Knitting Iris

Nomadic Furniture 1

Another favorite, Nomadic Furniture 1, by James Hennessey and Victor Papanek, published 1973, Pantheon Books.  At once retro and current in a

Readymade/Make/Ikea-hacker sort of way.  Although I've never made anything from this book, it's the second copy I've owned, the first having been given away at some point during a move, I'm sure.

As always, click to enlarge picture.

Cardboard seating, both for sale, and to make at home. 

The relaxing chair, of plywood, masonite, and optional egg carton foam, because "in our society (we) need to get the equivalent of 3-4 hourse of relaxing time in one hour..."

The ubiquitous bean bag, then still in its infancy.

The best and worst of the book, in my opinion: the please-don't-try-this-at-home disposable cardboard car seat.  Sure, it makes sense, environmentally, but do you think that it would meet the NHTSA safety standards?

You've just gotta love those single-sheet-of-plywood projects plans.  I really should think about aquainting myself with the table saw.  Or not.

Four collapsible, hardware-free stools from one sheet of plywood.  Cool.

Doll-sized version of above left seat here!

These, I think, are some of the funnier ones, with several takes on "the cube" including the entertaining and relaxation cubes here and also a work cube, and the children's cube on the book's cover.  Why, exactly, would you create a false, wall-free room within a room?  Foreshadowing of office cubicles?

Lighting from styrofoam cups, paper lanterns (Ikea?), and milk jugs.

The original rope lighting and adjustable swing arm lamp?

Storage, both homemade and high end, even more so now: Uten.Silo storage system was $90 then and is available again today starting at $295 here on up to $865 (!) in chrome here.

 

 

I sewed some bean bags for the boys last summer using this pattern instead as it seems preferable because the top and bottom pieces are round and the side pieces curved to fit them, rather than the straight edged pattern pieces here.  Still trying to figure out what to stuff them with, trying to avoid buying polystyrene pellets.  Even after saving all the packing peanuts from presents sent at Christmas they still weren't even a quarter of what one bean bag requires.  We've been bringing extra packing peanuts to the local shipping store for them to reuse for years now so they always tell me that if I ever need any I can just come and ask.  Might be time to call in my chips?  They are rather squeaky and lumpy compared to the tiny styrofoam pellets typically put into bean bags.  Hmmm.  I know Blair has been there before with the bean bag stuffing dilemma..  I'm going to have to go poke around over there for her post about this and see what others had to say in the comments there.

As for cardboard furniture, I've been thinking about purchasing the plans for this play kitchen.  E still asks for a wooden play kitchen for each birthdays and Christmas (Yeah, yeah. I know.  The cabinet maker's son....) but frankly, with the boys at age 5 and 8 now, I can't see spending a whole lot of time or money on either a homemade one or a purchased one.  Of course, I still want the real thing but that isn't really reasonable.  I'm thinking that he also might enjoy helping with the assembly of a cardboard one.  Then, when he tires of it, it can be taken apart and stored flat and eventually recycled or used as mulch in the garden or fire starter in the woodstove rather than taking up precious space, and money.

Oh, and look, there's a Nomadic Furniture 2.  I never knew.

Weekend

Sweets:  Pseudo-strawberry shortcake (sustituting soy milk for whipped cream), ice cream cones, pancakes, root beer floats, chocolate chip cookies, ice cream cones.

Second hand:  Friday church rummage sale, Saturday yard sale, Sunday thrift store, yielding only one pair of shorts for R and one children's picture book.  Still fun to look.

Friday: most of the day spent dealing with icky paperwork, followed by Thai food out and an overnight getaway soaking in Hot Springs, just the two of us. (Thank you "Lucretia and Jbird" for taking in the boys and giving us a break!)

Saturday: Taco dinner with friends.  Sleepover at our house with the nephews so their mama and papa could have a break.   The four cousins, ages 1 to 8, slept in a big puppy pile right outside our door in a bed made up on the floor.  So cute, and crazy fun.

Sunday: C poured the concrete countertops for our house!  A kid birthday party at a bowling alley for the boys and I.  Back home, an ultra-easy dinner of preroasted Costco chicken with Costco spring mix greens.  Phew!  Then, collapse asleep by 9:00 pm, which, if you know me, you also know is an extremely rare thing.

Monday:  Leftover pseudo-strawberry shortcake for breakfast.  Chicken and dumpling soup made from last night's leftovers.  Yummy!

