Knoontime Knitting

Saturday Showcase – Jennifer Colgan

Kicking off my series of interviews authors who craft, I interviewed author Jennifer Colgan. As enthusiastic about her crafts as I am, she included many pictures with her interview answers and I’m excited to be able to share them. Read on, MacDuff!

KK: Tell me a little more about what crafts you do. What do you like to make?

JC: I’m hooked on crocheting, painting, jewelry making, drawing and my latest obsession is the art of ZenTangle. I’ve also dabbled in candle making, needlepoint and cross-stitch, quilting, loom knitting, and building miniature dollhouses. About the only thing I haven’t tried is soap making, but that’s on my to-do list.

KK: When did you learn to do crafts?

JC: My mother is a knitter and cross-stitcher, so I grew up with crafts. Art class was probably my favorite subject as a kid, and I embraced every medium from clay to pastels.

KK: Have you ever given a craft to a character? How did you go about it? What research did it require?

JC: In my paranormal romance, The Devil’s Due, my heroine Ceara is a sculptor. I didn’t really do extensive research on the craft of sculpting, but I tried to channel my creative nature into the character.

KK:What effect does your writing have on your crafting and vice-versa? Does one fall off when the other is stronger, or do they synergize?

JC:Crafting helps me through the rough patches in writing. I can work through writer’s block or tackle a difficult scene or chapter better if I step away from the computer and draw or paint or make something. Sometimes a trip to the craft store is enough of a mini-vacation to energize me and give me the drive to get back to writing. Crafts are how I unwind from most of life’s frustrations because, unlike with my writing, I don’t get hung up on perfectionism when I craft. I find I’m a lot more accepting of the imperfections in a crafted piece that I am of imperfections in a manuscript. I can let go and really enjoy the process of creating because I’m not as critical of the result.

KK: What do you dream of making when you have the time or skills?

JC: I’d love to build another dollhouse from scratch. I made a few of them several years ago and ultimately gave them to my niece. I’d also love to crochet a jacket or a sweater, but so far my skill tops out at making blankets.

KK: Where do you get ideas for your crafts?

JC: I subscribe to Crafts magazine, and I devour each issue. I also surf the web sometimes looking for craft projects or pick up ideas at the craft store – my favorite place to spend time.

Jen shared some images of her art with me. Take a peek!

Afghan – I crocheted this as a housewarming gift for a friend

Miniatures – this is one of my latest projects. I wanted to display some of my dollhouse leftovers so I made a shadow box for them.

Scrap-painting – I was never good at scrapbooking, but I love all the stickers, so I bought some along with a small canvas and made this as a Christmas present for a friend who loves England.

Temari – I got hooked on the Japanese art of temari a few years ago and made dozens of these decorated string ornaments.

Zentangle – I recently discovered the art of ZenTangle and now I have an excuse to doodle all the time.

Biography:

Having narrowly missed being crushed by an avalanche of Star Trek novels as a teenager, Jennifer Colgan vowed to one day cause the book shelves of avid readers all over the world to collapse under their own weight.

Now multi-published under her own name and as her alter ego, Bernadette Gardner, Jennifer has arrived in the digital age and instead hopes to be responsible for overloading the memory cards of e-book readers everywhere with her paranormal, futuristic and science-fiction romances.

To learn more about Jennifer visit her website, Bernadette’s website, or their Two Voices blog.

Friday Funnies

Organizing Tips for Crafters – Cat Litter Containers

Do you have a cat? If you do, then you know how quickly the empty litter containers can accumulate. With a little forethought, those containers can be a huge boon to your crafting. First, find litter that comes in larger plastic containers with wide lids. I use the Petsmart generic brand and they have nice sturdy white pails with big square lids. Once the litter is gone, wash out the container. Let it dry completely. You can use it like a pail, standing up, and put supplies in it (I store yarn in mine), or you can build yourself an apothecary cabinet. Here’s how: Locate or build some shelving deep enough to hold the containers on their sides. Using a quarter-inch drill, drill a hole through the bottom of the container and screw it to the back of the shelving or directly into the wall. (This isn’t necessary, but it helps keep the containers in place and stable.) Then arrange your containers in whatever order you like, holding your craft materials clean and out of the way. Just watch out that “out of sight, out of mind” doesn’t mean that you buy MORE stash to supplement what is now hidden. Not that I, like, did that, or anything… ~innocent~

Journey Into 3-D

I expected to “get” the whole 3-D thing by now. After all, I’ve been knitting, avidly, since 2000. Isn’t 12 years enough time to learn something? Apparently not. One thing I am learning is that a decrease has a slant. I learned that a while ago, really, but I’m beginning to get it in my fingers that an SSK and a K2T slant differently. I cannot for the life of me remember which is which, though. So what I did that seems to be working is to know that the SSK comes at the beginning, and the K2T at the end. I still can’t tell you which one’s left and which one’s right, but that’s okay. I’m learning. Notes: SSK = Slip, Slip, Knit. Slip the first two stitches from the left needle to the right, then insert the left needle through the front of both and knit them together. K2T = Knit 2 Together. Insert the right needle into the next two stitches on the left needle and knit as though they were one. In each case, one stitch is decreased.

