More Housewarming

Last Saturday was spent with pen, ink and watercolors. I have a small studio area, but I love working at my kitchen table. This room gets the best light and it provides a large working surface.



I had a few things in mind. Mainly, one more housewarming card for a blog friend, Shona. I also wanted to give her a market bag she had liked, that has been hibernating in my knitting basket.



This card was inspired by the one I made here, but I added a bit more detail. I wanted a reference of a house, and remembered Shona had a photo of her house on her blog. I think it turned out pretty damn cute.



Happy Friday, friends! Hopefully I'll be back tomorrow with more crafty goodness.

L-O-V-E + Ice Cream Friday

How can you not love this city in the Spring? Everyone is in a better mood, the weather is gorgeous, and they are opening a Rita's water ice place in my hood!



One of my favorite things about the east coast is their love of ice cream. In Florida, we have ice cream weather all of the time, it's no big deal. But on the east coast, it's the signal of summer, longer days and the shore.



In fact, I've invented a new club at my work. It is called, "Ice Cream Friday". There are no membership dues, and so far consists of a favorite co-worker and myself. Anyone can join. The only rule is that you must consume one ice cream cone each Friday. I'd prefer if you also get sprinkles or jimmies as well, but that's up to you.

My mom's shawl is really coming along now, after all of the false starts. It's a great outdoor knitting project, since the seasilk is nice and cool. Perhaps I won't need a knitting hiatus this summer after all.



Speaking of outdoors, is everyone getting psyched up for Maryland Sheep and Wool next weekend? My crew is going, so I hope to see some of you there! You'll probably find me by the alpaca pens or the funnel cake stand. A girl has to have priorities...

Streamlined Gocco Tutorial (for my peeps)

Here is the streamlined tutorial version for people like my mom and knitting circle gals, who I don't want to bore to tears looking though 55 photos on my "extensive" tutorial.

1. Put photocopied drawings on the pad. Insert the master screen which is the cardboard frame with silkscreen inside.



2. Place your lightbulbs into the mirrored housing and place them on top of the print gocco machine.



3. See how the lamp housing is inverted on the machine so that the lights are aiming directly to the master screen beneath it? When you press down on the machine, it sends a current from the batteries to the bulbs thus bursting them and creating enough heat to burn the screen. The screen is treated with an emulsion that activates and burns in areas where carbon and the heat from the lights interact. It does flash, but nothing dangerous. (I swear, Ma!)



4. After you wait for the bulbs to cool, you can remove them from the mirrored housing unit. See how they crack and pop after they're used up?



5. The carbon on the image (black areas) sticks onto the screen where it has burned. You can see a ghost image on the screen. These areas where it was burned means that there is are hundreds of tiny holes for the ink to come through and print on your paper. The other areas are not burned, so no ink will go through.



6. Ink is applied on the screen for the various colors you want to use. I applied a foamy sticker around the pools of color, to keep them from running into each other into a globby mess. The plastic layer goes over the ink, so that it doesn't make a mess.



7. See, gocco is kind of a combination of silkscreen and rubber stamping. You're burning a screen like in silkscreen, but you are not inking and dragging a brayer across the screen to make a print each time. Instead, you're inking enough for multiple prints, and using pressure to make the ink press against the plastic sheet and glass, flatten out and flow through your image. (Kind of like a rubber stamp).



8. After you press down the top of the machine, lift it up and you'll have a print on your paper! Then you can run around the house looking for empty surfaces to print on, as it's that addicting.



9. When you're done printing, hang them or lay them flat to dry.



10. You're done! Clean up and treat yourself to some ice cream with sprinkles.

P.S. I really do want to have a gocco party soon, for real life demonstrations, it's just been a busy month of weddings, traveling and miscellaneous riff-raff.

My Gocco Tutorial

I have been meaning to create a gocco tutorial for some time now. I'm not claiming to be an expert, but have a good idea how it works at this point. My tutorial is meant to be informative, and give a lot of detail with tips that have helped me. I know that there is stuff out there already, but I'm a blabbermouth, and couldn't resist.



It's step by step, in excruciating detail at some points. This is not because I think people are dumb, but I thought it could help anyone who needs a little bit more description and pictures to understand.

I know when I was learning to knit toe-up socks, I was looking for a step by step tutorial that had everything that I needed to see. When I finally found one, it helped so much, even though many may have thought that it was too descriptive.

So without further adieu, here is my Gocco Tutorial. The link will take you to my flickr account where you'll see photos and descriptions below.

Feel free to email me (vanilla.beanie@gmail.com) with any further questions! I hope this can help a few people, and finally help my friends understand what the heck I'm up to. (wink)

Watch it Unravel

There once was a girl named Marissa who had big dreams for designing a capelet with her coveted alpaca yarn. She sketched it out, planned, swatched, crossed her fingers twice, but it did not work. And do you know what? She really didn't care that much that her design failed!



So here is the capelet. It looks adorable on this chair, but not on me. I could have tried harder to figure it out better, but there is a design that I'd much rather spend the time and effort knitting, that a professional created. I love figuring things out nyself, but there is a time and a place. Sometimes, it's best to let the expert do it, especially for my yarn spinning needs and dental surgery.



Now, if the yarn was not so special to me, and harder to knit up, I would be much more upset. Sometimes you have to start over to do something well. It is oddly satisfying to pull on yarn and watch it unravel. (Que Weezer's Sweater Song) Other times, you can pawn it off as a gift and act gracious. (wink)

I'm more willing to take risks and fail with my knitting. Perhaps that is because I don't feel it reflects the fragile inner part of my ego.



