The Work is Getting to Me

Gaining A lack of control

2012-01-24T17:37:00.005-05:00

I was educated by people who, for the mostpart, design products to be mass produced. It's kind of the point of industrialdesign - make something that is reproducible using efficient manufacturing andstandard materials. It's something that I have had to start thinking about professionally- products for a mass market, a user profile which dictates aesthetics, obeyingthe trends which sometimes conflict with my sensibilities. It's almost theopposite of the factors which I consider when working on personal projects. Yougive up some of your artistic control to gain the ability to design at all. Everything is standardized to allow for optimalproduction and sales.

The process of designing for industrialmeans of production is actually really similar to designing for DIY production.You have to think about your reasoning behind the product: Is it going to beuseful to different people in different situations, what materials and toolswill be used to make this thing, and how much importance are you going to placeon aesthetics? You're basically doing the same thing, but for a smalleraudience. The only thing that you really lose is uniformity. Because productionis in the hands of a bunch of individuals, no two finished objects will be thesame. You have to be open to all sorts of interpretation, success, failure, and disagreement.

Though there is something very satisfyingabout seeing a factory made product of your design, surprise will rarely be apositive reaction. Nobody ever sends instructions which, instead of a standardpantone color, say "surprise me." In the ideal situation, you havecontrol over every detail and always get what you expect. But I really likesurprises and a bit of diversity as well. That is one of the reasons I shareknitting patterns here on my blog and on ravelry. Earlier this week I posted a bunch of interpretations of the same knitting pattern. Each product looks very different from the others, but that's the best way to cater to an audience of individuals. People create things that Iwould never do, and, for the most part, they like it more than if I had only allowed them to make my version.

This must be why people continue to value handmade over machinemade.

It's pretty exciting to have freedom.

More Mostly Male

2012-01-23T18:15:00.001-05:00

Some of you are familiar with the Mostly Male pattern book mentioned in a previous post and on the internet. It's one of the funniest books of knitting patterns ever published, the name is proof enough of that. The really amazing thing about the humor in this book is that none of the patterns are really strange or ugly. The photography however is odd in just the best way.

Yes, there ar four people on this page and two of them (the mostly men) are wearing pink pants or shorts. The others seem to be wearing sweaters with their bathing suits or underwear.

You probably want to see that dude in the pool a bit closer.

Nice pose. Have fun swimming in your wool sweater.

Snowglasses/Felt Your Raybans

2012-01-22T00:45:00.001-05:00

Sunglasses are kind of good for the beach, In the winter, however, they look kind of out of place. But snowblindness can be a real problem when the sun reflects off of the white ground, so sunglasses are still kind of necessary.

I got some really cheap, large, fake Raybans at the drugstore and felted over them. The problem of winter sunglasses is solved. If you do this with your glasses, you may want to go with the pink tinted lenses (they make the snow look like everything is covered in glittery cotton candy).

Color Theory in Practice

2012-01-17T22:28:00.001-05:00

Almost exactly a year ago I posted a knitting pattern for a cowl which used two contrasting yarns to create an interesting interaction of color. A bunch of people have made color theory cowls now and everyone has used different yarns.

I picked out a few pictures from Ravelry finished object pages showing different interpretations of the same pattern.

Kimberly Wachta's

Colour Theory Cowl

Cheshy02's Cowl for her Sis

J. Daneman's Color Theory Leftovers

Kcol's Colour theory cowl

needlesyarngin 's

Rainbow Not So Brite Cowl

Sybilramkin's Stripey Cowl

Thank you to all the knitters above who let me use their photos and to those who made their own color combos.

this should have happened a long time ago

2012-01-05T08:49:00.000-05:00

Looking through old photos for gif-able content.

some sweaters are time machines

2012-01-03T01:11:00.000-05:00

If I could turn back time, I would travel to the '70s and meet Cher and her striped pants.

I think you would call her The Cheriff

I don't have a time machine, but I do have some red heart yarn (the cheapest) in the perfect colors for a kitschy afghan. Here are a few more mood images.

I'm off to make a sweater that will transport you right back to the '70s.

Just vote

2011-12-30T21:16:00.000-05:00

I've noticed a recent increase in blog traffic, and I know that this is a kind of annoying think to ask, but I'm doing an online design competition to benefit the boys and girls cub of America. I need to get into the top 50 popular designs to have a shot at winning. I'm up against a lot of bloggers and tweeters with tons of followers, but if every one of my 200 daily visitors votes, It would give me quite a boost

Here is my design. It uses dip dyed leather in a cool earthy tone and a bright color pop for some extra interest. The style is somewhere between the neon trends of this season and the predicted natural tones for next fall/winter.

Please go vote, it will really help me out

eight days of FRIED - day eight: Marshmallows

2011-12-28T00:26:00.000-05:00

For the last day of frying, we saved the most exciting and decadent concoction. Tempura marshmallows were secretly prepared alongside fruitcake slices and then frozen for a few days. My sister, who is a trained chef, recommended freezing as a way of keeping the marshmallow solid in hot oil.

You can kind of see the hot marshmallow and chocolate leaking out of the bottom. Oh yeah, we stuffed the marshmallows with chocolate before battering.

The marshmallows actually taste fruity. Let them cool a bit before you take a bite.

eight days of FRIED - day seven: Latkes revisited with bacon

2011-12-27T01:49:00.000-05:00

Tonight we made another batch of latkes (because they are that good) using the basic recipe. If you would like to add bacon to your latkes, you'll want to add one half pound for every 3 pounds of potatoes.

Cook the bacon and crumble it and add the bits to your latke batter.

You can see the bacon pieces in these latkes.

After making your bacon latkes, invite one of your friends over to watch some late '80s Chanukah specials on VHS.

If you too want to watch the classic Bubbe's Boarding House Chanukah special, the whole thing is online here.

eight days of FRIED - day six: Fried pickles and olives

2011-12-25T21:44:00.000-05:00

Tonight we didn't make plans before frying, so we went to the fridge for inspiration. There was a jar with one pickle and a jar of olives in the fridge door as well as a bowl of tahini sauce. We sliced up the pickle and dried them and some olives on a paper towel.

We dredged everything in tahini, then coated in plain bread crumbs. A pan of oil was heated to 350 degrees and we began with some pickle slices.

As soon as the water content of the tahini cooked off, the breadcrumbs just fell apart. I am assuming this is because tahini is an oil based sauce. A water based binder will resist mixing with the hot oil, but more oil will not. The remaining uncooked pickles and olives were dipped in milk and again covered in breadcrumbs.

This time, everything stayed together, browning nicely in the oil.

The result of this night's experiment is some of the most delicious fried food ever made in our house. The pickles are extremely delicious. The tahini flavor is not very strong, but definitely noticeable. You probably have to taste them to understand how well the flavors mix. The only modification I would recommend is to use Spanish olives which are less salty than kalamata.

eight days of FRIED - day five: Chanukah fried fruitcake

2011-12-25T00:02:00.000-05:00

Tonight is Christmas eve. There are a lot of people who celebrate it and we though it fitting to choose something Christmassy so everyone can celebrate together. Tempura fruitcake seemed like a good choice. I like fruitcake, so we always get one at Costco around this time of year. Many people, however, are rumored to really hate fruitcake in any form. They come in festive tins and are endlessly re-gifted.

This year I would advise a different approach. Keep your fruitcake, go look at Martha Stewart's recipe for tempura batter, and deep fry it.

The batter is supposed to be lumpy. Also there is an inch thick slice of fruit cake in there.

