I went with a friend from school to an art supply expo in Pasadena on Sunday.  There were probably 100 vendors there, selling brushes, paint, canvases, and all kinds of neat artsy stuff.  We hung out at the Golden Acrylic booth and learned about OPEN - their new acrylics that stay wet for a day... (instead of 10-40 minutes!) - we also went by Duho Studios - a company that was making exotic wood panels for painting - BEAUTIFUL - I bought some goodies at a few booths, including loading up on pallette knives and mediums and gels at the Liquitex booth.  I discovered white ink there also - which I'm excited about and think I may use in a project very soon!

When I got home, I did some messing around on the abstract landscape - I added some texture with string medium that I tinted with inks - it's the consistency of honey and drips in neat long strings... I also put on some crackle medium and some medium that has a type of sand in it... To be honest, I'm not overwhelmed with this piece quite yet - I don't love the way it looks and have no clear direction as to how I will finish it.  I WILL say, however, that after visiting all those booths and reviewing some of the literature I brought home, I am looking forward to working more on it tonight. 

in knitting news, I continue to work on the striped sweater I am test knitting.  The more I work on this the more I love the pattern (and idea) and the more I dislike my color combo.  I just don't know if I'll wear it because the colors are soo bright... but I am not giving up; I wanted to do this more than anything and I'm clicking right along with the pattern... I will reserve final judgement when I try it on...

I will say this though... I am already trying to decide what the next color combo will be for this pattern.... I might use neutral beiges, or different greens (now THAT's a surprise coming from ME!) - or possibly if the gauge works out different skeins of noro kuryeon... we'll see; I don't want to get too ahead of myself - let's focus on finishing this one!

After seeing this sweater that Grumperina made, I simply MUST make a vintage pattern by Mary Maxim  but I can't decide which to do - I have these patterns... of course, I'm not opposed to modifying or combining the charts.... what do you think?

This is the first buffalo pattern I ever bought - it's bigger than the one on the back of Grumperina's sweater - which is kind of cool - I could mix it with the same pattern she used... I may (or may not) want to use the "ground" that the buffalo is standing on...

This is the glorious pattern that was the inspiration for the madness - I think it's way too cool!  I could just knit it the way it is also... but while I LOVE the way it looks, part of me doesn't want to just duplicate what Grumperina made... she's pretty darn inspiring... and while I believe it'd be flattering, it's probably more flattering to use her craft posts as inspiration rather than duplicating her idea (although at the end of the day, I guess she really just made a pattern from 1957; it's not like she designed the thing).... 

... and then there's the fish sweater - I was thinking of doing this one and putting a border on the bottom of it perhaps of fishing lures or something (knitted pattern, not actual lures!) - keep in mind I'll probably (definately) change the color of the pattern to whatever I want... most likely I'll want to do something a little less "contrasty"...(is contrasty a word?) :)

Last but not least, my FAVORITE - the seahorse sweater - I think it's a bit gay - but I really think it's cool - if anyone has ideas of a color mix that might make this more "hip" and less "homo" speak up - it's my fav... I think it looks sort of western - like a cowboy shirt... and if I can figure out how to do it and it be a little less "obvious" then it's probably what I'll do...

These patterns are all so amazing - such great graphics - Mary Maxim has tons of them (these I believe are all from the mid/late 50's) - and I think that knitted in good wool they'll be awesome! - browsing Ebay you'll find a lot of them available - as well as on oldcraftpatterns.com -

I won't start any of these any time soon - but I WILL one day make one... I appreciate Grumperina's blog posts about her experience and the gorgeous photoshoot she did of her finished project... the more I think about what I want to do, the more sure I become that I will probably make the seahorse cardigan.... I have an idea of making the entire piece intarsia and/or fair isle... if anyone knows of or has "ocean" inspired graphs / charts, please email me :)

 

I finished my "Memory Vest" - designed by Kristen Kapur in honor of her father - the pattern is beautiful and easy (you can get it through Ravelry or through her website) a simple donation to help fight alzheimers grants you the key to make your own... this is the first cabling project I have made and I loved doing it - I made an excel spreadsheet that lists out each chart and its repeat - it helped me keep track although I was still able to mess up a time or two and forced myself to rip back... but I did it and I'm proud!  I can't wait to model and show it off! :)

On other news, I have a friend that has posed a challenge - her grandmother passed away while knitting a baby sweater for her yet to be born great great grandchild - the lineage is all a little confusing to try to write - but the jist of the story is that there's no pattern and only the back was completed - my friend would LOVE to get the little baby sweater completed - and I know that we can figure out the sweater pattern issues, but I'm not sure what the stitch pattern it!  If anyone has any idea, please email me and let me know what it is... once I find this out, we can figure out the rest of the pattern.  It's part of the family history that this wonderful lady would knit each newborn a sweater - and we want the future first great great grandchild to have this sweater that was started for him/her..

 

help?  Thanks for any info or thoughts you have!!