My First Craft Book
In 1949, my grandmother gave my mother a book for her birthday. It was the first craft book I ever saw as a kid. The title is Gestaltende Hände, ein Werkbuch für Mädchen, by Hildegard Fochs. That means Forming, Shaping, Modeling, Designing or maybe Creative Hands, a Workbook for Girls.
It’s a general crafts book, with leatherwork, bookbinding, weaving, woodworking, embroidery, doll house furniture making, and of course knitting and crocheting. It even shows how to make your own cookie-cutters.
Since I learned to knit at a young age, I appreciated projects like the bird motif sweater, because it was so complex.
As a grown-up knitter, the striped sweater caught my eye. The caption says it’s a pullover done in different stitches and colors, without a pattern (ohne Schnitt), and knitted in one piece. Nowadays the text gives numbers of stitches to cast on, and how many to increase for the sleeve shaping and decrease for the raglan shaping, so I’m not sure if I’m translating the ‘ohne Schnitt’ correctly. Mom, any advice on this?
Looking at the diagram below the photo, I (as a grown-up, experienced knitter) assumed that it was knitted from the neck down, and you could try it on as you went, which is why you wouldn’t need a pattern. But in fact, the instructions have the knitter start the four pieces at the ribbing, and knit up to the underarm, then join the pieces and knit as one, decreasing for the raglan shaping up to the neck. Only the sleeves and sides are seamed.
Now, we think nothing of starting at the neck and knitting down to the armholes, then knitting the body and sleeves circularly, so we have no seams at all. Ideas about knitting and garment construction have evolved over many years.
Here’s my favorite part about the striped sweater instructions. I love it because the author shows confidence in her readers: “For the stripe pattern, we don’t want to lay down any strict rules. Naturally, one can rearrange the stripes and knit them however one wants to.” Hurray for no strict rules!
I’ll end with this photo from the book of lanterns made of stiff black paper and tissue paper. When you put a candle inside, they glow like stained glass.
Last Look at Chautauqua 2007
Chautauqua has the most Victorian-style gingerbread of anyplace I’ve ever been! Some of the houses look like they’ve been trimmed with lace. In fact, some of the pretty trims had me wishing for my crochet hook and some yarn. I was sure they would make good crochet laces.
For all the air of the past in Chautauqua, great new ideas are still proposed and discussed there. It was an appropriate setting for our Highlights Foundation Writers Conference, where many new ideas were born. The teachers gave us a good mix of inspiration and step-by-step instruction.
In that week of inspiring and instructional words, my favorite ones were spoken by Bruce Coville, author of many fantastic and magical books for kids:
People who have dreams can change things.
That’s why people who have dreams are dangerous.
And that’s why it is our job to give children dreams.
Yarn (or Yarns?) at Chautauqua
I’ve always loved that a “yarn” can be a story, as well as something you can knit or crochet with. Some people even take the connection further and say “she spun an outlandish yarn” to mean “she told an outlandish story.” Isn’t it great that it could also mean that she’s sitting at the spinning wheel, making some kind of cool eyelash, slub, sparkle yarn? Or both!?
So it seems spiritually correct to seek yarn (to knit with) at a conference of yarn-spinners (story-tellers). That is what I did. The Summer Gallery that advertised luxury yarns (see a couple of posts ago), has spun off its yarn business (how about that one, Alissa?) to a little store called Art Fibers, just off the square at Chautauqua.
Art Fibers is a small store, but it has a big selection of yarn. I was tempted by some kettle-dyed, golden/yellow yarn to use with an ultramarine blue from the same company. But the yarn that drew me in, that got me tangled in its plot, was this happy yarn from Cherry Tree Hill. (Twister, 75% merino, 25% superwash, colorway “Sugar Maple”) It was so cheerful, I had to say yes. Let’s just say it may foreshadow a future project.
Back from Chautauqua
In the 19th century, most Americans left school after the fourth grade. The founder of the Chautauqua Literary and Science Circle knew that many of those Americans wanted to learn more. Most could not afford college, so he developed a course of reading that would challenge them to think broadly.
Upon graduation, each CLSC class commissioned a banner to carry in an annual parade, and a mosaic to be installed at the Hall of Philosophy, an outdoor lecture theater. Each mosaic has the year and the theme of the class, like the one above.
Eventually they ran out of space for the mosaics, but there are over fifty of them. Here are a few. They are mostly done in stone. You can see how the motifs have an outline of one row of the background color. That’s a classical technique that emphasizes the motif and separates it from the background.
I’m back from the Highlights Foundation Writers Conference, but the people, the learning, and the strange and wonderful Chautauqua Institute will stay with me for a long time.
A Week at Chautauqua
I’m away from home this week on an adventure unlike any I’ve ever had. It’s a conference for children’s writers at the Chautauqua Institution in New York, organized by the Highlights for Children Foundation. If you never had Highlights for Children at home, you will probably remember it from the dentist’s or doctor’s office waiting room.
The Chautauqua Institution is in a summer village on Chautauqua Lake. Some people live here all year ’round, but some only come for the nine-week summer season, when they can go to the symphony or the opera, see art exhibits, listen to lectures by very wise people, and go to church. There are art studios here for sculpture, painting, and pottery-making.
Chautauqua reminds me of the summer lakeside village in the book Gone Away Lake, by Elizabeth Enright. The lovely Victorian-era cottages (many are more like mansions) have names like Fernbank, Doll House, The Cambridge, and Waugh Place. The gardens are filled with flowers, and it’s fun to walk around because few cars are allowed inside.