There will be a lot of bubbles with this batter. Immediately your kitchen will smell like a Japanese restaurant.With extra batter, we added some fried pecans to the pot, they make a nice snack or garnish.

The tempura batter, as you can see, is very crispy and light.

So, here it is. Tempura fruitcake for Chanukah and Christmas with a garnish of fried pecans. The Kirkland brand cakes use mostly red and green cherries, hence the bright, seasonal cross section. Hope you enjoy. This one really, really is worth at try.

eight days of FRIED - day four: Thai green curry

2011-12-23T21:13:00.000-05:00

Three days of really greasy deep fried and sugary food is not very nutritious. Tonight, I wanted to make something that was not as unhealthy. Last month, while visiting a friend, I had a chance to talk to some Thai ladies about the proper method for cooking curry. My friend's mother was kind enough to send me home with some fresh keffir lime leaves and her favorite brand of curry paste. She also told me about the important first step of separating the coconut milk and frying the paste in the rendered oil.

You can see in this picture the main ingredients of the curry. The brand of canned paste is Maesri. It was recommended that I not follow the directions on the can and to use double the coconut milk than used in the instructions. I used one can of paste and two cans of coconut milk.

I always use coconut milk with no stabilizers. when you open the can, there will be thick white cream on top. before you start cooking, spoon out the cream. This is the first thing to go into the pan.

This is the uncooked cream. You need to heat it until the water evaporates and the solids and oil begin to separate.

You can see the difference in this picture. After the coconut oil is visibly rendered, you can fry the paste. The frying is very important for the flavors of the curry.

When the paste is fully cooked, add the rest of the coconut milk.

The curry will be liquid, it needs to boil before you can add meat and vegetables.

The curry can recommended using eggplant, which turned out to be a very nice color combination. I also added chicken, bamboo shoots, and baby corn.

Anyone who is experienced with Thai cooking can probably find a few mistakes in my process, but the end result is still delicious over jasmine rice. Cooking the curry myself will never be as good as my friend's mom, but it is better than a lot of restaurants.

Definitely worth trying, and frying, some time.

eight days of FRIED - day three: caramel bananas

2011-12-22T19:05:00.000-05:00

I personally do not like bananas, but anything fried in butter and sugar is probably good. I saw this recipe a long time ago on some food show and wrote it down without noting the original source.

1 tbs of butter
2 tbs of brown sugar
2 tbs of shredded coconut
2 bananas

Melt the butter in a pan over medium heat. When it is fully melted, add the banana, coconut, and sugar. Fry everything until the bananas become darker and the sugar and butter blend fully.

I still do not like bananas, but might try frying some apples next time.

eight days of FRIED - day two: sufganiyot

2011-12-21T22:56:00.000-05:00

It is traditional to eat doughnuts for chanukah, and because I have never made them before, I wanted to try it out. When I look for recipes, I really only trust Alton Brown, and he had what looked like a good one for yeast doughnuts.

If you make some, you'll want to use his recipe.

As always we took a bunch of pictures of the process.

We then filled the doughnuts with either jelly or whipped cream using a pastry bag. For a bit of flavor, we put nutella or caramel sauce.

Salted Caramel Sauce
1 cup of sugar
1/2 cup of water
1 cup of heavy cream
2 tsp of salt

Heat the sugar and water in a saucepan on high heat, switching to medium when the mixture starts to boil. The water will evaporate, and the sugar will become darker (caramel in color). Remove from the heat and add the salt and cream. The cream will bubble a lot, be careful.

At some point, I realized that we had hotdogs in the freezer. I took two, cooked them in the microwave, and invented something delicious: the hotdognut. Basically, roll a hotdog in doughnut dough, add condiments, and fry.

This one has sauerkraut and mustard.

This one has cheese.

You can see that they cooked nicely, similar to a corn dog.

Tomorrow, we are going to try to batter and fry marshmallows.

Have a good second night

eight days of FRIED - day one: traditional latkes

2011-12-20T21:12:00.000-05:00

Tonight is the first night of chanukah. Many of you know the story of the evil king, the destruction of the temple, the hammers, and the miracle of the 8 days of light. I don't really feel like writing that much, so you can get the holiday info here.

Most american Jews celebrate with the lighting of the chanukiah, the 9 candle menorah, and a few special meals of latkes and maybe a brisket. We eat latkes because the miracle of the oil in the story. Frying things in oil is a really important element of the holiday. Last year, after a meal of latkes and donuts, I decided that the best way to celebrate would be to do the eight days of FRIED.

For each night, I will be making, eating, and sharing a different fried food with you all. Tonight being the first night, I will be sharing my special recipe for the crispiest, most delicious, simple latkes.

You will need:
2 lbs of potatoes
1 onion
1 egg
salt to taste
lemon juice
cooking oil

Peel your potatoes and the onion

Grate the potatoes and the onion

Put an old dishcloth into a bowl and put the grated potatoes and onion on top. Add a few teaspoons of salt and a bit of lemon juice. Mix everything together. The salt will start to pull the moisture out of the potatoes and the lemon juice will keep them from turning brown.

Pour some oil into a pan and turn on the heat, It will take a while for everything to get hot enough for frying.

THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT STEP:
Roll up the dishcloth and squeeze as much liquid out as you can. When you are done squeezing, transfer the liquid to a small bowl and dump the dry potatoes out of the dishcloth. Add one egg.

The potato liquid should settle quickly, and there will be a sediment of starch. Discard the liquid and add the tablespoon or so of starch to the potato mixture. Stir everything together.

You are now ready to fry.

Test the oil by putting a small shaving of potato in. If it starts to bubble and turn brown, your oil is hot enough. Form your potato into patties, squeezing out extra liquid.
Put them in the oil.
When they become golden brown, take the latkes out of the oil and put them on a paper (it absorbs some of the oil).

I served mine with sour cream and brisket gravy. My mom had hers with applesauce like most people do. It is not too late to have these for a midnight snack. There are also seven more nights to try these. I promise that after eating these latkes, made with drained potatoes, you will find all others soggy and mushy in comparison.

Nouvelle

2011-12-13T16:16:00.000-05:00

Another knitting pattern (can you guess what I do all day?) is finished and ready for the masses.

It started at the local yarn store, where I fell in love with a Berrocco baby alpaca blend called Flicker. It's first impression is as a luxury yarn. Camel/Caramel colored and incredibly soft, it has just the right amount of gold sparkle. I had to get it, even though I'm not a gold and tan person. It looked like the type of thing a fashionable lady of the past would have loved and was therefore irresistible.

I went home and took a look through the family photos. My great aunt was a very fashionable woman, she was a buyer for Saks, and always wore great clothes. There was a picture of my great aunts and my great-great grandmother walking on the boardwalk. It would be a much more interesting world if people still wore hats every day.

So I took the yarn and made a hybrid of two vintage styles: the cloche and the turban. They're not in the picture, but they were popular in the first half of the 20th century and would have looked fitting with these coats and furs.

This is Nouvelle with the gathering on the sides. Unfortunately in these pictures it is hard to see the gold filament shining, but the yarn looks great knit up. I made versatile sizing a priority, the pattern covers a range from 14" - 22" head measurements. The smallest size is really cute, and knit in two tones of pink, the style can be really cute and playful for a little girl.

Specifications for proper color division are in the pattern. The yarn used for this 14" baby hat is cascade 220 on a size 8 needle.

And this is the hat turned 90 degrees so that the gathering is in the front and back. Someday I will have friends and will thus get someone else to model for me. You can see how this is halfway between the categories of turban and cloche when the gathering is in the front. It pleases me that you can get two different looks out of this hat if you want.

