Fractal Necklace

I've noticed a trend: As soon as I post something on this blog of about a work in progress, I instantly loose any interest in working on it. That being said, I'm kind of scared that the flower I knitted up and posted yesterday was a little too normal for my sensibilities. I just didn't put in the amount of creativity into it that I like to. Not to say that it wasn't a usefull experience because I was playing with some new increasing/decreasing techniques while working on it. You see, other than the knit stitch, I've mostly taught myself to knit so there are still some things that I'm still picking up on. Here's what I just learned K2tog and SSK are mirror images of eachother, K2tog and sl k psso are NOT.

Speaking of getting technique down, I've noticed that my DVR has started showing up with Knitty Gritty episodes again. They're not new, and are coming on in the wee hours of the morning, but I'm still happy to watch it again!

This has all been preamble to present the Fractal Necklace that I knitted yesterday. I picked up the coral-colored yarn to add on to the darned flower, but ended up with this. Its very much inspired by one of my favorite classes I've taken at college: Plan II Math. Or as I like to call it "Math for Hippies". We learned about all kinds of fun math like fibonacci numbers, platonic solids, topology, mobius bands, the fourth dimension, and fractals. Here's my knitted
interpretation of a very simple fractal:

Update: Knitted Virus

I mentioned in an earlier blog that I wanted to attempt a knitted virus, so I've done some more searching into what had already been done.

Here are some fabulous virus doilies

http://laurasplan.com/ (click doilies)

They are based on images of viruses and made by sewing machine

She really captures the intricate beauty of the viruses.

I found a couple of other pictures that look sort of like knitted balls covered in bumps.

Most of what I found are based on pictures of viruses, and I would like to work from the protein structure of it, which I think would fit in nicely to my modular style

but first I need to finish this project:

hopefully it will eventually look like this, but more knitty:

New Things

I hope everyone had fabulous Christmases and New Years!

I finished another scarflette over the holidays and just got it listed to etsy

I started to fall in love with it during my "photo shoot" but lets face it, I have a scarf for every scarf-worthy day of cold we get down here in Texas.

I also started working on something else using the same yarns, but I'm not sure what yet.
Another Scarflette or purse? I was also thinking maybe hat...it would be some work to figure out the geometry, but I think that it could end up being quite aesthetically pleasing.

I'm trying to embrace the crochet more. I'm just coming to realize that the things that I want to make just make more sense with crochet than knit. Its more willing to be formed around the curves and corners that I love to make. Maybe I'm having a fiber identity crisis.

I also got a new camera for Christmas, so hopefully I can post more often because I won't have to wait for my boyfriend to bring his home from work anymore. Likewise, I am trying to improve the pictures on my etsy page. It is not going all that well so far because I haven't been able to get the light right yet. Honestly, I think the best ones are the ones I've taken in the bathroom! Oh well, practice practice practice.

Que voy a ser, je ne sais pas

I took an undeserved break from thesis research/ stressing out to make this little guy. He's somewhat inspired by the girls over at Bach's Bulletins. Holly's commenting on my blog got me to reading theirs and thinking about what I was like in High School. I was really into drawing funny little creatures, especially winged things. So I thought I would try to knit a dragon. Sadly, he has no wings so right how he's a DINOSAUR!

Sorry, I have a tendency to scream the word dinosaur, which by the way is also the name of our band in Rockband 2. Yes, speaking of undeserved breaks, my boyfriend bought me Rockband 2 yesterday as an early (over a month!) birthday present. It is so much fun, and I am ridiculously excited that there are songs from Bikini Kill, The Silversun Pickups, and Talking Heads.



Is this picture a little too obscene?


The title is from a Manu Chau song that is stuck in my head (Me Gustas Tu)...I can really relate to the combination of spanish and french because I'm always mixing them up myself.

More Leaves

I made these with my green yarn from the last post. the leaves are pretty much knit diamonds, then I strung some beads on the ends to stick 'em together and macramed (is that the correct past tense of macrame?) around the beads. My next plan is to crochet around the whole thing with some black and the purple.

I think that its very appropriate that I'm knitting such planty things because I've returned to my old job making botanical mounts for the University of Texas Herbarium, and my thesis is about plant immunity response. Basically, PLANTS ARE TAKING OVER MY LIFE!!!

Kno Knew Knitting

Life is really getting in the way of my knitting lately....I'm starting my senior thesis this semester, taking two classes and working three jobs! If only I had somehow incorporated knitting into my thesis....If only I had majored in fine arts! OK, enough of the "woe is me!"

So the leafy scarf is doing really well in etsy. It has had more views than the first things I posted! If anyone is interested in the pattern let me know and I will make a post about it here.

I tried to dye up some alpaca that I bought at a flea market. I was blue, so I dyed it with yellow to make it green. This did not turn out how I planned it! Because the fiber is sort of fuzzy and tends to stick to itself, the yellow dye only got into the very outside and inside of the (loosely wound) skein, leaving the inside blue still. I'm trying to think of ways to fix it...smaller skeins....using a squeeze bottle to inject dye into the middle...hmmm.

Thanks for reading!

Leaf scarflet

This is what I made over the weekend. The leaves were the starting point...something I made a long time ago and I had always wanted to do something with them. I think I'll make another like it, out of some alpaca I've had stashed away...for me not for etsy.

Fishy plan

Here is my plan, as quickly rendered in paint, for the fish purse. Rather than knitting up individual fish and sewing them together I want to create stripes that will suggest waves as well as a school of fish. Then I will decorate 1 1/2 "wavelengths" to look like a fish. I'll make some little lace fins, and maybe sequin scales. I knitted up one of these "waves" in Bernat Softee Chunky yarn to yeild the following result:

But I don't think that this will make it into the final product because I really think this would be a good project to showcase my hand-dyed yarn. After so many projects working with it, this machine dyed yarn seems so static to me. Its amazing what a little food coloring and vinegar do for a yarn. I'll try to document the dying process when I get there.

I'm also hoping to post some pictures of the host of purses I have that are in several states of being unfinished...perhaps in hopes of recieving some comments or suggestions on them.

I accidently opened a knitting blog

So here I am with my very own knitting blog. I think I'll use this first post to just upload all of the pictures I have of my work so far.

I need to work on my photography technique. I started a page on etsy.com, and I have noticed that my photos are really not up to snuff...maybe I should start taking them outside.

Anywho...those are the purses that are available on etsy right now, and this is my own purse that I use and has obviously been through a lot. I LOVE this purse though, I don't care how beat-up it gets. Making it and using it were really learning experiences about construction and color choice.

Sadly, I think those are all of the finished projects I have at hand. I've been knitting for about 5 years but really only finishing things for about a year and a half. I really think that the difference for me came when we got an upgrade on our cable services and start getting the diy network. The show Knitty Gitty really had an impact on me even if I never knitted anything directly from the show. Watching it just reminded me how much I loved to knit and wanted to design my own things. Plus just watching other people knit made me feel more confident in my own technique which inspired me to branch out a litttle bit and start playing with the more sculptural aspects of knitting.

I am currently between knitting projects, having just finished the felted wristlet above only yesterday. My next idea was to create a purse that would be a play on tessellating fish. Of course when I did a google image search for tessellating fish I found out that many other knitters have done the same thing but I think mine will be a little different.