crochet | Subalpine Design

October 11, 2020October 12, 2020

Humming Along

The last two months (August and September) have blown by, and here we are over a week into October. There’s been a lot going on. We took a week off to recharge in the mountains in August. I painted my first plein air watercolor there and finished the Lily of the West—more on those momentarily.

There’s been event planning and a design of a field guide and flyer for the Four Mile Ranch program after one of my fellow volunteers did the leg work of taking photos and drafting the copy. This year looks a little different with families signing up to visit on Fridays for a self-guided hike.

Flyers and field guide pages, Audubon Rockies Four Mile Ranch Program

Finally finished formatting the Volunteer Manual for this program, too. It’s now a 180 page Word Doc for all of the activities we normally teach that’s given to new recruits, printed in a binder. There wasn’t any recruiting this year, but I was eager to complete this one so that the content can be reviewed and updated to meet new standards and expanding activities.

There are also all the regular work requests going on from designing new essential oil product packaging and advertising for the holidays to running updates and some minimal website maintenance.

Blog Post “Why Certified Organic?” for Red Silk Essentials

You better believe there is lots of crafting that has happened over the last few months, too.

Watercolor Updates

During our week long camping trip in the Southern San Juans, I continued my weekly practice of watercolor. This time was outdoors, en plein air. While the landscape wasn’t super inspiring, I was initially focused on the dark blue wildflowers and the jolly, fat spruce that sat near camp.

Back at home, I’d started the first in the Good Dogs Series. I’ve decided I wanted to create portraits of all of our dogs. All but one have passed away in the last eight years, and she’ll be 15 this year. I’ve read bios and advice from lots of artists and many talk about how much better their painting is when the artist loves the subject. This really seemed to be the case with my first dog portrait. I couldn’t get over the level of detail and realism, the love that I felt shine through when I started to paint.

My only criticism of this painting was in my choice of paint. I decided to try using my Crayola palette for its black paint and used that on the frame. For the rest of the blacks in the painting, I mixed them myself. The Crayola paint didn’t react the same way as my other paints. It seems to stay on top of the paper and re-wet and bleed much more easily. For a crisper detail, I should have gone with pen and ink. Oh well, I don’t think it ruins it. Maybe I’ll repaint it one day.

In the meantime there are six more dog portraits ahead, and they are being delayed as I have two other ideas in mind for paintings that I want to gift to people. I’ll come back and share more details once those are completed and gifted.

I also spent quite a bit of brainpower researching framing and portfolio ideas for protecting my finished artwork. Overall I’ve decided I don’t have the space to get the framing supplies and tools I’d like, so going forward I’ll plan paintings to fit pre-cut matts and standard frames. Eventually I’ll purchase some portfolios, but for now my art is sitting out on my desk. It’s not the best for its lifespan, but it brings me so much more joy seeing it every day—as art should—rather than hiding it away in a book.

Fiber Updates

This Percolator Koozy was first designed in 2016. I wrote about it back in February this year, and by our camping trip in August, I’d ended up crocheting a whole new one because I’m back on the tea drinking vibe. This one will match the color of our bus when we get it back on the road, or should I say back in the woods.

Percolator Koozy and wander mug from our friend Kim

I finished two different sweater patterns from Knitting for Breakfast—Fairy Tale (pictured at the beginning of this post) & Fiori di Loto or Lily of the West, documented them on Ravelry and had a few of my photos picked to be featured on the pattern designers’ pages!

I’m now on a sock kick. I pulled out the Joy of Sox book and combed through the stash during a Virgo Sun transit and voila!

I’m on to another design from the same book, but these are a gift so no photos till they’ve been gifted. Also on the upcoming list I want to make these gauntlets, and I have two more pairs of socks in mind to expand my hand knit sock collection: another pair of the leaf socks pictured below in red and a blue pair of these Lotus socks.

Dissent

This spring as the pandemic hit, I was inspired to knit Andrea Rangel’s Dissent Pullover. At the time, I didn’t blog much about the project or the thoughts on naming my version Frozen Tears.

‘Frozen’ because the color-way reminds me of Elsa. The ‘tears’ came from many passing thoughts from the color turquoise making me think of the plight of indigenous people, especially women; and thinking of tears of sorrow and joy shed as the Notorious RBG fought for civil liberties and gender equality.

How often have we been convinced to hide or hold back our tears?
Or how many of you feel like you’ve cried all the tears you have left?

As we descended into the unknown, I thought of all of the life events that people were missing or hardships they were encountering. …of how our lives were put on hold and how there wasn’t any time to mourn its loss. Frozen tears. Never did I think a few months later those tears would be welling in memory of the person who inspired the pattern’s design.

Society is like a stew. If you don’t stir it up every once in a while then a layer of scum floats to the top.
Edward Abbey

April 23, 2020April 23, 2020

Pardon Me, I Arted

I’m sure you’ve noticed. The boundaries of the world have changed.

