Knit Two

Look at this great picture! Taken by Helen Peppe at an event the other night at the wonderful Wellesley Books. Huge thanks to Jillian and Kym! I had the great pleasure to read with this amazing group of contributors, in order Elizabeth Searle, Marianne Leone, Suzanne Strempek Shea, me, and the unstoppable Ann Hood. Peeking over the table is her multi-talented daughter Annabelle, also a knitter!

There was a great crowd and much sharing of knitting advice, projects and vocabulary. I learned that frogging is when you have to rip out the work; you say "rip it, rip it, rip it." Handy to know. BOFA was another phrase, but I've already forgotten what that means!

And in the meantime, some great reviews have come in.  Here is an excerpt from the review by the Book Reporter:

Lan Samantha Chang, in “The Perfect Gift,” writes about the age-old knitter’s dilemma of making gifts for other people who may not really want the hand-knit item, no matter how much work it entailed. But, she shares, when the recipient of one’s knitted gift loves it, it is the best type of gift-giving there is. In “Teaching a Child to Knit,” Sue Grafton offers solid (and witty) advice for teaching the craft to kids. Kaylie Jones’s contribution, “Judite,” is a heart-tugging recollection of the Portuguese nanny who raised her and showed her love with knitted items. “The Clothes Make the Dog,” one of the best selections in the book, is a hilarious and honest essay about Taylor M. Polites’s relationship with his tiny chihuahua, Clovis, and how he learned to knit just to make sweaters for the dog who taught him to “love more broadly.”

And would you believe it? Clovis made People Magazine!!  He is a celebrity. No dog deserves it more.

The sexiest man alive is on the cover (?). I'm waiting for the sexiest dog alive. Wait, that doesn't sound right.

I love this pic of Mike and Donna Lennon. Taking a break from promotions for Mike's great biography of Norman Mailer, A Double Life, to check out Knitting Yarns!

Some recents of Little C.

Wet Plate

I have been playing with a novel idea that has led me to antique photographic processes. The earliest, calotypes and daguerreotypes popular in the 1840s and 1850s, were replaced by the ambrotype and variations around the time of the Civil War.  These are all wet plate processes. The ambrotype involves preparing a piece of glass, coating it with a collodion chemical mixture, then submerging it into a silver nitrate bath. Once the surface is light sensitive, the plate is put into a negative holder and exposed--the length of exposure is determined by the amount of light available. The plate is then quickly developed with another chemical solution, fixed with another solvent, dried, and varnished. It is an amazing process, fraught with the potential for error at every step. But those errors also can create beautiful, even haunting, effects.

Living in Providence has many benefits, one of which is the community arts organization AS220. They offered a wet plate collodion class with talented artist and teacher Brett Henrikson. It was an amazing class. I overuse amazing, but it is entirely accurate here! I encourage everyone with an interest to give it a try.  Here are the results, some of my work and some from others.

Still life of a cotton boll. Very fitting.

The beautiful Lara.

A gorgeous portrait of Lara, very Gibson Girl. 

Mitch, a Jack London feel.

Marilyn, all in the eyes.

Peter and Amy, true love.

And me as Edward Gorey...

Sylvester Stallone...

and myself, this might be my new author photo...

Knit One

Yesterday afternoon was my first reading from Knitting Yarns. At the great local indie Books on the Square in Wayland Square, Providence. It was a great crowd! Here I am showing off one of my first efforts at knitting a sweater for Clovis.

 

The amazing Ann Hood was there as well as knitting guru Helen Bingham. Helen did the knitting patterns in the book and showed off her handiwork, along with prizes for the audience. It was a great time. Our next event is this Thursday in Wellesley, MA, at Wellesley Books. Come if you are in the area!

Here is my latest Clovis sweater project. A new look.

And here is the coffee cup I'm drinking out of this morning.

 

Is this taking knitting to an extreme? I wonder if these weather well.

Knitting Yarns Pub Day!

I was so busy posting about Knitting Yarns on Facebook and twitter, I forgot to post it on my blog!  The amazing Ann Hood edited the book and she assembled an amazing group of writers. I am so proud and humbled to be among them, each writing in unique, heartbreaking and funny ways about knitting and the knitters in their lives. The book came out yesterday with yarn bombs from many of the writers. Here are a couple shots of my yarn bombs!

Here are a few from other contributors:

Kaylie Jones wrote about her Portuguese nanny Judite. Her she is with a handbag Judite crocheted.

Marianne Leone wraps her book in beautiful sky blue yarn with a picture of her mother. Without knitting, she writes, she wouldn't be here!

Jane Smiley knit her copy in the most beautiful and intricate pattern--with beautiful bright yarn, too!