A Place For Discovery

Discovery Park in Seattle is the urban nature lover's dream come true - right in the middle of town, trails to get lost on, a view of the Puget Sound, plus a beautiful forest.  I could have spent an entire day there! Here are a few photos from the time I got to indulge.

No matter where I am, I find that there is so much to be seen.  The Pacific Northwest contains some of my favorite ecosystem types so it's easy to be amazed by what's present there, but even in my own backyard I find that nature inspires me.  Always keep your eyes open… you never know what will move you.

52 Forms of Fungi || #34

In Washington, we hiked in the Snoqualmie-Mt. Baker National Forest in the North Cascades, which was pretty much heaven for me in terms of the ecosystem and diversity of fungi.  One of the most striking species we came across had a cap of deep purple that had somewhat of a shimmer to it (perhaps from moisture on the tiny hairs?).  The rich, dark color was easy to overlook in the shadows of the trees, but was truly beautiful to behold.  As I was going through my new guidebook that I mentioned in the last post, I knew as soon as I flipped to the page that this is what I had seen.  Violet cort.  I also thought it funny that this species has been on my list for a while, as I was drawn to it in earlier research.  I really had no idea how much it would impact me to see it in person, but feel fortunate to have had the opportunity.  The bottom photo shows one of the mushrooms that I observed.  The setting is vastly different, but in November in Oklahoma, you work with what you can!

This structure was knitted as part of my 52 Forms of Fungi project. Check out more of the forms from this project.

52 Forms of Fungi || #33

While in the Paxton Gate store in Portland, OR last month, I picked up a field guide to western mushrooms entitled All That the Rain Promises, and More, by David Arora. If you take a look at the cover, you'll see why it caught my eye - it depicts a trombone player in concert attire, sneaking around harvesting mushrooms before a gig.  I laughed, and then opened it up to discover that it's actually a pretty informative and user friendly guide and then decided to buy it as a souvenir.

While looking through and spotting many of what I believe to be the species I saw in the North Cascades during the same trip, I was also inspired by some of them for this series and added to my list of fungi to knit.  The first is velvety black earth tongue.  The dark color and dainty form stood out to me, since it's pretty different from most of the species I've incorporated into this project.

This structure was knitted as part of my 52 Forms of Fungi project. Check out more of the forms from this project.

Seattle

I started to go through my photos from our trip out west and got a little overwhelmed, so here are just a few from Seattle.  Our friends that we stayed with live in Ballard, just down the street from the Locks so we took a walk down there on the first day.  I'm told that we arrived just as the rains began, so the weather varied between mist, clouds, and intermittent sunlight.  I can't say I was bothered by any of it; the landscape is so lushly green and covered with huge trees, ferns, moss and lichen that would probably not thrive were it not for that temperate climate.

This is pretty much the extent of my urban photography on the trip, as most of my photos are pretty much of the aforementioned incredible landscape, the North Cascades in particular.  One great thing about visiting in the fall is the abundance of fungi, which I must admit is the reason I became overwhelmed when starting to go through photos.  So many different types!  I would love to share them all with you.  It will take a while, but I'm going to break them up into a series of posts over the next several weeks -- small pleasures.

I hope everyone has a Happy Halloween and a lovely weekend.  More knitted fungi is coming next week!

Off the Needles || Foliage Wrap

 The Foliage wrap (by Anne Thompson).  If you saw my previous post about this, you'll remember that I received some Crazy Sexy Wool from Wool and the Gang to try out in one of my projects.  Since I already have an abundance of scarves and cowls, I decided to do something a little different with it and found this pattern on Ravelry.  I had a little less yardage than the pattern called for, however, so I made some modifications on the number of rows which was made up by the larger gauge, in measurements.  Before blocking I wasn't really sure how it would turn out, but it flattened nicely and spread out a little for a fit with a little more ease (though not much more).

The belt is what makes it work.  This is a pretty bulky knit, and drawing the garment in at the waist gives it a bit of a peplum look, in my opinion.  I like it with the black pants, but it could easily be paired with a  dress as well.  The pattern page shows it worn upside down, with the leaf edging as the collar.  I   didn't notice that until just now or I may have tried it that way for some of the photos as well, but I'm curious about it now-- on the next wear, definitely.

