Four Groovy Knitting Books

After my first "artist date" disaster, my inner artist was kind enough to actually call me back and give me another chance.  Woohoo!  A second date, this is getting serious.  

This time, I planned a trip to the library.  You know, a library, it's a big building with lots of books in it.  You pick out the books you want and then they let you take them home for a while.  And get this, it's free!  What?!  I know, my mind was blown too.

I decided part of the fun would be to force myself to find what I was looking for without asking for help.  I do this all the time when shopping for groceries, housewares, or craft supplies.  I tend to be a "thrill of the hunt" kind of person so there's not nearly as much satisfaction in finding something if I didn't find it on my own, using my own wits.

I would love to tell you that I am intelligent enough to navigate the Dewey Decimal System from memory and that I knew off the top of my head that the knitting books would be somewhere in the 740s between the drawing books and the books on interior decorating but sadly, it was really just dumb luck that landed me where I needed to be.  I'm just glad I didn't run into this guy.

Here are the books I found (along with their bibliographic citations)...

Walker, Barbara G. A Second Treasury of Knitting Patterns. New York: Scribner, 1970. Print.

Knitting: a Golden Hands Pattern Book. New York: Random, 1972. Print.

Aytes, Barbara. Knitting Made Easy. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1970. Print.

Biggs, Diana. Knitting, Stitches and Patterns. London: Octopus . Distributed in U.S. by Crescent , a Division of Crown Pubs., 1972. Print.

Even though these books are still not quite as old as what I had hoped to find on my previous "artist date" adventure, they still have some great stuff in them.  Below are some of the pics I felt were worth sharing.  For your convenience, they are broken up into categories.

Let's start with the "I Actually Like This" category.  These are all things that I would either enjoy knitting or wearing or both.

This cute cardigan doesn't look dated to me like some of the other selections and I like the little argyle pattern on the pocket.  I'm not sure I would ever wear the hat myself but I think it's super cute.

Finally!  The perfect sweater for walking your dog through the woods.  Now all I need is a dog...and woods.

Now that I've gotten over my sock knitting phobias, these seem like they would be no problem.

I'm intrigued by the concept of knitting plaid-like patterns.

Okay, I'll admit that I mostly love this aran tunic because Princess Leia is modeling it.  I have been itching to practice cabling more though so I've been keeping my eyes peeled for a good aran pattern, this one looks fun.

Next in the "Those Poor Kids" category, a collection of knitwear that the children in these pictures have obviously been forced to wear...

This photo raises a few questions in my mind and none of them are knitting-related.  What is this girl eating?  Why is it all over her face?  Why did the photographer feel the need to photograph this particular moment?  And why did the editor of this book think keeping this photo was a good idea?  We may never know.

Is it just me or does this girl look like she is trying to melt something with her mind?  I'm hoping she got the candy and ice cream she was promised for wearing this amazing knit pants suit.

What exactly is the look on this girl's face?  Dazed?  Confused?  On the verge of a breakdown?  I actually think the dress is kind of cute but this girl doesn't look very enthusiastic about wearing it.

Wait, flower children didn't actually eat flowers did they?

These knit bodysuits are fine if these kids are training to compete in the luge, otherwise they just seem cruel.  I'm sure they're super warm though- sometimes function beats fashion (with a big ugly stick).

I call this category "Families and Friends Who Dress in Knitwear Together Often Look A Little Bit Silly."  Most of the knitwear itself isn't that bad but when more than one person is wearing the same sweater in the same picture you're on a collision course with wackiness.

See what I mean?  Those are great sweaters, there's just a lot of them all at once in this picture.

I think this should be the poster for a Broadway musical about sweater vests and the people who wear them.

A chip off the old block.

"Wow, you like wearing hand-knit sweaters too?  We have so much in common!"

I'm not exactly sure why, but I totally think this picture is two strategically placed cigarettes away from being a magazine ad for Kool Filter Kings.

As far as I'm concerned, the only acceptable explanation for this sweater pairing is that these guys are on their way to audition for a Doublemint Gum commercial.

