entubed: our tv field trip

Today's Photo Heavy Monday comes from our Craft Activism field trip to WTNH, the TV station in New Haven. They invited Joan & me to tape a segment for  CT Style, a mid day talk show. Totally fun. I'll stick our segment in at the end, so you can watch it if you have 5 minutes . 

Raises the question: do you need curly hair to be associated with Craft Activism? Um, hells yeah. 

The set, before we decorated it with our books. Noting what our host was wearing, we accessorized her. 

Tell me she doesn't look awesome in the Ocelot scarf (project in the book, y'know).

True story: while Joan helped Stacey and Beth get set to model for us, I went to go check my makeup. WTF? My shirt was on inside out-and no one told me? Caught just before I made a total ass of myself. Yay for the ol' confidence.

 

Our good fortune: the other guests were a cooking segment, from Leon's.

 

Guess who had Prawns-or were they Langostinos-  in a Spicy Tomato Sauce ?  Yum.

All in all, very fun and kind of funny. Neither Joan nor I are used to being in the spotlight but neither of us is uncomfortable on set, either.  I'd hoped to flourish the Fussy Cuts blanket so I had it in my lap , giving me an FDR'ish forbearance. Don't believe me? Check it out:

Craft activism: wtnh.com

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Curious about upcoming book events? Look over on our CraftActivism blog.

 

whatever weekend: adoption month

Whatever weekend is the third in my new resolve to blog more predictably, along with Photo Heavy Monday and Wip It Wednesday.  I figured having the option of a Friday,  Saturday or Sunday post, on any damn topic I felt like, might not be too rigid.

So, while I usually blather on about knitting, or craft activism, or making stuff in general, today we're going to talk about adoption, since November is National Adoption Month.

I was looking for a baby photo but came across this one of Gabe from '99 or 2000. It's so...prophetic!. And hey! this isn't a fake vintage film looking  app downloaded for $1.99. It is film, plus a clunky scanner back then.

Maybe I'm feeling especially tender this season. My sons  turned 21 and 18, as of a couple days ago, ages I thought would mean All Grown Up. They are and then again, they definitely aren't. (You parent with kids this age, know what I mean? The rest of you with little kids.....oh never mind.). What a crazy wild ride parenthood is, and I've never regretted buckling in for it.

I was considering offering some words of wisdom from this vantage point but I'm not sure I have any.  We all just make it up as we go along--whether we are parents by biology or adoption: nature and nurture both matter.

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wip it wednesday

Hot on the heels of Photo Heavy Monday, I'm instituting wip it Wednesday. It'll be sobering fun to air the goods underway. Right now there are many, maybe my most ever at one time.   Here are Two Most Likely to Be Finished Really Soon.

 

Giuliana, from Peru, is freezing in our New England weird October. She's not from the woolly alpaca highlands, but from Lima, which doesn't have a truly cold winter. So, yes,I get the irony: I am knitting her a hat, while my son wears the Peruvian chullo he bought when they visited her family last summer. She requested a simple ribbed hat she'll wear with the bottom 3 inches or so turned up over her ears for extra warmth. She chose the yarns from my Big Bags O'Leftovers. The mustard color is Berroco Ultra Alpaca, from....Peru. It's a small world, after all.

 

There's not much more satisfying than a big (very) wound skein of Cascade Eco Wool in  bear-y brown. So much yardage, so hefty.  I'll spare you the image of Bobo, our enormous American Bulldog, picking up one of these irresistibly sheepy cakes, walking around with it entirely  in his humongo jaw, looking at me like "Hey, you said it was cake, right?"

 

I'm sure I'll be even more satisfied  with it as a Cadence sweater . I'm doing my usual election day gig at the polls as a ballot clerk.  It being a very quiet local election, I'm thinking Voting Day might also be  Knitting Day. (But still,  USA citizens, go vote. Democracy is pretty wonderful. Don't worry about us knitters sitting the polls).

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Special  feature! wip ideas for you . In case you don't have enough on your needles (and hook).

Check out Stacey Trock / Fresh Stitches kits for her big squishy amigurumi. These aren't the teeny weeny novelty projects that you use toothpicks to maneuver, but big squishy creatures  with a lots of personality. Kind of like Stacey (although she's not very big, really).

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I'll be back with....um..Whatever Weekends, next. On Friday or Saturday, or maybe even Sunday. Gives me a lot of leeway with just a touch of regimentation, right? 

the recycled owly craft activism party

I'm trying something new: Photo Heavy Monday. Yeah, I know it's not alliterative and cute. I'll work on that. Meanwhile, let's kick it with the Craft Activism booksigning & craft party at Brooklyn General Store.

 
Caitlin is our email pal and editor's assistant and most importantly, a crafter extraordinaire.
 

