Nesting, nesting 1,2,3

I am plugging away on meeting my goal of getting 10 patterns together by mid-May, and am currently working on a set of knitted and felted nesting dolls. I am always reminded by how much MATH I use when coming up with knitting patterns, but making a nesting set of something is even more math-heavy. A while ago, I made a set of knitted and felted stacking cups. It's a pattern I plan to release soon. I modeled them after the wood ones in natural toy catalogs. They would also be great for organizing your desk, etc...

Here they are stacked up in my cardboard box lightbox-

Once I worked these out, I wanted to make a set of nesting dolls. They have proved trickier, getting them to fit and still have a pleasing body shape has required a few different tries. I think I've got it now and only have one more to knit (the tiny, non-opening one) and they will be ready for faces and decoration. Here they are so far surrounded by my stuff, garlic and baking powder molds, and "business papers"-I made a mess on the dining room table, but it was a productive morning, mostly because my kids were also happily working with me:

Julian was needle felting for the first time, using a cookie cutter for a mold. Avery was playing with a bowl of lentils. We made foxtails the day prior and the lentils were leftover stuffing. I felt like such a good mom! I wish we could all cheerfully work for an hour like this every morning! 

If you have sharp eyes, you will see a couple wheel prototypes one the table too, my next big project will roll...

Little Women

The Berea Arts Council organized a bunch of events for women’s history month focused on the book Little Women. I really wanted to participate in the art show, but when I read Little Women as a kid it didn’t make a particularly big impression on me. It was just one of the many books I consumed. I wasn’t sure if I had anything to “say” about it. Back then; my foremost impression of the book was that the relationships between the female characters reminded me of aspects of my own family. When considering this project and reviewing the book, my initial impression remains true. It seemed appropriate to create a piece representing the women in my family.

This piece began as a handful of snapshots. I photocopied, cut and pasted them to get the composition I was after. (This meant I had to cut my younger brother out of the photo to make room for my Mom...Sorry Josh.)

I then transferred the image to silk. The silk was basted to cotton muslin to stabilize it. Using embroidery floss, I hand stitched over the image on the silk, eventually obscuring the entire printed image with stitches.

Stitching in this scale, in this loose, painterly manner is a great exercise in letting go of my perfectionism. Recreating the photo exactly is impossible. My goal is to recreate the subjects in such a way that their gestures and postures combined with the images themselves form a likeness.

When writing the artist’s statement for the show, I was reminded of the words of my adolescent self’s favorite poet, Christina Rossetti from her poem “Goblin Market”:

For there is no friend like a sister
In calm or stormy weather;
To cheer one on the tedious way,
To fetch one if one goes astray,
To lift one if one totters down,
To strengthen whilst one stands.

As sentimental as it is I still appreciate her words. (Even though I am a tad bit embarrassed to admit it...)

My mom and I-way bigger than actual size.

Behind the scenes

Recently, one of my favorite knitting bloggers posted a few "behind the scenes" shots of her preparing a knit piece for inclusion in her book. I think one of the magical things about the internet is being able to craft a specific "look" and "world" for your business or blog, and seeing behind the lovely "public" images of her site made me appreciate her work even more! I am currently putting together my own pattern line, (I will have 5 patterns published by the end of this week, halfway to my goal of getting 10 patterns online before my May 19 birthday!), and have been really growing as a photographer. I don't like taking photos, but strangely, my super-talented husband doesn't like it when he's taking photos for me and I stand behind him and tell him that his shots are not quite right. SO I am taking photos upstairs, running downstairs to check how they look in Photoshop, then taking MORE photos upstairs... at least I am getting exercise. I use a white piece of paper for a background in the "how-to" shots for my patterns. I have the camera set up on a tripod, set the camera shutter to a 2 second delay and quickly pick up the work. I don't have a good seamless background for shots of finished objects, so I usually take those outside. Meanwhile, here's a peek at my sixth pattern-

Can you tell what they will be? Here's a hint- there will be several more pieces in this pattern- and they will be smaller. In the background you will see the storage space for supplies I am currently using/guest room bed. It's hard for me to share a photo that doesn't include a tidy inspiring studio, but it's what I have to work with for now, and this room has great light. I don't actually work in there, that's usually reserved for the couch or dining room table, depending on what I am doing. 

I was productive this morning and also felted a bobble swatch for another new design.  The blue piece above doesn't have a top because for the first time I had a knitted piece fall apart in the washing machine. I guess I should knot off and weave in my ends more carefully! Shucks. 

I've got more knitting to do first, but all the how-to steps for patterns six and seven will have me honing my photography skills soon. 

Studio progress

It has been awhile since I mentioned my studio building project, but not because I haven’t been working on it! It’s just that writing about doing drawing after drawing on graph paper seems…. uninteresting. I’ve been doing a lot of this:

I also bought a couple necessities, my own tape measure and tool belt. This belt is relatively petite, which is good. I can’t imagine needing a bag of nails, a tape measure, a hammer, and whatever else you hold in a tool belt at quick draw ready on my person. It seems like it will get in the way, but when talking to folks who have building framing experience, sounds like it will be a beneficial timesaving accessory. In addition to its modest size, I picked this white canvas belt trimmed with suede because of the fabric painting possibilities of the material. I may be getting into building construction, but I am still primarily a fiber artist after all.

It has been a wet spring so I have only had a few days to work outside. Even so, much of the site prep is done and it is time to begin the foundation. Gulp.

Gnome Home Pattern available

Hooray! 

The pattern for the Gnome Home cob cottage is now available in my shop!

Here's another home with a different color scheme.