Wish I had more days like these….

Well no – I really don’t want anyone else at my doorstep telling me I am selfish and self-centred because I won’t donate £20 a month to help someone who is disabled and struggling to leave their home …. duh? 

I did point out in lots of kind words how this was inappropriate…and that he was not undertaking the job as a service to society… and then found myself trying to explain the big words…so gave up, with his threat to tell the neighbours ringing in my ears…

Don’t you just luv sponsored begging?  I don’t…. and unfortunately big society seems to have luring a number of very self-serving individuals into a whole new lifestyle…

So what else have I done? 

Well I have cleared my desk – as opposed to clean it.  In other words the contents are now all over my bed – oh dear.  Some have been filed, but I have sort of got distracted by the things that needed doing when I discovered that they needed doing. 

So I have now yelled a lot at PC World about an offer they had on at Christmas and also the company the offer was made through – result £40.00 now back in my account instead of theirs. 

Big kudos here to Evernote which I discovered through the Complex Weaving group, and on which I now store all my receipts and anything else which is virtual and vital to my existence, so I can actually find them when I need them, on whichever computer I am based at. 

I have found all my course notes from last September, so have filed them. In those course note wallets I have found lots of pens and pencils which explains a lot… they are now back in the pots.

I  have found a couple of tubes of paint… filed under their respective colourways – what was that about? !!!

and finally and most importantly I have discovered the mystery of the colours required for the HGA Certificate of Excellence.  You would never believe how much grief and expense I have had to go to, to identify 7 colours from Pantone numbering….

But I got there in the end, with the aid of a second hand set from ebay and two iPod applications…So note to self, don’t bother with colleagues who have done the course, libraries or art schools in future – to use a phrase of Toby’s “they know nuffing….”

In fairness the colleagues who have done the course were in America, and there lies the rub – these references are easily available there, along with three-holed notefolders, unlike here…

Who says we speak the same language… I think Rex Harrison got the bones of the situation….!

and no this is not what my desk now looks like… I can though but dream….

Painting your own World…

 

On returning to my desk (perforce as the dust in the living room has now given me an asthma attack, so it is being “deep vacuumed” by an expert in domestic appliances” (or so he claims ….the stove is next on his list – well a girl has to have some perks when writing the To Do list? !!) ) I have found an Artists’ Water Colour tube of New Camboge very neatly filed in my To Do file of urgent  Documents – guess that shows you where my mind has been for a while…!!!

The funny thing is I can remember very clearly why I needed it and why it has come from my art bag to the desk – shame I forgot to put it back….and the piece I was writing at the time – where is that? and …..

Well the list is endless….

A blessay alert…

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What Makes a Masterpiece was a programme which prompted my renaissance in my personal art this week… Very interesting and though-provoking series, unfortunately aired on More4 on a Sunday evening with no repeats on mainstream as yet planned, but have shared the link on Channel 4 which is there for a while. 

I had a bit of a moment when watching it, as I now have more insight (I think) into some of Toby’s thoughts on art.

I have always been a bit mystified as to why he is so adamant that he enjoys watercolour painting, but is so resistant to acrylics.  I had thought that it was something to do with getting messy (yep, even plain water can make someone messy it appears, but we overcame that!!).  But recently it has been a lot more behind his protestations. 

There has been an artist working at the Unit in Acrylics, and even though he enjoyed the formal class-like structure of the presentations and working within a group, he was and is still very resistant to using acrylics for enjoyment, creativity or expression.  Why? 

Toby is not usually this illogical… so prompted by the programme I have dissected what we do and how we approach the two subjects.

• Watercolour – is us looking at the whole of the picture – a lot of planning – chatting, talking and generally sharing our points of view about the subject.  Then starting from the lightest shades/tones in our respective painting trays (again prompting lots of discussion, testing, and general planning) we apply transparent and often luminous colours onto a usually white or pale surface.  Our end pictures very often looks very different from each other and the original – but we love them and delight in our individuality.  Some of them developed into very abstract pieces of colourwork that would not be out of place in a weaving…
  
• Acrylic – is looking at the whole of the picture – again with lots of planning - and starting from the lightest shades/tones (background) applying opaque bright shades (sometimes mixed with water, or straight from the tube) onto a suitable surface and building up the colour in blocks until it resembles the picture you want to replicate.  This is where the process differs, we inevitably struggle to deviate or control our own creative input.  Our end pictures very often are similar and there is a sense of …. well not quite getting it right…

So? 

The first needs planning and thinking through and delicate touch, the other still needs the same, but the process is not as permanent and mistakes/changes can be made by just overlaying with further acrylic.

Acrylic is a lot “flatter” and takes a practiced hand it apply it.  We struggle to mix the range of very “loud” colours into more subtle shades. 

A daub of watercolour in the wrong place, can send us off into all kinds of creative decisions as it suggests to our eye something unexpected. Acrylic – it becomes a bit of a problem until it is dry enough to deal with.  Toby also likes the thinner/smaller brushes and watercolour washes for their own sake, whereas he finds the acrylic ones a lot more cumbersome. 