The Design Notebook

I showed the Bryce Canyon Shawl to some folks recently and again heard the comments “Wow, that is a lot of work!” and “I’m not patient enough for that.” I find these comments interesting because they are so misguided. I am not, by nature, a patient person. I don’t sit down to knit and think, “Oh, yay, now I have time to focus on my knitting and only my knitting.” I come to knitting from a very Zen place, where I allow stitches to accumulate organically. One stitch leads to another stitch and so on. By not thinking about it, it ceases to be work. This also allows me to not worry about being patient. By just focusing on making the stitches, I don’t have to be patient. I’m already doing what I set out to do. The finished product is a byproduct of the process. The process is the goal. What would you try if you didn’t have to come up with the finished product, but the doing of it would be the success?

Fan Moment – Luba Perchyshyn

I have done pysanky, or Ukranian decorated eggs, for years now. Every year, I get a new book or some tools in the craft. I have a small library of excellent books by Ms. Luba Perchyshyn, who writes beautifully and has lovely photographs explaining her techniques. I get my supplies from a couple places, but the books come from the Ukrainian Gift Shop in the Twin Cities of Minnesota. I’ve been to the Twin Cities three times now, and each time haven’t managed to get to the store. My friend went there recently and asked me if I wanted anything. I stared at her and then begged her to take my books to the store for an autograph. She did it! And she got to meet Ms. Perchyshyn herself! Ms. Perchychyn said it was obvious my books were well-loved and that the person who used them must enjoy the art very much. I was embarrassed because I couldn’t get the wax drips and dye dots off them, but she seemed very pleased by it. She even signed all my books! I about fainted when my friend brought them home for me. If you’ve ever wanted to try the art for yourself, I highly recommend checking out their supplies and books. The Design Books (there are 5) are very easy to follow and you’ll be making amazing eggs in no time. Have fun!

Friday Funnies

Humpday Update: Designing the Bryce Canyon Shawl

The design of the Bryce Canyon Shawl is coming together. I selected two more lace diamonds to incorporate; they’ll start at the midpoint of the center medallion. I’m estimating the shape on the fly, rather than working it out mathematically; I decided I didn’t want to draw it out but am trusting my gut. We shall see.

I’m loving the colors and the way the yarn looks in the pattern. Lion Brand did a nice job with this fiber.

As an aside, my birthday present arrived from KnitPicks and now I’m all excited. I want to play with it (16 balls of electric dark blue and 16 balls of maple syrup brown), but I’m staying focused on the shawl at the moment. I don’t know if I want to make one blue sweater and one brown, or do two mosaics with both colors. We shall see.

But for now, here are some pictures of the Bryce Canyon Shawl so you can see how the design progresses:

This is a picture from last week, and you can see the start of the center medallion. It will be a diamond and has a 3 stitch border in plain stockinette stitch on either side, with a yarn over (i.e. a hole) just inside that.

The two small clear crystals aren’t beads, those are stitch markers and they sit on either side of the medallion (this is one way you can keep track of knitting pattern changes). They don’t have to be fancy, and in fact I have several plain steel rings on the needles but I wanted to use my fancy rings for the medallion since I have them and they’re pretty.

They’re actually a little annoying to work with, to be honest. There’s a bar that hangs down from the ring, and it’s twisted metal. That’s what is used to attach the crystal. The problem is that a) it attaches to the stitches sometimes, and b) it gets in the way of the needles when I’m knitting. I make it work, because I like the way they look as I’m working, but they’re not the most practical of beasts. I prefer the plain steel rings my husband made for me from heavy-gauge steel wire.

Here is how it looks today. The faux cable look of the center “V” is deceptive; that’s just because the needle isn’t long enough to let the pattern lay flat. But in this view, you can see the center medallion progressing up to its middle panel (a helix laying sideways that mimics the vertical one you can see).

The little white bit that looks like a scrap of paper on the left is a scrap of paper. 🙂 I was knitting outside yesterday, sitting on the grass by the river, and dropped one of my rings. The grass ate it. I spent quit a while looking for it, too, but no luck.

I decided to stop increasing the lace lattice that is on the outside. Since I’m adding two medallions and they have their own increases/decreases, I stopped adding stitches at the sides and will let it grow from the stitches within the medallions. I may change my mind once it grows some more, but we’ll see. (That’s the geometry I mentioned earlier.)

This final image shows the right-hand medallion just beginning. There are only about 6 rows so far, so it’s not easy to see in this image, but you can at least get an idea of where it will go. The lattice will continue between the medallions on the sides and the center panel, to keep the overall feel of the shawl consistent.

That’s our Wednesday update. Happy knitting!

New Shawl Design

I bought some lovely yarn from Lion Brand, called “Amazing.” The colorway is Regatta, which is a subtle rainbow of overdyed colors. I decided to make a triangle shawl with it, using a couple different lace patterns and center diamonds from Barbara Walker’s Fourth Treasury of Knitting Patterns.

In designing, I first tried a swatch of stockinette stitch. Somehow, I misread the ball band and thought it wanted Size 6 U.S. and made the swatch with those needles. It didn’t look the way I wanted, especially the honeycomb slipped stitch design.

Then I read the ball band. Size 9 U.S.

Oh.

Trying it with Size 9 produced better results, but still too dense of a pattern when I knitted a simple moss stitch. I took that out and played with Vertical Lace Trellis, also by Barbara Walker but this time in her A Treasury of Knitting Patterns. I added an increase stitch on either side of every even row. Due to the nature of the pattern, I simply didn’t use a decrease on the one side, but added a make 1 to the other. While this allowed me to get the correct stitch count, it pulled the design out of shape.

I’m going to pull this swatch out, and try it again with simple make ones, while banding the lace with a simple garter stitch edge. That will let me center the triangle in the middle, keeping the edges straight. We’ll see how that works from here.