Deadly Art

A random act of insanity caused me to recently buy a copy of Haute Doll. I was expecting a hoard of creepy little babies and barbies with equally freaky frilly doll collectors, you know, the ones with rooms dedicated to their "little friends". Instead there were sophisticated, ultra modern works of art in the shape of beautiful little people.

So now, I am reincarnating yet another one of my hobbies - sculpting with clay. I never truly perfected my abilities and am now reading online tutorials.

The below was found at random and gave me quite the raised eyebrow and chuckle.

RE: Licking tools-
Yes, bad idea. I point-up Kolinski sable brush tips by pulling them over my tongue-- until a freelancer mentioned that there are rare cases of anthrax attributed to ingesting what is essentially weasel fur on a stick...

Re: Licking tools....

In the next town, Montclaire, was a watch face manfufacturing plant at the turn of the century. Quite a few women were working from home. And they used to paint the glowing radium infested glow mix onto the watch faces. After a prolonged exposure to the radiation and litteraly gobbling that suff up of years, their faces litteraly started to fall off. One can still visited their graves where they lie in lead coffins as the radiation would be to hard for people walking by otherwise.

Alpaca Dreamin

So I want an alpaca. Thats right. An alpaca. Maybe a llama too just for good measure. You don't have to twist my arm to get me interested in a new pet. Not only are they absolutely adorable and spunky with their punked out haircuts, they are also practical. Yep, a giant fuzzy poop machine is practical. 1. You don't need much land. In fact, you can raise 10 alpacas on one (read that - 1!) acre. 2. Unlike my second favorites - the goats - their little pointy feet don't actually ruin the grass/root system. So my pretty grassy field will actually stay pretty, and grassy. In fact, it may actually become prettier because their "llama beans", so to speak, are coveted for their superior fertilizing properties. 3. I want to hand dye my own yarn. :)

I have been drooling over Purlsoup's yarns for quite some time now. I found her on Ravelry but she also has an etsy shop. Apparently she taught herself how to hand dye yarn and it was quite easy.

Instantly my mind went crazy with swirling colors and YARNS Everywhere! Muhahahahfafafafa!

My favorite one from Purlsoup is called - Rainbow Fish.http://www.flickr.com/photos/purlsoup/sets/72157604186642790/

It looks just like a parrotfish, and from earlier posts, we all know how much I love fishies. So I would dye my home grown alpaca yarn in honor of my betta fishies. I already came up with 3 color schemes. Of course, my brain branched out into all sorts of different combinations too complex to list right now.

But OH! how much fun. In the midst of this, pleasantly, I started to miss my Mom. Yes, I will move back near my parents and my artsy Mom and I will bond over hand dyeing yarn. Forget all my career plans, why I moved 700 miles away to try out a new area, yada yada yada. It all comes down to pets and yarns, my preciouses.....

It doesn't help that the yarn dying companies make it sound sooooooo easy!
It makes me giddy just thinking about it.One of everything, please! :D $$Ching$$

http://www.halcyonyarn.com/dyeing.html

SantoGold

Santogold – You'll Find A Way (Switch & Sinden Remix)

Great day with my sweetie. :) Leave it to Urban Outfitters to swindle me into buying this cd. Its just strange and I love it.

Alien Spawn

In reading through our mail this morning, particularly through all the billion pages of printed SPAM, I found this: http://www.storksnapshots.com/

My first thought was, "Wow, how wonderful for Mom's to be." I know the here and there Dr. sonogram prints have always been very special but how cool to just be able to get them whenever you want. Then, I started looking at the actual pics and I was reminded of my aversion to the whole baby/birthing process. Bleck! The sonograms are high quality but just sort of gross me out. Perhaps I've had one too many trips to the Mutter Museum.(http://www.collphyphil.org/mutter.asp)

I guess it could be nice to see what your bun in the oven looks like in such high detail. "Oh, it has your nose, my mouth, blah blah blah...." but I think it would lessen the suprise when the baby is actually born. Maybe it's just the stillshots that disturb me. If it was moving instead? would that be better??? Ehhh......shrug

The whole thing has always been very parasitic to me. An Alien spawn sucking the life out of you until it outgrows your body. Then it sucks the life and $ out of you for the next 20+ years. Oye!

