was the 44th President of the United States.  Recognize him???

So you see, it wasn't just about yarn and garments and inspirational classes!    svb