The bonus with this daub approach to watercolour and suspension of our ideals of perfection is that our minds have to be open to creativity and adaption,  making the best of whatever mark or colour appears – or otherwise we have to scrap a picture that otherwise is perfect – as we have enjoyed the process of making it (not the actual draughtsmanship… well in our eyes yes, but in that of a critical world… nope…) we would not wish to do that.

So we adapt, adjust our expectations, look for inspiration within the picture itself and make decisions about our little world in which we have come to love in the last few minutes. 

All these decisions are made in a split second – as we are absorbed in our journey as we create our world on an A4 sheet of paper. 

Above is Toby’s flower garden.  What I see in this picture now two years on? – well I don’t actually see the contents but what I see – in my mind’s eye -  is a fabulous afternoon, dissecting the garden and discussing problems and resolving them (of the paint and colour variety) – intimate time shared with my son, as clearly replying as if it is a video on UTube..

Just gone off to find mine, and whilst I thought I was a master in my own life time that particular day, it doesn’t even warrant showing here.  With the benefit of distance and time I can see it is very poorly drafted and quite naive compared with Toby’s.  Nobody would have ever believed that I spent time training to be an artist – or perhaps they would !!! – training very nearly destroyed all the purity of enjoyment in the action/reaction to subjects.

But I remember both the paintings as being perfect, and they serve now as a record of that afternoon and a memory prompt that will last forever – not something to be hung in a gallery for outsiders to guess at the circumstances of creativity -  Now what is wrong in that? !!

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Reading back on this, I think I have explained our approach and thoughts very clumsily, so will work on a more fluent eloquent submission.  The problem is the process itself, with the caveat of when we get it right is very pure and vibrant – the firing of the neurons telling you just when you have it right…

It is the neuron firing that you remember, not the dodgy lines, or slightly wrong perspective.  It is the laughter and the dropping of the brush – not how clever you think you are in the perfect replication of the subject. 

I also get that feeling when I write, when someone else does something which I have facilitated – I don’t need to “own” or be in charge… it is enough to just be present – when a painting works, or when some piece of craft blossoms into something which fits.  The unveiling of the contents of a dyepot…

I even get that feeling when a column of figures adds up – how sad is that…

My neurons obviously work at problem solving.. not too much though. 

Don’t even know why I feel I have to justify the beauty and pureness of what we do – well I do, but I am not going to share that here with you, as it says more about the environment and how the need to defend/protect arose, than it does about the way I and many others think. 

The reason I am writing about it today, is I am quite sad that others cannot share in our joy in the process for the mere sake of it and want to change ours (and other’s) approaches, rather than look at their own… God forbid that there may be two or even more ways of doing something? !!

I am so glad I don’t live in their world… even if I can’t find my gamboge in mine !!

Spring has sprung?

What bizarre weather we are having – so much so yesterday I was out in shirt sleeves at 5pm watching the sunset – then I got cold and wondered why?!!

Had a funny sort of day yesterday, still can’t get anything done – and have to stop myself from trying to do too much when the waves of fog from my brain raise temporarily before it all descends and joined up thinking becomes something of the past. 

Connectivity issues seem to be a problem here again at the moment.  Hopefully the government plans will sort out Cullompton at some point and then I can stop wondering around looking for a signal at farm gates (!).  There is some sort of metaphor here for a writer.  I spent half my youth looking for a signal at farm gates with “DH” – the first time around… (dirty laugh follows….)

Mine cuts in and out (the WiFi signal, not sex life !!) on a regular basis and I am sat right on top of the router here, and have the latest technology. Down at the Merry Harriers, the local pub which still has character, panache and brill food… none of their card machines work consistently and John can be seen doing the “wiggle dance” in the doorway on many a night, which whilst highly entertaining and the stuff of folklore for future generations, shows how bad general connections and signals are! not a good vibe for a professional business, but it is fun and he does do the hip action with practiced aplomb of an entertainer…

So back to the knitting… thank you all so much for making such an effort to communicate with me. It has been brought to my attention that yet again commenting is an issue.  I am so sorry.  I have altered the settings again, and if all else fails

shani@dyeverse.org

will find me.  You can also find this link on the contacts page.  If you want your comment reposted to the blog, please say so, otherwise I will just answer you as best I can.  But I do appreciate your interaction. 

Back to knitting and the sock pattern…. no I did not make up the original pattern.  It has been around in many guises for as many years as I and my mother and auntie before me.  No I don’t know where it was originally published.  Handknitted socks were the stuff of War I and War II knitting and you couldn’t pop down to a local store to buy some cheap nylon versions, so as kids we all had handknitted socks until the white ones became available (ugh). 

On this return to sock knitting in about 2006/7 I used a basic pattern given free from Get Knitted when you buy their sock yarn.  I have since found the same pattern given free elsewhere, in fact all over the place, with some difference in typo settings etc.  

The one I found from Ravelry which looked fairly basic was Simple Sock Recipe, which I hope you can pick up if you are not a Ravelry member. (Ravelry is free remember, so please don’t feel reluctant about joining and you will find loads of people to help you if you are a newbie). 