The pattern page can be found on ravelry,

or you can buy it here.

Silly Earhat Family

2011-12-11T16:32:00.001-05:00

The holidays are coming and it is gift/winter hat season. The best thing to do is (obviously) to knit somewhat embarrassing to wear, brightly colored hats for everyone. But not just any silly hat is good enough. If you want people to wear your silly hat it has to have a certain level of cuteness, which means it should probably look like an animal.

Three years ago when I began to contemplate the balance between animal cuteness and abstraction, I came up with this hat. It shows no species bias in its representation of animal characteristics, and it still has cute fluffy ears.

The pattern has taken a while for me to remember, write down, and size. But finally it is all here.

Silly Earhat Family

You will need:

Size 8 double pointed needles, and optionally a pair or circular 16" #8s

100-200 yards of Patons Classic Wool, Cascade 220 wool, or another worsted weight yarn.

A hand full of poly-fill

Gauge is 20 stitches and 26 rows for a 4" square

Stripes shown in the picture are improvised and varied, but can be added to the pattern. It is a great way to use up some scraps of yarn.

Instructions will make a hat to fit a 21-23" adult L, 19-21" adult S/M, 17-19" kids or adult XS, 15-17" toddler.

Hat Body:

cast on 90 (80, 70, 60)stitches

Knit 7 (6, 5, 4) rounds

Purl 1 round

Knit 7 (6, 5, 4) rounds

Knit 1 round picking up cast on edge to form the hem. If you have trouble with hems, this article will help.

K9 (8, 7, 6), M1 x 10, you will have 100 (90, 80, 70)

Knit 22 (20, 18, 15) rounds

K18 (16, 14, 12), k2tog x 5

Knit 1 round

K28 (25, 22, 19) K9 (8,7,6) with waste yarn, then slip the provisional stitches back to the first needle, K30 (27, 24, 21) K9 (8,7,6) with waste yarn, slip the provisional stitches back to the first needle, K37 (33, 29, 25)

K17 (15,13,11) k2tog x 5

Knit 1 round

K16 (14, 12, 10) k2tog x 5

Knit 1 round

K15 (13, 11, 9) k2tog x 5

Knit 1 round

K14 (12, 10, 8) k2tog

Knit 1 round

K13 (11, 9, 7) k2tog

K12 (10, 8, 6) k2tog

Continue to decrease 5 per row every row in the established pattern until 10 stitches remain. Break yarn and pull through.

Ears - there are two of them:

Remove waste yarn, picking up 18, 16, 14, 12 stitches plus an extra 2 in each corner distributing the stitches equally between 3 needles

knit 14, 12, 11, 9 rounds

K4, 3, 3, 2 k2tog, K3, 3, 2, 2, k2tog, K4, 3, 3, 2, K2tog, K3, 3, 2, 2, k2tog

Knit 1 round

K3, 2, 2, 1, k2tog, K2, 2, 1, 1, k2tog, K3, 2, 2, 1, k2tog, K2, 2, 1, 1 k2tog

break yarn and pull through for smallest 2 sizes.

K2,1, k2tog K 1,1 k2tog, k 2, 1, k2tog, k1,1, k2tog

break yarn and pull through.

Put some poly-fill in the ears so that they are round and squishy. It will stay in on its own, you do not need to sew or line anything.

Good luck with your new hats. If you like this pattern, visit me on ravelry to post your finished object or to look at my other patterns.

Gathering

2011-12-03T14:41:00.000-05:00

The idea of an asymmetrical pattern with shirring seemed kind of interesting, so I came up with this. When its on, one side looks smoother than the other, but they are the same height. it makes more sense in the picture.

See the smooth side and the gathered side? You may have also noticed that the pink and gray versions were knit in different wights. The pattern includes instructions for fingering and worsted weight yarn. Calculating the gauge differences was good practice for future, more complex projects, but also really changed the intended season and warmth of the finished cowl.

I'm excited to see this work, and would really like to apply some of the elements of gathering and multiple gauge options into future patterns.

For now, you can order the pattern through ravelry.

Loom Wrestler Part I

2011-12-01T04:02:00.000-05:00

I have wrestled with the loom.

My interest in weaving started in kindergarten when I made a bag weaving loom out of a shirt cardboard. We always got to do weaving or needlepoint before nap time. At some point, my parents gave me a little wooden block for the weaving of more precise little bags. In fifth grade, I studied the unicorn tapestries because they were really colorful, big, pieces of cloth. My goal was to make a miniature tapestry for the medieval fair at school. My parents had a loom meant for tapestry weaving which fueled my desire to weave a unicorn.

The Good Karma Loom is a Native American style weaving tool which takes a few hours to set up. It is slightly more sophisticated than my cardboard setup. I made a small square of tangled yarn before deciding to fabricate my unicorn some other way.

A few weeks ago, while browsing images of ikat and pooled weaving, I decided to try the loom one more time. For the warp, I picked a scrap of rainbow Red Heart acrylic yarn. I tried to pool the colors to make something that had a chance at looking cool.

On the floor of my office, for three hours, I wrestled the loom. It sounds silly, but after spending an evening crawling back and forth carrying strings, everything that could ache did.

The weaving part was actually relatively easy. Pictures coming soon in LOOM WRESTLER PART II.

Urban Turban

2011-11-16T16:52:00.002-05:00

So I was shopping at a certain urban clothing store when I saw this turban.

The idea was nice, but there was some bunching in odd places and the price was way off (for an acrylic hat) so I decided to make my own. Now this isn’t an exact copy of their design, it has some improvements to the fitting, a rounder shape, and fewer seams (more than the 6% deviation required by law). It does have the same vintage inspired, updates movie star style though.

Give it a go, the fisherman’s rib is super fast to knit and double thick for warmth.

I’d like to share the pattern, but I also really could use some money. So buy the pattern, make the hat, and help me pay for food/yarn.

Buy it here!Please.

fall on the floor now

Have you ever written a blog post, then forgotten to hit the publish butten?

2011-11-10T22:59:00.000-05:00

Well that's where last week's post went.

I had finished this snowy beret the weekend of the snow storm. The snow storm that came in October, hence the name October Snow.

When my sister asked me to make a hat for this winter, I started thinking about what would look good with her curly chestnut hair. There was a skein of dark green cascade 220 in the yarn stash, and the knitting commenced.

Here are a few shots of the new pattern on, you may notice that the lady in the picture does not have curly chestnut hair. That is because she is not my sister, the model is actually my grandmother.

You can see that all of the shaping is done with cables.

This pattern is already in testing and should be finished next week.

potato snack tasting: Spanish Tomato Tango

2011-10-29T00:47:00.001-04:00

This next flavor of chips is Spanish Tomato Tango produced by Lays in India. I got them at Patel Brother's supermarket. My expectations were pretty low when I got these, but they are much better than the Masala flavor. They are still a lot greasier than what I'm used to, but the flavor is really good. Lightly spiced katsup is the best way to describe it. Prawn cocktail being my favorite flavor, I am very pleased with the stronger and more complex tomato flavor.

A glance at the ingredients reveals that there are a variety of spices in the seasoning that make it really tasty, like cinnamon, capsacum, and ginger. Cinnamon, Brilliant!

I'm not sure where else you can get these, but I know I'll be going back to Patel Bros for more

Next I'll be reviewing Walker's Cheese and Onion Crisps.

