Spill Guts Here. It's gotta go somewhere, know what I mean? Can you stand it?




tokkyu antenna

Geek Knitting
A must read!






Previous | Next

West Indian Parade
Brooklyn, 2006

West Indian Parade
Brooklyn, 2005

West Indian Parade
Brooklyn, 2004

Dog/Cat Wrestling
660kb QT movie

Coney Island
July 4th, 2002

New camera came yesterday, testing it out this am: wow! I can get crispy closeups of knitting, my heart's desire:
CU

Edge stitches on TeePee experimental hat. Sawtooth edge, unbalanced, to give a tiny bit of torque after seaming. Here's a zoomed out view:


This is not the highest res, either! Natural light setting, lovely! Downside, it's huge and won't fit in my pocket, upside, it might live longer if I have to carry it in a case. Fujifilm Finepix S5200, in case you're interested.

Shroom variations still chugging along, a finally succumbed to the call of the diagonal:
CU

I MAJORLY scored on Ebay yesterday, I found a technicians repair manual for the 910!!! From England. It's now mine! Maybe I can bring my others back to life. that would be incredible. Also, found instructions for making homemade sponge bars online. There's not enough time in the day for all this.

Good morning, Mr. Marsan!
posted by staceyjoy at 11:14 AM 0 comments

Well, it was pouring all day yesterday, so I decided to stay home and have a studio day. I found out last night there was some terrible drama on Vanderbilt. The crazy landlord of the bar "Indigo Blue" kitty-corner to my shop {corner of Dean}, went berserk, and shot a plumber and perhaps someone else as Alain {owner of the bar} was trying to move his things out after being evicted. Alain has had serious problems with Calixte {landlord} ever since he rented the place, and Calixte finally just lost it completely and killed someone. A Mr. Martin, who was doing some plumbing, probably trying to remove bar equipment, was killed. Shit. It's so strange because I know everyone involved, it's a very sad story. Will be going in today, and getting more details. Very tragic. The whole street knows Calixte is crazy, but we didn't know he was also violent. jeez.
posted by staceyjoy at 11:11 AM 0 comments

Researching the 910's. Found out I have a modified one, with soldered in rechargeable batteries, not replaceable ones. If it's been stored for a while, which I think this one obviously was, the battery needs recharging, or sometimes the result is erratic patterning. It's plugged in now, and I'm hoping that's the case. I opened it completely, there are no giant lint balls or other debris inside. Fingers crossed.

Roasted chestnuts {easy and delicious} and grated carrot slaw. Mashed potato, a bit of truffle oil and fresh fig on top? Lemony steamed broccoli, roasted brussels sprouts?

AN UPDATE EXCITING TO PROBABLY ONLY ME: Testing the 910 again, it's starting to come to life!!! Patterning is still not 100%, but it's getting better. Leaving it plugged in all night, and hoping that's the only problem with it. I haven't had free access to those patterns for 10 damned years, and they represent another 10 years worth of work, so being able to use them is extremely exciting to me right now!!!

If anyone else is trying to resusitate one of these prehistoric babies, here's the technical info on the Machine Knitters Yahoo Group. You may need to be a member to read it, not sure...
posted by staceyjoy at 12:56 PM 2 comments

Starting to get excited about Thanksgiving this year, I'm cooking for 4-6 people, and am planning the menu. No turkey, since I really don't like it, I love to make a tender filet mignon in cream caper sauce. The rest I'm still thinking about. Will try some homemade ice cream again to go with various desserts. Reading various mashed potato and veg recipes to get inspired. Baking homemade biscuits. Love this holiday, it's the only one I really do celebrate. Just about being thankful with friends, which is allright with me.

Have a new camera on the way, a Fujifilm FinePix S5200. Plan to really learn how to use this one, and also make a very padded bag for it! SO hopefully, much better shots from here on.

The 910 is starting to come back to life, whatever the mechanical component is inside it that selects the needles is beginning to become "unstuck", a different carriage helped a bit, this thing needs a deep, deep cleaning. Encouraged that the electronics are all working, I can smell a working 910 down the road...excited! taking it apart to see if I can clean it from the inside later.
posted by staceyjoy at 1:43 AM 2 comments

Incredible sculpture show at the Brooklyn Museum, starting today: Ron Mueck

Eerie, gorgeous, slightly disturbing, technically excellent.
posted by staceyjoy at 5:30 PM 0 comments

OMG, if I didn't protect my hands so fiercely, I'd punch a hole in the wall right about now. Troubleshooting the "new" 910, the motherboard is fine, however, I think there's a problem with the carriage, luckily, I have 3 other 910 carriages I know are in good repair to test what I think is wrong with it. The carriage will not select needles according to the ones on the pattern, it selects the same pattern each row, to test the idea that it's the carriage, I tried it on the 940 body: same needles selected. Not sure how this is happening, but it is. Franken-machine to be worked on later after I retrieve the other carriages from my studio building. DAMN IT. The spent sponge bar was GLUED into place by crusty, dried oil, perhaps that's the problem with the carriage, stuck old grease, maybe.

This machine is beat-up, and reeks of cigarettes. I would't even care if it just fuckin worked. Damn you, Brother! Make some new machines!

I realized after my last post that newer readers might not know my history, I owned a knit development company for 10 years or so, making original hand and machine knit stitch swatches and samples for Donna Karan, Tommy Hilfiger, Anne Klein, Nautica, and many other 7th ave. designers. Hence, my extreme experience and number of machines and other equipment. It's my business, I'm not a crafter or DIYer, not even remotely. That should explain alot. Opened the shop 7 years ago, and so far have done all my own production as well. Whatever, there's alot more to it, but that's it in a nutshell.
posted by staceyjoy at 12:46 PM 0 comments

Working on the allover cabled version of the Shroom series:
CU.
posted by staceyjoy at 11:10 AM 3 comments

Spent the am taking apart my 940, in preparation for setting up an old 910, which came yesterday. Finally, I can use the hundreds of original patterns of all types I have transcribed onto mylars, providing the damned thing works properly. I have three of them with burned out motherboards already in the parts farm. Re-transcribing those patterns stitch by freaking stitch into the 940 by pressing a tiny, squeaking button was never going to happen, so I'm pretty happy about this, with reservations...let's see if it's operational. 910's are from the '70's after all.

Getting work done on hat patterns thanks to Alexandra who's technical editing and helping me transcribe, as well as shooting great pictures. SO hang in there, patterns are definitely coming soon! Thanks for your patience, everyone who's emailed!
posted by staceyjoy at 4:58 PM 2 comments