Jananas

I first met Jamie, who founded Urban Flute Project, in my Competition and Strategy in Creative Industries class this past semester. He came in to speak to us about being an artist, launching something new, and the difficulties associated with trying to get grants. He and I began speaking afterwards, in part because I wanted to pick his brain about how relevant some of the policies in our final paper were for the actual artists.

I promised him that I would knit him a scarf sometime back in March and just finally finished it up, despite having bought the yarn back in March. I wanted something spring/summer like while still being sturdy. I picked up some Blue Skies Cotton in an apple green and in a charcoal. My initial concept had been to do a leaf lace panel in the green, surrounded by a charcoal border. I couldn’t find a pattern that I liked until recently, when I came across Knitty’s Branching Out. However, the pattern didn’t lend itself well to having an inset panel.

Instead, I started knitting in the green and continued until it was done. I then switched to the charcoal and knit for another 8″ inches or so. I really like the contrast between the bright green and the more stately and subdued grey. I pulled everything together with a single crochet border in the grey.

I haven’t blocked this out. The pattern is already visible and I’m happy with it. Its also a little on the short side, but the bulkier yarn (relative to that the pattern was originally written for) has meant an equally bulky scarf.

So Jamie, I hope you enjoy!

3 comments

I’ve attempt lace before and gotten confused with having to diligently count stitches over long repeats.I had some lovely silky Malabrigo in the Indiecita colourway. I love this yarn and was inspired by other’s projects on ravelry to give knitting lace a second chance.

I’ve been admiring the Swallowtail Shawl, so it was a good first candidate. It took a little bit to get into the pattern, but the budding lace is really just a simple 6 stitch repeat. Once I was able to recognize the pattern, it was fast! I knit this first one in Malabrigo Silky, which feels delicious running through my fingers. Sadly, I ran out before the last lace chart. I was able to find some Debbie Bliss silk at my local yarn store (Romni here in Toronto), which matched well enough.

As it was my first time knitting lace, I was pretty sure that this wouldn’t turn out. As always, before lace is blocked it looks so strange. Like you catch glimpses of the pattern, but not the true beauty of it. I socked the shawl in cold water until it was saturated and then laid it out flat t dry, pinning the edges as necessary. I don’t have blocking wires yet, so forgive the slight roughness!

I like wearing this shawl as a big, big scarf. Its cozy and stylin’ all at the same time. Its like I’m a cowboy, only nicer.

I was originally planning on wearing this shawl to Jason’s sister’s wedding this summer. Sadly the dress I picked up totally doesn’t match. I decided (in a fit of madness?) that I should knit a second one to match. Amazingly I already had some yarn that matched the colours of the dress – some lovely Dream in Colour Smooshy sock yarn that Jason found just lying around in parking lot. Even more impressively, he managed to find it in a colourway (Licorice Jubilee).

It took my two weeks to knit, mostly because those last few rows seem to take forever! I knit an extra two repeats of the budding lace (for a total of 16), before starting on the lily of the valley pattern and lace border. Once again, I ended up running out of yarn – this time, three rows before the end. Grrr! A second run back to my local & trusty yarn store to pick up some more Debbie Bliss silk, this time in black. I have to admit that the addition of the black makes it a little more gothic in tone. I’m hoping that wearing it with my cotton sundress will convince people that I’m not a vampire.

Final lesson – maybe knitting lace isn’t so bad after all!

Jason and I, well, we’re both nerds. Upon a more detailed review of our trip we realized that we would be passing right by Scranton, PA which importantly is the city that The Office is set in. On our way from Philly to Kingston, we decided to get off the highway and drive through Scranton.

Scranton was a pretty little town, full of big trees and old buildings. Apparently there’s even a university there and they’re important enough to have their own diocese. Even more importantly though, we drove past a gaming shop. We figured why not, as there’s always a chance that we’ll find something fun. We found parking and we stopped realized that we were parked right in front of Eden Cafe – an all vegan cafe in downtown Scranton. We both had good vegan BLTs and amazing soda (grape Boylan’s, yes please!). I also really like that their sandwiches came with your choice of sides (healthy veggies or fruit salad = awesome options).

