Intertwined

My parents recently sold the house I grew up in, which was an oddly emotional experience for me, especially considering I haven't lived there since I left at 18 to go to RISD. Leaving behind a tiny New England town in southeastern Massachusetts, they moved into an apartment in Boston.

I got a call recently from my mom, telling me about a huge net installation she saw while exploring her new bit of town, then she sent me this link (original article here) to share with you, dear readers.  It looks like a beautiful piece of knitting stretched across buildings and sky and I love that the artist states that it's a way to “visually knit together the fabric of the city with art." If you find yourself in Boston, it would definitely be worth checking out. Gorgeous!

Thanks, mom!

A Monumental Sculpture of Colorful Twine Netting Suspended Above Boston by Kate Sierzputowski on July 31, 2015

One hundred miles of twine compose this public sculpture of suspended netting above Boston, a structure that spans the void of an elevated highway that once split downtown Boston from its waterfront. The artist, Janet Echelman, designed the artwork titled As If It Were Already Here to reflect the history of the installation’s location. Echelman also intended the piece to be a visual metaphor—a way to “visually knit together the fabric of the city with art,” she explains.

The installation is 600 feet at its widest, including over 500,000 knots for structural support. Each time one section of the sculpture sways or vibrates in the wind the other parts follow suit, undulating as a single form 600 feet in the sky. As the day progresses the 1,000-pound structure’s webbed surface begins to glow, becoming a beacon in the sky rather than blending into the blue above it. In addition to moving with the wind, the structure also glows in response to sensors that register tension and project light onto the sculpture.

As If It Were Already Here is just one of Echelman’s enormous sculptures, she’s also installed pieces in Montreal, Seattle, and elsewhere. Echelman received the Guggenheim Fellowship, the Harvard University Loeb Fellowship, a Fulbright Lectureship, and was named an Architectural Digest Innovator for “changing the very essence of urban spaces.” You can see Echelman speak about her other environmentally-responsive sculptures in her TED talk here.

Fade Into You

I went up to Maryland and visited the lovely ladies at Dragonfly Fibers and came home with an armful of yarn as well as one of their beautiful gradient sock yarn kits. Gradient kits hold so much possibility... The gentle ebb and flow of color, the ombre effect the yarn creates when knitted up, the excitement of being done with one color then reaching for the next to continue the bleed into the new. I'm a fan.

When I sat down to figure out just what I wanted to do with the array of blues called "Cheshire Cat," I was stumped. Fair Isle always calls to me like a Siren song, but Fair Isle with colors that are too similar create a muddled or muddy effect (if you missed my post on color theory and how best to choose yarns for color work knitting, read it here.) After casting on and ripping out a few times, I knew I wanted to do Fair Isle and I knew I wanted one of my favorite color combinations, blue and red. The wonderful women at Dragonfly sent me down another gradient box in "Peony" and inspiration was ignited.

I enjoy the show Nashville. It's got good music, great actors and it's good to knit to. One of my favorite songs on that show is Fade Into You, a love song. If you haven't heard it, take a listen below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9VhaD6WplfU

Inspired by the line, "If I was the red and you were the blue, I could just fade into you," the Fade Into You cowl was born. Knit from the bottom up in the round in one piece on US 3s, the magic in this cowl really happens when you start switching the colors. The reds and the blues start at opposite ends of their respective spectrums, then flow back out. Ombre Fair Isle? Sign. Me. Up.

Made with 2 Dragonfly Fibers gradient kits, the color possibilities for this cowl are endless. What about just using one kit and pairing it with black or white? What about using 2 kits that together create a stunning array of color for your neck? What about just using bits and bobs of fingering weight yarn from your stash? I talked about this on my color theory post - MAKE IT YOUR OWN!

Download the Fade Into You cowl pattern here.

Sew Many Bags...

I loved sitting next to my mom when I was little as she sewed away in our attic nook (usually making something for me). I recently inherited her sewing table and that combined with my Grandma Myrt's sewing box (read about that here), makes me feel like I'm continuing on a tradition of female crafters by being the latest link in a very long chain. Summer is a time for sewing in our house. Yes, my lap is usually occupied with a giant pile of wool, alpaca, linen or cotton yarn, but there's something really satisfying about washing up fabrics, pairing them together, ironing them out and sewing them up to make something special. I sew when I'm happy, when I'm sad, when I need to think through some problems, almost always when I can't sleep (fellow insomniacs, fist bump!) and when my wrists need a break from the knitting needles.

This summer has been a major season of binge-sewing for me. My insomnia gets worse in the warmer months and while some people would pop a sleeping pill, I cozy up to my sewing machine, sewing late into the night, audio book streaming through my headphones and gentle snores drifting down from upstairs. I never minded not being able to sleep. I choose to embrace it and use that time to create.

I just listed a batch of 40 new knitting project bags in my Etsy shop here. Many are knit-themed! This rounds out about 150 bags I've made this summer so far, and with 2 weeks left of summer camp followed by a brief sojourn up north, I hope to knock out 60 more or so before heading up to Squam to teach.

Check out the latest batch of bags here!

Once in a Blue Moon SALE!

What exactly does "once in a blue moon" mean? Did you know we're going to experience one tonight? According to our friends over at Wikipedia, "the term has traditionally referred to an 'extra' moon, where a year which normally has 12 moons has 13 instead. The 'blue moon' reference is applied to the third moon in a season with four moons, thus correcting the timing of the last month of a season that would have otherwise been expected too early. This happens every two to three years."

Pretty interesting, huh?

In honor of the blue moon happening tonight, head over to Ravelry here, where ALL TanisKnits patterns (keep in mind that Tanis Gray and TanisKnits patterns are different - TanisKnits is my independent line) are 50% off! Use the code BLUEMOON from 12am-12pm all day and the discount will automatically appear at checkout when the coupon code is applied!

This sale is only happening "once in a blue moon," so please enjoy!