Harmony Trail - part II

We were back at my sister's house and I had the opporunity to shoot some video and take more photographs. If I can figure out the technical challenges, I will try to post some of the video. I am pretty excited about it.

In the meantime, I still want to know, what is this place?

Back to the topic at hand

I have been a little sidetracked by a number of things, including this:



This is a sweater/coat that was intended to give some practice at two-color knitting and steek cutting. It is from a book called Norskstrikkedesign. It was one of those late nights when I was captured by the siren song of the internets, and I bought the kit from Nordic Fiber Arts. Now, I am not a yarn harlot. I have project loyalty and I have a very hard time starting new projects when I have something already on the needles. So, it took a distinct force of will to actually cast on the first of eight sections that will ultimately be my knit sprawl.



I decided to knit a black boarder around the whole thing to give myself some leeway in terms of how it will ultimately be presented. Also, it allows me to slowly work my way into the yarn and the piece before the fair isle work starts. I mean, not that I'm scared or anything.

Happy Birthday Mom!

Today my mother is 80 years old. She taught me to knit when I was around eight (and then again when I was 14 when it finally stuck). One of my clearest memories of her when I was growing up is of her sitting on the couch at the end of the day, knitting. No doubt that was her first chance to sit down all day but she was not (and still is not) the type to sit with idle hands. Like so much of women's work, we always took her knitting for granted: the sweaters and hats and mittens kept coming and we assumed they always would. It wasn't until I really started knitting seriously myself that I realized what amazingly talented knitter she is. I like to think I encouraged her to see herself as very talented knitter--no one had ever told her that before and, at first, she didn't really even know what I was talking about when I would praise her work. Now, we encourage each other to keep challenging ourselves, pushing our skills, expanding our stash*. She is a wonderful knitter and a very wonderful mother!

Happy BIrthday Mom!



* as an aside: once a factory close-out type store near my mom (Building 19 1/2 for New England readers) was having a big yarn sale, mostly cone yarns but good quality wools. By chance I was going to be in the general area and, while I was probably not going to be able to see my mother, I was arranging my schedule to be able to stop by and check out the yarn sale. This, of course, was completely ridiculous because I have acheived SABLE (Stash Acquisition Beyond Life Expectancy), but, there it was--a yarn sale, we're talking enough yarn for a sweater for $2!. Anyway, I had several conversations with my mother about whether or not I would be able to make it the sale, the yarn she had purchased at the sale, etc. Finally my plans changed at the last minute and I was not going to be in the area and I won't be able to get to the sale at all. I received a phone message late in the day. It was my mother offering to go to the sale and pick up some yarn for me if I would just tell her some colors I might want--the thought that I might miss this opportunity was too much for her! My mother, the enabler.

Into Great Silence

Still playing at Film Forum for another week or 10 days: Into Great Silence.

See it!

do you knit in NYC? If so, read on...

Unrelated to sprawl but related to knitting...The Yarn Harlot will be launching her newest book on Thursday, March 22 at FIT here in NYC at 6 p.m. She is hoping to gather 750 knitters in their auditorium to show the world that knitters are a force to be reckoned with. Those who knit already know this to be true but apparently there are some out there who doubt our strength. Fools, all of them.

Click on the link to get all the inside information from the YH herself.

terra incognita

Being something of a mapophile, I love looking at old maps, especially looking at how new information causes the maps to change over time. As a young student, I took it for granted that maps were were based on facts and, as such, were neutral objects that told the truth about a place. It was only much later that I realized that all maps have a point of view that determines what and how they depict what they depict, and that this has the power to shape our experience of a place.

Some of my favorite maps are old maps that have large stretches of land labeled "terra incognita." These, at least, seem more honest. Sometimes I like to imagine my life like a big map with large portions labeled "terra incognita." As I wander through, bits are revealed and ever so slowly small portions of my terra incognita melt away.

Harmony Trail

We spent some time up at my sister's house in MA, outside of Boston. She was to be my guinea pig as far as meeting with residents of a new suburban development. In the end, due to (I like to think) school vacation week and FREEZING cold weather, we ended up just hanging out and doing family things. I do wonder if my project description, which my sister emailed to the development's email group along with an invitation to get together and talk about things with me, was speaking in a language that was somewhat foreign to this audience. I will have to work on that, I think.

I did take some pictures and talk with my sister and her husband about the project. She advised me (rather wisely I think) to focus less on the word "sprawl" since it has certain negative connotations. I am not interested in putting people off, in fact I am interested in just the opposite, so I have tried to explain my interest in that which can be called sprawl in neutral words. It was great to be able to spend time there and really absorb the lifestyle, so to speak. It confirms my suspicion that, for this project to result in anything, it will take a good amount of time to generate trust and relationships.








As for knitting...I haven't cast on for the first fair isle piece yet. I hope to do that tomorrow. I have been practicing my two-color technique, which I had never really done until I knit a Bohus for the 2006 Knitting Olympics.



Have no fear, I didn't knit a Bohus in 16 days! It took more like 6 weeks--all that black stockinette stitch!

the fair isle pattern is shaping up

I finally finished (sort of) my first section of my 6ft diameter image of Sun City, AZ translated into fair isle pattern. I have divided the image up into eight 200 st pieces that decrease to 45 sts. When all of those are knit, I will be able to pick up all the sts on circular needles and knit the last bit (like the center of the tam) in a more traditional manner.

But how to knit fair isle pattern in flat pieces, you ask? Good question. I have bravely decided that I would rather cut eight steeks than deal with all those purl sts, so each piece will be knit in the round with a steek (decreases on either side of the steek sts), then cut. Will this work? I don't know.



This is the image I am working from. The red triangle is the section I am graphing in fair isle patterning.



This is the beginning of my graphing out a pattern. I am using a program called Stitch Painter. I originally turned my nose up on the idea of using a computer program to graph the pattern. After spending two days pinning up graph paper (only to realized most of it was not going the right direction), and color in the squares for about 3" of pattern, I realized that I needed to do something if I was going to pretend that I could ever finish this project in my lifetime. I won't even talk about my other original idea of spinning and dyeing all the yarn myself. That was taking my idea of an - ahem - ambitious project just a little too far (esp. considering that, at the time, I did not know how to spin or dye yarn).

I try not to let total absence of skill or knowledge interfere with my ideas...

My Fair Isle

Welcome to My Fair Isle where I will be documenting the process of knitting sprawl. whaa?

Let's see...it all started when a friend showed me an aerial photograph of Los Angeles taken in the mid-1960s. The photograph was black and white and something about the look of it suggested it could be used as a pattern for knitting. After looking at the photograph for several months (these things take time) and thinking about what I would do and why, I began to develop a project. People who know me, know that when I start talking about a "project" then hours of labor can not be far behind. And so, Knitting Sprawl was born.

Knitting Sprawl is really a series of artworks, some knit, some not, exploring ideas related to the realities of living in new suburban developments. The project has its roots in that black and white photograph of Los Angeles as much as it does in another project I have been working on for several years, called The House Museum. That project, while not specifically about suburban development, did bring me in contact with some of the issues that communities and individuals face as they decide to sell their property for new development and what happens in the aftermath. I became interested in how people make these decisions as well as in who, exactly, lives in these new developments and why.

This blog will document the process of trying to answers those questions through knitting and traveling and talking with people. I welcome all comments and questions.