Since I normally work in pretty small gauge, this is by far the bulkiest piece I have made to date (aside from accessories).  The speed is a nice change from what I'm used to - talk about instant gratification!  It may have taken a while to get some final photos of the project, but this was finished within days of the previous post.

What gauge do you knitters prefer working with?  Are chunky knits your thing, or do you get wrapped up in tiny gauges like myself?  I might have been won over to projects like this one, just every once in a while...

Witch's Hair

 When we started planning our recent trip to Washington state, I knew that I wanted to take advantage of the landscape for at least one small installation.  Time was not abundant, so in the end it turned out to be pretty minimal.  After getting my lichen feet wet through collaborating with Sarah Hearn this spring, I've spent much of the summer planning out some new work that branches into lichen territory.  I love knitting fungi, but also find lichen to be extremely fascinating the more I learn about it.  And the more I observe it I find that I just can't help stopping to get up close and take in every one that I spot.  It's hard to pull away at times!

This piece was inspired by Witch's hair (a rather magnified version of witch's hair).  I wish I could have made it larger, but I do intend to continue exploring this species for a larger body of work that I've begun, so if you like it then stick around!

Just after I took my last photo, I heard a creak and glanced over to see a large snag tip and crash to the ground across the trail about 50 feet away.  No one was nearby, thankfully, but it was magnificent to see.  It's strange how an incident like witnessing a giant fall to the ground like that can make you feel so small, when it also brings you to realize that the giant itself is minuscule in comparison to the magnitude of the world.  Nature is so vast.  We are but one tiny component in this, yet we as humans feel that we control it all.  It's a nice reminder that the world keeps spinning, trees keep growing and falling and the Earth will continue to nurture everything on it until the end of time.  I feel refreshed and inspired with each moment that I spend in the wild.

Washington

 J and I just returned from a trip out west to celebrate our third anniversary - we spent about a week in the Seattle area staying with some friends, and spent a lot of time outdoors.  My friend Sharalee took these photos that I thought I would share since I have not had the chance to upload my own yet.  The middle one is a pretty typical scene on hikes with me!  I will share more soon about what caught my eye on our adventures.  There's nothing more soothing than immersing oneself into wild places.

New Pattern || Exoskeleton

This pattern has been a long time coming, so to say I'm excited to finally release it is an understatement.   I experimented with elongated stitch a few years ago, which involves a series of drop stitches creating the unique oval texture you see in the body of the shawl.  The entire time I was knitting it I kept thinking of watching roly polys (or doodle bugs, everyone has their own name for them) in my back yard as a kid.  The crossing and length of the stitches in this pattern reminded me of their little shells, their exoskeletons.  Thus, the origin of the name, Exoskeleton.  While I chose the name based on an association with the stitch pattern, I think a shawl in itself is a sort of second skin, another layer of protection and warmth.

Thank you to my lovely friend Jenna for modeling for me, despite the fact that it took me over a year to put the photos to use.  Cheers to shawl season!

You may purchase the pattern in my Ravelry store or on Etsy.

On My Needles || Still Light Tunic

It seems like I've had a slew of "On My Needles" posts lately, but have a stack of finished projects in my studio just waiting for a photo shoot to wrap them up.  One of my plans for this weekend is to work on getting images of some finished pieces, so by next week you should be seeing completed projects instead of just those that are in progress!

This is my Still Light tunic, designed by Veera Valimaki.  I had never made anything she designed before Whispers, so it's funny that the very next thing I cast on was this project.  It's been on my queue for a couple of years now, and I actually bought the pattern back in 2012 or 2013, so I felt like it was time.

The yarn is Knit Picks Gloss in the Robot colorway.  I normally like vibrant colors for my knitwear projects, but this time I decided that I need a neutral piece in my wardrobe.  Plus, I also love brightly colored and patterned tights, and this would be perfect to wear with those.  My gauge was a little smaller than what the pattern called for, so I added in some repeats and length, which i will go into in further detail on my final post.