I'm much more scared to fail when it comes to other things (like art), but I'm slowly getting over that. Under this tough exterior, I have a pretty sensitive heart. Time to toughen that up.

On that note, I'll leave you a picture of my failed capelet and a posterior shot in pocketless jeans. If that's not on the path to fearless, I don't know what is!



Granted, my family is known for suffering from "Noassatal". Hee hee.

Waterfalls and Magic Loop

One advantage of living in Philadelphia is that it is a mini-roadtrip away from so many good friends and cool cities. Of course, the traffic congestion does dictate when you can travel (cough Jersey Shore cough summer cough).



This weekend I helped Heather celebrate her birthday in Washington D.C. I forgot how much I love Mexican food, mango margaritas and dancing to booty music with a group of friends. (Well, as opposed to dancing in my kitchen to booty music).

We visited the Great Falls National Park which is right by Heather's house. There was also a bit of antique shopping and brunching.



We saw a baby copperhead snake (cute!) and this larger snake.



We got to climb on some rocks and have a great view of the water falls. The weather was gorgeous. We were actually getting hot while hiking. I felt bad telling my friend Coco that, who is still under a foot of snow in Montreal.



I realized one of the benefits of trying out the magic-loop method for knitting socks. You can sit on the top of a cliff, dangle your feet off, and knit a few rows without fear of dropping a double pointed needle.



Just make sure not to drop that ball of yarn. It's a long way down.

Confessions and Flip-floppers

I have a confession. The second that I admitted defeat on Mom's Muir Stole, I gave it one last try and finally got the hang of the pattern. After some major flip-flopping on the decision, we realized that the shawl would be way too big for her. (Mama's a shorty). Once I ripped it out (with Olivia for support, thank you), I realized it was almost as wide as my mom is tall.

I love the pattern and want to knit it in the future. The crystal ball is foretelling a finished Muir for myself with the two gorgeous skeins of cashmere I bought from Maryland Sheep and Wool last year.



So the decision has been made, even though I pretended it already had been last week. (wink) See below, and keep in mind it's doubled in size since this photo.



I must love this pattern. When I thought I may abandon it during all the flip-flopping, I couldn't help casting on in some cobalt teal lace weight for myself. The teal yarn is the second half of my stash from Sheep and Wool. I may not be able to make up my mind, but I am the one knitter who is able to resist yarn!



Well, I obviously have enough projects to keep me going for awhile. I'm off to the DC area for an early birthday celebration for my gal, Heather. She's the type of friend you've known since the fourth grade and can take your dirty laundry to their house without even asking.

Hope your weekends are filled with clean laundry and good friends as well!

Houses, Babies and Weddings...Oh my!

Friends of ours recently bought their first house in South Philly. It's a pretty exciting time, I think everyone I know (excluding myself) is either having a child, buying a house or getting married. I'm happy for my friends, and also slightly relieved to have a limited amount of adult responsibilities right now! (wink)

We got this happy couple a footed glass dish. They love desserts, so it seemed fitting to prepare a strawberry shortcake-esque parfait as part of the present. They're not the type who I felt the need to give a gift receipt. Whipped cream trumps anything in the wife's eyes!



I couldn't resist making a quick little card either.



I finally found a use for my Jitterbug Yarn. It's looking great as a pair of socks, don't you think? Sometimes, the simplest is best.



I also ordered some of those "moo cards" from flickr. I'm not sure why they're called that, but they sure are cute.

Knitting Mojo and Lost Voices

There are three months until my mom's birthday. I think that I can finish a shawl for her in that amount of time. Muir, although beautiful, was a bit challenging for this novice lace knitter. I'm making her a wider version of the Lace Ribbon Scarf instead. It's coming along nicely, and I think my mom will really love it.



With warm weather approaching, I'm interested to see if my knitting mojo will leave me, as it does each summer. Or am I officially a knitter now?

Speaking of warm weather crafts, I can't help thinking of spring and summer skirts. I'm very excited about the new fabric store in Philly, Spool. We attended the grand opening last weekend, and the fabrics are gorgeous. The lovely Aimee, is working there, too. Perhaps I'll make a skirt with one of her patterns...



Mike said thank you for all the well wishes and compliments on his website.

Now could somebody please find me my voice? I lost it last Wednesday in the elevator at work. This is the longest case of laryngitis I've ever had, and I'm beginning to feel like Ariel, the Little Mermaid!

And you know this is killing me. I'm not the most quiet of people. (wink)

Mike East

Yes, sometimes I refer to Mike by his first and last name. I knew of him before I met him, and that's what everyone called him in Indiana.

This weekend, while I was printing with my gocco, Mike was painting in the front of our apartment. He's starting another cityscape, of rowhouses in our neighborhood. Well, and an abandoned tire and a sidewalk littered with Chinese take-out boxes. But probably not a leopard print chair that is shaped like a high heel shoe, or the one that is shaped like a set of lips.



He finally set up a website with some of his work. I'm really proud of him, because he is not the most computer savvy person. However, give him anything else to try (i.e. bake a pie, build a boat, knit a scarf, squat press 400 lbs), and he'll do it perfectly. He is also the hardest worker and the sweetest guy. What more could I ask for?

















His website is here. You should check it out! Or, instead, you could send good wishes into the world that he'll get this job he really wants! (wink).

One of the benefits of having a painter beau, is having lots of great art in the house. Either stuff he has made, or received from trading with friends.

And if I'm really sweet, he'll even make things for me from time to time, full of colors and things that I love.