 

Native Funk And Flash

Native Funk and Flas, An Emerging Folk Art, by Alexandra Jacopetti, photographs by Jerry Wainwright, Scrimshaw Press 1974, probably my most treasured book.  Need I say more?  Apparently I'm not alone.  Just read the reviews.  See what others have said and others have scanned, knitters, even.  Not sure when or where I ever came across this book, 18-20 years ago in a used bookstore Seattle, I'd guess. 

It tickled me to no end, one day at the Boulder Public Library in Colorado when we were living there, to come across not one, but TWO copies side by side on the shelf.  Check your local used book store or library catalog, or check WorldCat.org (what an amazing resource that is!).  Oh, and see here: the Missoula Art Museum, housed in the former Missoula Free Public Library building, opened it's doors in 1975 with the exhibit associated with this book.  You gotta love the internet for some things.

As always, click for a closer look:

Hmmmm,  haven't I seen french knots again somewhere lately?

That's not the Laurel Burch, the one who's dangly enameled cat earrings I wore in high school in the 80's, is it?  Why, yes, apparently it is.  Read more about her.

So much eye candy

and inspiration, it's difficult to decide what not to share.

This a good part of what's in there, at least my favorite parts.

"sunflower-patch-ecology", it doesn't really explain quite what they meant by that, but it sure sounds like something I'd like to subscribe to.  There was a time long ago when I hoped to someday have girls so I could one day make a shirt like this out of scraps from their old dresses.

Somewhere in the back of my brain, it must have been images and stories like these, burned in my mind's eye, that inspired this tank, sewed, embroidered, and never blogged, last summer:

Ultimately, though, it was Amber's sleeved linen version here, and all her sweet and creative embroidery, that is directly responsible for my copy-cat version of the same Simplicity 4589 pattern.  I like it best worn over a t-shirt. 

The linen for this tank was some I bought at the Seattle IKEA for $6.00 a yard way back when they carried fabric. (Is it true they have fabric there again now?)  I hoarded it for quite some time as it wasn't easy to find 100% natural linen back then, especially not at a price that low.  Some of it was made into a jumper dress in the mid-to-late 1990's.  Later, I cut the bodice off when it no longer fit and could no longer wear it while nursing, putting elastic into the lower part making it into a skirt.   Even later, the skirt was turned into a pillow case, which is now nearly worn out.

 

Just something pretty to look at.

It's been a wacky couple of days, too many hours spent going through piles of paperwork.  The scanned pictures I promised will have to be on hold for a day or two.   

So, here's something pretty to look at in the meantime.  This pair of trumpeter swans is living in a small lake between here and town.  It looks like one of them has a numbered tag on it's leg (not visible here).  They were being pretty vocal with eachother.  Here's hoping they'll settle in and nest there so we can watch their family throughout the summer.

There's been a great blue heron circling around high above our place squaking like crazy much of the day.  I guess Spring finally is here, as it never really feels like it to me until the air is filled with bird's songs from before dawn until after dusk.

Be back soon. 

More longies, or shorties, more or less.

Thank you for all the comments on yesterday's post.  There were a lot of great suggestions, and words of encouragement, both here and over at Flickr.  Mulling over the possibilities now.  I was reluctant to even post about those for fear you'd all now KNOW how insane I can be...miles and miles of k1, p1 ribbing. 

(Someday) I'm going to knit a version of these longies, too, in the softest of  natural off-white alpaca.   They won't be machine washable but will be so cozy that it'll be worth it.  I was given an obscene amount of approximately fingering weight alpaca yarn last summer, so much so that I've been too stunned by the quantities to post about it yet.  My mom is knitting a sweater with some of it right now and I'm so curious to see how it turns out.

These patterns come, possibly, from those vintage Golden Hands booklets.  They're torn out so I can't be sure.  Check out the great knitting schematics and charts they published with their patterns.

Appropriately cheesy pictures, of course, too.

Fast forward to the Spring of 1990, Knitter's Magazine.  This issue I bought new off the rack at the time.  I'm pretty sure this was the same issue that also contained the pattern for the first pair of socks that I ever knit (itchy ragg socks that inevitably ended up felted in the wash) in grey Green Mountain Spinnery Mountain Mohair.

Again, cheesy pictures with good schematics, this time for both knitting in the round and knitting flat either by hand or by knitting machine.  I might be wrong here, and probably ought to take a closer look at the current issues before saying this, but I'm thinking that Knitter's magazine was a bit more "meaty" and informative back then.