Overall, this pattern entails a ton of stockinette.  It's knitted top down, a really simple construction, and is great for mindless/meditative knitting (my favorite kind!).  The space above the pockets sort of balloons out, and then comes back in.  It looks like a flattering fit in the pattern photos… we shall see.  As long as the form turns out right it will be a perfect, cozy layering piece for the fall and winter months with a soft blend of wool and silk.

I just have a few more inches of stockinette stick along the bottom to go, then the ribbed edge, sleeves and pockets.  Maybe by Halloween there will be something to show for it...

52 Forms of Fungi || #32

Sarcosphaera coronaria.  A grayish rubbery (in appearance) egg shape forms only to break open and reveal a beautiful purple interior.  It's like the geode of fungi!  So beautiful.  This is another great example of a species that just stunned me with its unique features when I was researching new forms to create.  As if there's a species of fungi that doesn't have that result.

According to Wikipedia, it grows in the mountains within coniferous forests, forming underneath humus on the forest floor and often appearing after the snow begins to melt away.  It can also apparently bioaccumulate toxic chemicals such as arsenic.  I wonder if it may be cultivated for bioremediation?  It's amazing what nature can do.

I used Berroco Ultra Alpaca Fine yarn for this phase, which was so graciously provided to me by Berroco.  Just a couple of phases are left to create from the stash they sent me, on top of the 20 forms left to complete the series.  Violet crown cup utilized the Steel Cut Oats and Lavender Mix color ways. No matter the gauge of Ultra Alpaca used, one of my favorite parts of this yarn (besides the softness) is the stitch definition.  I use it for so many projects!

This structure was knitted as part of my 52 Forms of Fungi project. Check out more of the forms from this project.

Harvested || Pokeweed Dye

I still have a lot to learn about native plants.  Herbaceous plants are so much harder to ID than trees - trees are easy, or maybe it's just because that's my area of expertise.  I recently started following a wildcrafting group on Facebook just to learn more about the plants that I see on a daily basis… And aside from the tree posts (which I can usually chime in on) the main thing I've learned is that THERE ARE SO MANY PLANTS THAT LOOK LIKE OTHER PLANTS!  So I have a lot of observation and studying up to do.  Fortunately, there are other plants that look NOTHING like other plants.  Take pokeweed, for instance.  The huge leaves, and pink flower stalks which eventually bear these blueberry-like (though not edible) fruits.

I picked up a book in Portland, Oregon a couple of years ago called Harvesting Color, a beautiful and informative guide to native dye plants across the US (with recipes).  I remember recognizing poke weed in the book as a plant that I had seen in people's gardens.  Now that I think about it, I'm not sure if people plant it as an ornamental or if it just shows up and they let it stay because it looks pretty.  Because let's face it, it looks really dang pretty.

Last fall around this time, J and I were on a hike in Charon's Garden in the Wichita Wildlife Refuge in this gnarly little canyon/boulderfield, and I remember glancing over to see this one majestic little pokeweed.  The first one I had observed since reading about it in the book.  Then I took some photos and continued along the trail until becoming distracted by some lichen making their home on a face of granite.

This spring, all types of plants sprang up around my new yard, some of which I knew and others which I did not.  I had started a wildflower bed on the far back lot and while I was checking obsessively every day hoping to spot some type of activity with my seeds, these large, leafy seedlings sprouted behind them and continued to grow larger and larger.  It wasn't until I started to see a pink tint transforming the base of the stems that I knew… pokeweed.  As the season wore on, I began to spot more and more of these colorful, unusual plants.  From my observation, the hummingbirds like them too.

The berries have been ripening and drying out for weeks now and I finally made myself get out and harvest some for a solar dyeing project this past weekend.  One hand holding the jar and the other in a latex glove, I stripped several handfuls of berries from over a dozen plants on my half acre, watching the pink juice dripping off of my glove and thankful to experience this craft.  100 grams of wool and an alum mordant later, I'm excited to see how the dye fixes to the yarn a few weeks from now.

