just maryse

A Change of Medium

back in november, i took a fabric printing class at gather here with lizzy house.

it was so much fun and a vowed to keep drawing. and then i didn't. heh.

but shortly after my unemployment started, i started up again thanks to an online workshop via creative bug.

and it's been great. and fun. and a little liberating. i get to finally use all of the colored pencils and markers that i've amassed over the years that have just sat in storage, unused.

 

i need a lot of practice. my drawings are mostly doodles, full of imperfections. but if i don't push through then i know that i'll never get better.  so practice i do. for hours a day. it's been a good thing.

i'm currently posting a doodle a day to instagram and to my tumblr. if you'd like to see what i'm up to as i try to find my style and improve my skills, you can check those two places. 

anyway that's been my deal.

 

 

 

Mmm Chevron-y

oof i finally finished something that i can blog about.  damn it!

in january, i took at shawl design class with ann weaver at the black sheep knitting company in needham. i was very excited. i'm not really a shawl person, but i wanted to learn something that would allow me to just knit and kind of design on the fly without too much planning in advance and her techniques were exactly what i wanted/needed to learn. 

plus i've got an obscenely large sock yarn stash. this type of project is perfect for sock yarn (even though neither yarns used in this shawl were from my stash. DO NOT JUDGE!)

i love a chevron/wave pattern AND stripes so this variation on the baby chevron from jan eaton's 200 ripple stitch patterns book was perfect for what i saw in my head.

and i knit. I COULD NOT STOP KNITTING!  it's all i could think about. and i made mistakes that i could not let go. so i frogged. and reknit. and made mistakes that i could not let go of. so i frogged again!  and i reknit again. but i knew i would finish it.

i knit until i ran out of yarn.  

 and i love it so much.

related: if you ever get a chance to take a class with ann weaver, please do. she's a patient and generous teacher and also lots of fun.  she is awesome.

WIP Wednesday without WIP

after 2 months, i finally finished my soctoberfest socks. in previous years, i've participated in kirsten's mystery sock knit thing, but this year she had real life things to handle.  CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT? and totally dropped the ball on designing a mystery sock for us.  thanks kirsten. sheesh.

so i made just another one of my 2x2 ribbed socks.  this time i chose a very neutral palette. i've been in a gray neutral, black color mood lately, so the colorway fit with what i was interested in working with.

the yarn is noro kureyon sock (the details have been raveled here). i really love this yarn. the bands of color, even when only browns, grays, rust and cream, really make me happy.

and maybe because i've been obsessed with gray lately, i've taken to wearing makeup and giving myself manicures again. (the flickr makeup frenzy may have something to do with that too). or maybe it's just because i'm a week away from another birthday and i'm clinging with all of my strength to some vestige of my youth. heh.

 

before i was collected yarn and fiber, i collected makeup and nail polish.  heh.

 

NaBloPoMo Day 9

it's wednesday and that means it's WIP wednesday. thing is, i don't really have much to show. i finished the sock i started for socktober and started the 2nd one of the pair. and i may have made one more square of the fussy cut blanket. i have a lot of things that i'm thinking about though (as usual).

but i don't have a photo of my WIPs. it's approaching the time of year where the only days i can get decent photos are on the weekends since i'm out of the house when it's dark and get home when it's dark.

so here's a photo that's totally unrelated but very seasonal. 

WIP Wednesday

so yeah i'm knitting.  slowly.  or at least it feels that way.

october ends in less than a week and i haven't finished one single sock.  but it doesn't matter, because it's not really a race. right?

i turned a heel. in my defense, i made great progress at rhinebeck only to figure out that i had dropped a stitch AND HAD TO UNKNIT ALL OF MY WORK.  that's what i get for drinking and knitting.  priorities.

i've also been working on the Fussy Cut Blanket. 

this is such a wonderfully fun pattern to knit. garter stitch, noro silk garden, no seaming. what's not to love?

this pattern, by the mason dixon ladies, can be found in Craft Activism by Gale Zucker and Joan Tapper.

one of these days, i'll write a proper review.

