New Project: Pysanky

I am on the hunt for an electric kistka. I found this video to be interesting. Although Pysanky is most often associated with Easter it was originally a pagan art. I have been researching patterns from many different cultures and hope to become proficient at pysanky.

Disgustingly Beautiful

I absolutely become repulsed by the killing of animals for fashion. Its just the epitome of frivolous massacre and torture. I am however, intrigued by the furniture below. My imagination is swept away to a land far far away in a time long ago. In my mind these creations were used by tribal royalty. However, they have actually been formed in the here and now and its just disgusting. The aligator skins are not attractive to me at all, even ignoring the cruelty factor. The tails thrown in here and there just look out of place. Creativity wise, these things are very extreme.





More can be seen here.

Tiny Bubbles.....or errrr Costumes?

In a random fit of googling through ancient costume images I found modern day miniature costume creator Serena Partridge. Too cool!

I have been working on my next itsy project for a week now. I finally found some decent threads. I wish I had special ordered them for that contest but I still would not have won. Truly I did not have a good concept to go with my work. The work itself was enough for me. My goal was to make something tiny and extremely difficult. I like nothing more than challenging myself. Eventually I will be able to work past figuring out a new skill and move into the realm of meaning.

I have put about 8-10 hours into this new project and will post a picture later. After it was about an inch long on the needles, I actually dropped a stitch! WHAAAA??? It fell about 5 rows down before I found it. Luckily it was a collumn of just kniting unlike two stitches to the left or right which involved S2K1psso every other row. If I had dropped one of those! Omg, I can't even imagine the mental pain and suffering. To avoid mistakes, I have been working only when I am wide awake and not bored. I can only work 1-2 hours at a time with my current setup. I don't think its very good for my eyes to work much longer on something to small for more than 2 hours at a time.

To distract myself from it, I have been learning to cook new recipes. Tonight I will cook one of my favorite dishes. I have not made it before myself but have had it for years and my Persian friend's house. Her Mom is the best!!

Persian Cooking - How to make Tadig Rice from Macaela VanderMost on Vimeo.

Follow Up - Itsy Bitsy Knitsy

Soooooo! I am so excited that I managed to finish that darn thing and submit it for review. I didn't win, or even get an honorable mention but I DO HAVE THIS!

The contest was to win one of the most beautiful dolls in the world by Marina. They can be seen on her website: www.enchanteddoll.com

Evidence! It is actually touching a doll - AND - despite not having a dolly of my own, it came out just the right size. I had to knit by the seat of my pants according to online measurements.



It has been MONTHS since I mailed that darn thing and I haven't had the heard to knit since. It took hundreds of hours. Literally, it was my very first attempt to do something so small. I totally screwed up my fist little swatch and had to restart. The discarded piece was only 1 cm long but because I wasn't used to the needles, that first bit took two weeks to finish. I almost had a heart attack. But I did it!

And now I'm ready to start another one. "Psycho"

Itty Bitty Knitty

Waaaay back in December of 2009, I started a tiny knitting project. To make a long story short, it fell off the needles in a very devastating turn of events when I stupidly brought it with me on vacation. You see, its for a contest and time is of the essence. I was away for 10 days and somehow thought it would be efficient to bring it along because I would have soooo much time to work.

Yep....

However, I started it again last week and am at least back to where I was when it fell off. The pattern doesn't look like much right now but here is picture of my gauge swatch. It is ultimately going to be for a doll. :) Yes. A doll. Because I am obsessed with them suddenly.
I'm not going to say what kind of doll until after the contest. Just in case there are some other crazy knitters out there who want to trump my humble design. :) I have to say, now that I am finally getting the hang of these tiny little things - its pretty fun.