 
In which author Joan Tapper realizes the Sharrow sweater is just her size, but can't bear to remove her Hot Stuff apron- both of which are conveniently Craft Activism projects. If you want them, too.
 
 Heather, far right, came up with the owly project, inspired by the section on recycled crafting.
  
Joan shows the Ocelot scarf, a pattern in Craft Activism.
 
Our Tech Editor Dorothy Orzel, with one of her former fashion design students.

 
Above, what happens when a professional accessories designer gets crafting.
 
This one's by Arline, my Imperial Cookies baker friend. She brought us ginger snaps.

Kay Gardiner 's owly. We expected mitered wings. 

 
Mother daughter owls from my sister Marla McLean & niece, Ariana. 
 
 
It turns out sisters craft alike, too.
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There are a few more photos of owly crafting over on my Flickr stream. The owly project was dreamt up by Brooklyn General, inspired by Crispina ffrench's work in the book. More about Brooklyn General over on the Craft Activism blog.

rhinebeck, ny s&w, and other signs o' the season

There are reasons to embrace deep autumn. Start with the obvious: Rhinebeck aka NY Sheep & Wool Festival.

I'll head there at dawn tomorrow with  sister Lulu, and the trunk show for Craft Activism. I'll be booksigning & showing & telling with a passel* of contributing designer/craft activists from the book, although not with Joan, as listed (she is in Cali) in Building B at:

Craft Activism book signing Saturday Oct 15 2:30-4  &  Sunday Oct 16 11-12:30

*passel = Kay Gardiner & Ann Shayne of Mason Dixon Knitting, Ann Weaver of WeaverKnits, Kirsten Karpur of Through the Loops, Maryse Roudier & Rebecca Hatcher (actually I am not 100% clear on Rebecca )

 Not sure what I will do with this,  fr Enchanted Knoll Farms, at Fiber College. I call it my one skein wonder. Pretty, yes?

How about a Q&A for this year's visit? Sure..why not? Wait , is that a question or an answer? And, that, is that a question? um, I'd better start.

Q: so, aside form the booksigning, are you doing anything special?

A: I'm a SQUARE! I am oddly excited about this.

Q: How will you be recognized, like, watcha wearing?

A: I'm not good about planning outfits but this'll clue you in: I got a really bad haircut this week, it somehow rendered my hair curly, poufy and frizzy all at once. I can't do anything except chop it all off. Or cover it. I'm thinking Calorimetry. Plus my amazing intense turquoise sneakers with Edison soles.

Q: Any big shopping plans?

A: Nah. Most years I go with an idea  to scope out yarn for a specific project or two and then I get overwhelmed. Its just so much of a good thing, y'know? This year, I'm open to all outcomes. Kind of a Buddhist approach, no attachments.  Buttons, books, accessories, consumables...yarn. Probably won't come home with livestock though. It's good to have limits.

Q: Ummm, not to be pushy but..what about the photo thing from last year? Doing it again? and..will we ever see those 1817 images?

A: Not  this year--see booksigning/trunk show above--but maybe next? It was fun. I'd loooove to get more people involved, maybe with  animals too. I feel so GUILTY about putting this big edit aside. It's been a very busy year..I will get to them. I WILL!

----for details about other places I will be booksigning--with the real live visiting Joan Tappper- see the sidebar on our CRAFT ACTIVISM BLOG-----

 

Another sign o'the season- Monday was the last day of 2011 for the lobster shack in town. The shack is in the one of the marinas by a closed down factory, near the harbor  in the center of our town, I kind of love the old industrial mixed with the shiny nautical.

ps. It was delicious.As always.

join me at Webs Th Oct 6 6-7:30

pssst---stop by for a visit on the new blog for our book, Craft Activism

Booksigning & trunk show at Webs in Northampton MA ! Play dress up in the Craft Activism samples. Stacey did * !

 

and so did Julia, below, one of the Knit New Haven triumvirate. She totally rocked the Bella Brooklyn modern housedress. This quickie hipstamatic doesn't do her justice. Most of the samples are knit or crochet, so you'll have plenty of inspiration. More photos here, photo credits & art direction by Stacey (thanks! I tell you, she is always super talented but whew, talk about multi-tasking the other night). I do believe we launched a couple of new Fussy Cuts  blankets on the spot .

 

Hope to see you there! There's no charge , though they ask you to call ahead and say you are coming, info on the link to Webs up top.... but if you show up last minute, you'll be welcome anyway. 

