Extinct Bird Costumes

You know I love to share craft-related articles I run across with you, dear readers. I've always had a thing for birds (I grew up with a pet cockatiel, Ralphie, whom I adored and would whistle with for hours). Check out these cool pigeon suits crocheted by Laurel Roth Hope! While the craftsmanship itself is colorful and playful, read the article for the true meaning behind her work and the comment it makes on extinction. Original article found here.

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Biodiversity Reclamation Suits: Extinct Bird Costumes for Urban Pigeons Crocheted by Laurel Roth Hope

by Christopher Jobson

When first engaging with these crocheted bird suits by artist Laurel Roth Hope it’s not without a bit of whimsy and an immediately appreciation for her skill with yarn and needle. The colorful one-of-a-kind sweaters are each designed to fit a standard urban pigeon, complete with a hood retrofitted with eye and beak holes. While the project isn’t without a bit of humor, its warning is particularly dire: each suit represents an extinct bird species and highlights the futility of restoring lost biodiversity. The works are purposely displayed on hand-carved pigeon mannequins to suggest that animals we most abhor are often the ones most capable of thriving within a human-made environment.

Hope has worked as a natural-resource conservator and park ranger, both of which have deeply influenced her artwork that explores themes of environmental harm, extinction, and consumerism. You can see many more of her Biodiversity Reclamation Suits in this gallery.

Concord, 2008. Cotton, silk, bamboo, wool, and acrylic. Blended yarn mannequin: basswood, acrylic paint, gouache, glass, pewter, and walnut.

Seychelles Parakeet, 2015. Crocheted yarn, handmade pigeon mannequin, walnut stand.

Urban Pigeons: Dodo II, 2014. Crocheted yarn, handmade pigeon mannequin, walnut stand.

Passenger Pigeon II, 2014. Crocheted yarn, handmade pigeon mannequin, walnut stand.

Carolina Parakeet, 2009. Crocheted yarn, hand carved pigeon mannequin, walnut stand.

Carolina Parakeet (detail)

Bachman’s Warbler, 2015. Crocheted yarn, handmade resin pigeon mannequin, walnut stand.

Kings & Thieves Cowl

Earlier this year at the Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival, I stopped by to see my friends from Dragonfly Fibers at their booth. It was our first big outing with the baby and we look forward to the festival each year. My son loves seeing and petting the myriad breeds of sheep, my husband finds the different types of fibers and processing fascinating, and of course, I go to see my knitting friends, yarn company friends, and to scope out new yarns for future projects.

It's become a tradition to stop by and see Kate and Nancye from Dragonfly, have them show me their new fibers and colors, catch each other up on the goings on with our families, talk about future work, and snuggle some of their yarns. When I asked what was new, I'm pretty sure I squealed with delight when Nancye put some Selkie Sport in my hands to squish. An absolutely delightful blend of 70% Bluefaced Leicester and 30% mulberry silk, I don't normally gravitate towards sportweight, but immediately made an exception when I held this yarn.

What's so special about Bluefaced Leicester? Our friends at Wikipedia tell us, "The Bluefaced Leicester (BFL) is a longwool breed of sheep which evolved from a breeding scheme of Robert Bakewell, in Dishley, Leicestershire in the eighteenth century. This breed is raised primarily for meat, but their fleece is becoming increasingly popular for handspinning. Bluefaced Leicester sheep may also have brown on their face and have curly, fine, rather lustrous wool which is one of the softest of the UK clip. The fleeces are not very heavy, only weighing 1 to 3 kg (2.2 to 6.6 lb) and are recognisable through their Roman noses, which have a dark blue skin which can be seen through the white hair, hence the name." All that aside, it's one of my favorite breeds to knit with and I find myself knitting with it again and again.

I came home with a hank of Purple Haze and Red Bud, knowing that lace would be part of the plan. I know - shocking that I didn't turn it into Fair Isle! Meet the Kings & Thieves Cowl, a mix of jogless stockinette stripes in the round with lace. Starting with a provisional cast on, then kitchenered up at the end, this cowl really shows off the beauty of Dragonfly's dyeing, the wonderful drape of the knitted fabric due to the fiber content, and uses just a hank of each color. Knit on US 5 circular knitting needles, this is yet another of my new patterns designed for a knitter on the go. I love the color quality that you can only get with a hand dyed yarn. Stripes, band of color, and blocks of lace make the yarn the star in this pattern. Add additional yardage to make a longer cowl and double loop it around your neck!

If you find yourself at the Shenandoah Fiber Festival September 23rd and 24th (another one of our favorites we hit year after year as a family), stop by the Dragonfly Fibers booth to see the cowl in person and drape it around your neck! Word on the street is there will also be kits available at their booth. If you see me wandering around the festival with my family stuffing our faces with the out-of-this-world apple cobbler the Boy Scouts sell there, be sure to say hello!

Download the Kings & Thieves Cowl here.

Lovequist Baby Blanket

When we're planning our yearly summer trek to New Hampshire, one of the first things we do is make a list of the hikes we want to accomplish. They have to be family friendly (our 6-year-old son, Callum, declares himself "the navigator" and likes to lead), no more than 5 miles, not too far off the beaten path in case of emergency, and bonus points for a waterfall or spectacular view. My husband is a master of finding gem after gem and we've had family hikes that I tuck away into my memory that I pull out often throughout the year until it's time to go back the following summer.