Nothing much in the way of finished knitting quite yet, only a string of unsuccessful sewing, so I'm thinking it's time for the next handful of posts to be scans from the random pile of some of my favorite vintage and not-so-vintage books and magazines that have been stacked by the computer now for ages, OK?

 

Nether garment tights from waaaaaay back when.

Yup.  Seriously. Handknit tights.  Knit circa the winter of 1993-94.  I must have been crazy.

Yarn is 4-ply machine washable wool blend sock yarn, likely purchased at Weaving Works.

Started in Seattle, I'm guessing, and then continued on the road while traveling for a couple of months during March and April 1994, from Seattle to Missoula to Boulder to St. Louis to Dallas/Ft Worth to Tempe to San Diego, taking a break from them during a week or two backpacking and camping halfway down Baja, and then again from San Deigo to Tempe to Durango.  I do remember knitting the second leg during the spring of 1994 while living out of a Subaru wagon and a tiny 2-person North Face Tadpole tent somewhere up Junction Creek outside of Durango, Colorado, waking up some mornings with new-fallen snow on the ground.

They've seen little actual wear over the years, although I remember wearing them once while job hunting that following fall, with Birkenstock sandals and a shorter pleated skirt.  Got a job making sandwiches at a deli and quit halfway through the first day, the only job ever where I didn't stick it out.

These have been packed away, unworn, most of the time since then, me never quite able to part with them after all the work that went into them.  Still, over the years, the left leg has developed a couple of holes (moths?) and a couple of ends have still never been sewn in.

I remember clearly that I counted and double checked rows meticulously while knitting these to make sure the legs matched, but the right leg turned out distinctly longer and looser and so it quickly sags into an elephant ankle after putting them on.  I can only guess that I must have been more relaxed while knitting that leg causing a much looser gauge?  Also, you can see the "laddering" between the needles down the tops of the feet which I tend not to get so much of now.

Pattern or rather, "pithy directions for tights, children and adults":  Elizabeth Zimmerman's Knitter's Almanac, the September chapter, "Nether Garments", still the best knitting book around, IMO, and one of the least expensive at $7.95 today and only $3.99 when I bought my copy waaaay back in in 1991.

It appears that I knit these from the ankle up, k1,p1 ribbing, leaving out the waist ribbing, eyelets, and i-cord tie.  There's a line at the ankle where the stitches jog sideways by half a stitch, where I must have unpicked the cast on edge, put the stitches back on the needles, and added the feet on, knitting them top down from there.

Today I wore these for the first time in years under a pair of cargo pants and was sooooo cozy warm on such a chilly, wet, and windy spring day.  They conveniently sit low enough to not peek out over the top of of today's lower riding pants.

Incredible what a couple of warmer days and one rainy morning can do for the greening up the grasses. 

Back home this evening, sun shining out from under a layer of clouds as it started to set, I cracked open the Knitter's Almanac and came across this from EZ herself:

  "...even the shy housewife likes to slip them on under her slacks to go to the store on exceptionally cold days.  I have been known to pull them on under a housedress, add boots, my warm coat, and woolly cap and mittens, and trot comfortably to the A&P, looking (almost) like everybody else."

Debating what to do with these now that I've rediscovered them:  cut and finish them off above the knees and wear them like a pair of knicker length longies under skirts?  Or, darn the holes and wear them under pants,  patched up holes and elephant ankles notwithstanding?  I'm leaning towards the latter.  They still fit great other than the bagginess at one ankle.  Any thoughts?

Has anybody else knit these?  Oh, wait, here at Ravelry, of course, and this pair on Flickr, so amazing and extraordinary that they almost make me woozy.

And, because I know someone will ask:  they're Keen Calistoga in Rum Raisin (and now they come in a some new colors, Deep Lichen green and Flamingo orange.  Carnelian red are quite nice, too.  Dang.)

Small Town Stuff

This is it, the one day of the year when the streets in town and the parks are packed, and the day is jammed full with events:  a parade, car show, quilt show, flea market, friends-of-the-library book sale, "gold panning", rodeo, church fundraising dinners, and more.

The local fiber guild's float was filled, during the parade, with knitters, spinners, weavers, and even critters:

 

The local volunteer fire department, abiding by the child seat belt laws, of course:

It's loosely based on the idea of the traditional rendezvous (and goes by that name) when the mountain men came in from the hills to trade their furs and other wares at the end of the winter season.  S0 there is also black powder shooting and mountain man competitions, costume contests, dutch oven cooking demonstrations, a gold rush for the kids, and you're bound to see a fair amount of buckskins and wall tents, and uh, bagpipers(?), the best part in my opinion, but it's a crying shame, all those non-handknit kilt hose.