(and if you show up early, like me, you'll be yarn & knitting book shopping. Oh, c'mon, its Webs,for crying out loud.  It's almost criminal to leave empty handed, have you seen the back room??!!)
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* Stacey did an impromptu fashion show of several pieces,  here she is in the Tongue-in-Chic skirt bu Austin artist Virgina Fleck, who works in recycled plastic bags, saving them from the landfill while making mandalas, art and fashion statements.

red scarf win-win-win

No secret: I'm a big fan & cheerleader for the Red Scarf project, run by Foster Care for Success (formerly known as Orphan Foundation of America).

Before I go any further, go enter Norma's contest to support the Red Scarf Scholarship fund and win a copy of Craft Activism. In which there's a chapter on same. 

At this point my connections to the Red Scarf Project are so  intermingled I can't untangle them. Seriously I just tried.  What began as a personal connection (knitter, adoptive parent, photojournalist covering the foster care system) connected  to work, new friends, inspiration......holy crap there's so much, if I had the teeniest bit of fiction writing talent I could turn it into a fabulous chicklit book. But, it would not be fiction. If you know what I am saying.

How about some behind the scenes look at the Red Scarf project in the new book?

You can't write about Craft Activism without crafting for a cause. Red Scarf is a perfect example. You can read the chapter excerpted  to learn why. Anyhoo, when I called Norma to say we wanted to feature her,  she was cleaning the guest room before we got off the phone.
I'd had a chat about my photographic approach with a design director at my publisher, and promised her I'd play around with a lighting source & setup she said Martha Stewart favors (Martha & I share this publisher). It's very flattering & gentle lighting, it shows textiles and women-of-a-certain-age in a beautiful glow.

Ahem, NOT that Norma is anywhere near Martha's certain age.

However , it almost killed me, with tons of shlepping & setup and does not lend itself at all well to my kinetic style.Those who took my advanced lighting class at Fiber College got to give it a whirl, though. I'd use it again only for a very staged shot, or still life work.

A lot of crafting in support of causes involves knitting community, so we were at Norma's LYS, the quite wonderful Kaleidoscope Yarn in Essex Junction VT.  Jill, the owner, is a big supporter of Red Scarf, and so are her daughters.

This is Norma, shop worker Shawn, and Joan red scarfing it up.
If you're wondering about the sweaters shown on the subjects, it's not a staged thing. It was February, and let me put it this way. If you a take a right hand turn out of Norma's driveway, you  cross into Canada in about 15 minutes. Very north. Very wool country.  Knitters paradise. Go visit! Or at least go knit a Red Scarf, deadline December 15.

quick wip peek

My new book Craft Activism, with Joan Tapper, is released today! I am celebrating my own little holiday. It is so odd, when you are working on a book, you live with it for months & months.  I know it backwards, frontward and inside out. I forget it's also brand new, and a joy to watch it received in the big wide world. New to everyone but the many many artists & friends & colleagues and knitters & loved ones who helped work on it. I have to make a Takes A Village post to properly acknowledge all.

 

To mark the occasion, I cast on for one of the most accessible yet showstopping patterns: Fussy Cuts. It's a fabulous log cabin based blanket designed for us by Kay Gardiner & Ann Shayne of Mason-Dixon Knitting. It's one of three pretty wonderful projects in our Crafting for a Cause section. The genius of this one is a) if you do it in a group, each knitter only need buy 1 skein of Noro Silk Garden b) it is so gorgoeus it could be a special gift or a super fundraiser raffled off  and c) it is the sort of portable, addictive knitting one gets lost in . Wait did I mention there is  no sewing for assembly involved? And there's a little twist in how you use the yarn and proportion the log cabins. Rather genius, it is.

 Fussy Cuts, from Craft Activism

But that's what happens when you associate with brilliance. Speaking of that, I'll take this opportunity to specially thank Maryse Roudier.   She offered to be our book intern but is so much more. She helped us in every way-from brainstorming, spreadsheeting, scheming, yarn sourcing, color opining, photo assisting, mitten modeling, chicken wrangling, reflector holding, test knitting & crafting and being an all around friend. Mwah!

She's also working on one of these blankets. I have full faith it'll kick ass.

ps. And what is a book without its own blog? www.CraftActivism.com

3 belly fulls

With all the to-ing and fro-ing and gatherings lately, there've been some good eats. For Leo's 21st birthday barbecue, the requested cupcakes were ones I've been making him for years: dark chocolate with blue buttercream frosting.

And sprinkles. OF COURSE.

The party was just days after the hurricane. We hastily tried to clear the yard, then gave up and just sort of piled downed branches, debris, tools, ladders and saltwater shriveled plants on the sides. We stuck tiki torches and a tent with banners in the area we wanted you to look at. Distraction! It worked, in person but wow the pictures look like we were living amongst wreckage. The food and beer helped  though. Did you know you can buy microbrew "logs" of beer, like mini kegs? Such a very good idea,  from my package store friends.

