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Spill Guts Here. It's gotta go somewhere, know what I mean? Can you stand it?
purls before swine
Geek Knitting
West Indian Parade
West Indian Parade
Dog/Cat Wrestling
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9.29.2005
9.28.2005
Finally, footage of a live giant squid! {NYT, reg. req.} Awesome. A cast member of childhood recurring nightmares. What a bizarre, interesting creature.
A favorite motif I've always used in one form or another has now made it's appearance as embroidery. These are appliques for canvas bags, first cutout, then applied. Rayon on moire', around 5" at the widest point.  And a few long sleeved pink {also in blue or white} tees for the sweet little girls in my neighborhood:  Why oh why is the following the most searched for image on my entire site? Can someone enlighten me? This gets literally hundreds of hits from search engines every single day.  9.27.2005
Sick and very cute at the same time: Knit your Guinea Pig a Lace Dress.
Finishing a number of pieces today, I've had a burst of creative energy. Pix to follow. 9.23.2005
9.22.2005
I'm dying for a MM 1.0. Vacillating between the burgundy or the darker teal. Perfect city transportation. Completely electric, classified as a motorcycle, which rates cheaper insurance. It's so cute! There's no price listed...something tells me I'd better start cranking out the necklaces. :-<
 Off to a trade show in the city, then Jackson Heights to finally get my machine back, then run shop till 8. Gotta go. 9.21.2005
Kitchen table, aftermath of necklace making marathon.
 Quartz, Tiger eye, glass opal, onyx, coral, amethyst, mother of pearl, wood, ceramic, sterling silver. They're based on the idea of an exploded diagram, currently one of my minor obsessions. Some are still unfinished:   Would like to post for the record, here in Brooklyn, I've been making this type of necklace for almost 6 years, for sale in my shop and others. Just a pre-emptive statement. For those who feel they must copy what I do, I say, "Work on your own ideas, {if you have any}". Got very lucky yesterday, was shopping for supplies in the garment district, and found a wholesale fabric shop going out of business. Black mohair for coats, beautiful napped wools and teal wool jersey. A dark pink flocked ultrasuede, flocked on both sides, like high tech felt. Shiny woven nylon in black and dark navy, ultrathin, used this for years as skirt tops, it's hard to find, now I can continue variations on that series. 14 yards shiny mulberry sheer for a drape around the front window of the shop {remember to measure today}. Got so much { for very cheap} they are UPSing it to me. I can't wait to cut it, my scissors hand is itching. Hopefully, {Oh, come on, please??} getting my machine back from the repair shop in jackson heights later today or tommorrow am. It does so many incredible stitches, and now I have this fabric, it was like a gift from the sky. {thank you, grandpa}. 9.19.2005
Cashmere boucle' and 2 ply men's scarf, 7g. Using very small geometric patterns alot this year, so far. If you look closely, you can see that the pattern is very simply based on the number 2.
I'm working today on coding the {explanatory} article, and most likely, I'm going to charge $2. for it. I've always very freely given things away, but if I ever want to have a real vacation, I have to charge for my work. It's a project in progress. Thought about it a long time. It's an expanded version of what was printed in KnitKnit #4.  9.15.2005
Comments are available again.
Not for those afraid of heights. Grand Canyon Walkway Project I'm not, but I don't know if I could stand this. 9.14.2005
Spent this birthday in a relaxed, low-key way. Usually, I splurge on something, a new tattoo, a gold necklace, expensive shoes. This year, I dispensed with the...fripperies, I think they are, and bought the upgrade to OSX, Tiger. I've ignored new technology for a few years, and I'm ready to fill the gap. Still have to use older systems on my laptops for obsolete math graphics programs, but I want to run the gamut from old to new. Which leads me to the Apple store in Soho, today was my first time. Damn. It was like a Fellini movie set. No shit. Then: 3 Small toys at KidRobot. 3 large sheets of stenciling acetate, and a mat knife at Pearl Paint. A hummous and avocado wrap. Iced coffee. 2 yards of emerald green and 2 yards of black rubberized cotton to make bags and appliques with at P&S. 2 yards pale teal moire' as lining. A bag of 22 colored embroidery spools of thread, in anticipation of getting my machine back from the shop. I have many, many embroidery and mixed media ideas, can't wait to get it back!!
Re-organizing continually, a little at a time, still, this is going to last a good long while, there's plenty to do. Have many pieces for the shop in almost finished form. Starting to plan the webshop's restocking, and planning wholesale end of things, finally. Thank you for the phone calls today, dear friends.       9.13.2005
It's time to publicly clear the air about "Knitting for Dogs", the book I was writing for Quirk Publishing last year. I was checking out the new Knitty today, I came across a mention and photos of the book coming out in the Cool Stuff section, so I guess it's getting ready for release. Some of you may remember that I was signed to write the whole thing, and I worked on it for many months, we shot dogs in my designs in two photo sessions, etc. I researched for months.