Yesterday, the watercolor workshop I signed up for before the pandemic that was supposed to start in May, officially cancelled. So I’ve decided I’ll still set aside the time I would have spent in class, practicing and learning more about the medium on my own because I haven’t picked up my brush since that last post. My work in progress is exactly as I left it.

It’s not necessarily for the reasons you might think. Fortunately our lives and routines haven’t changed that much in the wake of a pandemic and this economic downturn; yet I can list the postponements, cancellations and the things that don’t meet what we used to call normal expectations. I’m not trying to gloss over the loss of life or pain. I’m looking for ways to express those feelings. I’m learning how to see obstacles as opportunity.

Choosing not to dwell on negativity or fear, I don’t want to talk about how uncertain everything is because nothing is really ever certain. I believe the control we think we have over our lives is mostly an illusion. We should always expect the unexpected and be willing to learn. Always be prepared. And even when you think you have it all figured out, then something will surprise you.

I want to know what I can do for the highest good right in this moment. Looking forward, I want to start taking the baby steps towards whatever our new normal might be with caution and wisdom. Observe. Orientate. Decide. Act. I’d like to share some of what Lights up my days.

If we want to talk hoarding, I reacted by adding to my yarn stash and ordered official Zentangle® supplies:

I finished up these socks I started for my mom back in December.

And made this infant set in anticipation of welcoming my niece.

I’ve made progress on the poncho and started a whole new sweater!

I’ve started cataloging my projects on Ravelry…

The garden is starting out great with a bunch of volunteers of lettuce and the reliable return of old friends like rhubarb and strawberries. The daffodils have just started blooming since Easter.

Lou’s been making stew.

There’s even been some time for mandolin practice. With the new year, I started occasionally recording my practices. Pretending to have an audience helps me play through hiccups and critique my technique. I’d like to share some of the better ones on youtube but I don’t know enough about music licensing issues when practicing popular songs. So I’ll spare you the audio for now…

When I shared a difficult time with one of my teachers a few years ago, she suggested:

“…it is good to find a book such as Pema Chodron’s, When Things Fall Apart to read during times like this.

When the mind obsesses about what we ultimately can do nothing about, but care so much for a good outcome, it helps to replace the overwhelming thoughts with thoughts of what is, and what we must do to remain balanced in times like this. It also helps to set the mind in a place to meditate and refuel our energy to carry on.”—Kat Katsos

I’ve picked it up to read again.

February 26, 2020April 22, 2020

Bus Knits

It’s time for another fiber arts roundup. Today’s theme is pieces inspired by life with our Volkswagen.

These first two projects are some of the first items I ever crocheted, three or four years ago.

This one was a jacket to keep our percolator warm. I didn’t follow a pattern. I’d made enough hats and things at this point that I felt pretty confident creating it as I went along, using whatever scrap yarn I had at hand. I believe it’s various shades of Lion Brand Wool-Ease held with two strands together for extra bulk and the marled effect. When I started to run out of a color, I dropped it and picked something else up. I may have found the craft buttons at a local thrift store. The top is attached on one side and hinges open when unbuttoned.

I keep using the past tense with this warmer because we no longer own it. We’ve brewed coffee while traveling or camping with a percolator for years. In 2016, I went through a phase where I wasn’t drinking coffee. I changed my morning routine to chai. The problem here is we can pour a full percolator pot into two good sized thermal mugs, but we didn’t have a way to keep the pot warm if you were just pouring up one cup. And what’s the point of brewing a half pot of coffee?! We used it for about a year before I got back into my old routine and there wasn’t any coffee left to keep warm, so we gifted it to a family of fellow v-dubbers. It made me smile to see it in their kitchen at ROTR last August, looking none the worse for wear.

I think I created these after our 2016 Parks Trip b/c hubby was complaining about cold hands. I can’t find a valid link to the patterns anymore. They were free and very simple. Great for a beginner. The links I do have, currently redirect to thesprucecrafts.com I added the flap on the back of the hat per hub’s specs. This was more Lion Brand Wool-Ease. The hat has turned out to be great for covering long hair while working in the garage, a must while our beloved VW has been going through her restorative process.

Unfortunately, the wristers haven’t really been put to use. I think I’ve worn ’em more than he has and that was just once. They’re a little big for me. His hands are usually warm. He isn’t the hand-wear kind of guy, and we haven’t been on the road in those kinds of temps since. I still think they’d be great to keep the breeze from the vent window / defrost balancer off your knuckles when driving below freezing. For now, I’d look for them either in the Casita as backup or in our catchall basket of accessories by the front door, waiting for the bus to get back on the road.

All that nostalgia, to be on the road again in our bus… Which brings me to the latest projects. These were part of my holiday knitting frenzy, and since they’ve been gifted, I can talk about them now.

