Art + Craft Archives - Page 17 of 21

After Party – Laura Letinsky

May 12, 2009 By Paola 6 Comments

I’m feeling very inspired today by these pictures by American photographer Laura Letinsky, who is currently exhibiting in London until May 30th.

Letinsky has put together tablescapes showing after-party disarray, with crumpled tablecloths, spilled wine, half-eaten cake, fading flowers and the dregs of drinks. Her spare compositions and pretty pastel colours give her images an inner stillness and wistful beauty but intrinsic to all is morning- afterish sense of melancholy, emptiness and decay – the party is over, the people have gone and only the washing up remains to be done.

Gorgeous.

Adventures in Knitting – the Blue Period

May 8, 2009 By Paola 8 Comments

I’m still on my massive knitting jag, though I was amazed to find that for a couple of days after the accident my head was so all over the place that I found even that difficult.

Here’s what I’ve been working on recently.

Firstly I managed to turn the yarn barf into this. You can’t see very well, but I beaded the ends instead of adding a fringe. I’m absolutely delighted with it, and have been wearing it often

Secondly, I knitted these on the way to and from Portland. It was a revelation to me that I could knit in the car, as reading anything usually makes me very nauseous. I’m really pleased with these as well, though the Husband does start singing ‘Gotta pick a pocket or two’ every time I wear them. Ha ha. NOT.

Finally I’m working on a wrap/shawl thingy since I’m now very addicted to both Sea Silk and lace knitting after the Yarn Barf Scarf and Megan’s Garter. It’s the first time I’ve knitted anything this lacy but I’m really enjoying it. It’s knitting up quite slowly as it’s pretty dense, but my aim is to get it finished for wearing on the deck on a summer’s evening while sipping margaritas. Apparently lace looks awful until it’s pressed out and ‘blocked’ at the end of the process. The little white threads you see running through are ‘lifelines’ made of dental floss. If I make a horrible mistake I just have to rip back to the closest lifeline and not right back to the beginning of the work (and let me tell you, if you drop a stitch with Sea Silk all hell breaks lose pretty quickly.)

More details, including patterns etc., are, as usual on my Ravelry page.

Cakespy

May 7, 2009 By Paola 6 Comments

I’ve recently come to know Jessie Oleson of Cakespy. She is a Seattle-based artist and illustrator who does cute watercolours showing the adventures of Cuppie, an anthropomorphic cupcake, and also writes the blog Cakespy, where Jessie hunts down various cakes and desserts. At which point I fully understand if you’ve all fled there en masse and are no longer reading this post.

As part of this month’s Wallingford Art Walk Jessie was exhibiting at Trophy Cupcakes showing pictures of Cuppie in various Seattle locations. Given my borderline obsession with Trophy anyway, wild horses couldn’t keep the Minx and I from attending.

I did buy a couple of little watercolours which Jessie will be sending to me. In the meantime the above is the promotional postcard for the event, which the Minx absolutely adores and which I will probably also frame for her. She particularly likes the ‘Mummy and Minx buying a box of cupcakes’ (yes she is fairly familiar with the appearance of a Trophy box) to the left.

If you’re in Seattle, Jessie’s work will be on display at Trophy through to June 1st. She’s also exhibiting at Schmancy in downtown Seattle on Friday evening. For all non-Seattleites, her work is available online here.

Secret Knitting- Part Deux

April 22, 2009 By Paola 1 Comment

I’m sorry this week has all been about knitting and photo collages – still getting back in the groove after spring break.

I was a bit concerned that three knitted dishcloths was a somewhat mean present for Megan (though it seems from your comments that I needn’t have worried) so I took up the tiny bit of blue Sea Silk I have left from the scarf I’m knitting and decided to knit her a lacy garter as well.

Actually this was a very selfish present as I’ve been dying to try out knitting lace and this seemed like the perfect size of project, and I could knit with Sea Silk all day, I love it so. Here’s what I came up with. I found the pattern on Ravelry of course, and it seemed very appropriate since it’s called ‘Eloping’.

I also managed to knit a little Easter gift for the Minx, who is very fond of a soft-boiled egg for breakfast. I was going to make three – one for each member of the family – but the other two are going to have to wait until next year. All details on my Ravelry page. Come and be my friend.

Oh by the way, I’ve decided I LOVE lace knitting and have already embarked upon a lace project for ME.

Secret Knitting Part One – Doctor Who Dishcloths

April 16, 2009 By Paola 14 Comments

I mentioned last week that I’d been knitting secrets and now I can finally reveal all.

As you may know, Megan of Not Martha fame is eloping to Vegas with her fiance’ Scott (check out her wedding blog here) and last Friday we attended a little soiree in their honour.

I decided to knit them some Doctor Who dishcloths as I know Megan is a fan. The colour scheme was chosen to coordinate with their spatulas. The patterns for the Dalek and Tardis dishcloths were found on Ravelry of course, though I had to chart up the Cyberman myself using this fabulous software and a basic chart I found. All details on my Ravelry page.