 

Leo's  Peruana girlfriend Giuliana taught me how to make ceviche from her family recipe. A lot of work but to. die. for. Served traditionally, with sides of corn on the cob, avocado, limes, and slices of sweet potato.

That was also Illumination Night in the 'hood. Festivities everywhere. 21st bday party big success.

 

I had to make a stop at this place while I was up at Fiber College.  

When I'm working /traveling alone in Maine I go straight for the good stuff: lobster stew with corn and local beer.  No work, no carcasses to dispose of. It is pretty much butter, milk, lobster, salt & pepper & paprika. What could be bad (other than no green vegetables in sight)?

3 unexpected

#1 Fiber College was not at a college. Astrig, the artful soul who started it 5 years ago, uses the less popular definition of the word,: a. A body of persons having a common purpose or shared duties. It is at a spectacular 40 acre campground on Penobscot Bay, with gardens and art everywhere you turn. 

 

view of "my" teaching studio 

Ironically, Fiber Camp was held at MIT this year. Go figure. Balance.

 

#2 I  should have left time to take a class and to just hang out more. It was my first time, and I wasn't sure what to expect. Maybe a slightly ragtag joyful gathering, seeing as it was held way up in Maine and I was staying in a tent, I thought. Better plan to keep busy.   Nu-uh! It was super well organized, with Astrig & Steve's team setting up tables and chairs for me (hold it, I need to write that again for me), in advance. No rag, no tag. Many classses I would have liked ot be part of (Andean embellishments! Dyeing! Hooping!) There were volunteers helping,  and class lists, and most importantly, beautiful teaching spaces. The Artist in Residence, Mary Jane Mucklestone, even had an  canopied lounge area with sofas and a table and teapot so you could just go shmooze with her and bask in her talented but down to earth aura and have a friendly visit in her outdoor den. I needed more shmooze!

 

# 3 I know this one but I always forget: we craft for so many different reasons.  Sarah, a student in one of my classes, is a devotee of hyperbolic crochet and makes these organic pieces, mostly as conversation starters. She loves the connection of math and art that is going on, and she loves to have interesting conversations about it with strangers.  She found this Romanesco in the local market. We are convinced that the same math equations that allow the hyperbolic crochet to grow as it does also governs the veggie. (Can you tell I share her fascination if not dedication).

 

Working with different backgrounds in one of my classes. Love these gloves.

3 a day plan

Since my last post, I marched in a costume parade, threw a successful 21st bday party in a hastily reclaimed post-hurricane backyard, camped oceanside in Maine, tapped a keg for the first time since I was 20, learned to make real Peruvian ceviche, taught at Fiber College, made wonderful new friends, set off a midnight car alarm in a tiny sleeping town, drove a lot, observed the annual last-full-moon-of-summer neighborhood skinny dip, flew to Minnesota, saw old friends & family, met more new friends and more talented indie designers, taught at The Creative Connection Event/BlogHer Handmade, levitated from caffeine consumption when Starbucks sponsored the conference,  discovered a  bit of technology that made me crazy happy, traveled to Cape Cod with most of my neighbors to celebrate a wedding, danced to a bluegrass band, slurped oysters, knit, crocheted, planned new projects and and and....

although this is a photo of Ellen Mason in one of her wonderful knit designs, it sums up how I feel

I'm going to try to post everyday and tell  three things, until we catch up. I think that'll work.  Because  a little structure'd be good,  I've got a case of monkey mind that only George of the Jungle could love. Or, maybe Jane Goodall? Do you think she used that phrase ever, when she was brimming over with ideas, and plans and things on her schedule?

 

Leah was in one of the Fiber College classes, so was her mom, but on a different day. Great duo!

I'm going to reserve the right to show however many photos I feel like though. May need to show a LOT.

a week of strange

I think I fell into an alternative reality for the past 10 days.  Maybe I did! I completed three very full days of photo shoots in Vermont (including this curious sign, I think the spelling and capitalization bother me more than the content), then

 

came home in time to prepare for this arriving in my neighborhood. Can you see that porch being ripped off the green house on the left? This is the beach on the end of my street. Those waves and the force of the wind are crazy. I live by the Long Island Sound, where big surf is, I dunno, maybe 7 inches? Our power just came back on today, six days later. Turns out I can not successfully knit by candlelight, or crochet. Or do much else productive. And it is not good for my mental health to have empty hands.

Ironically, I had been looking forward to my accommodations at  Fiber College next weekend. In a tent. With my candle lantern , by the sea. Ha. Joke on me! Maybe it'll be different , by choice and without a fridge full of decomposing food.

(Regardless I AM super looking forward to the gathering, and if you are at all tempted, check it out. My classes are not all full, I'd love to have you join in).