October 28, 2006 – 8:34 am
My turn! Last stop on the Yarnplay Blog Tour. As many of you know by now Lisa Shobhana Mason has an amazing new book out titled - Yarnplay: Colorful Techniques And Projects For The Creative Knitter. I have talked about it a number of times already and if you have yet to pick a copy up I urge you to do so. It’s so good that we got five copies in at the store and within 5 minutes if it being on the shelf they were all gone. (And I only had a little bit to do with that….ha!) Oh wait, one was hidden and Adam was lucky enough to grab that one today. But really. It’s that good. You know it’s good if it gets Scout thinking about knitting a garment. Because Scout don’t knit garments!
A week ago at Stitch ‘n’ Bitch we passed around the book and here are some of the questions the girls had for Lisa. We’ll start with mine.
| Scout - I’m curious to know more about your design process. What comes first the pattern or the yarn or something else? Does it vary or are you very systematic in how you come up with a pattern?
Not systematic at all. It’s pretty intuitive. I begin with a general idea for a design and then choose the yarn. how the yarn looks and feels after it’s knit up heavily influences the design. I tend to make it up as I go along. Often, the finished design is very different from the idea that I started out with. |
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Noelle aka the little hedgehog - In your book you mentioned that one of your influences was Southern Outsider Art. Which particular artists or artwork are your favorites or most influential?As a direct influence, definitely the Gee’s Bend quilters. I’m constantly looking through ‘Gee’s Bend, The Women And Their Quilts‘ for inspiration. I love the idea of having to create something using only the materials at hand. I think about that a lot. If they could create these amazing works of art with limited fabric scraps one should be able to do the same thing working only with the yarns in one’s stash.One of my favorite painters is Jimmy Lee Sudduth. I’m kicking myself because I passed up on an opportunity to purchase one of his more affordable (i.e. less than a month’s rent) paintings. Now they’re beyond my budget. |
| Jody aka Javaem - I am totally in love with the sweater on the cover, Poppy. I have never made a sweater before so I was wondering if you would recommend this as a good “First sweater” project?I wouldn’t necessarily recommend it as a first sweater because it’s not constructed in the traditional way and you don’t really get a sense of how a sweater ‘works’. I think it’s a better 2nd or 3rd sweater. Chelsea is a good first sweater. |
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Carole aka strangelittlemama Which designers/fashion houses inspire your knit wear or design savvy? Vivienne Westwood, Comme des Garcons, Yohji Yamamoto, Alexander McQueen. I like it pretty over the top. They inspire and excite me, but I wouldn’t say that their influence is necessarily reflected in my own work. |
| Molly aka baby finds kazoo Your sexy Poppy sweater came just as I was casting on to make another sweater and I am totally charmed! I’ve ditched the other pattern in favor of yours! Thanks for the prettiness.Yay! Poppy! I can’t wait to see what colors you choose. |
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Monica - Is the Lorelei Tank named after the Lauren Graham character in the Gilmore Girls?No. I just thought she (the sweater) looked like a Lorelei. |
| Ashley aka Ashabee - Is there a color that you tend to use in a lot of projects without realizing it at the time? Since I’ve started designing for publication I’ve really branched out and started using a little of everything. prior to that I probably used a lot of blue. as a rule, I tend to stay away from neutrals and earth tones. I find them pretty boring. |
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Domesticat What are your favorite color combinations? Are they well represented in your book or do you try to come up with combinations you might not necessarily wear yourself?My favorite color combinations tend to change. When I was working on the book I was really into blues and greens. I did try to come up with some combos that I wouldn’t necessarily wear myself. The colors I chose for Chelsea is an example. These days I really like scarlet & charcoal and navy & cream. |
Thanks to everyone who played!
Over a week after it was mailed from Boston, look what the Pony Express finally delivered to me. Clicky to see exactly what it is.
Am I a lucky girl or what? I got my own, handmade, beautiful, DPN case from Cabin Cove Dave! Thank you so much Dave. I love it and needed one! I can’t wait to sit and organize my needles. Wow, what a hot thing to do on a Saturday night. I need to slow down a bit, I know. Actually, I’m going to knit and watch The Corpse Bride with the Scoutlets.