Otherwise try the local library or just google sock patterns, or try Sarah at the Spinning Weal… my short stop for everything..

When I next knit up a sock from the start, I will photograph it from the start and at various stages, and put it all together in a more readable pamphlet.  From the photos I go this morning though, it seems that the two stars I was originally helping have now completed their first ones.  So even though my description was longer than the original pattern !!! and very long winded, combined with everything we seem to have got there in the end.

Just reinforces to me though how much I do from memory and how difficult it is to write notes in or describe in another medium something you do instinctively or by rote.  A bit like writing/drawing debate I suppose.

or photography one… here is Toby taking a picture of me taking a picture of him, on an afternoon which defied description.  The weather, scenery and company were magical…

Amazing what can be achieved when you want it as badly as we have… thank you Adapted Vehicle Hire who so supportively stepped into to help when the motability vehicle became an impossible dream/nightmare (still being built and due to now be in the country at the end of January !).

To be told you can have something, but then the practicalities making it impossible, along with timescales which beggar belief…

Transport has changed our world and made so many things possible that just could not be done before… Just shame we had to sort it ourselves… no wonder I am stressed !!! – but so worth it…

for an hour we were normal again yesterday – as a family should be…

Ribbed Heel Flap….

“Phew….” (stage direction) strikes hand across forehead in dramatic flourish to wipe sweat off brow…

What did I start yesterday with my blog? I haven’t got a clue, but I have struck a chord obviously with a number of people, and thank you all for your kind comments and corrections..

I have knitted hundreds of socks over the last few years, whilst travelling back and forth – all of the started from a very basic pattern which I had given me with some sock yarn when I very first started making them again after a 20 year gap.  

The original pattern was OK, but it was flawed in that it was quite difficult to knit and did not fit my feet, also the heels went very quickly, despite using specified sock yarn, so I developed a different type of flap – which I erroneously called Eye of Partridge yesterday. 

Some of you very kindly pointed out to me that the ribbed heel on the socks in the picture, was in fact NOT Eye of Partridge as per the JPEG on the blog, but something totally different.  Fine – happy with that – so what is it then?  a Cushioned Rib of some sort which I am sure I have not invented. 

But a number of people have asked me to give them details, I did in my ham-fisted short-hand way, and there has been a flurry of queries and questions to that. 

So….. thought best write it down and thought it would be quite simple to convey in a couple of lines of instruction – but obviously blinkin well not !!

It seems there are many people in the world who are not sock knitters, because they don’t understand the patterns.  I must admit I struggled…but not terribly sure that my long-hand written method is any the easier. 

So…. thought might as well give the software a bit of whirl and here for your consideration is the charted version of my heel.  I will have another go at my sock pattern with pictures when I am next knitting one, so hope this helps in the meantime. 

My Methodology

Using you usual sock knitting method (mine is Cast On 60 using 2.5mm four dpn and knit patterns in the round to required length)

Knit 30 stitches onto one of your needles, and put the other on a spare short flexible needle to hold at the back of the work.

Follow the chart (below) knitting backwards and forwards now, not in the round, until Row 30 and you will find that it sets you up to shape the top of the heal which goes something like this:

Row 31: s1 p16 p2tog p1 turn
Row 32: s1 k5 ssk2tog k1 turn
Row 33: s1 p6 p2tog p1 turn
Row 34: s1 k7 ssk2tog k1 turn
Row 35: s1 p8 p2tog p1 turn
Row 36: s1 k9 ssk2tog k1 turn

This then sets you up using short rows continue decreasing one stitch in each row, increasing the distance between as above until you have 18 stitches on your needle.

This is then when you have to pick up the 15 stitches down the side of the flap to “turn” the heel.

You will find that there are now purl “bumps” down both sides of the flap, which act as a very neat ladder leaving guesswork to a minimum.  Pick up the 15 stitches, place a marker, then pick up five from the flexible needle at the back of your work.  Knit across the picked up stitches and then resume any pattern on the five stitches at the end of the row. 

Place 20 stitches from the flexible needle back on to your dpn, pattern across these, and then place your last five stitches on another dpn, place a marker and then pick up the 15 stitches which are on the opposite side of the flap to match the first one. 

You then need to continue knitting now again in the round.

You will now though need to decrease some of these stitches to get you back to your starting number and so you can knit the foot. 

Knit to three stitches before the marker, K2 tog K1 and proceed in pattern until the next marker, K1, K2tog through back of stitches, continue. 

The next round you knit without decreasing,

The next round decrease again.

At this point I place one of the stitches from each of the heel flaps onto the dpn needle carrying the heel stitches, and continue until I have:

1 Needle: 20 st
2 Needle: 10 st
3 Needle: 20 st
4 Needle:10 st

Then I distribute the stitches so that they are on three needles each of 20 st and continue with the foot (remembering to only pattern on the top, as underneath stockinette is more comfortable)

Oh and before anybody says anything, the white column in the middle is there because there is no stitch until you cast one on again in Row 30….

Much kudos to all you knitting pattern writers out there… I am off now to lie down in a darkened room for the rest of the day….