Graffiti Knitting Comes to Town

A couple of posts ago, I linked to an article about graffiti knitting. On my most recent trip downtown, I was surprised to see that we have our very own graffiti knitter in town. The statue of Lincoln down by the federal courthouse is sporting a new scarf.

And I Thought *I* Was Taking Too Long...

I felt sort of sheepish to admit (in my post Wednesday) that my log cabin quilt was taking so long. Then I read this story:

• Quilt Whole After 72 Years

Makes me feel like I'm positively zipping right along.

In the News: Graffiti Knitters

Watch out, folks... you never know when a renegade midnight guerilla graffiti knitter will strike near you.

My Log Cabin Quilt

Vogue Knitting ran an interesting article many years ago about being process-oriented vs. being goal-oriented. The process-oriented people are those of us who knit or sew for the sake of knitting or sewing. We love the process, even if we seldom get around to finishing what we start. Goal-oriented people knit or sew for the sake of having a finished item they can actually use. What a concept, hey?

At this stage of life, I consider myself a recovering process-oriented needlecrafter. I'm digging old projects out of storage to either finish or officially discard. One of these is a log cabin quilt that I started, oh, I don't know, about fifteen years ago. I really started it in my mind a lot longer ago than that. When I was in my late teens, we visited a craft fair in West Virginia where I saw my first log cabin quilt. I fell in love with the combination of folksy tradition and geometric sophistication. Ever since then, I've wanted one for my own bed. Finally, I'm close!


The quilt top is partially assembled; if you look closely, you can see that the two halves haven't been seamed down the center. I need to add a row at each end (that's twenty squares, of which half are done). The finished size will be 110" square. That's pretty large, but it will go on a California King bed. I'm making it square instead of rectangular so we can rotate it regularly so it will wear evenly.

In the News: Serving the Community While Serving Time

If you're in the Boulder area, and you're wondering what to do with your leftover washable (i.e., synthetic) yarns, here's a project that could use them.

Women inmates at the Boulder County Jail are learning to knit, crochet, and weave items for nursing home residents and the homeless.

• 
  Boulder County Jail Project: A knitting offshoot

Teardrop Scarf Errata

I ran into some inconsistancies in the teardrop scarf pattern, so I emailed the author, Celeste Culpepper. It turns out that the magazine misprinted a couple of rows. Ms. Culpepper very kindly gave me permission to distribute the corrections, so I'm passing them on here.

• Rows 8 and 24 end with last 11 stitches: k10, place bead on last stitch.
  
• Row 16 ends with last 18 stitches: k17, place bead on last stitch.

Historical Dolls, Part 2

Today I'll be sharing photos of antique china and parian fashion dolls from the Enchanted World Doll Museum in Mitchell, South Dakota. The first is a pink luster 1840's lady with a "covered wagon" hairstyle and a sweet face. Her striped dress has pagoda sleeves over lace-trimmed undersleeves.

This all-original doll dates from the 1870's. Her silk skirt has become shredded over time, a common occurence with antique silks due to the metallic salts that were often used to add body to the fabric.

This is one of many vignettes in the museum. Perhaps these ladies in their bustle gowns are getting all dressed up to go calling on friends.

The last doll is a mechanical doll with a music-box built in. Some little girl probably really treasured this doll, but I think, then as now, that it's more fun to play with a doll that doesn't do anything. That's when the imagination can take over.