Pulp Fashion.
March 14, 2011 § Leave a Comment
First, the important stuff: My neck is feeling so much better today. Still quite stiff and sore, but I feel like I can almost look around.
Ok, now onto Pulp Fashion. The art of Isabelle de Borchgrave.
A few weeks back, when my sister was visiting from Atlanta, we made a day of heading into San Francisco for the Palace of the Legion of Honor, as well as the most amazing yarn store I know of, ImagiKnit. Early in the week of her visiting, I had mentioned that there was a special exhibition running of a bunch of historic costumes/fashion all made out of paper. Hard to believe when you hear it, and even more hard to believe when you see it. Before getting yelled at for taking pictures, as I couldn’t find a “No Photography” sign, until I got out my magnifying glass, I did snap two images: the first of the entrance into the exhibition, and the second of plain white pattern paper during the development and construction process.
Neither image does justice to the pieces in the show, and have hardly the detailing of the Medici portion of the exhibit. There were—if my memory serves correctly—6 gallery rooms containing the collection, each room seperated with a different theme: All White, the Medici, Papiers á la Mode (I know the accent is going the wrong way, can’t remember the key command), Fortuny—which included an amazing tent—Neapolitan Woman, the entry way. Oh, it would seem I have forgotten the 8th gallery room, the additionally fun, gift shop.
The things this woman has learned how to do with paper is amazing. The shapes, textures, paints, colors, drapes, even top-stitching, OH, and shoes! OH OH, and childrens’ historic costume. I find it hard enough to sew fabric, much less create an entire garment out of something that will tear if you look at it the wrong way. The silks, the lace collars, the kimonos, all out of paper. Even after going and seeing it, it is still hard to believe.
We went at a good time of day, when the museum first opened to the public on a Friday morning. There were still quite a number of students and artists sketching inside, and a few tours going on, but more than enough room was left to view the collection.
For anyone who is interested in art, fashion, or clothing construction, this is a must see, and this has really whet my appetite for my upcoming New York trip to see the MET exhibit: Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty.
I don’t care what they say, knitting is easier than crochet. Day 60.
October 28, 2010 § Leave a Comment
So, I have decided to become a baseball fan. No, not a fair weather fan, but an all weather fan. Of course, yes, I am deciding this now that my local team is in the World Series. I actually put a lot of thought into this. Over the summer some of Ramon’s friends gave him tickets to a game, as they are season ticket holders and couldn’t make it to that game. Well, I had the best time every. Other than our cross-country road-trip it was the summer highlight. Riding on the feeling, I did consider that I might want to become a fan of a team with colors that suited me better than orange and black, but because I had such a fun time at that game at AT&T park I decided to stick with the Giants.
So, last night I watched the game, and worked on my crochet monkey. I finished the body, the cape, and the fez.
Tonight I re-did, and completed Ramon’s Halloween hat, with the exception of the red ball that goes on top.
So, half a monkey and a bit-sized jacket and fez versus a whole hat. I am so tired of everyone saying that crochet is so much easier than knitting. I can get through an entire sweater in a week and a half, but a weee monkey?
Ok, ok. I remember how it was when i first started knitting. It took me a month to get through a scarf. Sometimes it is hard to remember and to respect the learning curve. I can see that crochet *will* be easier. In-fact, I even crochet closed Ramon’s Halloween hat instead of knitting it, because the hole was so small, and you don’t drop stitches in crochet like you do in knitting. So, patience my little monkey. I need to remember that it will take time to feel the same way about my ability to crochet as my ability to knit.
Luckily, with Ramon’s hat (almost) done, I am one step closer to Halloween costume success. With our Halloween party only two days away, and with my all day Bernina class on Saturday, I have some really serious Halloween costume finishing to get done tomorrow. OMG! I know I can get it all done but … I want to get the houndstooth skirt done tomorrow, and the hallway pictures done, too! I am also trying to get my blue McQueen Sweater Dress done before we head off to Kentucky for the Breeder’s Cup next week. I think that Thunder, the grey kitten, I am pretty sure will love the ball that will go on Ramon’s hat. I wonder, with her joy for playing fetch, will Ramon’s hat stay intact long enough to celebrate the main event?
Compromise never felt so good. Day 47.
October 15, 2010 § 2 Comments
Not getting to bed until fairly late last night I slept in until 8 today. Shocker, I know! I then started on a few little things, though my main goal was to get some patterns drafted today. So, since that was my goal, we can assume—correctly—that this didn’t happen.
I decided to get my gauge swatch a little further along for my blue McQueen Sweater Dress.
I also started to work on knitting lace, which I have never done before.
The amazing Malabrigo I found the other day is just too stunning a color not to use. The blue is bright. Really bright. I know that this is also not part of Project Hallway, but I just keep finding these amazing textures that I can’t keep my mitts off of. The sweater that I want to make with this lace yarn requires more than I bought, so I looked up a place to get more. Turns out one of the few places that have (had) it is in SF., ImagiKnit. So, thinking on my tippy toes, I called a girl-friend, asked her if she wanted to have lunch and starting driving to the city.
After having a lovely lunch, I realized that I just don’t get to see this good friend nearly enough, and I started feeling a little blue. So what better than to help my mood than more lovely blue yarn. I bought the only two hanks that the store had and was utterly overwhelmed by their immense selection of yarn—best selection of yarn yet. Drool.
Sadly, with my mood still not improved, I hit up another discount fabric place in San Francisco, and low-and-behold, what did I find? My houndstooth! It’s not wool, it is polyester, but it feels soft, the black and white is clean, graphic, and large, and the best part it was $9. Wait, it gets better, turns out it was also 30% off!
