There's a TV show called Knitty Gritty which is on the DIY network (nope, haven't heard of it either). They are looking for "fun and charismatic knitters to appear on the show."
For more info:
http://www.knittygritty.com/beonshow.htm
No longer a yarn store, and I often don't talk about yarn. But I do bake, travel, and attack wool with a needle.
Tuesday, August 30, 2005
Sunday, August 28, 2005
Thursday, August 18, 2005
Moby Dick?
I finished Harry Potter yesterday. The ending was a bit contrived, but I liked the rest of the book. Sarah asked me if I was reading Moby Dick. um... no, just Harry Potter. I also started on my poncho, one of the ones in the interweave magazine. You can download the pattern online http://interweave.com/knit/. It's the Lace Poncho by Susan Sternlieb. I'm using Plymouth's Suri Merino. It was looking nice during the four rows I managed to knit, but the gauge wasn't right so I need to start over again.
Sunday, August 14, 2005
Poncho?
It seems like I don't have time much for knitting anymore, it might be because the store has been keeping busy, or maybe it's just because I've been trying to keep up with the Harry Potter books. Nearly finished the 5th one. I feel a little silly though, a grown up reading Harry Potter in a knitting store, but oh well, I've gone this far. I think I'll make something before going on to the sixth book. I'm thinking a poncho for my aunt's birthday. She seems to really want one. There was a cute one in the latest interweave knits magazine. The hard part though is trying to pick a yarn. Hmmm, maybe I'll be inspired when reading about one of Harry Potter's hyjinks.
Friday, August 12, 2005
V shawl
Seeing as the majority of the people stopping by the store are
crocheters I've decided to try my hand at crocheting again. When I was
12 I picked up a crochet hook and decided to teach myself how to
crochet. A few weeks later we had lots of crocheted objects
around the house. The problem was, I knew nothing about foundation
chains, so all I managed to do was make a bunch of circles. Now
the time has come to once again teach myself the art of one-stick-with
hook-in-end. I'm pretty sure I've figured out the difference
between single, double, and triple crochet, but my biggest problem is
what to do at the edges. Lots of them seem to grow shorter as I
continue to crochet, but not all of them are mysteriously shrinking. I
don't know ... it's a whole different world, this crochet thing.
Despite my confusedness I've managed to follow the pattern for Tia
Jose's V Shawl (the original was made by Tia Jose then
reverse-engineered by Jessamy). I've made a couple of mistakes,
but overall it looks allright, I probably should have gone with the
worsted instead of the chunky but I liked the light blue color.
You can kind of see the V shape at the corner of the
picture.
Boy, I should really take a photography lesson.
crocheters I've decided to try my hand at crocheting again. When I was
12 I picked up a crochet hook and decided to teach myself how to
crochet. A few weeks later we had lots of crocheted objects
around the house. The problem was, I knew nothing about foundation
chains, so all I managed to do was make a bunch of circles. Now
the time has come to once again teach myself the art of one-stick-with
hook-in-end. I'm pretty sure I've figured out the difference
between single, double, and triple crochet, but my biggest problem is
what to do at the edges. Lots of them seem to grow shorter as I
continue to crochet, but not all of them are mysteriously shrinking. I
don't know ... it's a whole different world, this crochet thing.
Despite my confusedness I've managed to follow the pattern for Tia
Jose's V Shawl (the original was made by Tia Jose then
reverse-engineered by Jessamy). I've made a couple of mistakes,
but overall it looks allright, I probably should have gone with the
worsted instead of the chunky but I liked the light blue color.
You can kind of see the V shape at the corner of the
picture.
Boy, I should really take a photography lesson.
Tuesday, August 09, 2005
Hyperbolic Planes
Yesterday I went to the talk by Diana Taimina about how to crochet hyperbolic planes. The gallery was in a not so great neighborhood in Echo Park, and I almost didn't go because it was hard to find parking, but I did, and I'm glad I went. The crowd was an interesting mixture of mathematicians (or people who knew big math words) and crocheters. I don't know much about math myself, and unfortunately didn't pay much attention in Physics (though I wish I did), so the only concept which was not new to me was the explanation of parallel lines.
