Sheep as Inspiration for Art

As a knitter, I have developed a deep appreciation for sheep. How could I not, considering all of the beautiful fiber they so generously share with us year after year? And so I am particular intrigued by Andy Goldsworthy's new book called Enclosure. It recounts in words and photos his Sheepfolds Project, for which he restored over 40 stone enclosures once used by farmers to shelter, count, and wash their sheep in six districts of Cumbria. In the introduction to the book, James Putnam explains: "Sheepfolds are beautiful and graphic reminders of the days of early shepherding out on the hill, on common land."

The book also includes a collection of fascinating works related in various ways to sheep, for example, this shot (part of an 8-part series called "Wool Throws") of Goldsworthy tossing wool fleece into the air.

 

And these works in which Goldsworthy incorporated wet (and sometimes frozen) wool into the landscape.

 

 

 

Ornament-Making with Leigh

Meet Leigh Radford, author of AlterKnits and One Skein, and learn to transform colorful roving into beautiful felted balls that can be joined together to create one-of-a-kind ornaments, garland, jewelry, or even a pincushion.

 
Saturday, December 8th and Sunday, December 9th, 12:30 pm - 4:30 pm
Churchmouse Yarns & Teas
118 Madrone Lane
Bainbridge Island, WA; 206-780-2686

Thursday, December 13th, 6 pm - 9 pm
Close Knit
2140 NE Alberta Street
Portland, OR; 503-288-4568

 
(Photo of Leigh's ornaments from Handknit Holidays) 

I Love the Kids' Books

Sometimes people ask me which of the STC Craft books I like best, a question I cannot answer. In part, this is because I need to be diplomatic. But, more than that, this is because I believe that each book is unique and special in its own way. It sounds sappy and maybe like a cop out to some people, but it's true.

Still, there are a few books that I think are especially important, and those are the three books in our kids' crafting series--Kids' Embroidery by Kristin Nicholas, Kids Crochet by Kelli Ronci, and Kids Weaving by Sarah Swett. These books teach all of the basics and also a little bit about how crafting fits into cultural history.

If you know children who like to make things with their hands, I hope you will check out these books, and, if you have some extra time over the holidays, do some crafting together. I believe that when we teach kids these skills, we are giving them a gift that will last their entire lives (sappy but true, once again).

Meet Lynne Barr this Saturday, December 1

If you're planning on being anywhere in or around Portland, Maine, on Saturday, I hope you'll stop by the KnitWit Yarn Shop and Cafe between noon and 2. Lynne Barr, author of Knitting New Scarves, will be there demonstrating some of the unconventional techniques she used to make the scarves in her book. She will have finished scarves to show as well Linked Rib, Twisted, and Drifting Pleats (shown below, left to right, and the in the gallery here) as WIP's so that knitters can try working on them--with her guidance--if they wish.

KnitWit Yarn Shop and Cafe
247A Congress St.
Portland, Maine
Saturday, December 1, noon-2pm

If you are interested in checking out the knitalong for this book, click here or on the button at right. If you are interested in reading Grumperina's wonderful account of working on Drifting Pleats, click here.

Beyond the Obvious

I love being surprised by people and even objects. For example, I am always fascinated when someone who initially seems rather traditional or conventional begins to reveal extraordinary ideas, or when an object looks totally different from different perspectives.

Take this felt wall hanging with silk embroidery. When I first saw it I thought it was quite beautiful, reminiscent of other early 20th-century Central Asian wall hangings I have seen.

Then when I saw this backing fabric (a printed cotton cloth from Russia), I was really surprised and fascinated. I never would have imagined the front and the back together.

 

Now look at this  woman's robe. It's probably from Uzbekistan and dates back to the late 19th - early 20th century. And it's shown here inside out!  In Central Asia when this was made, it was customary to create solid-color silk robes and then line them with Russian cotton prints patchworked together. I love how extraordinary this robe is inside and out, and also the idea that the busiest and in some ways most complex part of it is actually kept rather private.

So often we pay the most attention to what is obvious. Personally, I'm often more intrigued by what isn't.

 (All photos from Russian Textiles: Printed Cloths for the Bazaars of Central Asia. For more on this book, see this earlier post.)

My Weekend with Hannah I

Earlier in the fall STC Craft published Knitspeak by Andrea Berman Price.

Sarah Von Dreele designed the book as well as a magnet to give away at book signings and other promotional events.

 

 
On Saturday night Hannah and I used the magnet artwork to make a T-shirt. 

(If you want to make a T-shirt like this one, go to the craft- or office-supply store and buy iron-on transfer paper (pick up a T-shirt while you're out if you don't already have one), then download this file, then follow the instructions that came with your transfer paper to iron the artwork onto the T-shirt.)