Finperation and Shrimperation

If you know me, you probably have the impression that I love creatures large and small. Well, this is the tip of the iceburg. No! I'm not some crazy hoarding cat/dog lady with 100 animals in my apartment. What I mean is that I truly love and find harmonious beauty in nature. I have a wee chunk of the Transcendentalism in me. I've started to design patterns and a few quick knits to try out the workings of my imagination. Right now I am focusing on the color combinations found in butterfly wings, in tropical fish and other marine critters. I am increasingly fascinated!


My first set of sketches and pattern doodles in excel (yes - microsoft excel) are based on a cute little shrimpy. I have been known to frequent high quality aquarium stores as a cheap thrill. Basically they are free aquarium visits for me. If you are on the East Coast, I highly recomend the Aquarium Depot in Randallstown, MD.

I have had many fish over the years but have kept to ryukins and bettas. It was on one of these visits that I saw my first camelback shrimp, also called dancing shrimp, hingebeak shrimp.

TaaDaa! (Dancing Shrimp) Sorry, I don't have my own picture of these guys - yet.

I'm also in love with the Mandarin goby/dragonet. I'm sure you have seen one before. They are quite striking - see! :)

And the Biscuit Starfish and Necklace Starfish.

Also, I must confess that I am in love with Sea Slugs (Nudibranch). Yep. I loves them. For knitting purposes I am going to focus on the pretty ones like this one, this one and this one. However, if I ever aspire to own one, I am going with a little brown blob like this one. They look like little cows to me. A little squishy, gooshy, cow (or an icky clump of fat??). I actually saw one in the aquarium store and we had a moment. Sure, they aren't as pretty but I like them all the same. While I am more interested in the color inspirations, I may knit up a little Nudibranch to keep me happy until I get that tank.

Jaeger Roma Yummy!

I've kept at that Crossneck Pullover and with lots of moral support, am sticking with those 18 sts cables. The front and back are finished! Woot!

Now I am 10" into one sleeve and have fallen into pattern loathing again. Those freakin cables are just too bulky with this yarn! The cast on for sleeves was the same for every size so only the increases affect width. I am still following the instructions for a small. Up until now I wish I had knit a medium for the body because I think the torso is going to be snug when I sew the seams. Now, the small sleeves are too big! Just can't win! They feel bigger than what I am used to but the pattern calls for two bulky cables up the arm so it even looks chunky.

Yarg!

What to do.....??? I know, keep knitting! lol. I'm more in this for the therapeutic and theoretical art aspect than for actual clothing anyway. At knitting circle even the sleeves got lots of positive feedback so it must just be ME. I'm going to keep listening to the words of wisdom and keep going. When I was testing out the sleeve on my arm, initially I was holding it with the two cables lying flat and facing upward with my palm facing down. Later I was looking at the picture and the cables are actually going to straddle the outside ridge of my arm. So there will be one cable facing up and one facing down. This looks better but I already have my panties in a bunch over it.

p.s. That funny bit at the bottom of the picture is where I increased the pattern instead of frogging. Originally I had cast on a few sts less than called for with the small size. This made the perfect width until I started the bunchy cables which pulled the sides together. So, yeah, that is NOT part of the pattern. Just my laziness which I will need to fill in/pay for later. ;)

Modifications...Again

I thought/hoped this was going to be a straight forward knit. I haven't had one of those yet and was pretty excited about it. I am refering to pattern #34 from Vogue Knitting Fall 07.

Unfortunately I couldn't find a picture anywhere online to present here so lets just say it has major cabling on the front, back, and a line of cable up the sleeves which cross over at the neck. I'm knitting it with Jaeger Roma which is a bit stretchy and has an every so slightly larger guage. Its pretty beautiful so far but I'm starting to really loathe the 12 sts cable portion (two of them) right in the middle of the front/back. Its just too bulky! Why oh why couldn't this be simple. I am wondering if its because the yarn is stretchy but am more inclined to think its just too large of a cable to sit pretty. Now I have no idea what to do.... :( Any suggestions????