A hyperbolic plane, or at least the way I understood it, is pretty much the opposite of a sphere. If you were to draw a line around a balloon the line would curve into itself and then it would create a ring. With hyperbolic space the line curves out, and instead of creating a circle the line continues to grow infinitely. For a long time there wasn't a very good tangible representation of hyperbolic space, and the few that existed were very fragile so you couldn't really maneuver it. Taimina, who learned to knit when she was a child and new how to crochet, one day realized that you could manipulate yarn, using a crochet hook, to make something with the same features as a hyperbolic plane. Essentially all it is is increasing at an exponential rate. The outcome, depending on how fast you increase sometimes looks like a brain, which Taimina thought wasn’t a coincidence. This same wavy shape occurs elsewhere in nature, including some in some sea creatures. There is a short description of how to make hyperbolic planes at: http://www.math.cornell.edu/~dwh/books/eg00/supplements/AHPmodel/index.html . You can read more about it on http://www.theiff.org/lectures/05a.html .
Actually, the most interesting thing I heard in this lecture wasn't related to crocheting or even really about the concept of hyperbolic planes, but is a simple fact that stares you in the face every day, the fact that we live in three dimensions but can see in only two dimensions. An apple, although it exists in three dimension (up/down, left/right, forward/backwards), can only be seen in two dimensions (up/down, left/right). You cannot actually see the other side of an apple. And the only way for us to see something in three dimensions is to exist and live in four dimensions. But seriously, how could I have not known this? It's not actually that hard of a concept, and I feel like this is one of those mind-expanding things I should have learned in sixth grade. Was I just not paying attention?
A hyperbolic plane, or at least the way I understood it, is pretty much the opposite of a sphere. If you were to draw a line around a balloon the line would curve into itself and then it would create a ring. With hyperbolic space the line curves out, and instead of creating a circle the line continues to grow infinitely. For a long time there wasn't a very good tangible representation of hyperbolic space, and the few that existed were very fragile so you couldn't really maneuver it. Taimina, who learned to knit when she was a child and new how to crochet, one day realized that you could manipulate yarn, using a crochet hook, to make something with the same features as a hyperbolic plane. Essentially all it is is increasing at an exponential rate. The outcome, depending on how fast you increase sometimes looks like a brain, which Taimina thought wasn’t a coincidence. This same wavy shape occurs elsewhere in nature, including some in some sea creatures. There is a short description of how to make hyperbolic planes at: http://www.math.cornell.edu/~dwh/books/eg00/supplements/AHPmodel/index.html . You can read more about it on http://www.theiff.org/lectures/05a.html .
Actually, the most interesting thing I heard in this lecture wasn't related to crocheting or even really about the concept of hyperbolic planes, but is a simple fact that stares you in the face every day, the fact that we live in three dimensions but can see in only two dimensions. An apple, although it exists in three dimension (up/down, left/right, forward/backwards), can only be seen in two dimensions (up/down, left/right). You cannot actually see the other side of an apple. And the only way for us to see something in three dimensions is to exist and live in four dimensions. But seriously, how could I have not known this? It's not actually that hard of a concept, and I feel like this is one of those mind-expanding things I should have learned in sixth grade. Was I just not paying attention?
Sunday, August 07, 2005
Machine Project
I don't know if you're in the Los Angeles area, but if you are, there's a cool
gallery called Machine Project, http://www.machineproject.com, and tomorrow they will be having a talk by Diana Taimina, a Cornell University Mathematician who crochets Hyperbolic planes. It sounds pretty cool.
gallery called Machine Project, http://www.machineproject.com, and tomorrow they will be having a talk by Diana Taimina, a Cornell University Mathematician who crochets Hyperbolic planes. It sounds pretty cool.
Saturday, August 06, 2005
Knitting Guild
I went to a knitting guild meeting yesterday, the Jewel City Knitters. They were all very nice, and most of what they do is for philanthropy.
If you're interested, the website is http://evelynarts.com/jck/. They meet the First Wednesday of every month.
If you're interested, the website is http://evelynarts.com/jck/. They meet the First Wednesday of every month.
Monday, August 01, 2005
Dalmatian bag
Why, hello. Gilroy was hot. Very hot. And they charged two
dollers for a bottle of water. How annoying. Besides the garlic
ice-cream (vanilla and pistacio), one of the few good things about the
trip was that I made a bag from two of our new yarns. I used
Cotton 8 and Lucci's Pom-Pom, held together. I was originally thinking
of making it a cow bag, even brought some black yarn to occasionally
work in, but the black and white pattern on the Pom Pom changed too
quickly. So now it's a dalmatian bag, which works too.
dollers for a bottle of water. How annoying. Besides the garlic
ice-cream (vanilla and pistacio), one of the few good things about the
trip was that I made a bag from two of our new yarns. I used
Cotton 8 and Lucci's Pom-Pom, held together. I was originally thinking
of making it a cow bag, even brought some black yarn to occasionally
work in, but the black and white pattern on the Pom Pom changed too
quickly. So now it's a dalmatian bag, which works too.
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