…. It’s a sweater!

That’s right, a fully completed sweater appears, seemingly out of thin air – how does she do it?

Usually a knitting blog is used to document your knitting; that is, your knitting adventures and misadventures, not just completed works. But I didn’t really want to share this project with you until it was completed because I was making it up as I went along – that’s right, no pattern. And the last time I tried to wing it I made this ugly thing, that although was definitely a sweater, was definitely really, really ugly. I didn’t want to share with you my progress and then have the end result be something so hideous I didn’t want to share it – that would just be mean.

But actually, it turned out just as I expected it!

Why didn’t I use a pattern? I couldn’t find one I liked, quite honestly. I like plain things- I don’t really like the look of cables, I didn’t want colorwork, by no means did I want something lacey, I wasn’t interested in ribbing, or stripes or fluff or frill. I also wanted it to fit, nothing baggy or box-like. I just wanted your normal, everyday sweater. Patterns for them are really hard to find. Actually, stuff like that is really hard to find in clothing stores too (i.e. non-stretch jeans).

I love this yarn! Moda Dea Washable Wool. I highly recommend it. I have nothing bad to say about it. It knits nice, it washes nice, I have no idea what it does in the dryer since I haven’t put it in the dryer, but I’m sure it’s nice in there too!

After washing I followed my mom around the house trying to find a flat place to lie the sweater down to dry. Because my mother is brilliant, she came up with this idea – it’s two (clean) window screens on the sides of the bathtub! So ingenious! Since air could get to it from all sides, it only took a few hours to dry!

It still needs a zipper, and when I get to that I’ll be sure to keep you posted. I’m thinking that I want a big, fat, metal zipper – we’ll see if I can actually find one.

Oh yes, and Happy Valentine’s Day! It’s a rather snowed in day here, or more like iced in day as there was heavy sleet all night. Did not make for a good time shoveling. Classes were cancelled until 10:00, but I still couldn’t get out of my driveway by then (our road hadn't been plowed yet), so I had a very good excuse for skipping chemistry….

Just a teaser....




In other news, spring semester has begun! My classes look great – Anthropological Collections Care (I just had to write a paper for that about polyester needle-punched felt, how odd! I love it), Chemistry (okay, well I kind of hate that part, but nothing’s perfect), and THREE medieval classes! Three! Medieval Philosophy, Medieval Art History, and a seminar on Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine. I can’t think of a better combination!

Hello all, it’s been awhile.
And I don't even have a knitting entry for you - just some clay.

Now that I’m an art conservation student as well as a history major, I need to take art classes. Many, many art classes. And I just finished my ceramics class. It was a so much fun! If you ever have the opportunity to take a pottery or ceramics class I highly recommend it.

Here’s some of my wheel work. I always thought this looked really easy; it’s not. First you have to center the clay on the wheel, which I found to be extremely difficult. If you don’t have your clay centered you’ve got nothing, it just bounces around in your hands and is completely unmanageable. Finally though, I caught on, and once you manage to do this you’re good to go. Something just clicks, one minuet everything seems completely impossible, and then you realize what’s going on and you’re suddenly an expert at centering clay. It’s a really great feeling.

Beyond that, I seem to still have problems making sections of my work too thin and they fly off the wheel while it’s spinning. Or somehow force the piece to collapse in on itself, or don’t apply pressure evenly and make it lopsided. But really none of that bothered me at all since wheel working is so fun! I could just sit there all day and make nothing in particular, just play with the same lump of clay.
Oh, and a word of advice, this is very messy work. Very messy. Not that it’s a big deal, white clay is entirely washable, but still, don’t expect to leave the studio without clay on your clothes (or on your face…. or in your hair…. on your cell phone, on your pack of gum, on your shoes, on your backpack…. Well, I was a bit messier than most).

This is some non-wheel work. We did quite a bit but this is my favorite.