We found a new one this year that started off with an impressive gorge complete with a raging river thanks to the heavy rains, a cool suspension bridge, then finished off with a trail that looped us around a gorgeous lake. Tucked in our hiking back pack was a new baby blanket design I had recently finished that needed to be photographed. It didn't have a name yet and I was hoping to be inspired on this hike.

Meet the Lovequist Baby Blanket, a stroller blanket designed to be a rectangle rather than a square to keep baby's legs and feet warm while in the stroller or car seat. I used one of Dragonfly Fiber's lovely yarn kits in their Midcenturey Modern gradient made up of 2 different blues, greens, and reds. I really love their Traveller yarn, a hand dyed 100% superwash merino DK weight that's both light and bouncy. I've used this yarn a lot for baby knits and colorwork, and it washes up beautifully and has nice stitch definition. I go back to it again and again and was immediately drawn to this collection of colors when I first saw it at the Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival.

Lace is ideal for babies because it offers ventilation and texture for them to play with. I went with a retro lace pattern to go well with the retro color theme and the result is a blanket that knits up quickly and in keeping with the theme of my recent pattern releases, designed for a knitter on the go. This blanket came with me to a lot of different places, and all I needed was the current color I was knitting with and if I was feeling ambitious, the following color. Worked one stripe at a time on US 7 (4.5mm) knitting needles, the yarn kit provides enough yarn to get 2 stripes of each color, totaling 840 yards. The pattern is simple enough for a beginner lace knitter, yet interesting enough for someone who often has lace on their needles. There will be an edge that scallops on its own due to the nature of the increases and decreases of lace knitting.

I was disappointed when the yarn ran out and the blanket was bound off - I found this to be a very fun and fast knit! And check out the beautiful shadow it casts!

An ode to that wonderful afternoon we spent walking through the woods and climbing rocks around the gorge, the Lovequist Baby Blanket will put a smile on my face every time I drape it across my baby daughter. Each design I do has a certain memory attached to it, but this one was extra-special. We are raising our kids to appreciate nature, appreciate what their bodies can do, installing a love for hiking, and time spent together without electronics - the only sounds being our feet crunching on the trail, the call of a bird, or the whoosh of a waterfall. This was our first summer in New Hampshire as a foursome and last summer we hiked some of these same trails while I was pregnant. I thought about summer 2017 and there being a new member of our family to continue on the tradition of daily hikes, rain or shine. It was everything I hoped it would be.

I hope someday this blanket will be throw in another hiking backpack, the next generation getting ready to hike this same trail.

Download the Lovequist Baby Blanket here.

You Remind Me of the Babe

One of my favorite films to rent as a kid was Labyrinth. I have no idea how many times I've seen it, but no doubt was I partially responsible for wearing out the VHS tape at my local Blockbuster.

If you haven't had the pleasure of seeing this movie, Wikipedia tells us, "Labyrinth is a 1986 British-American adventure musical dark fantasy film directed by Jim Henson, executive-produced by George Lucas, and based upon conceptual designs by Brian Froud. The film revolves around 15-year-old Sarah's (Jennifer Connelly) quest to reach the center of an enormous otherworldly maze to rescue her infant brother Toby, who Sarah wished away to Jareth, the Goblin King (David Bowie). With the exception of Connelly and Bowie, most of the film's significant characters are played by puppets produced by Jim Henson's Creature Shop."

Puppets, a giant maze, and David Bowie? Sign me up. I love this movie.

One of my favorite songs from the film was "Magic Dance," which starts off with the lyric, "You remind me of the babe." What surprises me when watching the clip (aside from how terrified that baby must have been filming this scene), was how this song pops into my head from time to time for no reason at all, then remains on replay for days. Watch the clip below to see what I'm talking about (email subscribers, this will not show up in your email, so click anywhere on the post to see it)...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZvyNOg4jSRg

As a lifelong HUGE puzzle geek, I always wanted to get in the maze from the movie and have a go at it. My parents had a wooden tabletop version with a marble you could try to maneuver around holes and sharp turns that was another childhood favorite. Since running the maze can't happen, I decided to knit an ode to this wonderful film from my childhood. Meet You Remind Me of the Babe, a geometric Fair Isle cowl flanked by an I-cord cast on and bind off! This is the second of over a dozen new patterns I'll be rolling out this fall and winter, all compact, simple knits for busy knitters on the go.

Using 1 hank of each color of The Fiberists Audubon Worsted, this yarn is squishy, soft, lovely to knit with, has excellent drape, and can be thrown in the wash if it gets dirty as you run away from goblins in pursuit. The nature of Fair Isle and stranding both colors across each round makes this a double-thick fabric. While the I-cord cast on is not a quick one, it provides the perfect edge to a cowl, giving it both weight and a crisp, rolled edge. Knit up on US 8s, this colorwork pattern is easy enough to memorize and would look stunning in any sort of highly contrasting color combination. It's designed to be a "pick up and go" project, meaning it's easy to drop and pick up where you were quickly, without pouring over a pattern trying to figure out where you left off. While I love some hardcore brain-bending Fair Isle, this is a simple and elegant pattern that gives you a lot of wow for not a lot of brain power.

With autumn at our doorstep, I find myself reaching for a light jacket when I bring my son to school in the mornings. Soon enough I'll be reaching for a cowl as well and this boldly patterned double-thick cowl will be at the top of my pile.

Download the You Remind Me of the Babe cowl here and watch Labyrinth here.