Among many other high goals and ideals, the Chautauqua Institute promotes excellence and creativity in the appreciation, performance, and teaching of the arts; and encourages the exploration of important religious, social, and political issues. But can such a utopian vision be complete without…yarn?
Of course not! So you’ll be glad to see this. I like how “Fine Art” and “Luxury Yarns” are billed together on this sign.
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I have always loved children’s books. I read them as a kid, when I was in college, after college (which was before my children were born), and after I had children. The pictures and stories make me happy. As a kid, I wanted to write and illustrate books for kids. In fact, I did write and illustrate one for my brother.
Then I pushed that aside to do what I thought all smart girls were supposed to do—get a degree in business or science or engineering. I chose science. Now I am coming back around to the idea of being a writer for children, and this time, I’m armed with a lot of general knowledge in science and crafts, and a lot of life experience. I’m ready!
I’m a Rockin’ Girl Blogger!
Wow! Thanks to Diana at KnitThisToo for tagging me as a Rockin’ Girl Blogger. It’s a great tag, because you get this fabulous button, and all you have to do is nominate your own Rockin’ Girl Bloggers.
I tag
- Knitting Painter Woman because her blog is so literate, often pleasantly opinionated, and sometimes bravely opinionated, in addition to having knitting content.
- Woolwindings, because she has made so much progress after knitting for such a short time, she knits a lot for preemies, she posts great nature and wildflower pictures, and she always comments on my blog.
- Gooseflesh. I haven’t visited her blog for long, but my breath was taken away by her sea creatures, which are crocheted from recycled plastic bags. Her blog shows how her designs evolve, with sketches and photos. Click on the flickr box for more photos.
- I would tag Knitnana, but she was the one who tagged Diana.
Diana knew my daughter would think it was so cool that I got tagged for this. In fact, the other day, she said, “Mom, your blog gets cooler every time I read it.” Thank you, Eva! You’re pretty cool, yourself.
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I appreciate the concern of a couple of people about the flooding in our area. We are fine, and the bridge under water is only minor inconvenience for us. Some folks have flooded fields. I know one lady who lost her home and possessions, and there are others. We wonder why the Corps of Engineers allows people to build houses within the floodplain of the lakes.
But the rain has its benefits, too! We’ve had the best tomato crop in years. Aren’t they gorgeous?
Crocheted Flower Dresses!
Look at this gorgeous dress made from crocheted flowers! It is from a Russian magazine, called Duplet. There are a lot more garments like this on this web site. I found out about it from the Irish Crochet Lovers group on Yahoo.
I had to have one of these magazines for myself. After a little searching, I found it at Taiga Yarns. They have a bunch of Russian knitting, crochet, and needlework magazines and books.
Do I read Russian? No. The pictures will be inspiring enough for me. Thank goodness for the internet! It’s so easy to reach across the world for inspiration.
A Set Back and Comfort
I’ve been meaning to make this dress for about two years now, so when we were invited to a wedding, it seemed the right time to get it done. I cut and sewed for most of one day. My sewing has improved a lot in the last few years, and the technique looked good.
Before starting the buttonholes, I tried on the dress. It looks terrible on me. I look like the side of a geranium-covered barn. The bodice needs to be at least six inches longer, to keep me from looking pregnant. It looked great on the pattern envelope, but not on me.
What do I do now? It’s too late for the wedding, but I need a dress for another event. I bought a pattern for a princess line dress. Princess lines look good on everyone, Joy of Joy’s Fabrics tells me. But what to do with the buttonless dress? It might look better if I were about 20 pounds smaller. I could give it away, but don’t want to go to the trouble of putting on buttons. Any suggestions?
Today, Ella was inspired to put on this old queen bee costume I made a long time ago for Eva. It has sheer metallic wings that tie at the wrist. What do you know, I thought, here is something I made that my daughters have enjoyed for years. So the failed dress didn’t seem as important anymore.
Solstice Pillar
It is two years since Ian Boyle built this stone pillar in our front yard. He embedded a pipe in the stone, at an angle that would catch the sunset at summer solstice. Later we found out it catches the sunrise on the winter solstice, too.
The day was cloudy, and I was afraid we wouldn’t be able to see the sunset. The clouds cleared enough to let the sun shine through, and so here is this year’s summer solstice sunset as seen through Ian Boyle’s pillar.
About half an hour before the sun came through the pillar, I caught this shot contrasting the pillar, worked in the ancient dry-stone-walling technique, with our new internet dish, worked in the most modern of technologies.
After I took the tripod and camera into the house, my daughter called, “Mom, you’ve got to see this sunset!” Here is the view, with pillar, of course.
And now, some fiber content! These spiders spin a new web every night. The webs are gone by morning. This little one was building a web under the tree house, with the evening sun to highlight the delicate strands. So here’s the original spinner—a spider putting the finishing touches on its web in the summer solstice sunset.
Young Designer
The rain kept us inside last week, so we settled in my daughters’ room with a book tape. We love listening to Hank the Cowdog audio books, which are read by author John R. Erickson. They are so funny!
Anyway, I sat on the floor with my crocheting, and Eva had a little crocheting to do, too. Ella said, “Mom, I want to sew!” I threaded one needle after the other for her, as she sewed together most of the fabric scraps in her scrap box. She thought it might be a dress for Eva, but when she was finished sewing, the piece was clearly a magnificent boa.
We had a modeling session in the front yard. Here’s the designer with her big sister model, the boa from the back, and field testing of the boa. It survived the hula hoop just fine.
