Smitten With My Own Knitten

When I photograph things, sometimes my phone wants to help a little too much with the colors. I like the colors better in person. After one pattern repeat, here is the front of my fox paws swatch.

Here is the back.

This is in my favorite yarn, which is a worsted weight. I thought it was going to be a swatch. I love it so much that it may have to be a scarf instead.

Tee Hee

It makes me so happy when a piece of my artwork ends up on a promo piece for Art 4 Shelter. The dock at sunset is one of mine and it's on one of the versions of the postcard sent out to advertise the event. It helps that I sent in 7 or so pieces in January. It might also help that Simpson Housing Services is one of my clients. Even so, I really enjoy it when this happens.

This is a terrific event. Mark your calendars now!  It's on May 15th from 6 pm to 9 pm at the Machine Shop in Minneapolis.

Another Helper

On Friday, look who showed up to help me while I was taking a picture. The step stool was close to the kitchen bench, so Dorian showed up. She is 17 years old with arthritis, so jumping up on stool is out of the question. It made me smile that she is just as interested in what I am up to, as the orange ones.

I started this painting before the pepper, but finished it after the pepper. While the start was good, the middle was horrible middle. I thought about abandoning it before finishing, but you don't learn as much that way. Since it's not a favorite, it's not getting a separate, close up picture.

#329 - Mr. Biggs Take 1 - 6" x 6" - hardboard

Dorian is quite a character. Yesterday, it was close to her breakfast time when I sat in the kitchen chair meditating for 10 minutes. She walked across my lap several times. When I didn't respond, I could sense her sitting on the arm of the chair and after several moments, she let out a very loud, indignant sigh.

In my last post, I don't think I explained the knitting thing very well. Normally, when you do increases in knitting, it makes the fabric wider in the horizontal plane. With stacked increases, it makes the fabric longer in the vertical plane. If you do stacked decreases in a different part of the fabric, you can play with your fabric without increasing the overall width.

What An Exceptionally, Super, Fun Day!

Today was Yarnover. I signed up for a class with Xandy Peters to learn the techniques needed to knit Fox Paws. Wow. The techniques were super cool, as was the instructor, workshop, and pattern. Essentially, all of this involves making stacked increases and decreases.

Here is the front side of my swatch. The green area shows the stacked increases. The blue area shows the stacked decrease. Ignore the visual distraction in the form of a boo-boo in the green and pink garter area prior to doing the increases. I wasn't paying enough attention with the front and back in the garter area. It's a swatch, so it's fine.

Here's the back.

This would make a lovely bottom of a mitten or a sleeve on a sweater.

After that, we cast on and started a swatch of Fox Paws to test our color choices. Since I am using worsted weight yarn, I could either make a scarf out of my swatch or I might do a different pattern of Xandy's which uses this technique. 

It's hard to capture in words how much fun I had today!

Truthfully

I like to paint from pictures more than from life, a lot, lot more, so I avoid painting from life unless I am in a  class or something. Although, I would like to do some plein air painting. In order to grow, I've finally realized that both are necessary and needed. So that I don't completely avoid painting from life, I am going to do a minimum of 2-3 paintings from life each month.

Last night, I purchased some food for tonight's dinner. That meant one shot at painting the red pepper, which should become part of tonight's chicken and green curry dinner. This was a semi-timed painting. I'm in the middle of a cat painting, but last night was a good opportunity to paint from life.

#330 - Red Pepper - 6" x 6" - paper

I like the form and volumes in the top and right side about as much as I don't like the paint stroke hugging the middle of the pepper from the left to the center.

Something is currently happening with my painting and drawing. I feel like my mark-making vocabulary or something like that has either expanded or improved somehow and I am enjoying how this feels, while it lasts. When I first started trying to draw and paint, it felt like there was a solid, impenetrable wall between me and what I wanted to learn and do. Today, the wall seems just as thick, but it seems to be made up of a number of curtains or veils and that one of the many, many ones recently dissolved.

Today's Commute

Today, I was working at a client in the North Loop. I left early and was prepared with my camera. Hurrah!  I lucked out. I drove along West River Parkway until I could park the car and walk back. Here are my two best pics. One cropped. One not. It was hard to get clear ones, since the camera was at full zoom (60x). Given that and the awkward angle I had to use, it was hard to keep the camera steady.

This eagle is on West River Parkway behind Fairview Health Services. The nest is close by and is way up in the trees and will be hidden soon after the leaves come out.

As I was standing there shooting pictures, the executive director of the client where I was going to do work drove by, stopped her car, and said "good morning" out her window. She lives in the neighborhood and is the one who told me about the eagle's nest, so it was surprising, but not that surprising.

When I showed her several of my pictures, she told me about another eagle's nest on West River Parkway down past the Lake Street bridge. I stopped there mid-afternoon on my way home. This one is in a pine tree and is situated in such a way that it is visible now and will remain visible. As I drove up, one of the eagles was flying away. I chatted briefly with someone who lived on the block and who was walking her dog. She said that there are owls in the pine trees 2 blocks north of the eagle's nest. 

It's pretty cool that I live in a city and both of these nests are about 1 mile from my house. 

Ow, Ow, Ow

Yesterday, I trellised all of my black raspberry plants in the yard, including installing better trellises in one part of the yard. While I always try to be careful, I ended up looking like I got in the middle of a cat fight.

I am continuing to practice drawing faces. In the next session of the online drawing class I am taking on Sktchy, the goal is to do quick studies focusing on capturing overall proportions quickly and loosely, not to finish or go for perfection. We are being encouraged to work on the same face 3 or more times and just to practice, practice, practice. I’ve been doing this while I feed the cats.

This morning, I was quite pleased with this one. In truth, there are times that I can’t believe I am doing this, that they end up looking like faces, and that, most of the time, there is a resemblance.