This week blogger Sharon Mann’s post of masked women reminded me that I wanted to make a fiber piece on this same theme. The idea of self-censorship pokes into my brain from time to time. When does one decide to speak no more? Am I adding to the rattling noise of empty voices flooding the air? Am I speaking just one sentence too long? Is anyone listening? Or are we all talking to and about ourselves?
Then there is another take on the phrase: It could be : Say, “No More!” It’s time to demand that indifference and injustice cease.
Yesterday, as I was tidying up my studio, I came across a project bag. In it were four small balls of sock yarn and this inspiration photograph:
Technically, this project is half finished. I knit my first pair of gloves last winter, using an eight stitch square stranded knitting pattern that I had designed. They turned out great and I wore them frequently during the cold months that followed.
Grey is merino wool and nylon, white is alpaca
But I had intended to make patterned mitts to wear over the gloves, as a fashion statement and to give some extra warmth when needed. Today I will start this project. I don’t want to copy the inspiration photo slavishly, rather, I’d like to make something unique. It will be a bit tricky, because 1: The design must be about 8 inches around because that is the diameter of my hand, 2. The mitts are knit in the round, and 3. I don’t know the gauge yet. I will need to determine the gauge before I finalize the design. Here is the chart that I drew:
This design suggests palm trees to me. Notice that the pattern stitch repeat and the pattern row repeat are both multiples of eight. My plan is to cast on 64 stitches, assuming that I will get a gauge of 8 stitches per inch. At least that is what I usually get with sock yarn and stranded knitting. So here is my 64 stitch swatch fresh off the needles:
Hm, it seems a little bit big.
It knit up pretty well. I kinda like the design. Here is the swatch blocked:
If you have sharp eyes, you will notice that the blocked piece is 4 and 1/2 inches across, making it 9 inches around. Too big! While I could try to get gauge with smaller needles, I’m not sold on this design for the mitts. The scale is too large. I’ll go back to the drawing board and try again. Thankfully, the cold weather is over for the next eight months.
Artist Robert Indiana played a central role in the development of assemblage art, hard-edge painting and Pop art. As a young artist in NYC, he scavenged for materials which he would craft into free-standing structures he called “herms.” I met him in 2004 when he came to town for a solo exhibition of his paintings and sculpture. A fairly retiring man, he did enjoy the company of women. He was happy to stay and chat with our (largely) female staff before the opening event, but quickly disappeared from the scene when invited guests began to arrive. My craft of today is drawn from Indiana’s 1960s series of number paintings. These works were loaded with personal symbolism for the artist. To Indiana, the number 6 signified the prime of life. Let’s see how well I can translate it into a knitted piece. Here is the chart I drew fashioned after the number 6 poster.
Obviously, translating a curvilinear design into a chart is a bit dicey. Let’s see what happens when it is knit up.
Half way there!Knitting is finished and off the needles.
Below is the washed and blocked piece. While in the water, it is important to pull the piece in all directions. This helps even out the stitches and the rows.
I’m not fond of all numbers, but I’m very fond of 2 and 6.
Daily Fiber 