An artist-naturalist splashes through streams of consciousness... often, it's even her own...
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Newest Project
Embroidery on a doily which was bordered in crocheted lace by my Great-Great Grandmother, Mira Marsh. This is a project almost 100 years in the making.
The embroidery thread is a cotton-rayon-nylon blend. The woven fabric is linen, which is bordered by crocheted lace in cotton.
It's been done for months, but I can publish it now because the magazine issue has been published. I would have done it sooner, but I forgot!
CLICK HERE to see the detailed instructions for how to make this at The AntiCraft.
Way to catch Homeland Security with their pants pooling about their ankles, Colbert Report!! There's nothing I love more than seeing tax dollars squandered on failing businesses, and NOW, apprehending passport-wielding, tax-paying, law-abiding American citizens.
>SNERK< As if I need to be asked twice. "Yarn" is the new "shiny".
Garfield Minus Garfield publishes daily. It was my sister-in-law Leonor who introduced me to this very zen webcomic.
Of course, this particular strip was sent (rather pointedly) to me by My Beloved, who is still waiting for his first sweater and the half-finished half pair of socks I still have on the needles.
Time for The AntiCraft to publish! It's a good one. Again. As usual.
Our theme this quarter is called "Broken Bones", and it celebrates the Latin American festival Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead).
This is not a morbid day to wallow around in pathos and mourning. It's a day of bright colors and cheerful, festive music, generous food, family gathering, and celebration. It's a day to go and share the year's experiences at the gravesite of the people who have passed on, whether recently or long ago. In fact, sometimes it can go on for two days.
So click on the link and see what we have to say, craftwise, about celebrating the memories of the ones we love!
Thankful Thursdays: I'm Thankful for My Sense of Humor
This. Is Such. A. Hoot.
Little back story. Too many relationships have been ended over knitted articles that were received with less than the enthusiasm the knitter felt ought to have been lavished on the article by the recipient.
Example. "Oh, Sweetie, I saw how you were a little chilly a few months ago on that hay ride, so I knitted you this sweater. I hope you like it???" >thrusts sweater hopefully, batting eyelashes< "Erm... Sure, purple argyle is just... >deep exhalation< well, I-I-I I think I've got a t-shirt it'll go with, lemme try it on..."
Nevermind that the hayride was prob'ly in October, and the sweater may have taken until April to complete.
The knitter obviously didn't bother to check for color likes/dislikes when she started knitting a sweater for her boyfriend, so it's unlikely that she did anything about fit, either. The poor sweater gets tossed in the back of the closet, never to see the light of day again, the knitter begins a downward spiral of resentment which cues the deathknell for the relationship, which (plainly) was on rocky footing to begin with, as evidenced by their poor communication skills.
It's a common story. Lots of knitting books and blogs address the phenomenon; The AntiCraft has a great pattern called the Curse Your Boyfriend Sweater, which helps you expedite the end of a relationship deliberately via sweater-gift; in Debbie Stoller's Stitch 'N Bitch Nation (2004, Workman Publishing), she features a sweater/knitted goods-as-gift contract. It's on page 120 under the heading Pre-Knitual Agreement. (Go ahead and chuckle. I can't help how clever it is. ALL her books are like that.)
Here's a story via song that's just about 180 degrees from the curse. What happens when you've been found knitting for someone else???
Warning: old-school Country Western-style music ahead. If you object, replace the performers in your imagination with the Blues Brothers. That might be even funnier.
Part of what I love about it is that these women could easily be drag queens. Except they're so understated (not enough rhinestone, not enough boa feather) it's clear they're really women underneath all that makeup and hair.
"Maybe I just need a new project" is the best breakup line. EVER!!!
It's also a source of blissful distraction. I am dangerously keen on knitting socks, now, and even argyle socks, especiallyargyle socks with a skull, are probably not outside of my skill level. God help me. All I need is the yarn. God help us all.
Yesterday I was invited to join a Flickr group called Stamp Your Sweets & Cookies! because of the above photo. There's a picture of my springerle roll that they liked, too.
