Textiles and Tea yesterday was in breakdown mode, but I did get what I could from it. Anita Mayer was the featured artist.
She weaves clothing based on rectangles and uses illustrations from transferred photographs and texts
More talking than slides, but this is the gist. Some cool construction ideas here, for knitters and sewing fans as well as weavers.
Gary came over to visit and talk about what I'm learning from the eye experience, then on to how to clean his polyester canvas outdoor furniture ready for his daughter's party on the Fourth.
I introduced him to washing soda and Borax, to see what would work, and he's going with Borax, very happy about the first test. Nice chat on the patio.
Since I put out one more chair, it's more hospitable for people to stop in, I find. Just one guest chair didn't do it. Interesting material for a sociological study, feel free to use it! Why three chairs look more inviting than two.
The new sock stitches settled down by last night and look much better. Earlier the tension had been a bit wobbly, from the anxiety of the knitter. You can see the mood of the knitter in their work, relaxed, tense, however they're doing.
When I was learning gold work embroidery, demanding stuff, our teacher advised not to pick it up in order to relax, but to do something else first to relax, then go on to the goldwork. Knitting is more forgiving, though I did pull some of it out yesterday to improve it on the second try.
About knitting style, Mary Moon asked yesterday if I knitted English (throwing) or Continental (picking). I don't do either.
My style is more like flicking, yarn in right hand, with a minimum of finger movement, no arm movement at all.
I can do English and Continental, but the picking movement of the Continental is irritating to me. Some English style knitters do something more laborious than I do.
Continental knitters talk about their speed, however, unless you're doing it for a living, I don't think that's so important. My own speed is fine for my purposes.
There's a lot of personal style about knitting, holding the needles, tensioning the yarn, preferences in straight or circular, big tent. And there are passionate debates, which I stay out of. It seems to trigger a great need to be "right". And let's not get into the crochet vs knitting arena. It leaves cats vs dogs in the dust!
Today's drawing, in ballpoint pen (!) is about the current knitting.
A bit tired today, making follow up calls to see why the eyedrop Rx hasn't been called in, and to change the lens decision.
But we'll get there. I think.
Happy day everyone!
