File Buz

One Night Two Shows!

Im so thrilled to be able to share a couple of new pieces! If you happen to be in the Los Angeles area this weekend, there are two great shows happening tonight that I am so very lucky to be a part of.

The first show is Fractured Fairytales at the Wonderful World of Animation Gallery in Culver City! I decided to do Snow White:


Some other contributing artists include Drake Brodahl, Lorelay Bove, Annette Marnat, Becky Dreistadt, Genevieve Godbout, Israel Sanchez, Joey Chou, Megan Brain, and many more! The show opens tonight and runs until August 11th.  It is going to be a fabulous!


The second show is All Together Now: A Tribute to the Beatles opening tonight at Gallery Nucleus in Alhambra! The contributing artists were all asked to create pieces based on the Fab Four or one of their many songs. I chose to do a piece based on "Blackbird" - one of my favorites.


Find out more about this show (including all of the contributing artists and opening night fun) right here.

Also, I will be at San Diego Comic Con next week! I will be in the same spot I was last year - Small Press Table O-15.  Im working on some fun things for the show right now, so expect another post to come soon!

Available link for download

One Swatch Two Hats Zero Politics

Its Not an Error, Its a Design Feature

Remember that stitch pattern I promised to write down for you? The one from the vintage baby cardigan?

I sat down to work it out and realized that Id knit the thing incorrectly.

I have an excuse. The Lister & Co. booklet is in rough shape. The first half of the pages have separated from the second half. The first half contained the key to the abbreviations. The second half is the half that came with me on the road. When I encountered "m1" (make one), I had to guess as to what it meant. It was a single increase, obviously–but what sort of increase?

Since this piece wasnt intended to be an accurate historical recreation, I didnt fuss over what was necessarily appropriate for the period. I tried my preferred "lifted increase" (making a new loop from the running thread between the stitches, and knitting it through the back). It looked good. I moved along.

Turns out, upon consulting the front half, that Listers editor intended "m1" in this pattern to be a yarn over. (Yarn over in this book is also called "wfd" or "wool forward," which is in part why I assumed "m1" would not also be a yarn over; but the English like to toy with you in this fashion from time to time.)

So in knitting the swatch, I tried it both ways–mine and theirs.



Both have their attractions. Listers yarn over produces a small hole in the center of the motif that I find very fetching. My lifted increase preserves the solid fabric and looks more like a cable. Use whichever you prefer.

This version of the pattern will give you the raised welt with two purl stitches on either side.

Multiple of 5 sts + 2

Row 1 (RS). *P2, k3. Rep from * ending p2.
Row 2. *K2, bring yarn to near side of work, sl next st as if to p, p2. Rep from *, ending k2.
Row 3. *P2, place right ndl across near side of work and pwise into 3rd knit st. Lift 3rd knit st over first and second knit sts and off the left ndl. K1, inc 1 (see note above), k1. Rep from *, ending p2.
Row 4. *K2, p3. Rep from * ending k2.
Repeat rows 1–4 until you are quite finished.

Two Hats, Both Alike in Dignity

By odd coincidence, I had two hat patterns hit the street within weeks of one another, both knit with yarns from the same company: Blue Moon Fiber Arts, the good people who bring you Socks That Rock.

The first is for Carol Sulcoskis new book, Sock Yarn Studio, a compendium of projects that are made from sock yarns, yet are not socks. I christened the design "Roselein" because of the very abstract little rose at the top of the crown.



It has ear flaps you begin at the lower ends with Judys Magic Cast On. The cable pattern on the flaps, the brim and the crown is all the same basic pattern–its the three different locations (and the number of repeats) that make it look so different.



Style note. The buttons and loops on the flaps are meant to be decorative. Unbuttoned: whimsical, carefree, gamine. Buttoned: idiotic. Warm, perhaps–but idiotic.

The other hat was actually knit for Blue Moon Fiber Arts, as part of their 2012 Rockin Sock Club. Tina Newton, the head of the house, pairs up designers for each monthly installment, so you get two designs that use the same yarns. She paired me with Anna Zilboorg, because perpetual humilitation is my lot in life.

Anna made gorgeous socks. I made a colorwork hat with a band of bare, angular, slightly crazed branches. I call it Buckthorn.



There was some added fun with this one when Tina realized that the variegated yarn shed sent us was too heavy for shipping. Hey, it could happen to anyone. That yarn had to be replaced with a lighter (but thicker) yarn in a different fiber, and with far less of it. I had to trash the original design and come up with a decent replacement. There are some little tricks in the pattern to make the most of the variegated yardage–plus a variegated curlicue on top for good measure.



If pressed, I would say that I made a stranded two-color autumn hat that doesnt have leaves or snowflakes in anywhere in it. Kids, Im calling that a win.

And Finally

I had delightful company over the weekend–a weaver and spinner who convinced me it might be time to do something with the bobbin of Border Leicester thats been sitting on my wheel for...uh...three years. So I chain-plied it and now its done. Fairly terrible, but done.



No, wait. I fib. It hadnt been sitting on my wheel for three years. Because last year, during the Tour de Fleece, I decided my goal would be to take it off the flyer and stick it on the bobbin rack. So I did. Then I had a celebratory finish line drink. And wouldnt you know my victory turned out to be more honest than Lance Armstrongs. Wanna buy my bracelet?

Available link for download

One Two Three Four Chennai Express Song Shahrukh Khan Deepika Padukone

After creating history with "Chennai Express Trailer",
We present to you "Chennai Express Song" "One Two Three Four"
from Shah Rukh Khan most anticipated movie of 2013
 directed by much talented Rohit Shetty.
The music of this movie is by Vishal Shekhar
while lyrics are penned by Amitabh Bhattacharya.



Enjoy and stay connected with us!!

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=UmCnGpaSarQ

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One kitchen two fools six legs

…Hello. Remember me? Sorry about the tumbleweed, Ive been busy writing things. I still am, but Im going to try to get back into the habit of putting things up here as well.

Recently, I was for a few days looking after my friends dog, captured here in a typical moment of meditative thoughtfulness:




One of the solemn duties of whoever is lucky enough to be custodian of this large brown idiot is to give him a pill in the morning. He wont eat the pill on its own, so I found the easiest way to get him to take it was to use a dab of butter to stick it to a dog biscuit, and toss him that. I was constructing this cunning pill / biscuit Trojan Horse the other morning, with the dog watching me attentively, when I accidentally dropped the pill. As it rolled off the kitchen counter to the waiting dog below, I called out, instinctively… Leave it!

Yeah, quick thinking, genius. Because it would be terrible if the dog ate the pill before you put it on the biscuit that makes him eat the pill...

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