A propos of not very much I do like close up photos of knitting. Don’t you? (More secret knitting to be revealed after I’ve picked up the Minx and planted some sweet peas. I know you hardly contain yourselves. )

Socklets

April 9, 2009 By Paola 3 Comments

One thing I did manage to finish last weekend were the Minx’s socks. I love how cute they make her feet look. There’s something very charming about four-year old cankles (unlike my own).

Of course temperatures went up to 70 degrees over the weekend and the beginning of the week and I thought she wouldn’t actually be able to wear them before she grew out of them, but we’re back now to a business-as-usual, grey, overcast, dull, rainy Seattle spring, so she might get a couple of months wear out of them.

Apologies for the lack of bloggery in recent days. I’ve been doing STUFF – painting a fence, building a flower bed, wrestling with a gigantic inbox and knitting some secrets. I have no idea how people not only do stuff round the house but also manage to document it.

We’re also heading for an impromptu trip to Portland over the weekend, so I’ll be back in the middle of next week. Don’t miss me too much. And if you have any recommendations for fabulous shops, restaurants and things to do leave them in the comments and I will love you forever.

My New Toy

March 31, 2009 By Paola 3 Comments

The vintage Dutch yarn swift I bought off Ebay arrived yesterday and it is so much more beautiful than I hoped – a beautifully carved and lovingly constructed work of art. I love it to bits.

Here it is posing with some new yarn. Ravelry is going to bankrupt us.

Why is all the equipment and stuff associated with knitting just so gorgeous? It used to be so much easier to resist in the days of utilitarian metal needles and scratchy acrylic yarn.

Making An Easter Tree

March 30, 2009 By Paola 9 Comments

People have been wondering what an Easter tree actually is. I think it’s originally a Northern European tradition (Swedish? German?) but is becoming increasingly popular in the UK. We never had one when I was a child but I’ve made one every year since the Minx was born.

They’re very easy to do. Just put some florists’ oasis/foam in a bucket; stick in some branches, (either flowering tree branches or some twisted willow as I’ve used here); cover the top with sphagnum moss; decorate with little wooden pastel-painted eggs and ornaments, and finish off with peculiar pompoms.

I found our little decorations, by Gisela Graham, a few years ago on Ebay, but I see that for US peeps Williams Sonoma is getting in on the act with some pretty wooden eggs, which are even on sale if you want to snap some up. If you were one of the crazy people who doesn’t like my pompoms, I sup-pose some pastel satin bows would do at a pinch.

The Pompoms from the Black Lagoon – Another Adventure in Felt

March 25, 2009 By Paola 4 Comments

I don’t know quite how I got to this page on Ravelry but when I saw this pattern for peculiar Easter tree decorations, I knew I had to give them a try.

I used a yarn called DROPS Eskimo which is a super bulky (super chunky) 100% wool yarn from Norway and simply wound the yarn round mine and the Minx’s hands to create not very prepossessing bundles of yarn, tied in the middle with cotton thread.

Six minutes each in the Wonderful Wonder Washer transformed them into furry alien pompom creatures.

Here they are drying out and basking in the sunshine.

The Husband thinks they look like these

I, on the other hand, am trying to decide whether they’re really really cool, or really, really naff.

I’m tending towards the former, but can see that from a certain perspective they might look like very chewed and disgusting dog toys.

Are these cool or crap?

Paola, they’re extremely cool. You’re a genius!
Paola, they’re extremely crap. What were you thinking?

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More Adventures in Knitting

March 16, 2009 By Paola 1 Comment

Just another quick update before this turns into a knitting blog. Since I have no other projects which are remotely close to completion I promise no more knitting for some time.

The pain-in-the-ass socks are finished. And I don’t even like them very much. They’re very baggy and saggy – a combination of knitting a size too big (the pattern didn’t have instructions for Small Adult); very soft cashmere/silk yarn and a pattern with no real ribbing to it. But they’re nice enough for wandering round the house and GORGEOUS in bed.

Apologies for the extremely crap pictures. These were the last pics taken with the point and shoot. I’ve got my old camera back now – it’s unrepaired because the repair would have cost too much, we’ve decided to go for a camera upgrade instead! Though this will have to wait due to this month’s surprise $2,000 car repair bill.

The yarn barf is turning into this – a scarf knitted from silk and seaweed. I’m enjoying this as the pattern is piss easy and it knits up quickly as it’s mostly made of holes. The yarn itself is utterly gorgeous, has beautiful drape and sheen and the colour is amazing, imagine silk dipped in blue-black ink. It does seem ridiculous to be knitting this though, when it was snowing at the weekend and the sky is leaden grey.

We did manage a brief afternoon of sunshine yesterday though so I rushed out to take photos.