Holy Neon Yarny Art~!

Alright. I admit it.

I am a bit loud.

I don't just sound loud, I like LOUD COLORS.

Well, I like all colors really, but my go-to, default, first-choice colors are always loud.

I finished the yarny painting I started last night at Michelle's (see previous post).

Here is what it looked like this morning...

In progress....

and here it is NOW, all finished and LOUD.

I glued knitting needles to the top and bottom to frame the image.

I changed the floating circles into yarn balls (duh) and the green balls will glow-in-the-dark.

And the magical part?

The needles LIGHT UP!

Go big or go home I say.

Mock Workshop at Michelle's~

Last night was a rare treat....

a chance to create in a medium I have not worked with for years... and I wanted to blog about it before life wisks me in 10 other direc

Michelle hosted a mini-mock workshop in preparation for her ArtFest class that she is teaching in a few weeks.

Here are some shots of the fun times...

Michelle posing with her sample... in her hideously tiny and uninteresting studio

(note heavy sarcasm).

Demo...

My yarny stamp I carved...

I haven't carved in years. LOVE it.

Printmaking used to be one of my passions...

Almost done... I need to touch up the purple circles and put a hanger on the back.

Close-up with stamp lying on top.

The ladies in the class with me were so sweet... Here are there links.

Both have fun blogs... go VISIT. :)

Karla Dornacher is Michelle's Ma.

Lani Kent is Michelle's Art Journaling friend.

Slacker?

Oh MY... has it really been almost THREE weeks since I posted?

sigh.
I believe it stems from my pact with myself to try and stay off the computer more. I lurv my computer and the internet and blogs and images and and and.... and am a total geek/nerd with anything computer related. So in a way it is one of my mediums, and in a way it is a huge tune-out for me. Which means I am not being as productive as I should be.

So... enough rambling. What have we been up to?
A lot of just living life...

I had my Hagatha mole removed... before she sprouted hairs... (cackle)

buh-bye Hagatha!

and creating...

This is a shot of the beginning of a line of yarns inspired by the colors of these pretty vases...

They are actually carded and almost done, but on the shelf for now.

Watch for them in a few weeks...

I will finish them when I return from my trip.

Current progress of my painting...

We took a weekend trip to the ocean. Jackie rented a house for her birthday, for a weekend of girl time, so Paul and the girls had some time alone for a few days and a chance to explore the beach and tide pools.

Jackie's gnome...

The requisite heart rock shot.

Itty Bitty pinecones...

Shots of Paul and the girls....

A fort they built on the beach from driftwood...

Exploring the critters...

Gearing up for a trip to PA to visit family.

Things will be on hold for a bit until I return.

Stay tuned for some serious yarn trouble when I get back!

I Need a To Do List~

I slept in a bit this morning...

and then spent over an hour browsing on some new-to-me design (interior) blogs.
Sounds like a colossal waste of time, but OH, so much inspiration! Not so good for the ADD though, now my head is swimming with even more things I want to make and do!

Here are some links if you are interested in that sort of thing...
Some are new (to me) and some I have been following for a long time~
decor8
Design Sponge
decoFabulous
made2create (some great DIY home decor ideas)
The Yvestown Blog
Supermarket Sarah (some raw kitschy displays)
Brooklyn Limestone (great decor/design/ renovation ideas)

Sunday we hit the Pearl in Portland for lunch and some walking around.

Here are shots of the window displays at Anthropologie!

Made from plastic water bottles... which I totally want to try to make for some spring decorations around here.

Yesterday I finished up some serious custom yarn orders~ phew!
They are gorgeous, but were so very time consuming.... . I have a case of spin-ass-itis, which means my back hurts from sitting and spinning for hours and hours. duh. I could get up and stretch occasionally I suppose. I just get into what I am doing and forget.

My Ann was feeling under the weather yesterday. No extreme symptoms, just achy, nauseous, and slightly feverish all day. Hopefully she feels better once she wakes up today. We missed a group excursion to see the Percy Jackson movie. which was very very upsetting for her. Maybe we can see it today?

Paul's flight was delayed in SLC because some woman refused to remove her ipod for religious reasons?! So they kicked her off the plane, started up the runway, then had to turn around so they could remove her checked luggage from cargo. Nice lady. sheesh. What religion would that be? anyone?