Then I taught Hannah to knit. (She's definitely a natural.)

 

My Weekend with Hannah II

On Sunday morning Hannah taught me how to make the Elegant Nut Necklace and the Washer Chain Earrings from her book Hardwear (except I substituted hex nuts for the washers on the earrings). Total work time: Less than an hour to finish both pieces.

 

It's Going to Be a Crafty Weekend

When I tell people that I edit craft books for a living, they often assume that I spend my days doing crafts--knitting, quilting, jewlery-making, etc. But, unfortunately, that's not my reality. Although I spend a lot of my time collaborating with really creative, industrious people, I spend far less time making things than I would like. But this weekend is a happy exception. Hannah Rogge,  the author of Hardwear, a book about creating jewelry using materials you buy at hardware stores (like hex-nuts, O-rings, and S-hooks), is coming to my house for a crafty sleepover. She's going to help me make jewlery and I'm going to teach her how to knit. I've posted a gallery of some of the projects from Hardwear here. I'm not sure what we'll be creating yet, but I'm definitely thinking about holiday gifts (like crafters all over the world this weekend, I imagine). If you look at the gallery, I suspect you'll be impressed by the elegance of these pieces, most of which take less than an hour to complete. Ever since Hannah and I met for the first time to discuss her proposal for this book, she and I have been fantasizing about people making these pieces and wearing them not only with their casual everyday clothes but also with fancy attire to formal occasions (like the Academy Awards!). Please let us know if you do.

Russian Textiles

Recently, a friend of mine who is also an editor at Abrams (of which STC is a part) showed me a book she edited that fascinated me. It's called Russian Textiles. It focuses on printed-cotton fabrics created and manufactured in Russia from about 1860 to 1960, specifically for export to Central Asia, as well as the political, economic, and cultural ties between Russia and the Central Asian region (which includes Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikstan, Turkmenistan, and Kyrygystan). Here are just three of the nearly 200 textile patterns featured. The first two are linings from robes. The third one is part of a series of fabrics in which Russian designers tried to depict ways in which the Soviets had "improved" the lives of the Central Asian people.

 

 

Art in Nature

Mike Crouser, the photographer of our upcoming book Knitalong, referred me to this Andy Goldsworthy image today after he read my post from a few weeks ago about Joelle Hoverson's color wheels. It is from Goldsworthy's book Hand to Earth. Under the photo is the caption from the book.

 

Maple patch

difficult

yellow to orange hard to find

wind, sun

leaves drying out and blowing away

Ouchiyama-Mura, Japan, 22 November 1987 

Campaign for Real Beauty

It's called Onslaught and it's powerful and important. Thanks to Natalie Chanin for putting this -- and another film called Evolution -- on her great new blog first.

Getting to Know Our Authors

I've now designated a special area of this blog to author Q&A's (under "Community" on the navigation bar on the right-hand side of the page), so I've moved my Q&A with KnitKnit author Sabrina Gschwandtner from my last post there. I've also added a Q&A with Lynne Barr, the author of Knitting New Scarves.

Gradually I'll be adding more Q&As. If you have specfic questions for any of our authors, please let me know. The best part of my job is getting to work with all sorts of amazingly creative people and I hope you will enjoy getting to know them as well.

Meet KnitKnit Author Sabrina Gschwandtner

The first time I met Sabrina Gschwandtner, the author of KnitKnit: Profiles and Projects from Knitting's New Wave and the founder of the zine KnitKnit, I was impressed by her intelligence, artistry, energy, and poise (and that she was wearing a pair of shoes from one of my favorite designers -- Cydwoq). She is currently touring in the United States and England (possibly in those shoes) and I hope you will go to meet her if she will be in your area. Click here to see her schedule, here to read her blog about the tour on MySpace, here to see a small gallery of photos from the book, and here to read a Q&A with her about the making of KnitKnit.

Knitting in Uganda

Last night I spent a long time on the telephone with Judy Gigliotti, the photographer whose beautiful images of flowers and knitting needles grace the Greetings from Knit Cafe Journal and Note Cards.

Judy was telling me about a completely different endeavor she's involved in: working with the Abayudaya--a small community of Ugandan Jews who are struggling to survive. Judy and her sister recently traveled to Mbale, the village in Uganda where the Abayudaya live, and spent two weeks helping to organize a medical clinic and teaching women how to knit. Judy reports that the women were joyful in their lessons (and in their daily lives generally) and will, hopefully, be knitting well enough soon to start making blankets that will be sold for them in the United States. Here are some of Judy's photos, some of which are being made into note cards that will also be used to raise funds for the Abayudaya.