I know it is not as nice as the fabric that McQueen used, but I simply can’t afford the wool/alpaca blend at Britex. I think that this is part of the challenge of the project, creatively problem solving the materials dilemma. This project isn’t supposed to be easy, it is intended to get me thinking outside of my normal ways. So, the fabric may not be “ideal,” but to me it is. I had the reaction, the moment that I saw it, that THIS IS THE FABRIC, which is the desired reaction to making any project. As diligently explained by Michael Kors on Project Runway this season, you have to let the fabric speak to you, and understand how you can work with it, and not have it work against you. I can tell that this will drape nicely, and work well for the project. Maybe sometime, when I can afford it again I can go back to Britex and re-do this one with the wool, but I don’t know if I will stand to learn enough by doing it a second time to make the effort worth the investment. Again, with the 80/20 principal. Will the outcome really outweigh the effort by enough to make it a valuable use of time and resources? This is a question that is often asked in our kitchen when looking at making something the way that Thomas Keller would, versus the way that will be 80% as good as the Thomas Keller version while taking 20% of the time. So, While I may have compromised the wool, I feel really good about the fabric that I chose.
The woman at the cutting counter said that it had just come in today, and I was the first one to get it. I bough 6 yards for about 40 bucks, and finally my blue mood was lifted, unlike the San Francisco Fog which kept me cool for my drive home on this unusually hot October day.
On the returning, and buying of fabric. Day 25.
September 23, 2010 § Leave a Comment
Oh my God, Big Kitty just farted on me. Isn’t that just typical for how the day has gone.
Well, maybe it’s not, maybe I am just being overly pessimistic. I have had quite a number of successes for the day, so what is the problem in my current feeling of completely at a lack of inspiration? It could be that, even though I finished both sleeves of the sweater I am knitting, I realized I had other big problems. Remember two inches frogged and one inch knit equals three inches of progress? Turns out that I still hadn’t read the pattern carefully enough. The size that I am working on is somewhere in the middle of the sizing for the pattern which can get confusing, and on-top of that reading knitting patterns can be a confusing as it is. I often feel how perhaps the opposing forces felt when trying to decrypt the Navajo language that the US was using to send secret messages during WWII. So, two inches frogged again, I am feeling a little down, despite the fact that now I am almost back to wear I started.
On Sunday I returned fabric. I know. I know.
This was a first (and perhaps once) in a lifetime experience. I bought three yards of this great animal print, but upon getting it home realized that it wasn’t as great as I originally mused. Because it was three yards, I didn’t feel badly about taking it back, three yards is enough to include back into the bolt, and I have bough enough fabric from them that even if they lost the money from this return, they still come out ahead. Not knowing the procedure for the return, I checked with the gal at the counter. She informed me I needed to take my receipt and my fabric back to the cutting counter to have my honesty measured (the fabric re-measured). Upon doing so, the fellow at the cutting table informed me that my fabric was 1″ short of 3 yards. So, I told him that I had not even taken it out of the bag since I got it home. To which he responded, “Well, it is not 3 yards,” and I replied, “Well, if it is 1″ short, maybe you all need to have a cutting lesson, because the only reason it would be short is because you all don’t know how to cut fabric.” He finalized the return after that. What the hell am I going to do with 1″ of Lycra, stretch it so thin it wraps around the earth’s equator, and then use it to find my way? And why would I buy three yards to steal 1″ just to return it.
Lesson learned: Unless you need to return the fabric save yourself the hassle, and unless you need the fabric, don’t buy it.
This started a great internal debate about the wool needed for the black McQueen suit that I am working on. I have almost finished the wool-blend test skirt, but with the sewing machine out of commission—don’t worry, I’ll get to that part—haven’t completed. I don’t want to make really nice garments out of shitty fabric, so I decided to go to San Francisco on Tuesday morning to buy the wool that I need for the entire suit. This was no easy feat. The driving there was simple, I even found a free two-hour street parking spot, half a block from the store I was going to. I wore boots, so walking and standing were also no problem. The staff, as usual, was polite and helpful in their San Francisco way. So what was the hard part? Once I got there, I carried that beautiful bolt of black wool around that store for an hour. An entire hour. I know, because I set an alarm on my phone, just in case this should happen. I thought that, like Project Runway, I should set a time-limit, and then head for the cutting-counter—don’t get things I don’t need, only the things that I do.
I had never paid this much for any fabric. Granted that $25 a yard for pure, fine wool is not expensive by any stretch of the imagination, for me, it was. The entire time I was in the store I felt anxious, “is this the right thing to do?” I decided, yes, this is the right thing to do, because this is what I want to do. THIS is the entire point of this project: to learn, to push my limits, to do new things, to experiment and be creative. I didn’t go overboard. I bought the wool, and a few yards of really, really cheap black knit to practice on. I also bought an embroidery hoop—no, I am not striving to become a hand embroidery goddess or something—some floss, and a thimble—granted, this is needed regardless of the project—because I want to work on my hand stitching skills, and I thought that learning and practicing some embroidery would be a good way to go. (More below the images)
The Goods:
The Shocking Total:
I felt a lot better after I had bought the wool, maybe it is like ripping off the band-aid. It stings, but after you’ve done it, you can see that things are looking a lot better than they felt.
There were other successes today, but for now with the sewing machine now in the shop for repair—more of this story, and others to come—I return to knitting for the evening. Big Kitty really enjoys the knitting, as she finds it a good time to snuggle with her personal heater.
Big Kitty just farted again. Maybe, I am on the right track after-all.
Caption Below
Big Kitty likes the knitting so much, that she sleeps on the knitting bag even though it is not comfortable (it has books and knitting needles inside).
