prediction
March 12, 2010
When the ice has melted just enough to allow the shrinking snow person to slip into the pond and away, it will be spring.
Posted by jodi on March 12, 2010 at 7.10pm
blocking
March 11, 2010
Posted by jodi on March 11, 2010 at 9.56pm
cutout
March 10, 2010
For a woodcut.
Posted by jodi on March 10, 2010 at 7.05pm
turned the heel
March 9, 2010
Time to set it aside and start the other foot.
Posted by jodi on March 9, 2010 at 9.08pm
don’t forget to bring a cowl
March 8, 2010
It’s a fact that as the light returns, winter coats get heavier and heavier until it’s a chore to put them on in the morning. It may seem too close to the end of winter to knit such a warm thing, but this cozy cowl will help to balance out a too-thin spring jacket on those cool mornings when the temperatures are still in the single-digit minuses but winter coats seem too drab under such bright skies.
The pattern is Ha’Penny Loop by Staceyjoy Elkin (again; she’s one of my favourite designers, can you tell?). Yarn is Berroco Cuzco, same stuff I used for the legwarmers.
Posted by jodi on March 8, 2010 at 10.41pm
thinking of spring
March 7, 2010
And handknit socks that let the warm breezes in.
So here's something new, started this morning with the handspun I got from Stacie recently. There’s no pattern, just a bog standard toe-up construction with a simple diagonal lace that will spiral up the leg. I’m using 2.75mm needles for these rather than the usual 2.25mm, and marveling at the difference half a millimetre makes to the speed of a project. What’s that other knit in the background, you ask? Why, that would be the warm and cozy and gigantic cowl I finished just in time for the temperatures to rise above freezing. Typical. I’m counting on the end of March to provide me with some opportunity to wear it. Pictures tomorrow. Posted by jodi on March 7, 2010 at 10.56pm March 6, 2010 Yesterday I taught a small beginning bookbinding workshop. Participants made models of three simple book forms: a single signature pamphlet binding, a Japanese 4-hole binding and perfect binding. Here are some of the finished samples: Because we have no bindery equipment here, I brought up this somewhat primitive trimming apparatus that my dad made for me back in the 1990s when I was doing a lot of bookbinding but didn’t have any money or any tools. Propped up on one end (the end you can see here, with blocks under it to keep it steady) a pair of backing boards can be slid inside and the book clamped for rounding the spine. At the other end it’s got a nice high smooth wooden wall that’s used for a guide to keep the blade nice and straight for trimming the clamped book; it uses an old blade from a plane with leather wrapped around it, and back when I was trimming twenty textblocks a day with this thing I’d wrap my hand in leather and fabric as well and still get blisters in two lines across all four fingers. It’s a grueling job, but it does the trick. Using this old trimmer again has me really looking forward to getting the new (to me) Chandler & Price paper trimmer up and running once I’m back home (remember how I was going to get the base sanded and painted over the February break? Didn’t happen). Did I mention that I’m planning to spend my whole summer down in the basement just cutting up books all day? Any books I can get my hands on. Because I can, that’s why. Posted by jodi on March 6, 2010 at 9.08pm March 5, 2010 Some people came and cut down a bunch of trees near the Monastery today. When I went over to take a few photos after work, there was a group of deer standing around the (now quiet) machinery, looking confounded. Of course they’re camera shy, so all you get is one tiny deer hiding in the shadows framed by the tree-ripper there. No, really, she’s there. Look harder. Across the road the carnage was worse, and the steep, rocky little goat trail that the students walk (us middle aged old coots whose best years of cardiac health are behind us take the longer, more gently sloping path) is now a clearing big enough for a game day tailgate party. I can’t imagine what they might be building in such a spot, although there is a sewer at the top of the path. Where the path used to be, that is. Phrases I need to work on saying less often, all of which show up here in my video narration, include: 1) adding “right now” onto the end of an otherwise perfectly finished sentence; 2) “. . . I tell you what” (picked up while living in Georgia, reinforced by a recent King of the Hill binge); 3) “Jesus Murphy”. I’m clearly some kind of hayseed. At least I didn’t swear. Wait, is one of those a swear? Posted by jodi on March 5, 2010 at 11.14pm March 4, 2010 Posted by jodi on March 4, 2010 at 10.11pm March 3, 2010 Posted by jodi on March 3, 2010 at 7.34pm
back to basics
goat trail, now with 30% fewer trees!
spring is coming
studio video march 3