This one I made for hubs, it’s our bus on two sides alternating with the Wolfsburg crest on the other two sides. Running around the bottom it says Westfalia. It’s the same pattern from Andra Rangel’s book that I used to make his Bee Hat with my own custom color-work chart. The ribbing is a modified pattern from the Japanese stitch bible that reminded me of the V on the nose of a splitty. I started out doing it in two tones that I thought was gonna be really cool, ‘deluxe;’ but I ended up re-doing it and dropping the extra color-work.

The navy yarn is malabrigo sock in Cote d’azure, and the grey is Sophie de luxe by Bremont that I picked up many years ago in Silver City. It’s a blend mostly of baby alpaca with a little mulberry silk and cashmere. They are so luscious together and I love how the Sophie yarn is getting fuzzier with wear. I get a big ole grin when I see him wearing this hat or even if it’s just sitting on the dashboard of one of our other vehicles.

The fraternal twin went to our very good friend, Big Bus Mike. It’s the hat hubby really wanted for himself, based off of the pattern found on NOS part boxes and old enamel dealership signs. Although the malabrigo was a fresh new skein purchased for this hat, they really do share some DNA as I used the rest of the ball of Sophie before starting a new one.

BTW Ever think about where things come from? Bremont’s a company in Germany—the fiber’s actually from Peru, and the color-work was done on German needles—addi Natura, inspired by a German vehicle, by an artist with German—and Shetland—roots. Not to leave out the malabrigo yarn, which is a company from Uruguay. They have opened a mill in Peru so maybe these two yarns are more similar than one may think. It’s a small world after all.

WIP update: Continuing off the beaten path—this one’s got nothing to do with Volkswagens. My last knit post mentioned the poncho I’m working on. Sometimes it’s tough to admit when you’re wrong. I bought some yarns I thought would compliment the yarn I started with. In some ways it did; but the overall shade and the way the new yarn striped or had more colors going on, didn’t appeal to me as I knitted it up for this. The fancy patterns from the stitching were getting lost. I spent a lot of time arranging the squares and staring at them, and continued swatching.

A couple of the MANY photos I snapped while trying to decide how this could be pieced together.

Finally, I decided. Shannon was right. I needed to look for more of the original yarn. I found it online all the way in Massachusetts at Another Yarn. It’s perfect. Now my questions are a lot more fun to address, figuring out which pattern to knit up next, if I should try a new pattern, or how I want to blend all the color changes together in the overall garment.

Don’t worry about the other, unused yarn. The squares I knitted up will be used for something else. I haven’t decided if I’ll take them apart and re-use them. Probably. I think they’d look good in a color-work project with some darker contrasting solid. Maybe some mitts or a sweater? They’ll go back to the stash pile till they tell me what they want to become.

December 4, 2019November 28, 2019

Lily Pads

As I finished up these leaf lace socks and I tried them on, my big ole feet reminded me of lily pads; so off I set to find a crochet pattern for lotus flowers. Found it on Make My Day Creative. The sock pattern was what first attracted me to the Knit Noro book, and the interesting vest constructions have got me plotting my next big yarn purchase. Mentioned in the last textile post, the socks are knit in malabrigo sock, fresco y seco. The lilies use embroidery floss, separated into 3 piece strands; a .85mm crochet hook and attach to the socks via safety pins for lots of accessory options: pin them to a hat or wear them like a brooch.

November 4, 2019November 27, 2019

Knit Wit

“Knit Wit,” my husband claims is his most recent term of endearment as I show off my knitwear to his grandmother. She just calls me a smart ass.

I don’t know why knitting has come so naturally and am amazed at my own acceleration, learning and trying new things with success. The year has flown by and it’s time for a project roundup before the list gets any longer or I forget any more details.

Camisoles Give me a camisole or tank top over a bra most any day. Having worked in the outdoor industry for a number of years and living in the mountains, I really appreciate a wool base layer. I was getting frustrated finding replacements for those pro-deal base layers that are showing their age after a decade, when I stumbled across Knitted Bliss’ Underneath It All pattern.

Of course I couldn’t just follow the instructions outta the box and had to play with switching up colors on the first design, which I dubbed the Bon Voyage version, using Huasco sock in toco toucan and Malabrigo sock, cote d’azure.

The next iteration, Butterfly Maiden, needed a fancier lace and some color-work, inspired by the Japanese Knitting Stitch Bible and AlterKnit, respectively. The straps got thicker, and the only thing that needed a little refining on this idea was the bottom lace is a little high and tight, showing off my love-handles. I should have added a few more panels around to give my hips room and some length to the body. It still works as an undergarment. The yarns are malabrigo mechita in lynx, leftover cote d’azure from the Bon Voyage version for higher contrast on the flowers & butterflies, and dewberry for the lace, trim and straps.

