a little knitting project

Posted on February 2, 2015 by nancywalker

I do have a knitting blog and I am blogging about this little project over there but there is
so much colour, challenge and fun, it has earned a place here in my nws blog ~
it is about folk art, sculpture, colour, construction, materials, creating
Here she is ~ The Lidiya knitted dress
(designed by knitting artist Kaffe Fassett)
and this is the 100 row pattern. Yes, you read it right, One Hundred Row Pattern!
Needless to say there was much sorting out, planning, strategizing and practicing.
It felt like I was preparing for a long … long … journey, which I was.
~ a Scenic Journey ~

Finally I just had to dig in and start even though I didn’t feel ready
I was pretty intimidated, ok, Scared! (you saw that pattern!)

Once I jumped in, I was Totally sucked into the Lidiya Dress Vortex
It is Screamingly engaging!
I am always knitting with 2 colours, and every 5 rows, 3 colours ~
that’s bit tricky but it has a rhythm to it
Every stitch speaks, I mean …
SINGS!

(I will be blogging this entire scenic route through color land here)
https://knit2purl2repeat.wordpress.com/

For the love of Rabbits!

Posted on October 13, 2014 by nancywalker

I made this rabbit a while ago, using a chocolaty red clay and finishing it with an interesting white glaze that makes a cracking texture. This rabbit has a face only a mother could love … but so many people fell in love with this little guy at the Knit City 2014 knitting event. My daughter, Amanda Kaffka (check out her design in Vogue Knitting Holiday Issue) and I shared a booth there and since her Etsy shop is The Crafty Jackalope, she urged me to bring my rabbits. We both love all things Rabbit.

I could especially feel the love coming from one particular woman who as it turns out, has rabbits as housemates. She sent me photos of her rabbits and I tell you, they took my breath away, I actually gasped at the site of them! They are sisters.

Now come on! Tell me that they are not the perfect epitome of Rabbit! Those feet and those ears just send me around the bend! They are artful creatures, even the 16th century painter, Albrecht Dürer, thought so. Her rabbits beg to be painted! I will be sculpting them.

The lucky soul who gets to live with these creatures is Amy Singer, she had the same response to my rabbit as I did to hers. Any Singer is the editor creator of Knitty. Knitty is the largest, longest-running free knitting magazine on the internet! That is why she was at the big Vancouver Knitting event, she was looking with a knitting eye, not expecting to see my big clay rabbit lovingly looking back at her.

I love surprise connections!

(all photos by Amy Singer)

It’s summer. It’s hot.

Posted on August 11, 2014 by nancywalker

So let’s cool off with a few Ferry Photos

….. And here’s the Last Word ~

Wisdom Tooth ~ Sweet Tooth

Posted on April 21, 2014 by nancywalker

now these are weird …

not for the faint of heart or squeemish…

these are Creepy Cool so hang on to your hats

Here we go

a bowl full of teeth!

now don’t fret because I made them myself

from porcelain clay, I’m a potter, remember?

They are knitting stitch markers, you can use them to mark where you are in your knitting pattern, they make knitting easy and enjoyable because they tell you when you need to change your pattern, they are kind of like being on cruise control … in knitting

I was just looking to make something a little EDGY

and these are …

look closely, there is a gold cap on one of them

one could even use them as a Brooch, which someone I know does

I’m selling these in my Etsy shop (my shameless plug) and they come in this cool tin box

Wisdom Tooth is the one with the gold Tooth

Sweet Tooth are, well, 6 sweet teeth!

~ Sometimes you gotta just stir things up a bit ~

VaRooooom

Living Sculpture

Posted on March 17, 2014 by nancywalker

I was at The Vogue Knit Live conference in Seattle last weekend and came upon this living moving knitted art sculpture. I was so intrigued. It reminded me of Tai Chi Push Hands. I found myself coaching them with their binds and releases in my mind as they move so sensitively in tandem. They responded so subtly to each others slightest movement. Sometimes their give-and-take created a big knot between them slowly tangling themselves up, then they would slowly slowly untangled themselves like in a kind of living puzzle.

~ Slow down and watch this little slide show ~

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the hands and mind behind this work is fiber and performance artist ~ Antonia Price from Seattle

Modeling

Posted on December 2, 2013 by nancywalker

I have mentioned this before but I don’t like posing for and modeling the things I knit on Ravelry or modeling the shawl pins I’ve been making. Maybe I am camera shy …..I have recently made a new line of coloured pins and …. ya … here we go again. I have to show them in play.

Last time dear Matilda came to my rescue and I will hire her again, but I thought there should be a new look.

Years ago I was made a series of female clay vases. They could hold flowers that looked like colourful ideas and creativity coming out of their heads, I saw them as putting forth new ideas, not as containers for a flower arrangement, and that is a big difference.

Well, they I suddenly saw them again as I was dreading going before the camera. Yes! They could model for me! They would be delighted! So with a little playing around with photoshop/photoshopping… not only did they model for me, they could go anywhere, I could play with the backgrounds.

So without further adieu … my new working partners.

Standing by the sea on a Northern Gulf Island.

Mermaid Pin ~ Imagine

in my neighbourhood when we were in a thick fog for a week. It was quiet and mysterious, the fog horns called out for days on end.

Trusting Owl Pin

This is on the coast of Massachusetts

Sheep Pin

and it’s Snowing!

Owl ~ knit wise

Textures and Text

Posted on November 18, 2013 by nancywalker

: White shell beach seen under water

: wading

: sea weed marking sea shore water movement

: water flow in sea weed

: rocky shore

: rocky shore

: rocky shore

: pictogram in sand stone, you can barely see it

: pictogram in limestone of bird and her egg

: sea weed

: lichen

: lichen

: empty plastic white clay bag

: Fall leaves

: frogging ~ a knitter’s term meaning undoing stitches. Takes so long to knit, takes a second to frog.

: Fall trees

: Old Arbutus bark

: Old Arbutus bark

Oh and …. BOO!

Posted on October 31, 2013 by nancywalker

Inspired by …..

a little idea

Posted on October 7, 2013 by nancywalker

I knit

and I make shawl pins made out of porcelain and copper. So I am part of an ENORMOUS Knitting community … and ….my goodness,

if every knitter got the same bee under under their bonnet, we could move the earth!

There is a great website where we all meet called Ravelry. Knitters from around the globe post their projects and join groups, share ideas and information, it’s really quite amazing. Over the years I have listed 21 projects, I just uploaded a few more today. It’s easy to procrastinate, and I’ll get to that. The idea is to photograph one’s project as it progresses and it helps to have a few images of the finished piece so other knitters can see what a particular pattern might look in a different yarn etc…. But I don’t like photographing myself in these knitted wear, so I crop the

photos of me them off at the neck, which I don’t really like either ….. what to do?? … What to do????

Well today I came up with a solution that pleases me greatly!

~ May I present Matilda ~

I made this mask as a stage piece in my stage/costume designing days for the