Wool and the Gang || Crazy Sexy Wool

 To be fully honest, the blogs that I follow are a little heavier on design than they are on knitting.  While I love knitting (obviously), I find that the hip curation of fashion/lifestyle/home decor by design bloggers piques my interest a little more strongly.  Furthermore, when their posts come full circle to tie in knitting or nature (my other obvious interest), I'm all the more intrigued and energized by it.  Thus, my feelings about Wool and the Gang.  I first came across this company a couple of years back through one of the aforementioned blogs and really dug their crisp, minimalistic, modern aesthetic.  Upon looking into them a little further, I discovered their focus on quality, sustainable craftsmanship in fashion, and an emphasis on sustainable and recycled yarns.  WATG designs simple knitting patterns that may be purchased as kits or separately as yarn and pattern to encourage handmade fashion… and if you're not a knitter you can buy the garments hand made by one of the WATG makers.  Pretty basic, huh?  Basic, but personal, and with beautiful products to boot.

When WATG reached out about getting some of their yarn into my hands to try out, I was clearly all about it.  A week later, I had two balls of Crazy Sexy Wool in my possession, in the Magic Mint colorway.  When I think of mint green, I picture… well, the walls in my study, because that's one of our colors of choice when it comes to home ambiance.  Rather than the sherbet green, this shade of the yarn is more of a cool, minty blue.  I can almost smell peppermint when I look at it… or maybe that's just my essential oil diffuser.  No matter.  Color often drives my instincts when it comes to yarn selection, so when I opened the package the day it arrived I was instantly drawn to the vibrancy of the hue.

When I reached in to grasp the yarn, an involuntary sigh definitely happened as my hand melted into the softness.  This is some seriously soft yarn.  Super bulky, too - probably one of the bulkier yarns that I have worked with.  I'm also a sucker for single-ply yarns.  Whether it's the case or not, I always feel like I'm knitting with handspun yarn when I work with single-ply.  With some single-ply yarns the fiber will pull and break apart in the middle of a project, but I had no such experience with this yarn.  It's just as taut and strong as a plied one.

As someone with an abundance of cowls and oversized scarves, I decided I wanted to try something a little different with this 100% Peruvian wool.  Since I normally work with a pretty small gauge it was a difficult decision, but I finally settled on a variation of the Foliage Wrap by Anne Thompson, a vest with a large leaf edging around the bottom.  Given my lack of experience with bulky non-accessory garments, this may or may not be the final form of the yarn.  If I don't like the project after it's blocked, I may frog it and go for a hat instead.  No tears lost over a little more time with this chunky goodness.

Each ball of Crazy Sexy Wool has 87 yards, and I must say that I am impressed at how far one ball of the yarn takes you - much farther than I expected.  The vest is nearly done, so expect photos of it soon, or, you know, photos of some other mystery garment if I decide in the end that the pattern doesn't work for me after all.  Another bonus: working with US 19 needles goes a lot faster than US 3.

Wool and the Gang provided the yarn for this review, but all words and opinions are my own.

On My Needles || Whispers

I feel like I should state up front: this was not at all an original idea.  The Whispers pattern by Veera Valimaki has been floating around in the back of my head, appealing to the part of my brain that regulates "start-itis" since it appeared on Ravelry one day.  It's an adorable, feminine pattern that's great for the changing of the seasons (or even summertime, if you use some plant-based fiber).  I was sold on the prospect of making one for myself after I saw Cassy's project on Knitthehellout.  She used this gorgeous ombre dyed yarn by Black Trillium Fibres on Etsy, and I couldn't stop looking at the FO, it was so pretty.  I went online to check out the shop and ended up buying myself a 31st birthday present of the Lilt sock gradient kit in plum and downloaded the pattern.  Normally, I'm not one to copycat, but I give Cassy full credit for this brilliant idea and hope that mine turns out half as great as hers did.  Truth be told, it's already bound off and waiting for blocking - hopefully I can get some finished photos in the next few weeks!

We're nearing the beginning of Autumn here in Oklahoma, which is music to my ears!  Today is supposed to be the last miserably hot day before we get hit with a couple of cold fronts that should keep us in pleasant territory for a while.  This means it's hiking season again!  I'm excited to get in a little outdoors time this weekend.  What are your favorite things to do during the transition of seasons?