What happened is that I severely miscalculated the time it would take to finish my end, and then in combination with my regular responsibilities, there simply wasn't enough time in the day to do everything. And then I found a new storefront that needed gut renovation, and it was also Fall, my busy season. Quirk tried their hardest to accommodate me time-wise, but it was not possible, due to contracts and deadlines they had with the publisher. I then made the difficult decision to relinquish the book, and the reins were picked up by the former technical editor for it, Kristi Porter, to finish it, and actually draft all of the sweater patterns. I did not turn over my research, design work, knitted sweaters or written work. The written sweater patterns in it are definitely Kristi's. To my surprise though, I saw on Knitty that they had used one of the sweaters I designed and made, that was modeled by Toby, the black mini poodle. This design does belong to Quirk, I suppose, but how Kristi wrote a pattern based on this picture is beyond me. I have no idea if I'm credited with the design, these are honorable people, and when the book comes out, I guess I'll find out. I had assumed she would use her own designs, perhaps it's a mix? I don't know, we'll see. It's certainly ok with me if they used my sweaters, as long as I retain credit for what I did do, and believe me, Kristi's jumping in and finishing this was a huge, huge task. I felt pretty bad that I had to give it up, but it was a business decision, and I've made my peace with it. I wish Kristi the best, I hope it's a huge seller. BTW: Comments for this blog were collected by YACCS, an old school service that stopped updating it's technology long time ago, and when I found my archives were gone, I pulled the plug on them. For some reason, Blogger comments don't work, or even show up, although they are activated in my settings. Don't have the energy to pursue why right now, so, no comments for a while, until it bothers me enough to troubleshoot it. 9.12.2005
Received permission from the lovely Sabrina to post online the article I wrote for KnitKnit #4, "Texture Knitting Pattern Transcription using Repeating Number Sequences". KnitKnit #4 is long sold out, and I have gotten a few requests for it. Hope to have it up in a week or so. Thank you, Sabrina!
Which brings me to my current mild obsession: Wolfram Tones {celphone ringtones}. Found them by searching for something tinkerbell-like, have been playing with this for hours. My system uses the rules of knitting mixed in, Wolframs produces music. I was the lucky recipient of his "A New Kind Of Science" a few years ago, given to me by Ranjit. I developed my system over a period of 22 years, independently of anyone, since I'm definitely no scientist. Just love this stuff. Finally did research about numbers+pattern when I was making abstract animations using mathematical equations, about 8 years ago. Before that, there was little or no internet, and I worked in a bubble, reinventing the wheel. :-> Wolfram is one of my all time heros, and I wish I knew enough to play with Mathematica. *sigh* I do what I can. 9.08.2005
Got three machines put together, and in fine shape. Never got a 910 to work, so still have no way to knit the hundreds of original stitch patterns drawn on my mylars. Will hold out hope that one day, I'll be able to use them without programming them into my 940 stitch by freaking stitch.
Shop is looking good, slowly filling up with new toys and Fall clothing. Working with mostly cashmere to start the season off softly. 9.07.2005
9.05.2005
Ranjit and I went to the parade today on Eastern Parkway. A great year, very high energy and mellow at the same time. Perfect weather, sunny and cool.
2005 West Indian Day Parade pictures. Ranjit's pictures are here. Thanks to Jen from Gothamist for linking to my photos! What a great idea! TranStrap. I stopped touching ANYTHING in the subway with my hands years ago, {and stopped getting colds also}, if I have to grab on for balance, I use gloves or my elbow or shirt cuff. Yes, I'm a freak about germs on the subway, it's a roiling witches brew of bodily fluids, excretia and bacteria. You don't want to know what I seen go on down there. This thing is long overdue. {snagged from Gothamist!} 9.03.2005
Jackson Heights AGAIN unexpectedly this afternoon. One more time next week, then that's it. I ate Indian curry at this place on 37th Avenue, charmed/repulsed by the sign in their window:
 If you can't sew, you can just hold it. I was glad I knew how. Curry was good. 9.02.2005
Our junkyard Rottie has found a home! What a nice way to start the weekend. Penny's feeling better, and I'm still putting together knitting machinery, trying to "frankenstein" a few machines together to get one working in all aspects. It's a bit boring and very time consuming. Feel pretty empowered by working on the electronic ones. Have 2 screws left on the table, not sure where they came from..Hmmm :-> One of my "new" ribbers has apparently been in storage for a long time, and the grease has hardened, making movement of the parts frozen. I've put oil on them, and am slowly working the parts to unfreeze, is this how I need to be spending my time?...FUCK! Going to open today, and most likely tommorrow, but not Sunday.
The woman who took away my old clothing yesterday gives {not sells} it to newly arrived immigrants, who often have little or nothing to wear. That makes me feel good. Anyone want to get rid of stuff, let me know, and I'll send you Yvonne's email. Recycle it! Huge annual West Indian Day Parade is Monday, I'll be taking pictures of the costumes again like I did last year. Can't wait, especially for the food! You haven't lived until you've had a cod cake with hot sauce and freshly made ginger beer. 9.01.2005
I'm on a cleaning/organizing/purging kick prompted by Penny's "stomach troubles". Started cleaning 2 days ago, gave away 2 contractor bags full of clothing this am, throwing 3 old rugs, etc. This is great. I didn't bother to deepclean when I thought I was moving, so I'm doing it now.
Anybody in Brooklyn or close to it interested in adopting a 10 month old, untrained, sweet female Rottweiler? She's a junkyard dog, and a few of us are trying to find a better place for her to live. Smart and playfu, and not in the least mean. Please don't email me with rescue organizations, we know all about those, and are trying to adopt her without putting her in the system. Contrary to the photo, her tongue is normal size. Thanks! staceyatredlipstickdotnet  Acacia flavored:  Shop is closed today, I'm putting together my knitting machines, and finding alot of bad parts, especially from machines bought on Ebay. Beware novice MKers, I've been burned 4 times out of 6 with trashed equipment. Successfully changed the motherboard on a 910, only to discover the "new" one was also burnt out. GOD DAMN IT. Feel better now. Marginally. *sigh* Covered in decades old grease.    |
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