Sitting Knitting

I've given careful thought to what to do with my hands today while the throngs of ski tourists wander by en route to the spa, the slopes, their rooms. Knitting of course, but it has to be simple enough that I can appear engaged with my surroundings, ready to make friendly eye contact at a moment's notice. And, ahem.... a classy and upscale project. Each of the series of informative emails which I have received from the Arts Council and the hotel itself have gone to great pains to remind me (all the artists, not me personally) that this is a "high end" venue, and that our presentation and appearance should reflect that esthetic - specifically, "no torn jeans or tacky t-shirts", "cleaning up any mess we make" and "showing up on time". And "did we mention, this is a high end venue". I'm not entirely sure what to make of this, but I can only assume that the level of conscientious professionalism I take for granted is not necessarily universal in the artistic community.

Well, I think the Silk Garden Clapotis will make the grade. And if I finish the second ball (the third is in the mail), I plan to start this - it's a simple pattern, relying more on big needles than complexity, but still very pretty:

Though not in Icelandic wool, rather this:

I think laceweight mohair / silk qualifies as "high end"!

Silent Poetry

I do not partake of poetry nearly as often as I intend to. While that would be fine stuff for a resolution, this day of silent poetry reading is also a way to remember.

Initial

Out of infinite longings rise
finite deeds like weak fountains,
falling back just in time and trembling.
And yet, what otherwise remains silent,
our happy energies—show themselves
in these dancing tears.

Rainer Maria Rilke, via

Normal!

Wow - who knew there were so many phone phobes in the world? I feel totally validated and normalized! (And also still bereft of my birthday present - guess I'll have to suck it up and feel the fear one day soon.)

Not much knitting of yarn going on for the last day or so, as I have been working to finish up a couple of necklaces and round out my earring collection (as well as about a million humdrum business-ish tasks - but it's a very good thing as an entrepreneur to have many pressing things to do, because it generally means things of an income-generating nature are happening. Or about to happen.) I figure these weekends will be winners one way or another - either I will be busy selling my work, or I will have eight quiet hours of knitting each day.

Speaking of yarn, I am doing a terrible job of responding personally to comments this week, so I will mention that the Silk Garden colourway is No. 249 - described online as "rose & brown", although there is a lovely blue section that is considerably larger than the rose bit. Here's a gratuitous close-up:

While we're on the topic of blue ( just brimming with original segues today...) remember this?

It is one of my favorite colour images this year, but just didn't lend itself to a stranded colour pattern (though I agree absolutely with Judy's suggestion about dyeing.) The theme of rushing water over translucent blue-green ice worked its way into this necklace, instead:

The stones are chrysoprase and Peruvian blue opal, and the droplets are crocheted in fine silver.

Mostly News

But first, a progress pic:

This is most of the first ball - I love the colours, but I can clearly see that two will not be enough. Here's hoping I can still get the same dyelot.

First bit of news: I have made the leap to Typepad for my jewellery / other art blog - and am liking it so much that I plan to move this blog over as well. I'm going to take my time, though and get the formatting and extras exactly as I want them before exporting all my posts. If you care to check out the jewellery blog, it can be found here: http://impulsivearts.typepad.com/impulsivearts/

Second bit of news: My portfolio was apparently well received, because I was notified yesterday evening that three of the four high end hotels in Whistler have selected me to display and sell my work in their lobby this month. The event is called "Made in Whistler" and is a component of an arts festival running throughout February as part of the lead up to the the 2010 Olympics. I will be working every Sat/Sunday in February from 11 am to 7 pm. If you happen to be in Whistler during that time and care to do a little blog-stalking, here's my schedule:

Feb. 3&4 Hilton

Feb. 10&11 Fairmont Chateau

Feb. 17&18 Hilton

Feb. 24&25 Four Seasons

I'm off to flit about in a (happy) tizzy of last minute preparations!

Weirdness

The Silk Garden Clapotis is indeed knitting up in addictive fashion.It is actually about twice this big now, but there is no point in photographing it in the wee dark hours. I'll shoot it again around noonish today.

I adore the subtlety of the colour changes.

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Since Sherri tagged me a few days ago, I suppose the time has come to step up to the plate and confess Six Weird Things About Me. (My darling husband's reaction was "only six?")

1) I am an autodidact. (I discovered that term recently, and I think it sounds vastly more sophisticated than "self-taught".) I taught myself to knit around age 10, and have learned the craft entirely from books, trial-and-error, and now blogs. Though I KIP freely, I have never had the experience of knitting in the company of other knitters. I never felt wistful about that until I entered the blog world; however, with small children and a limited budget, I'm not likely to go jetting off to fibre festivals any time soon, so blogging will do for a while yet.

2) I am phone phobic. (Though after reading other memes, I was gratified to see that many admirable, high functioning folk share this weirdness.) I have no difficulty once I am actually engaged in conversation, but I will procrastinate and strategize endlessly to avoid making the call. DH generously gifted me a long-coveted dressform for my birthday last November, but the company does not fill online orders, and I will have to call their 1-800 number. I still don't have my birthday gift.

3) The texture of baked-in raisins makes me queasy.

4) Despite spending a decade and a half mucking about with human bodily functions, I find loose moustache hairs to be stomach-churningly gross. (My Beloved has a moustache.)

5) My upbringing was almost entirely cut off from Western pop culture. I have therefore spent my adult life acquiring musical tastes in highly eclectic fashion, but with the rare privilege of "discovering" the greats with fresh ears. My husband finds this amusing:
Me: "Ooh - that's a catchy tune."
Rob: "It's the Rolling Stones, dear..."

6) I have one far-sighted and one near-sighted eye. This was not discovered until around age 12, at which point I began a long and painful journey of wearing bizarre looking glasses which gave me chronic headaches. I finally bought contact lenses once I had my own money - which solved the headache problem, but still did battle with the accomodation process my brain had developed. I settled in my late 20's on wearing just the left lens because it was more comfortable that way, and last year, through some quirk of the aging process, discovered that I no longer needed them at all. So at an age when other folks (hi K!) are acquiesing to bifocals, I am at long last, correction free. This pleases me no end.

That's that. I am not tagging anyone, because I am acutely shy and anyone I know well enough to tag has already done it.

Conformity

I am, by nature, a bit of a non-conformist. In knitting terms, this means that I have an active (though often subconscious) reluctance to knit the patterns that take blogland by storm, the ones "every" knitblogger knits. This, regardless of how lovely, how ingeniously constructed the pattern - it's not a condemnation of the design, just a innate tempermental avoidance of crowds. It took enormous last-minute gifting pressure to get Fetching on my needles (and for the record - I loved the pattern and plan to make more.)

So it was with the Clapotis. As much as I admire Kate Gilbert, I just couldn't bring myself to conform to that degree. Also, most of the ones I was seeing were done in bright variegated yarns, which are not my cup of tea. Plenty of other nice wraps out there, I thought. Then I saw Caro's scarf version in Noro Silk Garden and was instantly, hopelessly, besotted, and when Ram Wools had their amazing anniversary sale the other day, a couple of skeins fell into the shopping cart.I ought to be finishing up the WIP's currently on the go, but I need a little break from grey stockinette: Plus, I woke up in a cold sweat the other night, remembering that Caro said two skeins weren't quite long enough. I then proceeded to spend the wee hours wondering how long that dye lot will still be available, and reminding myself that ordering a single skein at full price plus shipping would negate all the savings that justified the original purchase, at last coming to the realization that I must knit up the two skeins I have Right Now so as to find out for myself before it is too late.
This is also my first Noro adventure. So far, so good - hopefully the rumors of quality improvement are true, because I am in Love with this yarn.