Birthday Memorial - Patrick

Baby (Toddler) Surprise Jacket- Finished!

She likes it!
Here is Sophia, trying on her Surprise Jacket.
And hooray for me, finally finishing something.
The pattern, of course, is the late Elizabeth Zimmermann's classic Baby Surprise Jacket. If you go to the site for the business she started (which her daughter Meg continues), Schoolhouse Press, you can see there are not only patterns available, but now kits and a video (and many more knitterly goodies.)

Many people make these in fine baby yarns with smaller needles and they knit up quickly and magically for little newborns. I made Sophia's using Magic Garden Buttons yarn. It's a washable 83% wool/ 17% polyester (the little nubby "buttons". It is a DK weight, but I used it double. And shame on me, I cannot remember the needle size....in any case, all you need to know is that it is certainly possible to use the Baby pattern for a toddler-sized jacket by fiddling with the yarn and needle sizes.

There is a pattern available for the Adult Surprise Jacket, but be forewarned, there are hundreds of stitches cast-on and many, many, many rows of garter stitch. Many. I was going to do the Adult jacket in the class I took and at the last minute decided to do the Baby "first."

Well, there may be another Baby on my needles someday, but I do not need an Adult Surprise Jacket to add to my stash of UFOs. And that is surely what will happen if I start one.
I am Zann.
And I am a Short Attention Span Knitter....

Freeform Challenge - Just a Hint

I am hard at work on:

*materials for the Triloom Workshop which I am calling "Triloom Weaving: Creating with Small Triangles"

*socks on two circular needles

*scrumbles and ornament for the Freeform Challenge

The Freeform Challenge is open to all the members of the yahoo group for freeform crocheters. If you have an interest in ff crochet, that group is an excellent resource and regular participants include some of the most well-known freeform artists from around the world -- who are consistently friendly and generous with ideas and advice -- and amazing not-so-well-known artists who are also friendly and generous.

The Challenge is twofold: to create flat scrumbles for each of the four elements of water, earth, fire and air and to create an ornament. The scrumbles will be pinned together in wall hangings and the ornaments will hang from a Tree of Life/Tree of Peace. A golden thread is to be used in each scrumble and ornament to carry the theme of unity and connection. Surface embellishment in the form of beads, embroidery, felting is all allowed. The hope is for international participation.

There will be an online exhibition and the actual pieces will be sent in to be displayed at the two CGOA conferences scheduled for this year at each side of the country.

For a nice pictorial that shows the evolution of a scrumble, please check out Prudence Mapstone's page - click on "What is Freeform?" at her site KnotJustKnitting.

Also, take a look at the exhibit for last year's Challenge, called 60 Odd. (I can't look at it too long or a kind of intimidation sets in!)

Alas, I cannot display my pieces yet. The idea is to wait until the online exhibit is put together and that won't be for a couple of months. But I have been working diligently and have finished Earth and Water and have almost completed my ornament.

What I can do without spoiling things is to post the following hints in the form of materials pictures. And of course, bear in mind that with freeform, the selection of yarns I start out with might wind up being a quite different selection in the final piece!

I took this picture as a kind of still life of things I was using in today's work on my ornament:
First selection of yarns for Earth:
First selection of yarns for water:
Such fun....

Freeform Octopus Scarves

I was awfully ill over the holidays - a relatively minor cold, but even the minor ones necessitate full on asthma management strategies, so the minor doesn't become major. I did little but lie about, read, eat soup and drink water...and yet I seem to have been continually crocheting for I came up with these rather fun and interesting scarves.

I call them the Octopus Scarves because they end in 8 dangling tentacles....each can be worn three ways.



The yarns I used for this first one are Noro Kujaku #22, and a variegated Jojoland sock yarn in purples and blues, used double. I made crocheted cords from the Kujaku and then joined them with freeform crochet. I don't use a lot of different stitches in my freeform, primarily chain, sc, slip stitch and hdc. The freeforming comes into play mostly in shifts of direction and where I choose to place the hook.

In the next scarf, I used Noro Kureyon for my cords and filled in between them with another sock yarn Trekking XXL, again used double.

Finally, I had leftovers, so I made a Quartopus Scarf:
These scarves, along with the Forest Floor Shawl (which is coming close to completion) have moved me closer to realizing some of my aesthetic vision. This is a point where I have to push myself to keep going and exploring...in the past, at such points, I often backed off. Why? Who knows...fear of something, I suppose.
Well, la-di-da, la-di-da...enough of that arty-speak.
Namaste,
Zann

6 Weird Things About Me Meme

I've been tagged -- my first time, too. Tagged by the amazing and creative and weird Claudia at Heal My Life.

THE RULES: Each player of this game starts with the "6 weird things about you.
People who get tagged must blog 6 weird about themselves as well as state this rule clearly. In the end, you need to choose 6 people to be tagged and list their names. Don’t forget to leave a comment that says ‘you are tagged’ in their comments and tell them to read your blog.

1. I believe in fairies and gnomes and sylphs and undines and salamanders, nature spirits of all sorts, devas....
2. I have never been to Disney World. And I never want to go there.
3. I hate metal paper clips.
4. I have mild synesthesia, one manifestion of which is that to me days of the week are colored and patterned, e.g., Saturday is a sort of black-and-white check.
5. I once caught a greased pig in the Everglades.
6. I love clever naughty jokes that involve ingenious paper engineering, esp. as the joke is being told.

I am planning on tagging:
Barbara
Peacock
Jackie
Mariyarn
Deb

Yeah, I know that's only five. I don't follow rules too well....

Dear Peacock,

I just wanted to take a moment to let you know how much I enjoy and use things you sent me. The door to my spiritual room (where Patrick's ashes currently reside) is graced with the mystery of the peacock feather mask.
I have that amazingly powerful little flashlight on my keychain, your stitch markers dangle in the poncho I'm making Raven, and my carry-around knitting notions are mostly things you gave me. I keep my felting needles at hand in the little lizard pitcher on my worktable. And occasionally I pop one of those capsules in water and watch the little sponge-imal appear with a fascination that undermines any attempt I make to seem mature.
There's more, too. Just such a bounty of useful and lovely things!
I sometimes think you simply must feel it every time I use something you gave me - because I'm always so happy to have just the thing I need at hand and I'm always sending you a thank you via the ether. But in case you don't, I wanted to put it in writing....and say it in public!

Love and thanks,
Zann