Kim models the Fired Earth cami that I finished for her at Rhythms on the Rio

The latest version that I’ve done, I made for a friend. She makes beautiful pottery, and I offered to trade her a knitted tank for a couple of mugs. We share a love for v-dubs and have camped together a few times. Seeing her first thing in the morning in her trademark, comfy bright orange sweater drove me to find that Kimmy Orange at my local yarn store in Durango. Malabrigo delivered with terracotta, thus this version suitably became Fired Earth. The contrasting, darker yarn is also a malabrigo, marte.

Celtic Patriot Afghan I hadn’t had a crochet project in a while. For some reason I really wanted to make my youngest brother an afghan. He’s a 4th of July baby and I wanted to do a red, white and blue blanket that didn’t look anything like the patriotic options you usually find with stars and flags. Instead I combed thru Lion Brand’s patterns til I found the Celtic Afghan, featuring three different kinds of crocheted cables. Crocheted cables?! I was intrigued.

Of course I couldn’t just leave it at learning how to crochet cables, I had to throw in the idea of adding the color with intarsia, making the stripes resemble a flag. It took several initial attempts and rip backs before I got the cables figured out. Then it quickly became apparent that I was using up the different colors at different rates, so I altered the original stripe idea and still had to go back to the store for more yarn to get the length I desired. He’s not a little baby anymore.

I usually avoid acrylics and synthetics. I try to make wise choices when it comes to fibers, yet I know I have a long ways to go. In this case, and with the volume of yarn, I chose to use Major yarn in bluebird, crimson and silver blush. I know it wears soft and fuzzy, washes easily and should last forever. I enjoyed having a large project to work on during the winter, but it couldn’t travel so I had to work on something else at the same time. Because of it’s size and material requirements, it may be a while before I take up another blanket-sized project.

*WIP: Lacey Lea*f socks in fresco y seco

Socks For my other brother I decided to make a pair of fishy socks. Like the camisoles or eating homegrown vegetables, I don’t think there’s anything like the feeling of a hand knit pair of socks. I plan to make many more for myself, too. They’re fun portable projects. I just finished the first of these leafy green ones in about a week. I’ll share more when the other’s complete.

One Fish, Two Fish are knit with malbrigo sock yarns. The blue was leftover impressionist sky and the orange mechita I bought to contrast it. The sock pattern came from Tallada by Jane Dupuis in malabrigo’s book 4 with the Escher fish courtesy of Alterknit.

Using the same idea, I made these shorty Shroom socks for a mushroom hunting friend of mine. The idea started from the mushrooms in AlterKnit. Socks a la Carte gave me the idea for the frilly tops and I found a ribbed pattern in the Japanese Stitch Bible that reminded me of mushroom gills. While the red is another malabrigo sock, the white is urth yarns harvest fingering in ecru.

San Juan Seasons Vest It all started when I picked up a couple of hanks of malabrigo’s rios in teal feather during a trip to Silver City, NM. I envisioned first a sweater. Then over the years I continued to collect autumnal colors, and after adding the wooly wonka in peacock from mooncat fiber in Taos, I began hatching this idea for a vest. The overall pattern came from Cambio by Stephen West in malbrigo’s book 4. I had the hardest time understanding the construction of this vest, and spent a few hours pinning together hand towels or dressing up dog toys. I wanted to get it right with all the techniques I planned to cobble together.

The back was knit in the round using patterns from the Japanese Stitch Bible then steeked open. Same for the front shawl piece that was a collection of patterns from Alterknit. I’d read that slippery yarns like superwash don’t steek well. There have been quite a few loose ends I’ve had to catch in the seams or pull to the inside, but it seems to be holding up well so far.

Woodgrain Hat As I wrapped up the show with Grandma I showed her the rainbow collection of Greenwood Fiber mini skeins in earthen hues stardust that I’d been staring at on my desk for months. I’d decided I wanted to try a brioche style hat pattern contrasted with the leftover Tulgey wood hubby had picked out for his Bees hat. What I couldn’t decide was what pattern to make. Grandmother and grandson both voted for the Blue Flake pattern from Drops Design. I had to add two more repeats and improvise as the yarns and gauge I used were smaller than the pattern. It turned out to be a quick knit. Done in less than two weeks.

WIP: Ears If you’re a Bob’s Burgers fan, you’ll recognize Louise’s signature ears. My husband says I channel all of the characters, and usually resemble Tina the most, but when I saw this neon pink, soft as a cloud, Cumulus yarn from Juniper Moon farm in Taos, it screamed, “My Ears!” It’s still a work-in-progress because I need to figure out how to keep the ears up. I’ve been experimenting with molded plastic but haven’t made time to work on it in a while. When it meets completed and wearable status, I’ll have more photos and notes about the pattern. I’ve got a whole Louise inspired outfit in mind.