Pete and Carol always throw the most exciting sweater parties!

And now we come to the "What Were People Thinking" category...

I love plaid and all but, yikes!

Finally, I can knit my own retro stewardess uniform.

Too offensive for words.

I actually don't completely hate this sweater but the sleeves are a bit much.

Robin Hood called, he wants his sweater back.

This color scheme hurts my eyes a little.

Last but not least, the category I like to call "Stuff I Actually Think Is Amazing, In A Good Way."

Combining knitting and weaving?!  How have I not heard of this until now?

How fun it this?!

Plaid!!!

Cables...

cables...

and more cables!

Enchanted cottage...

gingerbread castle...

windmill...

flowers...

candy canes...

Space Invaders!

So there you have it.  I hope to actually knit some of this stuff but I have decided that my Lenten discipline will be finishing incomplete projects (along with concentrating on Bible memorization), so any new knitting will have to wait until Easter- or until all of my "UFOs" are "FOs."  It's nice to have some groovy knitting to look forward to!

A Used Calligraphy Book and How I Ended Up With It

I am currently working my way through the book The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron with a group of fellow artsy types.  I'm still not exactly sure how this experience will benefit my creative life but I'm enjoying the journey so far.  One of the regular exercises strongly encouraged by the book is the "artist date."  The only real rule is that the "artist date" must be done solo- just you and your "inner artist."  The purpose of these dates is to replenish your "creative well" and "unblock" your "inner artist," inspiring you to be more "free" with your "art"- whatever that may be.  I honestly haven't really felt the need to be "unblocked" as an artist and didn't really feel like my "creative well" was dry but the idea of going and doing "something creative" by myself was wildly attractive to me so I decided to "give it my best shot."  Okay, I'm done overusing the quotation marks, you can stop rolling your eyes now.

My first attempt got wildly frustrating when things didn't live up to my ridiculously romantic expectations.  My plan was to go to a dusty old used bookstore and unearth some priceless treasure of a book- hopefully containing old knitting patterns or instructions for ancient paper making.  Then I would carry my find to the chic but approachably charming coffee house located across the street.  There I would peruse the writings that would connect me to another generation of crafters.  All the while sipping my mocha latte, feeling very creative and artsy.  The biggest problem with this whole delightful scenario was that most of it only existed in my imagination.  I did have a used bookstore in mind but I wasn't entirely sure of its location and I was only assuming that there would be a coffee shop across the street- aren't chic but approachably charming coffee houses always located across the street from dusty old bookstores?

As it turned out, due to some logistical hang-ups, I ended up at a totally different used bookstore than the one I had wanted to find.  It was welcoming and the woman running it was very friendly (and her mother was there knitting, so at least I got to geek out for a minute with her) but it was a far cry from the place in my mind and they didn't end up having what I was looking for.  All of their yarn crafting books were of the late eighties/early nineties variety and I couldn't picture myself reading through any of them in public, much less a chic coffee house regardless of it's approachability or charm.  I was awkwardly the only person in the bookstore for most of the time I was there and I didn't want to just leave empty-handed so, compelled by guilt (and who knows what else) I paid too much for a calligraphy book (even after the owner gave me a "special deal"), left the store frustrated, and headed straight to the nearest RiteAid to drown my sorrows in a scoop of pistachio nut ice cream.  I made a mental note of this and decided next time I should be honest with myself and just plan to do what I obviously really want to do when given an hour and a half without any other responsibilities- eat ice cream and walk around RiteAid looking at stuff.

I realize the reasons for this experience turning out not quite great were really my own fault- I could have planned better,  I could have looked up exactly where I was going, I could have said no to the calligraphy book, I could have done a lot of things.  So, now that I've gone on and on about what a frustrating, negative experience this was, let me try to emphasize some positives.  The calligraphy book I got (pictured above) is a fairly comprehensive book and I think it will be helpful to me.  I have dabbled in the art of "beautiful writing" before but never thought I was that great at it- probably because I grew up watching my mom make it look way too easy.  Her calligraphy is amazing and I will always love her style.  