I worked all day today at the shop and it was pretty busy. Almost the whole gang from Stitch ‘n’ Bitch came in and every single one of them bought the yarn to make the Shadow Shawl with me. Bev even bought a second one. I think we have 7 or 8 of us at this point who are all going to cast-on May 2nd.
I’ll leave you with this one from last night. It caught my eye when I went out on my back porch. I love the color of the sky and how the sun hits the houses late in the evening. It really does take my breath away every day.
Wow. I was slightly dissapointed to find my Stitch ‘n’ Bitch girls were the ones to surprise me at the restaurant last night because I was secretly hoping that there were going to be naked men jumping out a birthday cake. Carole kept saying, “It’s not like there are going to be naked men jumping out of a cake or anything so just relax” so you know….I was thinking that maybe it was some reverse psychology or something? Maybe they’ll come jump out of a cake tonight for me? I’m just kidding. SnB girls are way sexier than naked men! So the girls were there and everyone showered me with love and amazing presents. It was truly wonderful. Here are some funny pictures Mona took. As you can tell, we really didn’t have a good time. Look at the birthday love below. The flowers and pictures were here when I got home. My family and friends sure do know how to make a girl feel special. Click on the picture to see the love in more detail.
I have to say, the most special present was from my girl Carole. She gave this to me before we went out and I totally got teary and damn, almost messed up my makeup. How amazing is this? It left me speechless because of the meaning behind it. We both feel that cosmically our mamas are in cahoots together and have worked for 7 years to finally get the two of us living near one another. I know it may sound crazy….but we sure believe it.
Sugarlumps on Etsy made it and I just love it. Go check out her shop. I now need to get dressed and go pick out my present from my dad and his wife. Am I so excited. One final thank you to everyone. I love you all. Really. I do. Yes, you and you and you.
February 22, 2006 – 8:15 am
No, I haven’t started another pair. Yet. Last night at Stitch ‘n’ Bitch we all wore our completed Jaywalkers we cast on together to get a group photo. Have you ever tried to get 14 feet in one shot gracefully? And man, do mine stick out like a sore thumb or what? Although Mona’s are in the running with mine for most fraternal Jaywalkers out there. I love how everyone did such different colorways. Click to see a bigger pictures of our beauties.
Here’s Team Albuquerque Jaywalker. For those of you in a knitting group I highly recommend doing a knit-along together. It’s so much fun doing a project simultaneously and in real life with a whole group of friends. As you can tell, we have just a little bit of fun in our SnB . We were laughing so hard while this kid was taking out picture. I saw this boy and said, “Hey little dude! Can you take our picture?” I think Cari had the best work break ever. (second from right) We also need to thank Mona for being such a good sport about having a bunch of feet on her head.
From left to right we have Lauren, Beth, Carole, moi, Laurie, Cari, Bev and the front two are Mona & Noelle. We had such a blast last night. I had to do some minor surgery to my socks and thanks to Lauren and Mona you can see how hot I looked while fixing it. Rawr! I’m going to start a new fashion statement with headlight lamps. Maybe I’ll go and talk with Santino about it. Speaking of Santino…..Project Runway tonight!
Back to knitting. I was able to fix my sock and turn the heel. I’m absolutely loving this Socks that Rock colorway. I didn’t get a picture of it so you can go over to Grumperina’s to see hers which are also done with Prove it All Night too. I love how the gray pops out.
I also wore mine with shoes for the first time and even with the pooling I still think they look cute. I got these Merrill’s on sale for $15.00 because they are two different sizes. They are perfect for showing off handmade socks.
Crap! Time to get the kids ready for school.
February 13, 2006 – 7:41 am
when you don’t think twice about Stitch ‘n’ Bitch falling on Valentine’s Day and you choose knitting with your girlfriends over hanging with your Valentine. Last week someone announced that it was Valentine’s this week and wondered if we’d meet. Pretty much everyone in unison said, “Uhh I’ll be here!” I mean, if T. and I barely celebrate birthdays we sure as hell don’t celebrate Valentine’s Day. It’s not that I don’t love my T. It’s just, well, you know, after 15 years it’s just not a big deal.