I like cookie molds and presses. Cookie cutters I find inspiring, too. There's just something fun about the blank slate, if you will, of a lump of sweet dough. If you can be inspired by a lump of clay or paper pulp or wool fleece, (and heaven help me, I most certainly can!!!) then my goodness, the things I can do with edible medium!!
It starts out with a simple, buff-colored sugar cookie dough. Or gingerbread, shortbread, chocolate, spice, omigoodness! there are so many wonderful flavors of cookie dough.
But why does it have to stay that color? (Ok, chocolate is not the easiest of doughs for a change of color.) Do I not have a multitude of food colors in the pantry? Of course I do. So that's one jumping-off point.
Then, with a variety of technicolor dough, rested, and ready to be shaped, I can cut it free-form. I can cut and stack the cookies, in pre-baked form; or cut them and plan to stack them, Linzer-style (or Oreo style, but Linzer-style, with the lacy cut-outs, is so much more fun!!) post-oven, filled with creme or jam. I can roll some balls of dough and press the little spheres with these lovely cookie presses. I can roll out a large sheet, then re-roll with my springerle roll -- it's another type of cookie press, but in a rolling pin form. Once the images from the springerle roll is impressed, I cut them to separate, and then I have dozens of small rectangular cookies all at once.
After baking, I have some more options!! Decorating options. To frost, or not to frost? Leave it plain? Add nuts? Nonpareils? Sprinkles? Sprinkles come in all shapes and colors (I have some Scooby Doo ones...), as do the many and sugars and edible glitters. There are markers made for food decorating! Amazing. I think that's a wonderful thing.
I've just discovered a neat thing that's been created, and I just don't know how I can live without it. I hope someone can find it, because I really REALLY want this thing.
OK: imagine this, then. Conversation Hearts. But edible. Conversation Hearts are those hard-as-a-rock and tastes-like-barely-flavored-sugar small heart-shaped candies in pastel shades with words and phrases like, "MY MAN", "OH MY", "SWEETIE PIE" "OH YOU"... You get the picture.
And special cookies with special messages. Fun!! It completely appeals to my sense of culinary adventure. Keep your eyes open, and grab it for me if you see it, please! I'd be most grateful.
Published. AND I got linked on Slashfood. How cool is that?????
(Really, the spotlight is on co-editor Carin's Baconhenge. And kudos to her, for devising a recipe that takes advantage of the season during which our magazine gets published. That's completely brilliant.)(Not only brilliant, it's delicious.)
Tiny retablos! I've never seen them so small! Very charming. These are in our favorite gallery, Galería Quetzal, on Mayfield Road in Little Italy. I like her gallery because she goes all over Latin America gathering the works directly from the craftspeople. I also like her because her gallery is vibrantly colorful and loaded with fantastic textures. Personally, I find her an excellent and beautiful human. I would give her name, but I am an idiot about remembering names.
Anything else? Well, yes! We found another gallery we love: Scaravilli Design. It's all photography, and ALL eye-poppingly lush. He makes Cleveland look as cosmopolitan as Prague and Amsterdam, and so very much more. It was a delightful evening, and we got to spend it all with Tim and Carlina (2 of our very favorite people!), too: bonus!
I'm deliriously, happily married to Rick. We have a basenji named Cleopatra and 3 manic (as a result of the dog) cats. They all appear on the blog regularly, as does the garden. On occasion, you may mistake this for the local Ag Report, but I assure you I am an artist, and eventually my work will make an appearance.
In the meantime, I find enjoyment in life's daily distractions.
We work to be part of the solution in Cleveland as members of a giving circle called The Cleveland Colectivo, giving microgrants to grassroots neighborhood projects throughout Cleveland and the inner-ring suburbs.
Rick and I are avid bike riders, and we captain a BikeMS team called Patti's Paladins. Visit our team website pattispaladins.com to learn how you can help us fight Multiple Sclerosis. Join us for a ride!
