just maryse

what i finished in 2014

in 2014 it became abundantly clear to me that my creative life is what makes my regular life worth living. oh that sounds so dramatic! gah!  but in a way it's true. i think i can put up with a lot as long as i know that at any time i can go hide somewhere and make something.

and in 2014 i think i made a lot of shit.

and a lot of different kind of shit.

1. i designed one cowl and it was published in knitty.com. my first knitty.com pattern!

2. i spun the wool for two of those cowls.

3. i knit Vertices Unite by Stephen West.

4. for a neighbor's baby i knit a hemlock ring blanket.

and 5.  after 3 years of having 20 log cabin squares sitting on my guest bedroom bed, i finally finished my version of the Fussy Cuts blanket published in the book Craft Activism.  For mine i used noro silk garden in shades mostly of teal, aqual, turquoise and Lambs Pride in Charcoal.

In spinning, I added to my handspun stash for a project that i hopes shows itself sometime in 2015.

I crocheted a bunch of potholders for the potholder swap 2014.

And I learned some new skills:

Chawne came to Gather Here and showed me how to make patchwork letters. And then made me promise i would finish them. And so I did. And made a pillow!  She is a monster of a task master.

And in November I took a weaving class at the Fiber Loft. My cricket loom had been sitting in it's box for a couple of years. It was time I take her out for a spin.  I tried my hand at houndstooth and it was really fun!

And when I wasn't doing all of these things, I was drawing. Last winter I took a Creativebug online class with Lisa Congdon and I spent the next few months doodling and drawing and I had a blast. I'm currently taking her sketchbook class.  Just a few of my doodles are included in the mosaic above.

So that's about it. I feel as if I was scattered. How can i become better at any one thing if I'm trying everything? But whatever. I'm having fun.

 

I Tag Myself

remember when we all did memes on our blogs? it was always fun finding out stuff about people that you didn't know, sometimes leading to real life relationships? remember when? they were also great for when you didn't have a clear cut topic that you wanted to write about. which is why today i tagged myself on this one that is being circulated among the quilters out there.  hi quilters!

1. What am I working on?

a lot of things and nothing at all. which is pretty much my MO. i currently have the following WIPs in the wings.

1. a crocheted blanket that needs finishing (i'm much further along than this)

 2. a knitted blanket that needs finishing (i've lost my mojo for this project, but i'm almost done and i really should just finish it).

3. a knitted headband type thing that i'm currently working on for keeping ears warm.

4. a sweater for me that i have yet to finish and yet i'm so so so damn close.

5. i just learned how to weave!

in addition, i have some handspun waiting for 2 other projects that are in my head. i have been spinning.

then i've been drawing and painting and coloring.

like i said, i'm all over the place these days.

 

2. How does my work differ from others of its genre?

this question really is specific to the quilters who are participating in this meme but i'm going to broaden a bit, "how does my work differ from others."

well i'm not exactly sure that my work is particularly unique, but i do see some recurring themes.

i'm all about color. almost everything i make at some point was because i was motivated by color. i make blankets because i would never wear multi-colored crazy assed sweaters. or prints for that matter. i rarely wear prints. but blankets and pillows are just asking for a cachophony of color and textures.

i like clean basic shapes and details. my favorite knitting stitch really is garter. i mean, look how pretty this is? i can knit cables and lace and fair isle, but when it comes down to it, i really prefer knitting in garter stitch (oh and i'm a sucker for a modular design).

garter stitch and stripes! 2 of my favorite things ever! also, i just discovered the icord bind off. pain in the ass of course but damn it's a good looking bind off. (pattern from stephen west).

and i'm a huge fan of the granny square. the traditional granny square.

(note: any old crocheted square is not a granny square in my book. don't make me have to correct you.)

 3. Why do I write/create what I do?

i create what i do because i love color. and i like to mix those colors up. my favorite toys as a child were creating toys - a tiny sewing machine, colored markers, paints and legos. i made clothes for my barbies, built houses out of cardboard, tried to create reactions by throwing lotions, powders, tooth paste etc. in the bathroom sink. SCIENCE! (the only thing i succeeded in creating was a mess). and now i create because it calms me and makes me happy. and yes, i majored in a science in college.

 

4. How does my writing/creating process work?

i very rarely plan on paper or sketch first. most of the time i just see a color grouping that i become obsessed with and i have to work in it. a bunch of yarn colorways that i see lying next to eachother in a store. or a photo or project in a book.  sometimes it's a technique that i want to learn. and sometimes it's for SCIENCE! for example over the past few years i've been knitting the same exact sock pattern in different sock yarns as an experiment to see how different yarns look.  i guess i could have knit just swatches, but what's the fun in that.

other than that, most of my ideas just sit in my head and sometimes they make it out, and sometimes they don't.

 and that's it! you can tag yourself. let me know if you do.

and have a happy turkey day!

 

 

 

 

 

No Time!

It's been almost 2 weeks since i stopped going to my job. Two weeks of having all of the time in the world to do whatever i want. And do you know what I've noticed? THAT'S STILL NOT ENOUGH TIME!

it's really too bad that i'm not independently wealthy.

 

A 2013 Retrospective

2013 seems to have gone by so fast, but when I look back to January 1, 2013, that day seems so long ago. a lot has happened since then. i had goals then. did i achieve them? hmmm let's take a look, shall we?