Stitch ‘n’ Bitch is now the one thing I can count on every week to save my sanity. I know that Tuesday night I can get the hell away from my kids, and any other responsibilty I may have and I can sit on my arse, drink a beer, chill with my friends and knit. Although, I rarely get any knitting done because I’m mostly talking with everyone. But who cares right? I leave there really happy and that’s all that matters.
If any of you wish you had a group and you don’t? Start one. That’s all I did. Over a year ago I just decided to start my own group and look what it’s become. There were 28 of us there last week. We pretty much took up the whole Flying Star restaraunt.
So a shout out to all my SnB chicas. Thanks for making me so happy on a weekly basis. Love y’all!
February 8, 2006 – 3:24 pm
from an LA Times correspondant doing a follow-up piece for the www.telegraph.co.uk.
Crazy stuff I tell yah. It’s been pretty exciting getting e-mails from all of you and other people who saw the article. The store owners got the biggest kick out of it too. I stopped by today to mail out Pixie’s prize and printed out a copy of the article for them to see. I’ll let you know if I speak with this other reporter.
Here’s your chance to let the public know how you feel about your Stitch ‘n’ Bitch groups. For those of you who knit, why does this whole thing with SFSE make you angry? I’ll relay messages to the reporter. I can’t wait to have the opportunity to talk about this again. Give me some good stuff.
February 7, 2006 – 10:14 pm
Anyone happen to see the LA Times article today on Stitch ‘n’ Bitch?? I’m quoted in it! Check it out.
About a month ago I posted a comment in Vickie Howell’s blog about how Yahoo made me delete my Albuquerque Stitch ‘n’ Bitch group because of the whole trademark lawsuit. From that post, Hemmy So of the LA Times contacted me and we spoke for almost an hour on the phone about this whole mess. A month later voila. I am quoted in the newspaper. It cracks me up what I say too. Even funnier is the name she used. Most of you may not know that my real name is actually Jamie. I’ve been Scout online for almost 10 years now and am just known as that. Maybe I should change my name to Jamie Scout?
Anyway, I think it’s pretty damn cool.
February 7, 2006 – 6:02 pm
I know some of you are sky watchers so this one is for you. It looks like this almost every night but you have to catch it at just the right time.
Carole told me tonight when it was *time* so I snapped a few for all of you. If you don’t know this already the Sandia Mountains are called this because of this watermellon-like colr they get every night. Aren’t they beautiful?
This is a picture taken from the street in front of my house looking due West. 9The Sandias are due East) That is Mount Taylor which is 60 miles away. The summit is about 11,000ft.
And finally, the sky. I never, ever get sick of looking at the mountains and sky. I love living here so much. can you tell?
Uh oh! Time for Stitch ‘n’ Bitch! I’m hoping to get some work done on ruffles as well as get a little tutorial from Laurie on knitting socks with 2 circs. Even if I don’t like it, at least I’ll be able to help people at the shop.
February 1, 2006 – 5:49 am
So far today I’ve gone for a run, been to the shop for a staff meeting, went and worked out at the gym, got Supergirl from pre-school, picked up lunch at Whole Foods and hit her gymnastics class all in this shirt. I loved the looks I got.
Don’t be messin’ with a knitter man! Don’t I look angry?! I think I need a few more of these shirts. We all need pissed-off-picture-posts wearing these. That should be our next knitting meme. Wear it proud and wear it loud I say!
Stitch ‘n’ Bitch
Stitch ‘n’ Bitch
Stitch ‘n’ Bitch!!!
January 24, 2006 – 7:28 am
I actually slept in this morning and it was so lovely. First of all I would love fo everyone reading this to go and sign up here and support the Boycott of So Fast So Sleazy.
The other bit of news is that I just signed up for Sockapaloooza. I’m excited to be a part of this one. Maybe I’ll make my pal a Jaywalker? Ummmmmmm that would be a NOT! If I can’t get a pair to fit me I don’t think I’ll be trying to fit a pair virtually on a Pal.
My goal today is to finish my first Jaywalker. I’m already to the gusset so I think I might be able to. I’ll slip the girly some Benedryl at nap time so she sleeps a loooooong time. Oh stop. I’m just kidding. Stitch ‘n’ Bitch tonight. I love Tuesdays. It’s really fun to have my girls to look forward to every week now.
Okay, off to get my ass in gear for the day. Girl day with the girly.