The more I thought about it though, the more I remembered enjoying the challenge of making normal letters look fabulous by using a fancy pen and actual ink.  I managed to dig up a few pages of doodling I did about seven or eight years ago and realized that I may have abandoned my efforts in calligraphy just when I was starting to get the hang of it.  I didn't intentionally quit trying or anything, I kind of just got busy doing other things and forgot about how fun it was to fill pages with beautiful writing.  So here are a few snippets of my past work that my husband so lovingly scanned for me.  Some of it looks terrible, some of it looks pretty good, and some of it is in "Elf Writing."  I honestly haven't the foggiest idea what any of the Tengwar says- I think at one point I downloaded a Tengwar font transcriber and printed out an alphabet key but I have no idea what happened to it and I don't really feel like decoding all those letters right now anyway.  So feel free to let me know what I wrote down if your nerd transcription skills are up to snuff but don't be disappointed if it ends up being a crummy commercial that says, "Be sure to drink your Ovaltine."

So there you have it.  Now, if you'll excuse me, I've got some "calligraphying" to do...and ice cream to eat.

My Valentine's Day Gift

It has become somewhat of a tradition for my husband to hand-draw a card for me on special occasions (example, example, example).  Here is this year's Valentine's Day card...

(front)                             (inside)

I love the caricature of Keith Urban, it completely cracked me up.  Even though my husband doesn't think of himself as the "perfect man," he's perfect for me and he did manage to come up with the perfect card so kudos to him.  He also gave me some heart shaped Reese's Peanut Butter Cups which went well with the Jumbo Size Reesce's Peanut Butter Cups I got for him.  We're planning on checking out our local grocery store for some reduced price Valentine's Day goodies tonight.  Happy Day After Valentine's Day everyone!

More Fun With Tea Towels

Okay, so I know you were all wondering what was to become of the hand dyed tea towels from last week.  Well, believe it or not, I had a plan all along.  Here's how they turned out.

I used a self-adhesive, tear-away stabilizer to do the decorative machine stitching.  I attempted this same project a few months ago without the stabilizer and it was a big pain in the you-know-what.  The end results last time were okay but not great.  This time everything went way better.  Here's a close-up of the stitching.

 I paired the towels with some hand knit dishcloths and gave them as a wedding gift to a friend whose kitchen is brown and tan themed.  To be honest, I wasn't completely thrilled with how all these shades of brown came together but it was too late to turn back by the time I realized I was pushing the limits of this color palette.  I do find comfort in the fact that when you separate the towels from the dishcloths, everything looks fine.

These towels were a very fun and simple project.  I would like to make more of them in the future.  My current sewing machine has over forty decorative stitches so there will be lots of room for experimentation.

Tea Towels (Made With Real Tea!)

This...

...plus this...

...equals this...

Here's the before and after...

I'm pretty satisfied with the results- especially for how simple the process is. I basically just made a big pot of tea (twenty tea bags in about 10 cups of hot water), then added the towels (four of them)  and let them simmer for about an hour.  The one thing I will do differently next time is not fold the towels in half when I hang them to dry.  They all ended up with a Shroud of Turin kind of look down the middle because the tea didn't dry evenly.  The instructions I found here include a step for rinsing the fabric in water before drying it in the dryer.  I skipped this step because I wanted the towels to hold as much of the tea coloring as possible.  Instead, I let the towels air dry overnight and then popped them in the dryer as soon as I knew they weren't going to turn the inside of the dryer brown.  As soon as I pulled them out of the dryer I pressed them all with a hot hot iron to make sure the color was good and set.  The dyed towels in the before/after picture above have been washed/dried once and seem to have maintained an adequate amount of tea stain.  This was pretty much just an attempt to create an alternative to the stark whiteness of the original towels so in that regard, I think I succeeded.

What's Cooking in My Fiendish Brain?

Here's a preview...

Tune in next week to see what madness is simmering in this pot.