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friday friday friday

I got a bit more of the beautiful Mimbres done; I'm within a few rows of finishing the first full repeat of the pattern:

but still seem unable to get a true representation of the colors with my camera. No purples, no greens in my knitting, except when I photograph it! I love this design; it's very peaceful to zigzag along up the vest.

While the colors (brown and turquoise handpaint) of my choosing are very non-authentic, the pattern is very authentically 'Mimbres' in its non-repetitive nature. Again, you can see the original design by Meg Swansen here. You can learn more about the Mimbres people here, if you'd like to. That's where I found this cool Mimbres graphic that reproduces a Mimbres design for death that is over 1000 years old. Imagine!

In Other News

The Smart Sweater entry yesterday generated some thoughtful comments, and I appreciated them. I kept thinking about the contrast between networked-with-chips textiles and my Mimbres vest with its thousand-year design history and the pattern that locates it nearly precisely in the 10th and 11th century. Not the same as GPS-locating, but still quite fascinating to think of the contrasts between old textiles and new wired textiles. Larry, Carol, and Janet, thank you for adding to my thought process.

In Pup News

The pups are bored with the soggy weather and so are getting into all kinds of indoor mischief. I'm hoping for some sunshine today so we can all take a nice non-muddy walk. Della especially needs to work off some puppy energy and quit pestering Jack.

A very pleasant weekend to you all.

Smart (Really Smart) Sweater?

Your assignment: read this article and leave a 50-word comment.

Happy thoughtful Thursday to all!

Done!

Laura's skull vest has had the steek edges overcast and the buttons sewn on and it's been blocked and dressed with Euclan Lavender.

I was wishing that I had a wooly-board for blocking, but then realized I might have three alternative wooly-boards already:

A view of the perfect button:

I'm not completely happy with the finishing on Sister's vest; I think finishing a steeked stranded knit must be rather analogous to working on your short game in golf. Not fun, but completely necessary. QueerJoe used gros grain ribbon on the neckband of his beautiful Chock-A-Block Cardigan, and I'm wondering if that's what I should do/should have done. I hope he'll discuss.

In Other News:

My semester end project (the one with all the horrid statistical stuff) was returned to me for "refining." Ack.

Tonight is my last late night class in Newark. Gack.

Mimbres is motoring along (see yesterday's photos, please, and visualize a few more rounds).

And I baked four dozen oatmeal raisin and four dozen chocolate chip cookies for the MSPTC party tonight. Whack!

Have a lovely Wednesday, all.

Mimbres Only

Another inch or so accomplished, and I can't begin to describe what a lyrical knitting experience Mimbres is . . . it's got a very lovely rhythm and knitting it is like singing a song through your fingertips. It's rainy this morning

so not only do the pups look askance at going out, I can't take a photo outdoors to assure the sensitive types that there really is NO purple or green in the background. This camera definitely seems to lie about some colors. The background is full of beautiful browns. Also, there is turquoise dye coming off the yarn and onto my fingers as I knit, so I'm reluctant to lay the knitting in progress out on the wet deck. It's too early in the week for a knitting surprise.

More Festival Photos!

I was so happy with Wendy's photolog yesterday of MDSW that I was nearly delirious when during an unsupervised moment at work yesterday, I surfed by Sheila's site, and saw her plethora of pictures of the Festival! Many are of people we know online! And all are wearing cool knitted stuff! And Caroline's Emily is there too! Awww! She's SO cute! Thanks, Sheila, for the eye-candy post!

And Speaking of Eye Candy

Did you see what Flor is charting while she waits for her wool delivery? Awesome! Flor, I hope your tortie is perfectly well today.

Have a good Tuesday, everyone! Off to Newark for me.

Variegations on a Theme

Remember I mentioned my handpainted wool from Handpaint Heaven's potluck sale at the first of the year? I kept wondering what would happen if they were knit side by side...I've seen faux fair isle that were very dramatic done with one variegated and one solid background. The cover vest on Cheryl Oberle's Folk Vests, for example. But I wanted to use two handpaints. So I did, and the result is Pure Knitted Mojo, in my knitting opinion.

The background is rich and tortoise-shell-y; there's no purple or green in it. The design is from Meg Swansen's Knitting, and it's the mysterious Mimbres Vest. The turquoise handpaint adds a rather Zuni-ish aura to my interpretation, and reminds me of when I lived in New Mexico. Zig-zagging through this chart has been the most knitting fun I've had in a long time. It's a brilliant design from a brilliant knitter. See the original here.

And here's a closer-up of what happening with my handpaint:

I like it. I wasn't sure I would like it, but I do.

Were You Festive at the Festival?

What did you buy at the Festival? Do tell!
I had to take a pass on going because I couldn't finish my must-finish statistical project before today's deadline, but I did finish, finally, yesterday afternoon (the mean GPA of ENG352 students is 2.8, in case you're interested) AND
Wendy posted a whole page of fun MDSW photos!
Plus my Guild members called with shopping updates from the fairgrounds at regular intervals, so I didn't feel completely like Cinderella sitting in statistical ashes. Lola of the beautiful Lhasa vest posted a photo of her spinning experience, check it out! Happily for me, there's only 120 or so days to Rhinebeck.

View from My Knee While Crunching Numbers:

Happy Monday to all! It's the last week of this semester for me!

BONUS! POSSUM PHOTO from Laura!