 

 

 

 

If you are interested in learning more about Judy's work with the Abayudaya, which is organized through the Institute for Jewish and Community Research in San Francisco, email her at judithgigliotti@gmail.com.

This Was a Pretend Post

When Joelle Hoverson started helping me get this blog set up, she made what she called a "pretend post" in order to show me how text and images would look and how links worked. In that pretend post she included a photo of the Color Wheel Quilt from her new book Last-Minute Patchwork & Quilted Gifts. It seemed like such a waste to totally delete the post with this image (not only because the quilt is beautiful but also because I'm still so new to this that the idea of actually undoing something that is working is horrifying to me), so here it is--really, not pretend.

 

Joelle also included a color wheel in her first book Last-Minute Knitted Gifts.

 

And when I called Joelle to ask her about her inspiration for these color wheels, she told me about the River Rock Color Wheel she made when she was in Idaho over the summer.

 

Joelle credits her fascination with color wheels to her upbringing in California in the 1970s."I was really into rainbows," she says. "My mom even had an artist paint one on a wall in my room. He used an airbrush. I remember watching him and being fascinated by how he made all of the colors out of the three primary colors--red, yellow, and blue. The color wheels I make today are probably an extension of that." 

Joelle is collecting images of other people's color wheels. To contribute or to simply enjoy seeing what people are sharing, click here.

A Proud Moment

I have known Sheila Meyer, founder of One World Button Supply Co., for a long time and I am continually fascinated by her stories about the work she is doing in developing countries to help artisans design and create marketable products using their traditional skills and sustainable materials.  Sheila always tells me that her favorite part of the job is working with the artisans, then meeting the people who use their products and thus facilitating the creative collaboration between them. Recently, Sheila traveled to  Guatemala to work with the members of a family who make some of the wooden buttons and pins she sells and had the pleasure of showing them their shawl pin on the Ram's Head Jacket in Norah Gaughan's book Knitting Nature. Upon her return to the States, Sheila shared this wonderful photo with Norah and me.

 

Sheila explained to me that everything this family makes (pins, buttons, and puzzle boxes) is crafted from "found wood," tree limbs picked up from the forest floor and milled locally. Here's a photo of the jacket with the shawl pin on it. The pin is slightly obscured by the necklaces but you can still see how beautiful it is.

 

Knitting Lingerie Style Cover Choices

The decision about a cover for an STC Craft book is a team decision. I take one or several covers to a cover meeting and present them to a committee of people, including the publisher, director of sales, and CEO. Most of the time, even if I am presenting more than one option, I have a clear favorite and I try hard to sell that cover to the committee. Every once in a while, however, I have more than one favorite and I am especially curious to get feedback from the committee. That was the case with Knitting Lingerie Style. Here is the cover we used:

And here is the runner up: 

 

While I am happy with the committee's decision, I do still really enjoy looking at the runner up. So, it's great to have this blog so I can share it with you and give it a bit more life. Thanks to Anna Christian, the graphic designer for this title, who pulled the file for this cover out of her archives.

Another Cover Story

Coming up with a cover concept is a challenging and exciting  part of the publishing process. In the case of our new book by Andrea Berman Price, Knitspeak: An Z to Z Guide to the Language of Knitting Patterns, the  graphic designer Sarah Von Dreele and I floundered a bit at first--until one day I remembered a postcard I had received a long time ago from the Italian luxury brand Malo that featured a line drawing of a sweater created out of poetic verse.

 

I excitedly called Sarah and told her how great I thought it would be to show a sweater filled with abbreviations and other terminology used in knitting instructions because, on a certain level, hand-knitted sweaters are made of these instructions, and Knitspeak was written to help people understand these instructions. I showed Sarah the postcard and, if I remember correctly, she emailed me a pdf of her interpretation of this idea within an hour.

Andrea  is currently touring to promote Knitspeak. Here's  her schedule for the next few weeks in case you find yourself in one of the towns she's visiting.

October 20: Yarns in the Farms (Beverly Farms, MA)

November 3: Springwater Fiber Shop (Alexandria, VA)

November 10: Shuttles, Spindles & Skeins (Boulder, CO)

Thanks, Joelle

I wanted to start a blog for a long time but felt a little lost when it came to figuring out how to get one set up. After a few false starts Joelle Hoverson came to the rescue when she so generously offered her help. Joelle is the author of Last-Minute Knitted Gifts and the just-released Last-Minute Patchwork & Quilted Gifts; she is the owner of the stores Purl and Purl Patchwork in New York City; and she is the creative force behind The Purl Bee and so much else.