Hot pink

2011-10-28T03:32:00.001-04:00

On Monday, I finished my first original sweater, set in sleeves and all. The whole process was pretty easy, getting a true gauge swatch was the most difficult part.

Here it is, a cropped sweater with a high neck and set in sleeves. After correcting the gauge confusion, I realized that only two skeins of red hear were needed, dropping the cost down to $6.00. Very reasonable for a custom fit sweater, and the hot pink color kind of makes the cheapness of the acrylic yarn acceptably synthetic.

So for any of you who fit into a size small (34" bust), I've typed up the pattern. It's nothing special, but it would be cool to see other people make it. My apologies to anyone of another size, that's the next sweater project.

You will need:

Size 6 needles

Size 8 needles straight and double pointed

2 skeins of Red Heart Super Saver in Pretty 'N Pink (or equivalent)

720 yards of worsted weight yarn

Gauge:

4" x 4" in stockinette stitch = 18 stitches and 22 rows

You will need one front, one back, and two sleeves to make a full sweater. I added a one stitch selvedge to the edges of all pattern pieces to facilitate seaming.

Front and Back:

On size 6 needles, cast on 55 stitches.

Work 20 rows of 1 x 1 ribbing.

Switch to size 8 needles.

K6, M1, K6, M1, K6, M1, K6, M1, K7, M1, K6, M1, K6, M1, K6, M1, K6 (63 stitches).

Work 7 rows in stockinette stitch.

K16, M1, K31, M1, K16. Work 7 rows in stockinette stitch.

K16, M1, K33, M1, K16. Work 7 rows in stockinette stitch.

K16, M1, K35, M1, K16. Work 7 rows in stockinette stitch.

K16, M1, K37, M1, K16. Work 7 rows in stockinette stitch.

K16, M1, K39, M1, K16. Work 7 rows in stockinette stitch.

Bind off 3, knit to end. Bind off 3, purl to end.

(Bind off 2, knit to end. Bind off 2, purl to end.) x 2

For Front:

Work 18 rows in stockinette stitch.

K23, bind off 13, K23.

P23.

Bind off 3, K20.

P20.

Bind off 2, K18.

P18.

Bind off 1, K17.

P17.

Bind off 1, K16. Work 3 rows in stockinette stitch.

Bind off 1, K15.

Bind off 5, P10.

K10.

Bind off 5, P5.

K5.

Bind off .

-------------------

With the stitches still on the needle:

Bind off 3, P20.

K20.

Bind off 2, P18.

K18.

Bind off 1, P17.

K17.

Bind off 1, P16. Work 3 rows in stockinette stitch

Bind off 1, P15.

Bind off 5, K10.

P10.

Bind off 5, K5.

P5.

Bind off.

For Back:

Work 30 rows in stockinette stitch.

Bind off 5, K16, Bind off 17, knit to end.

Bind off 5, P16.

Bind off 4, K12.

Bind off 5, P7.

Bind off 2, K5.

Bind off.

-------------------

With the stitches still on the needle:

Bind off 4, P12.

Bind off 5, K7.

Bind off 2, P5.

Bind off.

Sleeves:

On size 6 needles, cast on 31 stitches.

Work 20 rows of 1 x 1 ribbing.

Switch to size 8 needles.

K1, *M1, K1, repeat from * to end.

Work 7 rows of stockinette stitch.

(K1, M1, Knit to last stitch, M1, K1. Work 7 rows of stockinette stitch) x 9

Bind off 3, knit to end. Bind off 3, purl to end.

(Bind off 2, knit to end. Bind off 2, purl to end.) x 3

(Bind off 1, knit to end. Bind off 1, purl to end.) x 2

Bind off 2, knit to end. Bind off 2, purl to end.

(Bind off 1, knit to end. Bind off 1, purl to end.) x 2

(Bind off 2, knit to end. Bind off 2, purl to end.) x 2

Bind off 3, knit to end. Bind off 3, purl to end.

Bind off.

Sew shoulders, attach sleeves, then sew side seams.

Pick up 70 stitches around the neck using double pointed or circular needles.

Work 8 rows.

Bind off loosely

Share pictures if you make one.

"The puritanical, Catholic approach of 'less is more' is wrong because we know all Catholics are sinners."

2011-10-20T17:06:00.000-04:00

Ettore Sottsass on design and minimalism. Full article

It's Time

2011-10-17T03:43:00.000-04:00

It's time for me to post something, I try really hard to do so every week at least, but there inst much to say. The last week has brought a whole lot of changes.

I left my internship to look for permanent work. I plan on taking those two days a week that I had been dedicating to work and using them to learn either java or processing. Being able to even poorly sketch working interfaces is an important skill in the future.

On Wednesday my father became ill and had to go into the hospital. He'll be having a procedure to fix some of his heart trouble in just a few hours. Things kind of stop when there are emergencies like that, and that is the reason for a lack of postworthy events.

The only noteworthy event is the commencement of the knitting of my first sweater pattern. It is a cropped style with set in sleeves and possibly some text on the front. The Red Heart Super Saver hot pink dayglow yarn ($8.60 for a sweater) is super tacky and creates the need for some sort of symbol that shows the world that I'm aware of the ugliness of the sweater. I might just write UGH on it because that is what people will say when they see it.

OK then, posting duties fulfilled. Time to get ready to knit my way through the wait at the hospital.

Break Fast Brisket

2011-10-09T22:28:00.000-04:00

This is not a breakfast recipe, this is a recipe to break your fast. I made this two days ago for Yom Kippur dinner. It is a modification of a friend's family recipe, adding the one ingredient that tenderizes and seasons a brisket like nothing else: Coca Cola.

Ingredients:

5 pound brisket
8 stalks of celery
5 carrots
1 large onion
10 little potatoes
1/2 cup of Heinz katsup
1 can of Coke
salt
black pepper
garlic powder
thyme
2 bay leaves
cooking oil

Preheat the oven to 325° F. Preparation and cooking will take 5 hours and will feed a bunch of people.

Chop the celery and carrots into half inch pieces. Slice the onion into quarter inch cubes. Set the vegetables aside for later. Rub the brisket on both sides with salt, pepper, and garlic powder. I don't measure my spices, but I know that I can always add more later, but I can't remove excess seasoning. Put your roasting pan on the stove, and add some cooking oil, just enough to keep the meat from sticking to the pan. Braise the brisket on high heat until the meat is slightly browned on both sides.

Pour the can of soda over the meat.

Add the vegetables, thyme (preferably fresh), bay leaves, and the katsup. Make sure the brisket is laying fat side up, usually there will be one side with a thick layer of fat. Put the pan into the oven for 3 hours with a lid.
Chop your potatoes into pieces, no larger than one inch, and add them at the 3 hour point. After a half an hour, turn off the heat, but leave the pot roast to cook for another half hour.

Remove the pot roast from the oven and let it rest for 15 minutes in the gravy. The meat will still be warm when you slice and serve it with a side of rice, noodles, or mashed potatoes.

Om nom, leftovers will make delicious sandwiches.

Spine Poncho Pattern is finally here!!

2011-10-04T16:53:00.001-04:00

You may remember A while ago I asked for some help with a pattern that I came up with. After a little help from the ravelry community, I figured out how to chart this thing. The color came first, but after I uploaded the simple chart, people started to ask for the full poncho pattern.

Spine Poncho

**A few people have had problems with Scribd so I've decided to provide an alternative means of downloading. For those of you who would rather download from ravelry, the file is now posted there too**

This PDF is a diagrammed chart of the whole poncho. I don't want to write it out line by line because the pattern is very simple and easy to understand once you see it laid out. It's just a really big mitered piece.

