Scrap Knit Art

The San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles  has a new exhibit called Scrap ART, with a display of some wonderful quilts made in a very creative way with scrap fabrics.  This exhibit examines the history of the scrap quilt and  displays the work of contemporary fiber artists who have taken leftovers and recycled clothing (including gloves, ties and old sweaters)  and fashioned them into works of art.  There is a visually striking quilt made with silk bow ties, another created with women's dress gloves and pin cushions and one made out of recycled aluminum cups from used votive candles.

Ellen Danforth is an artist who was interested in working with felted woolens and used old sweaters and funky old afghans to create a series of colorful and interesting quilts.  Here is a picture of her quilt called
Corn and Beans:

                                                                              


                                                                                     
A close up of the recycled pieces:

                                                                                


  
  Here is her felted quilt called Behind Bars:                                                                              

                                                                                        


A closer look:

                                                                                    

      The exhibit will be there until October 16th and definitely inspires you to try something new and different with your fabric stash and old castoff sweaters.   While I was at The Museum,  I met this woman wearing a really nice quilted vest that she did herself.  She was kind enough to let me take some pictures:

                                                                                      

                                                                                
                                                                                  
                                                                                    

Here's a picture of Rowan modeling the sweater I made for him for this Fall; it's a little big and hopefully will fit him through the school year.  The pattern is called Maize from Nashua Handknits:

                                                                              



Enjoying  the summer weather!

                                                                          

                                

Trekking KAL Socks

Way back in January, Trekking yarns began a  KAL which went from January to June.  The patterns were mostly socks and were provided by Knit Purl Hunter and are available for free on her website.  The KAL was very popular and there were some great prizes, including a trip for two to Trekking yarns with a thousand dollar shopping spree.  I joined in and completed the first pair, but never got beyond that.   My friend Jamie completed all six and I stopped by to see her to see what the completed socks looked like:

                                                                                  

                                                                                      
                                                                                                                                                                  

Here's a closer look at her socks.  This is the Center of Attention socks and Reciprocation
mitts:

                                                                            


        

                                                                                


These two are Stripes Alive and Cranked:

                                                                      

A closer look at Cranked:

                                                                        


This is Lacery:

                                                                                  

                                                                            

This pattern is called Fluttered, probably because of the Butterfly stitch:

                                                                              

Jamie's a very accomplished sock knitter, but she has also knit other types of challenging projects like  the Lizard Ridge afghan for her daughter when she went off to college.  The yarn she used was Noro's Kureyon:

Here's a pillow she made using a pattern from Debbie Abraham's afghan book:

                                                                            
I understand that there will be another KAL this Fall so check out Knit Purl Hunter's web site for more details.
                                                                                 

Harry Potter and Lorna's Laces Yarns

Took a trip to Reno and, of course, had to stop at Jimmy Bean's Wool:

                                                                          

Jimmy Beans has a surprisingly small shop; most of their business is online and the showroom doesn't begin to display all their yarns, although they do have an incredibly large selection of books and magazines.   I understand they are looking for a much larger space.  Here's a glimpse at part of their backroom:

                                                                                    

Laura Zander, the owner of Jimmy Beans, has a  special relationship with Lorna's Laces;  it was Lorna Miser who encouraged Laura to open her first  small store in the train station in Truckee and she has been carrying Lorna's yarns since then.  The new owner of Lorna's Laces creates a special color for Jimmy Beans every month and to celebrate the last Harry Potter movie they have created a colorway called
He Who Must Not Be Named .  I bought a skein of Lion and Lamb:

                                                                            

                                                                      

On of their staff members designed a cowl, The Donner Pass Cowl, and used 1 skein of this yarn for her project.  I'm going to knit this for my daughter who is a big Harry Potter fan.

                                                                                  

Here's my current project.  A sweater from the Araucania Collection using their Azapa wool:

                                                                                

                                                                                      
And here's a picture of the pattern designed by Jenny Watson:

I love this yarn!   The content is alpaca, merino and silk and is so soft and the hand dyed colors are so beautiful.  I just love knitting this.


I'm loving this warm summer weather; lots of time for swimming, hiking, getting out on our boat and just hanging out with visiting friends and family.  Here's one of the many beautiful sunsets we see off our deck:

                                                                                      

                                                                              


Have a great weekend!