Market Bags Galore!

Knitting hiatus my tookus! I'm enjoying the easy (and free!) pattern for The Lacey Grocery Bag from Italy, on the Purl Bee. It was the perfect pattern to finally use this fabulous yarn in my stash, from Olivia. She gave me about 5 skeins for a past birthday, so I think I can make 2 lovely bags!

Isn't she a great friend? I mean, seriously...what have you given me? Of course, I'm just teasing you!



I love knitting with cotton for the summer, especially with my matching flourescent green plastic Crystal Palace Daisy circulars. I tried these at a knitting store, and fell in love with them. They're quite weightless and so smooth. (Shout out to Yacht Rock which I am a latecomer, but enjoying nonetheless).

While I'm at it, I may as well finish this old Peaches N' Cream market bag (another free pattern) in turqoise cotton. It's crocheted, which I must admit comes in quite handy for open mesh patterns.



I'm about two steps away from granny squares or the ripple afghan...but don't tell my knitting friends!

Domo Arigato, Mr. Roboto

It's official, the inevitable summer knitting hiatus is here. I may be inclined to break the hiatus in order to make one of these market bags from stash yarn, but I'm not making any promises.

Instead I've been spending time with Mr. Roboto, which seemed a fitting name for my new Gocco. (As I do want to learn his secrets!)

Experimenting with tangerine ink...first layer.



Layer two with a custom mixed color, and a wash of watercolor on top.



I love how the cards hanging to dry resemble Tibetan prayer flags.

Hot Air Balloons

In my quest to start drawing more, I participated in my first Illustration Friday activity. The topic was 'discovery'. This just appeared...



I've been obsessed with flying machines, kites and hot air balloons lately. Perhaps it's because I can see the Philly zoo balloon from my window at work every thirty minutes. And coincidentally, I'm finishing "Measuring the World", and one of the characters rides in the first hot air balloon flight. (Mental note: add hot air balloon ride to list of things to do once.)

I also have some ideas in my head on paper. Something involving pen and ink, watercolor and gocco. In the meantime, here's a thumbnail from my sketchbook.

Alright, my friends. Just so you know, I am biding my time before the final installment of Harry Potter comes out tonight. I've taken a walk, painted, blogged, went for pizza with the beau, and midnight is still not here!

Thank goodness I have a weekend in Brooklyn with Kathy Jean to get me over the post-Potter slump, which will be inevitable! We may even need to visit the roller skaters in Central Park to cheer me up...

Icarus' Wings

I blew off a date with my gocco to go on an impromptu beach adventure with 3 of my favorite Philly girlfriends. We went to Island Beach State Park, which I highly recommend. But don't tell everyone, it's delightfully un-crowded!



On Sunday, I drew some quick sketches, made copies of the original, and installed the required lightbulbs properly. With Mike standing by for moral support, I created my first master and it worked!

I decided to draw a sketchy version of Icarus' Wings. It's somewhat metaphorical of my own 'first flight' with this gocco. Of course, I hope not to fly too close to the sun and crash. I just want to make some art.

I created four designs on the one master screen, but was especially happy with one of the designs. So, I created some card sets with matching envelopes and am figuring out what to do with them. I created a set of cards with gold, then cleaned it off and mixed a custom cobalt teal color for a second set of cards.

This one is a little smudged. I had to work on the pressure.

It feels pretty amazing to sit in your kitchen full of work that you printed off like a little factory. I'll need to refrain from printing all surfaces in my house...

Alright, I'm off to knitting circle tonight, so may have a non-obsessive gocco post soon!

The Rainbow Connection

I had the strongest urge to organize and clean the other night, in preparation for starting new projects. As in extensive cleaning -- old portfolios, school project folders, junk drawers, bathroom cabinets, etc. After I was finished, I attempted to organize some of my books by color, as I've heard others have done. It's not completely by color, more like sectioned areas. However, at midnight on a Monday, this made me feel quite accomplished.

I then realized that I had other grids of colors in the house. It seems that I am drawn to either rainbows, all colors, or like to collect sets of things in varying colors. Or perhaps it is pure greed!

For instance, my new gocco inks.

A rainbow and modular grid is apparent in the first quilt I ever made, utilizing old memo samples from a previous design showroom job. These gorgeous fabrics are all between $100 - $300 per yard. The top was hand stitched by Mike and myself. He helped in order to get the massive project done, not because he likes sewing, but because he wanted a quilt. Big difference (he thinks!). On a side note, this project involved quite a few lost tempers, where I nearly threw a pair of scissors at the beau.

Let's not forget about the "Marc Chagall" colorway of my Clapotis in progress.

Or wide palette of watercolor paints.

Am I just crazy, or are others drawn to the same thing over and over?

P.S. "The Rainbow Connection" is the song that my dad sang to me as a kid, since Kermit was my favorite. Cheeks told me that we would dance to the song at my wedding, which would make me cry buckets, I'm sure.

Rationalization of Gocco

This is the entry where I will rationalize my purchase of the mothership of Gocco, the PG6 which prints up to 6"x9.3".

I bought a Gocco! It is almost as large as the king crab legs I ate tonight, and those were the size of small children.

Pricey? Yes. But look how glorious the parts and pieces are. I truly feel that this is an investment for myself, and can only enhance my arts and crafts. In addition, I'm going to buy this once, and I may as well get the one I really want.

I must mention my dad, who prefers the name "Cheeks", given to him by my brother. Either way, Cheeks doesn't know a ton about art materials, but he has always believed in us and encouraged our creativity and interests. He never told us what to study in college, but told us to follow our dreams, and to dream big.

Since I was a little girl, he told me I could be an architect, doctor, painter, whatever I wanted. The fact that he wanted to buy the grown up girl the printer really meant alot to me. I had my money saved, but I'm going to let my dad spoil me a little bit. (In return, I promised to contribute as much as possible to my Roth IRA!)

I hope my dad knows how special he is to me. Not just because he bought me something, but because so many of the good qualities I have, I learned from him. The desire to always continue learning, proper spelling, how to be a smart-aleck, business skills, that your place in life doesn't matter if you're an as*, independence, and my belief in myself.



I love you, Cheeks. Thank you for being the best dad to Andrew and me.

February Sweater

Elizabeth Zimmerman's February Sweater and my soap opera treasure hunt for extra yarn is finally over. But looking at this timeless and cheerful baby sweater, don't you think it's worth it?



I believe that everyone is in love with this baby sweater, since I've seen many a blogger knitting one. If you want to see the sweetest picture of what this sweater should look like, by Ashley of Dogged Knits, click here.

I don't recommend using the Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Chunky for this sweater. I had to go down so far in needle size to get an approximate gauge, and it doesn't show the gull pattern as well as a thinner yarn would. However, the end result is very cozy, and machine washable and dryable!

I found these little blue buttons with sprinkles in them at Loop. If this little girl is anything like the other females in her family, she'll be a spit-fire, which is the way I think all little girls should be!



As I mentioned before, it took about a month to find an extra ball of this elusive yarn!



My problem was eventually solved by ordering it online from Little Knits. The only catch was that I had to purchase $25 worth of supplies to guarantee my purchase.



That was the final push I needed to purchase my very first skein of Schaefer's coveted Anne in Femme Fatale.