For me, this was a stash buster, using up a bunch of yarn that was really warm and a bit itchy, good for a jacket type project. I never wrote down the yardage, so the file might be a little low on the amount needed of the main color.

Unfortunately, I do not have the resources right now to test this pattern before posting it, but I am sure any corrections or notes will be easily fixed once people start to make it. If you find one, just let me know in the comments section and I'll modify the file.

Future of stuff

2011-09-27T01:40:00.000-04:00

I actually don't feel like saying much about this, but I'm due for a post.

Slime mold experiment and a makerbot hooked up to a kinect on the same table

The Future of Stuff was a fun mini conference about.. you know what. I learned a few interesting things from the speakers even though I had heard a few of them (Mary Huang and Aminimal studio) only a few weeks ago.

Alex Hornstein talked about his interest in how independent designers make successful products, showing a few case studies. How exciting to hear about the logobot which is a physical robot version of the turtle in logo and spikerbox which is an at home neurobiology kit. He was really excited about products which brought the cost of traditionally expensive machines to an affordable price.

Jessica Rosenkrantz & Jesse Louis-Rosenberg spoke about the Nervous System aesthetic and their generative design philosophy.

Graphic designer Richard The showed some examples of his work. It was interesting to see logos which used interactivity to reinforce concepts. He also showed a few examples of parametrically generated graphics which were used as constantly changing but recognizable logos.

I was especially interested with what the final speaker, Marius Watz, had to say about coding and parametric art and design. It's better that you go look him up because my summary of his presentation won't be as interesting as his own words.

Mostly I learned that programming is something that I should probably learn. oh, and that Lasersaur is working to make affordable laser cutters a reality.

How to dye a long gradient with wool and Kool Aid

2011-09-19T00:54:00.003-04:00

This tutorial is going to show you how to dye a 200 yard skein of plain wool to have a long, slow gradient. This sort of coloring is popular this season in a lot of trendy sweaters from Urban Outfitters. It is also similar to a lot of self striping yarns, just a bigger stripe. Here is a picture of a shawl that I made using some wool that was dyed with this technique.

You can see that the gradient is not entirely smooth, it is kind of variegated, which I think is a nice effect.This is because the wool is essentially tie dyed.

OK, lets start the tut...

You will need:

2-3 packets of kool-aid in your favorite color.
A skein of 100% wool, I used Paton's classic wool
A pot
A stove
A spoon or tongs
Rubber gloves, unless you don't mind chromatic fingertips.

Take your skein...

And roll it into a ball. Don't wrap loosely, make sure there is some tension on the yarn as you wrap.

Put about 1.5" of water into your pot and add a packet of kool aid. Heat the mixture on the stove until it is steaming.

Add the ball of yarn to the hot pot.

Use the spoon or your hands to move the ball around and to cover all sides with dye.

You will know when to take the yarn out of the pot because the color will be sucked out of the liquid and into the fibers. The kool aid water will be almost totally clear.

Take the ball to the sink and run water over it until the entire ball is soaked.

Fill the pot again, this time with 3" of water and 1 pack of kool aid. Heat the pot until the liquid begins to steam.

Put the wet ball of yarn into the pot, this time, the capillary action of the wet yarn will draw the dye deeper into the ball.

Make sure to roll the ball around and cover every side with dye. When you feel you are done, take the yarn out of the pot and rinse it under cold water.

When the ball cools, you can wind the yarn into a skein.

you will see the inside of the ball slowly getting lighter. Take the skein and wrap it in a towel to take out some of the moisture.

Hang it on a hanger to dry.

There are a lot of projects that you can do with this yarn. some of you may remember the ironic gnome and some chrysanthemum hats that I made with yarn dyed this way.

raspberry lemonade flavor on white yarn

This uses black Rit dye on aqua wool instead of kool aid.

This uses cherry kool aid with a bit of orange on pink yarn.

I hope this is useful for everyone who has asked how to make the gradient. Please post pictures of your projects if you use this yarn, it will be a lot of fun to see what people do with it.

Digital Design Therapy/Shapeways Meetup

2011-09-12T00:16:00.000-04:00

I went to a meetup yesterday that was hosted by the Digital Design Therapy group about the possibilities of 3d printing. There were speakers from Shapeways and design studios which use digital media as part of their design and manufacturing.
Though a lot of time was spent on the materials and capabilities of 3d printing, a few ideas on general design theory also came across as important.

More and more, people want the freedom to design their own products.
This is something that I have definitely been thinking a lot about lately. The democratization of design is kind of a threatening idea to me because its already hard enough to find work, but there is still a place for the professional in the future. Mary Huang showed a few of her interfaces which are designed to give people the tools to make products interactively. Ddress, an app on the Continuum Fashion website is an interesting example of this phenomenon. She designed the interface to give users complete freedom to choose form, but consciously limited them to black fabric and a low poly pattern. This helps people make something that is unique, but still fits into an overall aesthetic.

Like all manufacturing processes, 3d printing has unique properties and capabilities. Justify high cost by making things that cannot be made by other means.
Thee founders of Aminimal studio spoke about their lighting and jewelry projects which take advantage of the printers' ability to make highly detailed, complex forms accurately. It just doesn't make sense to print something if it can be made cheaply using another process. Similarly, designers from The Future Future showed their jewelry, which uses the freedom of 3d printing to generate unique but similar pieces. Because there is no master mold, there is no reason to make only version of a product.

All of the designers acknowledged the potential of this new technology to change the structure of manufacturing in a way that has not happened since the industrial revolution. I don't doubt it, and will be continuing to think about these new rules for design as we all should.

Ironic Gnome Hat Pattern

2011-09-09T00:30:00.002-04:00

The Ironic Gnome hat is for hipster gnomes or people who like to sit out on the grass ironically.

wear it like a hipster

or like a gnome

I used some hand dyed Paton's classic wool - less than a full skein.

You will need about 200 yards of worsted weight yarn, size 8 DPNs

Cast on 80 stitches and distribute between 3 needles

Work 10 rounds in 1x 1 ribbing - K1, P1...

Round 11: *K8, M1 x 10. You have 90 stitches now.

Knit 15 rounds

Begin to decrease:

K16, k2tog x 5. Knit 2 rounds.

K15, k2tog x 5. Knit 2 rounds.

K14, k2tog x 5. Knit 2 rounds.

K13, k2tog x 5. Knit 2 rounds.

K12, k2tog x 5. Knit 2 rounds.

K11, k2tog x 5. Knit 2 rounds.

K10, k2tog x 5. Knit 2 rounds.

K9, k2tog x 5. Knit 2 rounds.

K8, k2tog x 5. Knit 2 rounds.

K7, k2tog x 5. Knit 2 rounds.

K6, k2tog x 5. Knit 2 rounds.

K5, k2tog x 5. Knit 2 rounds.

K4, k2tog x 5. Knit 1 round.

K3, k2tog x 5. Knit 1 round.

K2, k2tog x 5. Knit 1 round.

K1, k2tog x 5.

k2tog x 5, Pull yarn through all 10 stitches, and break.

sew in ends.

When you finish, put your pics on Ravelry

A tutorial on how to dye a long gradient in yarn will be up soon.

gifmonster

2011-09-08T22:25:00.001-04:00

Feelological Bacterial Growth

2011-09-06T14:58:00.000-04:00

For readers who are not familiar with the ongoing project, Feelology started as my senior thesis project. The goal was to create a set of products which keep us grounded in physical space even when we are preoccupied with our mobile distraction devices. As life moves further from reality and becomes inseparable from the internet and the computer, we cannot forget to satisfy our senses. Life is about more than touching a screen, it is about feeling and being aware of your environment.