Each year this gets bigger.  When we first moved here the parade was only about 15 minutes or so and now it's a full hour.  What used to essentially be a beer garden in the park is now filled with local vendors, live music, and is an alcohol-free and thus more family friendly event.   Apparently, before we lived here, the parade used to be so short they'd run it down the main street and then back again to make it last longer, and it used to take place in February (brrr!).  Still, you can't know for sure whether the sun will shine or whether there will be snow on the ground, even in the end of April.  This year, thankfully, it was sunshine again.

OK, so maybe big blow-up beer bottles being thrown to children at the parade isn't exactly family-friendly.  E was sooooo proud of his "prize", barely letting it out of his hands until bedtime.  There were, of course, also, the usual balloons and OBSCENE amounts of candy. (Fortunately, E's bag od candy was ruined by a bottle of spilled water, leaving them to share R's bag between the two of them.)   

What child hasn't done this, either after Halloween, a piñata, or a parade?  Is this not innate, human behavior?  You might just call this sorting, counting, trading, and discussing of most and least favorites.   As a homeschooling parent, I like to call it "Math."  : )      

"School" house in the woods.

Aside from the coming and going of snow still, it just hasn't been warm enough for much in the way of signs of spring in the past month.  It's been awfully chilly and dreary lately, and so not very conducive to pictures taking.

So, I thought I'd just throw out some pictures from our every-day schooling, of a more textbook, workbook, or curricular nature.  Even so, I guess it's not really standard schooling in that, right outside the window critters come and go throughout the day, often just a few feet away, birds at the feeder and deer wandering through the yard.  The main floor of our house sits a couple of feet below ground level so the windows are just slightly above grade.  It's a common joke that we essentially live in a deer blind.

I've been thinking about getting a kitten sometime soon, both as a family pet and as a mouser.  I was always more of a cat person, at least as a child.  Only, that would certainly put an end to having bird feeders right outside the window where we can watch them up close.  I rather like having their "company" so close by during the winter months.   Hmmm.  Certainly something to consider.    

Yesterday and Today

Left:  Yesterday.  Right:  Today.

Just realized yesterday, a month late, that I'd forgotten my first-day-of-spring ritual.  Could THIS be why it's still so cold and dreary?   Nah.  Besides, we woke to snow AGAIN this morning which is melted off now, but it's still coming down in short fits and spells.  At least winter-pallid skin looks slightly less so against the white snow.  And thank goodness for butterfly and daisy covered long underwear.

Highways for stretch marks, see how *she's* grown

A quick trip to Spokane with friends this weekend to see Ani live.  Over 10 hours of driving, partly over snowy roads, for a good, small dose of life-beyond-Montana:  live music, yummy Korean food, a gay bar, and drag queens.   

Got me reminiscing back to other "eras" of my life, post-college in Seattle, mid-twenties in Colorado, early-thirties in Montana. 

Also, other times hearing or seeing Ani:

April 1993,  Boulder, Colorado:  C and I were just passing through in our travels, playing hacky sack out in front of a friend of C's house while a tape of her music played on speakers facing out a second story window. That was the first time hearing her sing.

Winter 1994-5,  Boulder, CO:  Living in a basement apartment there, we had the same friend as above over for dinner.  He brought a tape of hers over for us to hear.   

June 1995?  Telluride Bluegrass Festival, Colorado:  8750 foot elevation and snowing in the end of June.   Outside on the mainstage and again before a smaller crowd in a town park, talking and singing about being an independent artist.  C and I were now living in Boulder and, I think, we were at one of those stages where we were deciding whether to be together in the future or not.  Obviously, we opted for the former.

September 2001, Missoula, Montana:  R was 18 months old and had just weaned.  This was my first time away from him overnight...a little unsteady, like a baby's first steps, and a little dizzying.

April 2008, Spokane, Washington:  Now she's a mom, a home birthing one, too, with "highways for stretch marks".  Seeing her perform live still sends a chill up the spine, puts a lump in the throat, and places a smile on the face.

This one is for you, Linda, from the drive home:

No matter how much I tried to ignore it, unfortunately my sore throat and cold worsenened over the weekend.  I was expecting, even up to the very moment of stepping back through the front door, to come home feeling, if not healthy, then on-the-mend and inspired, rejuvenated with that fresh perspective and energy you get from being away however briefly.

Unfortunately, this was not the case.  Oh, well.  It was good while it lasted, anyways, all 28 hours of it.