Katie in my Studio/House

Yesterday I brought Katie out to my house

to see the studio and Village Books
and to meet the goats. Eventually we got to work. You'll have to wait a little longer for the paintings - yesterday we put a wash on the Arches paper and did some preliminary sketching. You can see Katie working away in the photos. I drew a bit and knitted too. The nests (see above) are increasing in numbers & complexity as I get drawn further & further into the process of knitting them.

Thanks, everyone, for all the comments! By next week there will be paintings to show!

Working at Zoot

Here's Katie this past Saturday, working on a prototype for our "Taking Wing" project. We both came up with imaginary landscapes in watercolor pencil. I knitted a bit. Caffeine was ingested.

Later we went over to Rockport Blueprint and bought luscious Arches paper on which to do the final paintings.

Today we met at my studio and began to paint. I was knitting too, of course...

Look at this lovely thing I found!

Minnesota Poetry: Eireann Lorsung's "Knitting"

Posted at 8:31 AM on January 25, 2010 by Marianne Combs (1 Comments)
Filed under: Minnesota Poets, Poetry

Éireann Lorsung's poetry reflects a love of craft; not just the craft of poetry, but her love of textiles, dressmaking, and paper. Lorsung's artistic talents are not limited to being a wordsmith; she also used to have her own line of clothing and now creates prints and drawings. Lorsung was born in Minneapolis and earned in MFA in writing and her BAs in English and Japanese from the University of Minnesota. You can find out more about Lorsung at her website, ohbara.com.

Knitting

When are you coming back to stand in front fo the window?
(I heard you whistling last night. Cars pass me by all day,

waves circling the enormous globe.)
So much is left out, I'm knitting a pattern without

stitches, without needles, only long fingerbones
to carry yarn. There was something buried

the night I left Eau Claire for good, and I never knew
how it would grow. Now your childhood friends

are my students, I walk past houses you lived in
without my knowledge and your scent trails

from abondoned bakeries. Whole warehouses
have been invented to catalogue want like this.

I go on knitting night and day because I don't know
any other thing. All unknits by darkness

into twine birds use piece by piece. What secret
name can I call you? What adventure are you on tonight?

There is forgetting in the density of raw new wool,
yarn shop one block from your apartment,

the cheap scarf - you don't value things
because you never make them. Moon over the whitening world

sharpens spindle, windowframe. The sash
is pulled, seam is set: without material, there is no map.

Taking Wing - Hand Knitting & Nests

The first "nest" for the Taking Wing Exhibit at Waterfall Arts in Belfast, Maine is knittted from viscose + cotton yarn. It measures about 6" long, not including the strands, which will remain. I like the "dangly" look!










Here's another, using a variegated cotton yarn. Same approximate dimensions.

Most of this yarn was donated to the project by my good friend, Toni, knitter & spinner extraordinaire. Thanks, Toni!!!

The current plan is that the nests will vary wildly in color, a little less wildly in shape and only a little in size. My partner, Katie, will provide a beautiful painted & drawn backdrop in front of which the nests will hang.
Hoping for at least 20 nests!


More to follow after my first working meeting with Katie tomorrow!

OTE (overtaken by events)

Yep, that's me. But, lots of knitting & knitters were included in the events that overtook me. I've been lost in a cowl fetish - fast to knit, as beautiful as jewelry, and the perfect Maine winter-wear. Many thanks to Ballantine, who shared a favorite pattern with me.

Right now I'm using up a lot of scratchy odds and ends of wool & other fibers to make "bird houses". These will be part of an installation I'm doing with my 12 year old partner, Katie, over at Waterfall Arts in Belfast, Maine in March. Katie & I are studying cliff swallows and chimney swifts, birds that are in danger in the area's watershed. My contribution is a bunch of hand knit "nests" in all kinds of colors & textures to hang in front of a sunset backdrop painted by Katie.

Pictures to follow!!! I promise! And more about knitters WHO ARE NOT ME...

Karen

The Teacher: Roxanne Jelenfy

We all remember our first knitting teacher - that special person who now seems vaguely like a, well, drug-pusher, or other evil being who desired my very soul...No wait, for MOST people, a beloved grandmother or mother was the teacher of knitting (this, according to the Book of Ravelry). But for me, it was a 12 year old girl, in the living room of our first house in Maine - a rental house decked in Landlord 1971 carpets & wall colors - our first warm haven during a winter where 4-5 feet of snow fell & NEVER melted til the end of March.

I guess it must've been a Christmas gift: The Klutz book of Knitting, by Anne Akers Johnson.
This is where we start our interview with Roxanne Jelenfy, my daughter, now almost 17 years old.

Who taught you how to knit?
Mom bought a book & I couldn't figure out how to do it by myself. Stephanie Thostenson, the mother of my friend Erin, taught me. I wanted to learn how to make my own scarves. I liked the way yarn felt & looked.

What's your favorite yarn?
The nice, soft kind! Any classic shade or sparkly yarn.

Have you continued to knit?
Knitting isn't so much a serious thing as a thing to do while watching TV.

At this point in the interview, Roxanne, who is styling grunge these days, thumbs through her recently acquired pile of vintage records, & puts on The Doors...

Do you have anything to say about how seriously your mom has taken this whole knitting thing? Isn't she sort of...obsessed?
NO COMMENT!

Tell our readers about your infamous crochet ball. Do you still have it?
Yeah, it's up in my room. I learned how to crochet in Montessori School when I was 7 or 8. The older kids in the school taught us. I only learned how to do a chain, so I just kept on doing that. When I stopped, the crochet ball was about the size of a small globe.

Which do you like better, crocheting or knitting?
Knitting.

Do you have anything else you want to tell us?
Yes! I need a pattern for a slouchy beret. In the words of the Beatles, "HELP!"