We got a little lost getting out of Scranton due to construction and detours, but in the end made it safely back onto the Interstate. We finished up the drive, making it back into Canada with no problems and safely to Kingston, ON where my parents had booked us a hotel room for the weekend as it was my cousin’s wedding.

From Philly, Jason and I took a bus into NYC on Thursday the 21st. We’d both made tattoo appointments – Jason to get his chest piece finished by Joy at 1228 and me to have my feet done. I’ve been eyeing Daniel DiMattia‘s work for quite some time. However, he primarily works in Belgium at Calypso Tattoos which makes things a little more difficult. I first contacted him last August to see about getting an appointment with him on/around the NYC tattoo convention which is held in May. I figured that going to NYC was better than flying to Belgium! Thankfully he was able to fit me into his schedule.

On the 21st, our friend Tom kindly dropped Jason & I off at the bus stop in NYC (awesome was that the entire bus trip cost us $16 total!). Jason read and I knit on the way in. We arrived and wandered around until we found a subway stop. Two lines & two stops later, we were at Joy’s shop. Jason checked in there before walking me the 1/4mile over to the shop that Dan tattoos out of while he’s in NYC (Tattoo Culture), grabbing a quick lunch on the way. We arrived and met Dan, who was super awesome! After I finished lunch, I ran to the washroom – coming back out to find Jason looking over my designs with Dan.  The right is a more feminine design and the left more masculine. They were perfect!

Dan started inspecting my feet, trying to ensure that the stencils fit on and flowed well. Jason took off, so that he could get his own work done. Dan spent the next hour getting the stencils on my feet (purple) and drawing on some additional details (red), even spending some time sitting on the floor at my feet to make sure everything lined up.

We started on the right foot, and I’m not going to lie – it sucked! The outline took about an hour and the final dot work about 30 minutes. The only nice thing about getting tattooed is that it isn’t continuous – those little minute breaks give a bit of space to breathe. It also went a little easier once Dan changed his liner set up to be a bit more spread out, as the skin on my feet was so tough that he was having to apply a lot of pressure to get the ink through the skin.

What sucks about getting paired tattoos is that once the first is finished, you still know that you have the second one ahead of you! The second one was similar, taking about an hour and a half in total. Thankfully Jason finished earlier than I did, so he came over to hold my hand and provide support. The end result was the picture below, amazingly my feet were barely even red at the end!

The healing went pretty well. I’ve heard lots of horror stories of ‘baked potato’ feet (from the swelling) and severe itchy as friend’s feet tattoos have healed up. Mine were a little swollen and walking wasn’t fun the first few days, but nothing terrible. I avoided shoes as much as possible (which was a little difficult given that my cousin’s wedding was two days later!). The one thing I did notice was that healing itself took longer. Normally I’d flake at day 4-5 whereas these took more than two weeks! At almost four weeks post tattoo I’m happy to report that I’ve lost very little ink, so they’ve held up well.

And yes, I am in love with my feet.

Back in March, I wrote up a pattern for Lobster Claw Bicycling Mittens for a friend who cycled to school regularly. The pattern was inspired by the bicycling mittens Jason and Badur have. I ended up submitting it to the most interesting contest in the Malabrigo Junkies Malabrigo March Contest and surprisingly won 2nd place (and three skeins of Malabrigo!!).

Needless to say, I was a little bummed when I saw the Summer ’09 Knitty Issue, as one of the featured patterns is Tridactyl Mittens. I had the initial feeling of “but I got there first” except that all I’m judging that based on release date of the patterns – which may or may not be relevant. I have no idea when inspiration occurred. And you can’t tell from the picture below, but both the cuffs and the backs of the mittens are different with the Tridactyl’s backs having some fancier stitch work to add detail.

In the end, I’m going to chalk this up to great minds thinking alike. Plus, I have to admit that in some strange way I’m pretty proud that the idea behind the very first pattern I ever wrote was considered cool enough to be included in Knitty (even if theirs was by someone else!). Plus, it was cool enough to win 2nd place in a contest and nab me some free yarn.

Now with my second pattern, I’ll aim to take over the world!