Since May, I have been refining the manufacturing process behind the feelology felt rug. The first version was a rectangular shape made only with a felting needle and wool. This new set involves a bit of adhesive, but saves me strained arm muscles and pricked fingers, not to mention about 20 hours of work.

I made these new floor mats round because the shape works better with the bubble pattern. When choosing a layout, I wanted it to look natural and somewhat random, not arranged. I looked at the growth patterns of bacterial cultures in petri dishes, they tend to grow in clusters and in many cases have very beautiful patterns.

You can see the similarities.

In order to make sure that I can definitely use colors other than white, I made one round with green felt. The color is really close to moss, which makes walking on it a lot like walking barefoot in my backyard. Moss is a very enjoyable texture memory for me.

So check them both out on etsy, and remember that I am now able to fill custom orders in various colors and sizes up to 5'x8'.

200/fingerscarf

2011-09-04T16:02:00.000-04:00

Check out this new pattern which is now in testing stage. Did you ever wonder what would happen if a pair of gloves and a scarf had a child? What would happen if you just reached through your scarf every time your fingers were cold?
Well this is the answer to those questions that you never actually asked.

Doesn't look like much - until you realize what those holes are for. They are for your cold fingers.

So it has a built in glove. Its pretty useful actually. It reminds me of that scene in star wars where Han Solo is frozen in carbonite with his hands and face sticking out.

So yeah, I am looking for some test knitters because I am hoping to eventually sell this pattern for a small price. I'll be needing someone willing to make a man size too.

Also this is my 200th post.Yay.

Chromatic Chrysanthemums

2011-09-04T14:41:00.000-04:00

So if you weren't thinking about making a spiky hat for yourself, maybe you will want one now. I made these two examples of chrysanthemum hats using slow gradient and self striping yarn.

There was a sale on Lion Brand Amazing at Michael's this week, so I got a few skeins and made this. The colorway is called Mauna Loa. Someone stopped me on the subway and said it would look great for kids. A kid sized pattern coming soon, and you will be able to make it with only one skein of Amazing.

And here is a hat made out of one skein of hand dyed Cascade 220. The yarn was originally aqua color which I wasn't really into. I figured out a way to dye a 200 yard gradient that would make a cool hat. If the process is repeatable, I'll be posting a tutorial here.

I hope this was inspiring for someone and that you will buy my hat pattern. Each sale supports my yarn habit and goes towards yarn for new patterns for you.

i.knit.lamps

2011-08-24T01:14:00.001-04:00

This project was a lot of fun and discovery.

The idea came from some of my earlier knitting experiments and one very lumpy hat. With the invention of less flammable light sources (like LEDs) lamps can wear sweaters without burning up. So I decided to find out what a topographic textile looks like in the context of lighting.

Textured felt can be a very interesting material to shine light through. Thickness is pretty consistent, so translucency is actually determined by proximity to the light source. The peaks are dark, while the valleys show more radiant light.

The result is a luminescent pineapple - a very squishy and fuzzy luminescent pineapple.

sweater help

2011-08-23T23:41:00.000-04:00

So, here are some pictures of that sweater that a few months ago was scheduled for frogging. The color of the Noro inlay was so nice that I just couldn't get rid of the back. so instead of frogging, I did some creative reworking and turned the crazy, oversized dress into a manageable poncho.

A pattern is in the works right now, but there is a bit of confusion on how to do a color chart on a mitered pattern.

To anyone who knows how to do a chart of a mitered panel, I welcome your advice.

Some Tips on Rendering in SolidWorks

2011-08-20T21:08:00.002-04:00

I recently posted some tips on rendering in solidworks on flickr after someone asked how to make renderings more photo realistic. So here are the 8 steps that I go through when I render.

1. start with a matte middle grey material on everything.

2. Choose a camera angle and set up your lights, the matte grey will show if your lights are too bright or dim.

3. Choose an appropriate hdri image for your environment. I like the conference room but anything with windows or highlights will look fine.

4. Apply your graphics/labels.

5. Start to work on your materials - start by only changing one area at at a time. try reflectivity then try luminosity but don't change them at the same time because you cant really see what they do that way. When you feel comfortable with each slider, it will be a lot easier to create realistic materials.

6. Look up the correct index of refraction for your clear material. Water and glass are both clear, yet they refract light differently. This step was really hard for me to do by eye. Thankfully, Photoworks has some suggested numbers for common transparent materials.

7. soften your shadows, even just a little. No real shadows have a perfectly hard edge.

8. Play with the depth of field setting (It helped me hide a multitude of sins in the blurry part). It can make your product shot look like it was taken with a camera.

So those are the steps that I take when I render. Maybe that will give you a starting point for more realistic renderings within solidworks.

Object Culture

2011-08-19T02:15:00.000-04:00

Earlier today I read an article about the cost of handmade goods. It was a much needed explanation of why crafts are more expensive than industrially manufactured products. It reminded me that I have been meaning to write about the future role of physical goods.

I keep hearing from designers and business people that we are headed towards a service based economy. We already see it in the recent move away from printed materials to digital text. There are many examples of how small all purpose devices are replacing the need for a multitude of products. Slowly, the money that we spend on physical objects is being redirected to pay for digital services. In addition to this smartphone revolution, we are trying to decrease the amount of materials which we consume and discard.

shelving unit

If people are able to adjust to this change, which many are calling the end of object culture, maybe we will be able to rethink our shopping habits in general. If it is so good for the environment that people create less waste, designers need to create products for the long term. At a recent discussion at the Phaidon New York store for the release of their Dieter Rams book "good design is long lasting" Objectified director Gary Hustwit mentioned his recent purchase of a 606 Universal Shelving System. He said he intended on it lasting for the rest of his life. He thought of the purchase as an investment (partly, he said, because of the price tag) that he would be living with for a long time.

This attitude towards purchases is not what the marketing department wants for you. They want you to buy the product, and 18 months later need to replace it because it is worn out or obsolete. That is the optimal money making cycle for a manufacturer of low cost trinkets. We are conditioned to believe that we can buy cheap factory made products whenever we want, even if we don't have a lot of money. The reality is that we probably spend more money at IKEA over a lifetime than we would if we just made an investment in something sturdy and long lasting. I'm sure someone has done the math on that. But not all of the blame can be placed on quality. Even when we do buy nice things, after a while we feel the need to change it up, redecorate, and get new stuff.

But this need is all a result of the industrial age. Consider the economy of Europe in the medieval era. Cities were growing, and artisans were able to specialize in a trade and sell their wares to people with other specialized skills. Converting prices for inflation is a bit tricky, but we do know for sure that relative to incomes, the price of goods was higher than it is now. The average carpenter would spend about a week's pay on pair of boots. Now convert that to today's numbers and you have someone making $40k a year spending $650 on a pair of shoes (which is actually similar to the cost of handmade shoes). This is one pair of shoes, not the overall cost of shoes per year. With these seemingly high prices people were still able to buy essential goods and survive. There was also a market for luxury goods. We predict that soon all books will be digital, except for really special printings. This is not dissimilar to the medieval book, which was also a luxury item, hand written and illustrated. I can easily see a market for $5,000 bibles and hand illustrated classics in a future where people only own one printed book.

a picture of my favorite pencil

So think about what you own, what you value, and what you buy often. I can divide my belongings into three categories: Consumables, Treasures, and Stuff. Consumables are pretty obvious and inevitable; they include food, cleaning products, and sketching materials. Stuff is the stuff that I own but don't care about like my somewhat ugly but cheap laptop sleeve, basic drinking glasses, a file cabinet, and any clothes that I bought to wear to an interview. It's not like I'm going to purposefully ruin these things but there is nothing keeping me from replacing them whenever. My Treasures are, independent of monetary value, the things which I love most and would not replace. Six years ago I bought a mechanical pencil which is now the only pencil I use. It was $10 which some people say is expensive, but I get a lot more use out of it than a cheap pen that I lose, break, or can't refill. I hope it lasts forever even though its expected lifespan is 18 months. I treasure the Pantone color mug that I was given as a birthday present. I could probably happily get by without any other drinking vessels. It is simple useful objects that help me live well. I care for these possessions and make sure they last because replacing them with something new would not be a gain, it would actually be a loss.

