random inspiration roundup...with footnotes

 

oh, hi there! Here I am preparing the blog writing & photography workshop I'll be co-teaching with Beverly Army Williams next week at Fiber College, Savvy Storytelling * and it's hard to ignore the [lacky of] content here this summer. One of the things we'll be blabbing about is the importance of consistency. ** um,...yeah.

You know what's  hardest about long lapses? Trying to figure out where to start. I'm just going to skim along through some moments of inspiration this summer. Photo heavy post follows.

In June I returned to Nash Island to help out with the sheep shearing and roundup. It deserves and will get its own post about the activities and people and sheep--but I had the honor of going out to the island the day before with Jani and Ellen, to camp and  just be there. I can't even put it into words, it was so beautiful and elemental. I have very little stillness in my life. So this? ahhhhh.

 

I spent a while just wandering around, the colors and textures slay me. We aren't even yet talking about the sheep, which you surprisingly barely see on this tiny hilly island,. Until roundup, that is.  My new banner, on top, was a rare girl who showed herself on the highest island ridge.

 

 More inspiration in June: the bathroom chalked graffiti at A Gathering of Stitches . This was my summer of stitching, which will also get its own post. But obviously, the writing was....on the wall. . Can you spy my subtle contribution?

In July I spent a few days with two wonderful women, Susanne of Lucky Spool Media  aka CraftyEditor and the talented Liz Quan,  shooting a book on bedroom quilts, at a converted barn home in the Hudson Valley.

 

If you're guessing that it made me want to quilt, you'd be wrong. But, it did make me think a lot about printed textiles, room styling, the beauty of a well-dressed bed *** Susanne is ahhh-maaaazing, she transformed rooms with a steamy iron, an artillery of Command hooks, and jaw-dropping ease. I also thought about how gorgeous a wall of old blue bottles or Queen Anne's lace can be.

My knitting cosmically coordinated with the bedroom I was assigned to stay in at the barn house. After finishing my ode-to-Maine green shawl, I'm continuing this thing of having my knits imbued with meaning****. The golden yarn is Rumplestilskin, from Lost City Knits, paired with a hand dyed grey from the seconds room at Swans Island Yarn--both souvenir purchases from summer 2013. My friend and collaborator Kirsten Kapur helped me pair them a year ago. Shooting a book for her earlier in spring made me realize how I needed to knit her Cladonia, so that is underway here.******

 

Can I leave out my favorite girl in one of my favorite places? Nope. I squeezed in three trips to the beach in Delaware, two with her. The family's place we've been gathering at since 1985 is for sale******, and every visit reminds us of time passing, and summers past.  No matter how gruesome the ride there is, that moment when you walk across the dune in front of the house to the crashing surf...it never ceases to be breathtaking.

What inspired you this summer? 

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and now for the footnotes

* there are still seats left in the class, which happen this Friday September 5th from 9-5 in Searsport Maine.  Braggy moment: I am telling you, we've got a kickass class planned. If you can't make it and happen to be organizing an event--we are thinking of taking this on the road. Give us a shout!

** I am going to commit to blogging a couple of times a week, starting in midSeptember. If you are a crafter or small business person or social blogger, there is so much good about a consistent blog presence--not just for your soul and social life, but for the  growth you'll see in your following. For mine, one day  a week it'll be a photo heavy post about making/doing /life. The other will be something helpful. Or so I am thinking. Stay tuned! And, want to join me? We can link to each other.

***The quilting book will be out at the end of the year, and it'll be about bedroom styling with gorgeous quilt patterns, and ideas of choosing fabrics to match your personal style, the author is the talented April Rosenthal 

**** Up next a colorwork sweater, with Nash Island yarn from Starcroft, and Lori Versaci's Modern Tunic.  After shooting childrens' designs with her this summer I am a total fan of all her patterns for women too.

***** I know most Cladonias are striped. I'm opting for mostly grey stockinette section, a wide band of gold, then some stripes, then the lace...just  because. Go look at all the lovely Cladonias!

******If you happen to be looking for a fabulous place directly on the ocean in Dewey Beach Delaware, let me know, I'll point you to the realtor.

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my new dog is a metaphor

We're talking the Bobo factor.

A frisson of chaos . A sprinkling of energy. A sugar glazing of the unexpected . At any and every given moment.

Did I mention the whole point of that roadtrip last month was getting Bobo, the one balled American Bulldog to his new home with us ? Quite a bargain: not just a lovable gregarious  furry member of the family but also a whole circus of fleas, a case of heartworm and an enthusiasm for the lady dogs that matches only a 17 year old boy with his own species. Do you need to ask me how I know? I thought not.

So instead of showing the handcrafted gifts underway, accent on the under, way under, I'll give you a gift suggestion. The Color Scheme Bible.

For yourself , or for any knitter, or crafter  in your life. A friend hipped me to this at the library the other day; I can go on & on about why it is just exactly right. Starting with a spiral binding.

It hits the right approach to color theory and presentation for me. My problem with books showing color themes or combinations is they so often offer stripes of color, all even and glossy, then they show a decked out photographed room or outfit.  If I can't relate, like to a super-tztchotchkeed Victorian spread, then I can't get past the things to absorb the colors. Above is what most of this book is like.  A color theory.Like periwinkle gray as a neutral with accents. Or the pages below:

Simple  paint, flat and clear, with some size proportion to help the brain out.  There are also pages with equal sized full range color charts, but these examples work  for me, choosing  colors for knitting ( an Albers Cowl anyone? log cabin blanket? or colorwork mittens?)  . Or making pillows for a couch. Not that I sew much.  But after Bobo gets through testing how much sofa surfing he can get to while we're in another room, it may be ripe time to rev up the Singer.

contrarian views

There I was, in the lush green of the Pacific NW, after a day of photographing in a riotously colorful artist's studio. And I went crazy, couldn't stop shooting these walls at Ft. Worden.

 

Maybe it's the quilter I spent some time photographing in Ohio, earlier in June, and some talk we had about composition & color and space.

 

Wouldn't it be cool to make a knit or sewn or crocheted version of this?

 

and the colors. Love them.

Another quilt or blanket?

 I admit I've been admiring the anti-graffiti paint smears in a New Haven underpass for months but never photographed  them, so I was  ready to love these.

 

I know, some of you are thinking, what is wrong with her? Go shoot some summer blooms!

Sorry, can't help it.  A graphics professor once told me I zigged instead of zagged.

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If you're missing the juicy color, don't worry, it'll be back verrry soon. I finished my tomato red shawl and am ready to show it