So not sure what today will bring... until Ann wakes up. Will snap some pictures to add here once I get to the studio.

Here are some of the Knit Pins I have recently put in the shop.

HILARIOUS!

There are 24 Knit designs, 9 Spin designs and 4 Crochet designs. Go see!
xo

Splat and a Valentine~

Last night my new friend Michelle came over for some art time in the studio.

I promptly demonstrated to her how effectively and FAST I can hit a wall.

Not literally, haha. I mean metaphorically.

I was done, fritzed, tired, and could not muster up the energy to even KNIT. (I know- gasp!)

It was really really pitiful and embarrassing.... sigh.

The only thing that seemed to be functioning was my mouth. I have the gift(curse?) of gab and it gets worse when I am tired. My filters seem to go to sleep first.

So I talked to make up for that wall-slam. A lot-- I talked a lot.

Hopefully dear Michelle will come BACK to play again.

TODAY I was all skippy and focused.

Took care of a bite of bookkeeping and tax follies, then made a foam heart plate to print with.

Michelle gave me a piece of this foam (think really thin styrofoam tray) to make a plate from.

This is what I made~

Inspired by the design on this old vintagey table cloth that was my gram's...

I added more hearts to the design.

Here it is printed on white copy paper~

The foam does not lend itself to great detail in your print, but it is fun to play with and good to get you GOING.... see Michelle? I can make stuff.... really. (hyuck)

Here I printed it on a map~

Here I printed it on a scrap of old sheet music~

Here I printed it over the pitiful collagey valentine I tried to make last night.

It helped...

Tomorrow I would like to make the design a bit more knitterly? and maybe carve it into rubber or linoleum.

Reenie Sweater~

I have been wanting to make myself a sweater from this yarn since Sock Summit (Aug. 08) but could not find a pattern that makes me happy. I am built like I am 5 mos pregnant, but am NOT prego. Wow-- did I just admit that? haha So I am basically stuck between a woman’s XL and plus sizes. The XL are too tight around my middle and the plus sizes too large everywhere else. I am an anomaly. But that is another therapy session entirely. haha.

Knit patterns usually fall in that same conundrum.

So I am designing my own pattern as I go. To flatter those parts I want flattered and mask those that need masked.

This is a top-down raglan sweater, using combined techniques from EZ and BGW and the many patterns I have read. Ravelry Project Link~

Here is a photo of my math and notes...

Gauge is 20 st/ 4 in. and 26 rows/ 4 in. on a sz. 7 needle.

Yarn is Yowza!-Whatta Skein! from MissBabs.com

Colorway is Cadet.

Photo of the front section and the raglan increases~

2/5/10~ Cast on 172 for the neckline. The recommend neck size according to the percentage scale was too tight for my tastes. K2P2 rib for 11 rows (about 1.5 in.)

2/6/10~ did a ton of math and measured a favorite sweater to decide on raglan percentages, etc. Made the back section smaller than the front and am adding short rows to make it longer as I do the raglan decreases. I plan to add about 2 inches in short rows. Today I ripped back to the neck border for the third time and started yet again… all part of the learning process. My short row wraps were making an ugly hole on the right side. I realized the short rows were starting and ending too close to my raglan increases. duh. So I started over and started them 4 stitches from end rather than 2.

2/7/10~ Today I took the time to sit and figured out more detailed math for the yoke. How to space out the short rows, etc. So far so good. knitknitknit.

Photo of the back section (where I am adding the short rows)~

FFfffffphttt...

Did the title make you think about clicking away from this page?

Things have been marginally routine and vanilla around here the past few weeks.
Paul was in NY for a sales meeting and gone for 8 days. I tend to be a bit 'off' when he is gone for a long period of time. Co-dependent? perhaps. whatever, it is what it is....

I did get a ton of site work and updates done while he was gone though...
He came home last weekend just in time for my sinus infection to hit full swing.
So this week has been a decongestant haze.
I finished a knit hat for my baby brother, a late Xmas gift. (more pics at the end of the post)

and I finished swatching for planned sweaters for the girls. More on that later too. Oh and I cleaned. That is kind of a big deal. Cleaned meaning vacuumed and dusted, not just clutter control.

GEESH, why am I even bothering to post? No pics, nothing much to record. No big creative news.

Just life happening. In all of it's boring glory. It can't always be whoohoo... thankfully. haha.

reenieout