You can probably see where I am going with this. We as consumers don't actually need, like, or even want all of the things we acquire. As soon as the shift is made away from the need for physical objects, people will be able to invest in less objects that they like more. I would say that the claim that society is moving away from an object culture is just wrong. We are moving towards an object culture and away from consumer culture.

In 15 years I want to live in an apartment with a computer, 100 rare out of print books and Carlton. How do you envision the future state of your consumerism?

Talk to Me

2011-08-13T19:53:00.000-04:00

I went today to see the Talk to Me exhibit at MoMA. There was a lot of interesting content and commentary about the integration of technology into everyday life and how we interact with it. Ranging from concepts and predictions to widely used designs, most of the content of the show seemed to be a direct response to Anthony Dunne's Herzian Tales. I thought I wrote about Herzian Tales, but it seems that I didn't. It was about the need for empaty and philosophy in the design of electronics. Its a really interesting book - a bit dry, but you should read it.

Anyway, a lot of the content focused on the ability of electronic objects to alter perspectives, augment reality, and to create emotional responses. The subtitle of the show is "Design and communication between people and objects" which is, I guess, a good way of explaining the theme of the show. The general feeling that I got from it was that people just want to get personal with inanimate objects, whether that means artificial affection from an iPad app or pointing out the coldness of sending an email. We are human and we now expect experiences that are more human.

There were scannable codes on all of the museum tags, which makes me realize how amazingly innovative those guided tour headsets were when they first came out. Now we can scan so many things to get more info, but that idea seems to have originated in a gallery setting. A lot of the displays required headphones, which I don't like, so I only listened to some. Surrounded by so many interactive technologies, headphones hanging on hooks looked even less inviting than they usually do. There was so much to take in that I wouldn't have been able to listen to everything anyway.

The most interesting part of the exhibit was the interactions that people had with the displays.

The first piece in the show was a projection of an app called Talking Carl. There was an iPad where you could interact with the character on the touch screen. A little boy saw someone touching the screen and ran up to try it himself. His mother stopped him. She yelled "don't touch the exhibit." The boy said he saw someone else do it but she still said no. I went up to the screen, gestured the character to do a flip, and said "its interactive." She let the boy play with the screen and thanked me, I don't know if she was being sincere. I think this experience shows the difference between generations and their reaction to technology. To someone who grew up without touchscreens everywhere, a screen in a museum still means "art, do not touch," but for someone who only knows a back lit rectangle as an icon of interactivity, they know what to do.

Another funny scene was the metro card vending machine, on display for the exhibit to show interface design at its finest. It was fully functional, dispensing cards and everything. People kept going up to it to see what it did. They would touch the screen and look confused when it did what it was expected to do. Some even asked the guard what it was for and whether it was part of the exhibit. If good design is in fact invisible, congrats to the designer - not even the tourists found it noteworthy.

So, this review is getting really long. I will be going back to see the show again when I can spend more time. I will then write about it again with some more thoughtful and designey comments about the experience. Also next time I will show up with a charged phone for a more complete experience.

Yeah, if you go, charge your phone. And you should go.

Good design is long lasting

2011-08-11T02:15:00.000-04:00

Really interesting little talk tonight in Soho. The subject of Dieter Rams and Braun appliances turned to the topics of craft vs. design, use of materials, and the riots in London.
This is an interesting time in design because the job of industrial designers is no longer what it was when Dieter Rams was designing for Braun. I dont think that there is a future for product designers who try to please everyone in the same way. Universality was the main motivation for the design rules and style of Rams, but people are definitely no longer pleased with a loss of individual identity. Zoe Coombes brought up that this is one of the reasons that the craft movement has gained such a following. And I agree, nobody prefers to have a homogenized market.
Another really interesting point came up about the value of objects in relation to their lifespan. There Gary Hustwit mentioned that he purchased a 606 shelving unit which he intends on keeping for the rest of his life. Though his value of the shelving is not entirely tied to its cost, there are objects of low cost which could easily last a lifetime which people do not plan to own because they have a low value. What if people were able to buy less often and to take care of their property and make it last? What if short term purchases were designed out of short term materials? How can the percieved value of plastic parts change to make people keep them for longer and grow more connected to them?

All good things to think about.

carpet planning...

2011-08-07T05:31:00.000-04:00

More carpets are in the works, made using a more precise and less dangerous process (I got tired of felting needle wounds). They are also more water resistant and durable.

If anyone is interested in seeing samples, send me a note.

I am an angel head

2011-08-03T01:25:00.000-04:00

I just finished this sewing project a few nights ago. You may remember the sketch from a while back...

thirty-six chairs in an hour

2011-07-24T16:37:00.000-04:00

I have been working on a pop up book about classic chairs and as part of the process, I sat down for an hour and drew a bit. Then I made a poster from the drawings.

If anyone wants the poster, I put it up for downloading.

There are no names or dates on the image, so it would be fun to see if anyone can identify all 36.

Sfumato

2011-07-21T22:47:00.000-04:00

I was fooling around with the scanner today making crazy pictures when this idea happened.

Sfumato, from the Italian word sfumare "to evaporate like smoke," was a renaissance painting technique which used subtle and gradual shading to produce soft forms. These portraits, made using polyester pillow stuffing placed directly on a scanner bed, reminded me of the smoky technique.

Here are some pictures of how it was done.

When you invert the colors of this image, the face becomes apparent.

2011-07-17T22:00:00.000-04:00

I took a few pictures of a drawing that I made using a tack. It is a side view of a pelvis.

The light shines through the drawing to make a negative.

I call it TACKtile illustration.

where am I?

2011-07-11T01:48:00.001-04:00

In New Jersey playing badminton with a real feather shuttlecock. Also croquet.

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.8

lamping

2011-07-09T02:08:00.001-04:00

In the summer, some people like to go camping. I prefer lamping, or making lamps.

I have been traveling this week, so I decided to come up with a train sized knitting project. The result is a felted lamp based on some earlier textile studies that I made. I don't want to overuse it, but the texture fits so many contexts. I also made a sort of decorative pillow ball. I'm not yet sure why, but it looks ok.

Please excuse the sloppy formatting, I am working with mobile this week.

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.8

The NYAFF has started!

2011-07-03T00:38:00.000-04:00

For the past few years, I have been going to the New York Asian film festival to see crazy Japanese splatter films. This year I decided to go for something a bit less strange: the opening night Screening of Milocrorze: A Love Story.
The movie is really complex in terms of plot, and so I am not going to try to summarize it. Instead I want to mention that the visuals for the film were excellently expressive and appropriate. They made it easy to differentiate between the three main characters (all played by Takayuki Yamada) and storylines. The above picture shows the pastel world of the young Ovreneli Vreneligare. The visuals are kind of a combination of a childs drawing, 90s photo manipulation, and a rainbow.