No Rhinebeck Sweater Here

i think it's important to put that out there.  i do not knit a rhinebeck sweater. not this year, or any year.  last year i wore a store bought sweater. this year i've been threatening to wear polar fleece.  (that is if it's cool enough. it's been crazy warm here in the northeast.)

but i am  knitting a sock. because it's socktoberfest bitches!

and yes, i've gone neutral. i don't tend to work in these colors but it's sometimes good to mix things up. and i do love my noro.

tomorrow after work i head out west to rhinebeck.  so maybe i'll see you there. i'll be the one not wearing a handknit sweater.

WIP Wednesday

so today, with the threat of ice-ing, and not the good kind, i stayed at home and decided to do some work here.  i'm not the work from home type by the way.  i need people.  but on the other hand, i got a lot done.  so it wasn't a wasted day.  and look at this?  i actually will manage to post before dinner!

other than the daily grind, not much going on.  i finished a sock though and am working on the heel of the second.  i had hoped to be able to finish a pair within a week ... you know start 2009 with a bang.  but work got in the way (i finished the first sock in 2 days while on vacation).

oh i know, they're pooling but i kind of like them.  and i'm a little in love with the 2x2 rib.

i'm also bringing out some old knits from BR (before ravelry) including the cowl below.  i "designed" and knit this in early 2006.  you can probably find a blog post about it.  it was knit from a weird discontinued noro yarn called kujaku.  anyway, i wear it a lot, usually folded over like a turtleneck.

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day 264 -- i'm really glad i didn't go to work today.  a neighbor is having trouble getting up our street!

It's Official, I Hate December

ever have times in your lives when you feel anxious and exhausted and time has been flying by and yet you have nothing to show for this anxiety, exhaustion and time warping?  yeah that's where am i right now.  (feelings that aren't being helped by this stupid, insanely slow work computer.  hello!  who do i have to sleep with to get a new computer? )

for example, it's taken me 3 weeks to make one sock.

one sock!

and the only person i want to buy stuff for is me.  i know,  it sounds selfish but at least i know what i want and i appreciate everything i get for myself. 

oh and this ...

right now i'm not feeling the love. i'm a little further along then is indicated in this photo but i'm kind of hating it. the main reason is the yarn. ever frugal, i'm trying to use the extra knitpicks palette that i had after finishing babette. and i don't think this is the right yarn for this pattern. (the 'right yarn" is kid silk haze -- hahahahaha -- um .. no.)

*screams!*

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day 236 -- 10 more days!

WIP Wednesday

no real progress has been made since last wednesday.  still working on the mystery socks.  and i'm already behind.  i think we're supposed to start the foot, and i haven't even turned the heel.  oh well.  although i brought the socks to rhinebeck with me, i ended up not knitting one stitch on them.   

i did start a cowl, then i frogged it, then i started it again.

i'm further along on the cowl.

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day 187 -- i'm not done with rhinebeck, just taking a little break.  jesus, it's cold in here.  and how cool are these birds?

Its All About Socks These Days

so it's 6 o'clock and i should be thinking about packing it all up (literally, since tomorrow i'm going to my other office across town) and going home.  but instead i'm just sitting here.  lots of just sitting here.  i'm kind of in a funk today (well since monday actually).  this is what happens when i've got too much time to be in my head.  and when i see photos of myself.  i was surrounded by a lot of people with cameras this weekend and caught glimpses of myself here and there that were like a punch to the gut.  i've never considered myself to be particularly attractive but seeing how old and fat i really look was quite the shock.  i know i could do something about it so i'm not going to discuss it -- because that's boring and it's bad enough that i look like shit.  if i were boring then i'd be really depressed. 

anyway, sorry about that.  but it's my blog, and my tagline does describe this blog as a place to put "my stuff." 

in other news, i'm knitting socks. mystery socks to be exact.

i've got two pair on the needles. 

the lavender pair here are the simpler of the two.  so far, it's just a twisted rib type pattern. you can follow my progress here.

this apricot pair is a little more complex, with a large traveling cable up each side.  again, the details are here.

also, just my opinion, but this knitting two socks at a time is bullshit.  seriously.   (so you might be asking yourself, why am i knitting them two at a time.  because i want to knit both pairs this month and i don't have enough needles to do them separately).

anyway, that's all i've got for today. 

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day 180 -- since i've taken those photos, i've gotten a little further along.  i'm almost done with the leg of the lavender pair.  and i ended up frogging one of the apricot socks because of a mistake i couldn't fix.  i've since finished the leg of one of the apricot socks and i'm ready to knit the heels.   (the second apricot sock will get knit later).