All The Little Details

I never cease to be amazed by the texture in these amazing little organisms.  The cap on this little guy was only about 3-4 inches across, but check out the level of detail in the underside.  J found him when cleaning out the flower bed a few weeks back.  It's unfortunately been too warm lately to do much hiking, so sometimes inspiration from the yard must suffice.  The bottom photo is from an excursion to our favorite hiking spot in town last month.

September is here - I always sigh a bit of relief when August is gone.  The heat will gradually subside and I will take a deep breath and suddenly crisp fall air, colorful leaves and seasonal yard decorations will appear.  I live for this season.

Happy Weekend.

Off the Needles || Ruckle

Ruckle.  I've been getting into knitted tunics lately.  For a while, it was cardigans and then I had a couple of knit tops turn out a little long and now here I am, enveloped in an oversized knit garment with all the comfort in the world.  I still stand by everything I said in my previous post about this project.  If you get tired of mundane, top down construction, this pattern is for you.  It does involve some seaming at the end, but the yoke and the bottom edge make it all worthwhile.

The pattern is free on Ravelry, designed by Norah Gaughan.  I used Berroco Lago in Deep End for my project.  It drapes beautifully and I've been wearing it in August in Oklahoma without too much misery from the heat.  Works great layered over a dress or with jeans!

Bits and Pieces

Here is a peek at progress on something I've been working on.  It may not look like much, but there are a few hundred little i-cords there.  Every piece is a part of something bigger… sometimes it takes a while to see the bigger picture.

I'm excited about this work and can't wait to share with you how it progresses.

Solar Dyeing || #4 - Onion Skins

A while back I mentioned doing some solar dyeing demonstrations for an Earth Day event at Martin Park Nature Center in conjunction with my exhibition, Niche.  At the end of June, I finished off a couple of my dye jars and had only shared the one using red bud blossoms.  The jar shown here included 100% wool dyed with onion skins, using alum as a mordant.  As you can see, it was packed pretty tightly.  The resulting yarn showed some interesting variegation of yellow and orange-brown.

My posting schedule has been a little inactive this past month - summertime has its demands I have not been able to spend much time at the computer.  I do have a few projects to share soon, however.  Until later this week...

Unpacked Studio!

Summertime, always a busy time, has seemed to fly by this year.  I've had multiple projects going, although not a lot to share just yet.  One big milestone occurred this weekend - my studio is finally fully unpacked and set up.  I've figured out an effective yarn storage method, bought a comfortable chair, and prepared my space in a way that is very minimalistic, inspiring to me, and open to a variety of uses.  So far, I'm pretty happy with it!

Last week I entered my 31st year, a pretty low-key event.  The chair was a birthday gift to myself, so I can start out this new year of life with vigor (and comfort) in my artistic practice.  Beyond that, life is full of ripe tomatoes, hot yoga, and finally making some headway on our home projects.  I'm looking forward to this fall and some possibilities on the horizon.

Recent Things That Caught My Eye..

Harvested || Dye From Red Bud Blossoms

Back in April, I did some solar dyeing demonstrations for Earthfest at Martin Park Nature Center, in conjunction with my outdoor exhibition, Niche.  Oklahoma's state tree is eastern red bud, and they are abundant here.  Funny enough, our climate tends to be a little hard on these little trees in the summer - they often have sunscald, splits in the trunk and decay, especially when growing in full sun.  The 'Oklahoma' variety has a thicker cuticle on its leaves and tends to be a little more tolerant of heat and drought.  In any case, red bud puts on quite a show in the spring with the small purple blooms lining its branches.  We have a few fairly mature specimens in the back yard, and I decided to try a little experiment this spring.  I collected a bagful of blossoms to use in one of my demonstration jars, unsure of what the outcome would be.  Flowers can be deceptive when it comes to dyeing - I learned that when I got a lovely sage green from prairie coneflower last summer.  While I would have been delighted with a purple hue, I went into this experiment without expectations, and I was wowed by the result.  After two and a half months in the dye jar, I finished with incredibly vibrant, golden yarn.  It's beautiful!  Next year I will definitely make more, and try it out with different mordants to see the variation.

This yarn was dyed using red bud blossoms with an alum mordant and a splash of vinegar.  I boiled half of my blooms to extract color before putting water in the jar with the yarn, and added a handful of fresh flowers to the jar as well.