Suddenly, there is a change of style and the setting changes to a pseudo-retro game show. The overall feeling is 70s sleaze, kind of like if Austin Powers was set in japan, but a lot funnier. The character of Besson Kumagai is so terribly obnoxious with his backup dancers, platform shoes, and hair bowtie. This middle part seems to be mostly a comedy, but is just as visually thorough as the first love story. The characters wear afro wigs and body suits, striped turtlenecks, and have a vintage style that sits on the edge of ugly and cool. There are fewer after effects type animations, and there is no more glitter.

The story segues into an ancient (or current?) scene, set in a gambling parlor. the noble Tamon seems to have transported himself back in time to find his lost lover. Everything is black, white, and shades of red. It is hard to think of the connection between the three stories (visually, there is none) besides the love story in all sections. There is a really amazing fight scene that seems to go on forever (in a good way). It was shot with special high speed cameras that capture gravity or the seeming lack of it in a novel way.

There are tatami flying everywhere.

So that is what I did yesterday. I saw one of the most visually interesting films I have ever seen. You should see it because i cant really describe how cool it was.

sweater is frogged

2011-06-29T00:38:00.001-04:00

This week

2011-06-23T02:35:00.000-04:00

In case anybody was wondering what I have been doing this week:

This is a picture of the new sweater pattern that I have been occupied with. It is rather largae and time consuming, so I hope it will be worth the time.

When I am finished I will share the pattern here.

Renegade craft fair was very Brooklyn-y

2011-06-12T23:30:00.014-04:00

This Saturday I went to the renegade craft fair to see what kind of things Brooklyn is doing-it-self. It turns out that the entire city has a similar color scheme of muted pastels and super saturated neon.

There were a lot of good looking ceramics booths, but a lot of the other crafts were just too smilar to each other to hold my interest.

One of the more interesting vendors was selling these terrariums with small figures inside.

Mostly there were a lot of hipsters hanging around in the rain.

Chrysanthemum Knitting Pattern is Up!!

2011-06-06T22:29:00.000-04:00

For sale on etsy and ravelry.

getting restless in Connecticut

2011-06-06T01:36:00.000-04:00

I went out to the backyard today with my mother to take pictures of the (old) new hat pattern that is ready for publishing. She got some funny shots of me running around throwing hats.

Frolicking with knitwear in the summertime might be a sign of general boredom.

I have a new website

2011-05-30T15:42:00.000-04:00

feelology pillow

2011-05-28T00:21:00.000-04:00

terrible picture of progress

2011-05-26T11:48:00.000-04:00

This is a picture of the feelology throw pillow experiment which I started yesterday. It looks pretty good for a test, but the quality of the picture is awful.

A new lot of cookies in plastic and felt

2011-05-26T01:17:00.004-04:00

These are the new cookies that I mentioned last week. Some are shiny and bright. and some are crystal clear. They add a bit of variety to the previously all black selection. They are available as Key chains, Pendants, or Charms. I also made some that are clear. There are also a bunch of over sized felt cookies which I still don't know how to use.

The photographs of the cookies came out really well (because my mother helped me). Look at this bowl of clear ones. It looks like it came right out of a raytracer.

In addition to the new acrylic cookies, I have made an additional 39 large record cookies and 100 small cookies. Hand cutting was a little inefficient for these large quantities and new materials, so I switched over to laser cutting the circles. This really helped my success rate for hand folding the cookies because the rounder the cookie blank is the easier it is to fold. Unfortunately the small record cookies deform a bit in the oven, so there are a few really awkward looking fortunes in the bunch.

These are made from white industrial felt.

They are very large. I have no idea what to use them for.

In school, I seem to have learned to be productive.

2011-05-19T14:43:00.001-04:00

Since I got home on Tuesday I have applied for 5 jobs, made over 200 fortune cookies in various materials, and ordered materials to start a line of feelology products, manufactured by me.

Unfortunately I still have not done my laundry.

BTW

2011-05-18T15:26:00.000-04:00

By the way, I graduated on Monday.

Wabi Sabi

2011-05-11T22:34:00.000-04:00

Wabi sabi is the new design philosophy which I would like to explore. Since I have technically finished school, I am going to be spending my time looking for work. But in the long term, I am going to look into the aesthetic and functional qualities of objects as time passes.

This is the image that caused my interest. This old, worn phone looks a lot better than the new one. The same is true for leather goods and jeans. I wonder how this concept can be transferred to mass produced products in a purposeful way.

Is it possible for objects to develop custom functionality with age?

ID view 2011

2011-05-05T13:02:00.000-04:00

rising over finals

2011-05-02T06:08:00.003-04:00

This is the sun rising. I am going to go to bed now for a few hours.

feelology

2011-04-29T14:50:00.000-04:00

These are the final images of the products made for my feelology project. The project started with the intent to introduce textures to the backs of electronic devices in order to make them more tactile. While sketching in silicone, I realized that though it is interesting to make a device feel good in the hand, it is not going to change how people interact with their electronics. Tactile surfaces have more impact when they are not directly competing with the functional screen side of the device.

I branched out into other materials, incorporating my love of textiles and craft into my experimentation in feelology. The result is a group of three products (plus a bunch of silicone sketches) which add an element of tactility to an environment.

The quilt is a new interpretation of the classic trapunto technique. The pattern of stuffed areas is unevenly distributed and is therefore more interesting to feel in some areas than others. By emphasizing the texture of an object that is already used as a comfort object, the user may become more aware of the physical object which they are interacting with, or maybe not.

The carpet, made entirely out of wool, has a similar concept to the quilt. The lumps of varying size are placed unevenly so the texture is more noticeable. In the process of sketching, I found that a uniform texture is the tactile equivalent of white noise: You can feel it, but the sensation is constant that after a while you no longer notice it. The bumps kind of massage the bottoms of your feet. They feel pretty good.

The third product in the series is kind of the odd duck of the group. This is the hoodie that I posted about earlier. It has an inset pocket with a texture inside. The idea is based on the observation that people reach into their pockets and jingle their change or their keys when they are nervous or bored. The hoodie took on an unusual form because I wanted to make it look cozy and inviting. I also have an affinity for strangely shaped garments. The adult size has a beard of texture, the kid's (not shown) only got texture in the pockets. There is a bit more work to be done on this garment, but for the purpose of school, all of the ideas are there. More versions can be expected.

So, one week from now there will be a show/critique at Pratt Institute. I think it might be open to visitors, so drop by room 44a in Pratt studios at 1:30, Wednesday, May 4th if you want to see my work and some really cool stuff from my classmates. I may have some more to show.

bearded head

2011-04-22T19:59:00.000-04:00

project progress

angel head

2011-04-20T07:13:00.000-04:00

Bravo Supermarket!!!

2011-04-15T12:57:00.001-04:00

This supermarket always seems to be cheering for itself because it has values.

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.8

the rug

2011-04-13T12:16:00.002-04:00

This is a small textured rug that I am working on for my final. The bumps massage your feet and make you more aware of your sense of touch.

this is fun

2011-04-11T01:29:00.000-04:00

surprising progress

2011-04-08T00:00:00.002-04:00

This is the progress that I have made on my quilt in only 3 days. It is almost a quarter of the way done. That is a huge time improvement over my last quilt, which took 5 years. I am also happy that the pattern is a really fresh interpretation of traditional trapunto.