knit 5

Two squids
Two Sweaters
One bag
One throw

This is what I am currently working on. I can't seem to keep to one project. I am easily distracted. Yarn is my drug of choice.

As i said in the my last post i have been inspired to dream up and knit squid. After many a knitted Jelly fish earlier this summer, it was time for something a bit more solid.

*Useless fact of the day*
(the squid really does have a beak... it looks a lot like that of a parrot, hard, sharp, and curved.)

The way I start is by grabbing a large metal mixing bowl and heading to the stash. I through a bit of this, and a bit of that in, creating the pallet for the new work. When you have as much as I do to work from it is sometimes a good idea to limit yourself a bit in color choice. It really is much like setting up a pallet before you start a new painting. If you bring out every tube of paint you have, you ether have a mess or mud.

A bit of wool, a bit of alpaca, some eyelash, and of course a bit of noro... and off I go. (The yarn company noro often screams sea life to me.)

Next step is to cast on and go, increasing and decreasing to create the shape and form that i am looking for. these are the starts of the two new squids. I am pleased with how they are coming along.

Along with the squid i have started a "knit along". On friday afternoons i meet with a wonderful group of women who spend time at the yarn shop Twisted in NE Portland(love love love this store). We are all knitting the "Baby cables and big ones too" sweater by Suvi Simola. I am knitting mine out of a heaving weight sock yarn, from one of the local yarn companies in portland, Blue Moon.

I think that is enogh time away from the knitting needles... time to get back to the fiber.

-s

my first post

I am here to write about knitting.
I am here to write about art.
I am here to write about life.

It is a beautiful day in this city called Portland, called stump town, but what I have lovingly come to call puddle town. 73 and sunny.

*useless fact of the day*
( Portland, before it was know as Portland was known as stump town. When people first started to settle in our sweet little city it was mostly forest, thats is to say full of lush vegetation, and yes trees. As with many places in this country and others, we proceeded to cut down all trees, well most of them anyhow leaving us with stumps, and mud... thus stump town. It wasn't until later that due to a coin toss between two east coast natives did we gain the name Portland. )

I am a an artist... but mostly a dreamer. I have a background in paintingg, but currently spend my time wrapped in fiber. I am a yarn sculptor. I create soft sculpture from my own hand knitting. These days i have been inspired by the sea. jellyfish, squid, octopus, star fish and many other things found both in and out of the sea.

This is an example of such craft.

My yarn has become my paint, and my needles have become my brush.

This gigantic octopus is created from many bits of yarn... I couldnt come close to listing everything I used in the making of him, and there is no way to reproduce him. People have asked for patterns, but there are none. What i can tell you is that he is all new material, mostly wool, stuffed with polly fill, and his suckers are glass beads.

I work in a method known as free form knitting. I have enough skill and an understanding of shape, and what each stitch I make will do, that I simply cast on and off i go. I dont always know what i am going to end up, but it has created some pretty amazing results.

That should do it for now... I have started a new palet by throwing a bunch of yarn in to a bowl, and am off to think about giant squid.