1. walk 500 miles.  yeah this didn't happen. I started but the cold kept me inside. and then the excuses. and then i just didn't feel like it. and i didn't care. i just thought i was lazy. i mentioned these feelings to a new doctor, and how distracted i felt, and how i just didn't seem to care anymore. a new prescription and some chatting time and what once was "someday i will do X," became "someday i will do X, I'm going to do it right now."  i am still the same person. the one who would rather knit or play games on the couch or do both at the same time, but simple every day things that should be easy, don't feel like climbing a mountain for me anymore. 

2. keep at it with WW and go to meetings. ha! yeah this also didn't happen. see above.

3. i want to publish 8 patterns.  this was a ridiculous goal. not because 8 is a crazy number but because, i just am not all that interested in publishing stuff. yeah i get a thrill when i see my work out there in the real world. but pattern writing is tedious and boring and i'd rather just make stuff, than write out the pattern. and honestly, there are 100s of designers who are a hell of a lot more talented than i am. phew. i feel so much better having said that.  ha!

but two of my designs did make it out into the real world via Crochet at Home edited by Brett Bara for Interweave. They made the cover even!

 

The Blooming Potholders (above) and the Happy Hexagon afghan (below).

 the afghan is probably my favorite of all of the projects i have ever designed. i don't usually toot my own horn, but I was really happy with it. 

4. i got a new camera. the nikon D7000 and it is lovely.  but unlike my D80 and D90, there are all sorts of new features and controls that i need to learn about.  hence the manual in the photo. i'm reading that mof0 if it kills me. heh. no official photo project this year, but it's time to get a portfolio together so that i can make a little $$ at this  hobby.  Well i read the manual. and i learned a lot. it didn't kill me. and then i promptly lost my photo mojo. so no portfolio. no special photo a day project, etc. i did try my hand at making a little cash by doing some knitwear photography. (thanks julia!)

no worries,  i'm not ready to quit my day job. mostly because,  knitwear designers don't want to pay someone to take photographs of their designs. most think they can do just as well on their own. i think very few can. but whatever. so be it.

5. related to this, i'd like to make this website look a little better and more useful. didn't happen and probably won't. its not a priority.

6. there's the potholder swap coming up.  more info on that in the coming weeks. this did happen.  and i think it may happen again this year. i have to check in with my fellow potholder swappers before i can be sure. 

 

7. find a new job. yeah this is a goal that i have no choice but to work on. i have to pay for all of the things some how ;) ha! this also didn't happen, but definitely will need to happen this year. I got several reprieves and continued to work through the year. part-time since August 1. can i just say that 3 day work weeks are pretty awesome?

yeah so if i based whether 2013 was a success or not, on whether i achieved my goals, i'd be 1 in 7. or if i'm being generous, 1.5 in 7. but i feel better about my future than i have in years. so for that reason 2013 wasn't so bad.

i have goals for 2014 but i think i'll keep them to myself this time.

have a safe new year's eve every one.  i'll see you on the other side.

Baby Boy Granny

i haven't been particularly productive these past few months. july was mostly about spinning. i showed you photos a couple of weeks ago.  i have my new woolie winder to thank for my renewed love of spinning. but other than that, i knit a pair of simple worsted weight socks (for a colleague i admired a lot who passed away in september from cancer. ironically she had dedicated her life to the study of cancer and the training of young medical oncologists.) and i crocheted this blanket.

it's a baby blanket for the new son of friend of J's. they are japanese so that's why i chose to start with the red center. and i went with the white because i wanted this blanket to be bright yet not to baby-ish. Like many men, J questioned my choice of colors ("that yellow, purple and light blue color are a little girlie") but since i edged it with an almost brown maroon color i think it works. the white yarn is vintage berroco. the colors are scraps of cascade 220.

 

i didn't do much pre-planning other than buy the white yarn. i stopped when i ran out of enough of one color to crochet two rows. so the blanket is pretty big (40x40 inches).

 

there was a little drama when i washed it and the dark maroon color ran but another bath in cold water on the knit/delicate cycle and woolite fixed everything. crisis averted!

so that's all. all along i've been working on a fingering weight mostly stockinette sweater, so that explains why there hasn't been much progress to show there.  and next on my list is to finish a blanket that i started 2 years ago. and then there's all of that yarn i spun that i want to knit up. so there's stuff in the works.

 

 

Happy Hexagon

 

 

 

 

 

 

i love love love this blanket. i worked on this last spring and have been dying to show this thing off ever since.  this is the happy hexagon afghan, a medium sized blanket that is perfect for covering up a lap while sitting on a couch. the pattern can be found in "Crochet at Home" edited by Brett Bara.  yep, we made the cover people! 

 

Eye Candy Friday

if you follow me in flickr, twitter or pinterest, you probably figured it was just a matter of time before these shots showed up on the blog.

these are called Blooming Potholders and the pattern appears in "Crochet at Home" the latest book edited by Brett Bara and Interweave Press.  it's been over a year since I finished these and these photos have been sitting on my computer ever since. it's very exciting then for me to be able to show them to you.

i really love these crazy potholders. they were fun to make and the colors make me happy. even the pink one.  heh.

 

 

 

Now This Is A Tease

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Topflappen Friday!

I finished my potholders for the potholder swap a few days ago and I have to say I'm pretty happy with them. I struggled this year.  There was a lot of ugly crochet for awhile, but I think everything turned out ok.

here are the fronts.

 

 

 

and here are a few of the backs.

 

for a closer view of all of the variations you can take a look in my flickr stream or on my ravelry project page.

 

Wordless Wednesday