Mary McK Knits

2012-01-06T17:36:00.001-05:00

Hey girl,

Sorry it's been so long. I promise I'll be back shortly.

Love, M

Movin on over

2008-06-09T18:10:00.002-04:00

Hey there Ladies and Gents,

There's a new blog in town! I'll be moving on over to marymck.blogspot.com. While knitting is still on the agenda, there is just too much other craftiness going on to just be "mcknits" anymore. And we'll not even get into how in love I am with the the three column layout!

But thanks to the few of you who are still checking this site, hope you enjoy the new one!

xoxo

If only it were that easy

2008-01-19T22:30:00.000-05:00

Looking at this comic panel is kind of like looking at my future children. It some how manages to mesh mine and Gene's interests into one tiny package.

In which creative ADD abounds

2008-01-15T00:07:00.000-05:00

I have been the victim of some pretty wicked creative ADD the last few months. There are just too many things in my head that all want to get made, so of course none of them get made. I've decided that the only way to get through it is to stop fighting. My psuedo-schedule be damned, I'm now at the mercy of the creative muses.

Here was what popped into my head today while I was looking for inspiration for some custom tailored shirts I'm working on.

Um yeah, nothing to do with tailored shirts, but I think they will make some very cool embroidery projects.

Thank you for being a friend

2007-12-16T02:00:00.000-05:00

This is AMAZING!

Having had roommates that watched an entirely inappropriate amount of Golden Girls, I am both in love and a little scared at the thought of felt counterparts of those sassy ladies. But the moment somebody puts up a Facts of Life set, I'm all over it.

In which I discover other uses for pot racks

2007-12-08T10:43:00.000-05:00

This my friends is what has been keeping me busy

These costumes where a doozie. I had my first real taste of "designers block" and it was no fun, no fun at all. I didn't help that I only had 3 weeks-ish to design and construct them. But even with the soul sucking self doubt, they turned out amazingly. The photo doesn't do them justice in the slightest.

Now I must exit this haze of delusion I've kept myself in and realize that Christmas is now about 2 weeks away which means I need to have presents in the mail next week and guess who hasn't bought a single one?

Or perhaps I will just keep watching this you tube clip over and over.

How in the world did I not know about this show?

Thoughts anyone?

2007-11-13T19:02:00.000-05:00

How does one get through a nasty case of "Designers Block"?

I'm going with unhealthy amounts of sugar and a bottle of wine. I'm either going to be brilliant or wake up tomorrow with the worlds funkiest hangover.

Take that Kate

2007-11-07T14:40:00.000-05:00

In response to the horrible Kate Spade Scarf, I came up with this

It's a Chunky, 2x1 rib scarf. The only problem being that I spun the yarn myself and seem to keep underestimating how much I will need. The Yarn is a mix of hand dyed blue faced leicester carded with bamboo and plyed with ripped hand dyed silk left over from my college days. It actually doesn't look that good in skein form but I am loving how it looks knits up

It's currently only long enough to wrap around my neck, and I just ran out of that color silk. So it will either end up with some asymmetrical "stripes" or I will make a chunk knit neck warmer.

Either way, still WAY cooler than that $95 acrylic mess.

Oh, Kate Spade now I remember why we had to break up

2007-11-01T23:10:00.000-04:00

This is why people should learn how to knit.

I'm usually all for the "it's easier and cheaper to just buy a sweater/scarf/mittens" mentality. But a chunky garter stitch acrylic scarf? Go pick up some $3 Lion's Brand from Walmart and save your self $92.

Happy Halloween!

2007-10-31T15:02:00.000-04:00

Brownie Points for anyone who guess what our costumes are. Apparently they were "subtle"

In which I am actually productive

2007-10-29T11:46:00.000-04:00

Much to my own surprise, I have gotten my ~~shit~~ stuff together and have finally started to update my Etsy Site with some of my Handspun.

Fraggle Rock

Little Bo Peep

Peas & Carrots

I haven’t had much time to try to rehab the antique wheel, so everything was spun very slowly, with very little cursing (well very little for me) on Lucille. Techniques were pulled a little from the Pluckyfluff book, and a little from the amazing Spinning Designer Yarns book. The names were all me, and probably my favorite part.

PS Is anyone else pretending that Christmas just isn’t going to happen this year?

Me too Alex, me too.

2007-10-15T15:20:00.000-04:00

The traveling that seems to never end continued over the weekend. I’ve decided that a huge reason I am getting sick of the traveling is the motion sickness that seems to plague me on every type of transportation that isn’t my feet or a subway train. Apparently I am not the only one

I found this in my seat pocket on our flight from Salt Lake City to Bend. I completely agree, the Atlanta airport does suck. Big time.

The whole reason Gene and I were on said flight was to visit my brother and his girlfriend in Bend, OR. And when I say my brother I kind of mean my sudo niece and nephew. The show pony/Golden Retriever is Mackinaw and the Cat/Bluetick Coonhound is Violet. They’re not really into the whole sitting still for photos so we have what I like to call “action photography.”

There was lots of beautiful scenery to be seen and some great knitting stores to visit. The amazing part was getting my brother to voluntarily venture into not one, not two but three separate knitting stores. I think it has something to do with him wanting a sweater out of this.

But I managed to pick up a set of Denise interchangeable needles at Gossamer Knitting. They're pink and scented, I think it gives them a little something extra, or you know supports breast cancer research. I also picked up some great Corn fiber sock yarn from the Stichin Post because the only thing standing between me and finishing a sock (I’m not even ambitious enough for a pair, I’d just like to get one finished) is the fiber content of the yarn.

I also got a fair amount done on a top down raglan sweater for a newborn that is set to appear on October 24.

It’s Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino on US size 7 needles. I’m about 4 rows from separating the body stitches from the arm stitches. So of course I’m losing interest, but hopefully the deadline will keep me focused, maybe.

Oh Patrica Fields, don't scare me like that.

2007-10-10T00:16:00.000-04:00

A few things that make me very happy at the moment.

1. Fall has arrived! Kind of, I will take any coolness in weather as a sign of fall. I will ignore all fears that global warming is arriving, and my apartment building (conveniently located about 500 yards from New York City Harbor) will soon be under water as the ice caps melt down to the size of a cocktail swizzle.

2. This awfulness

Really was the awful dream sequence I told myself it had to be. I was ignoring all fears that Patricia Fields had crossed the line from insanely brilliant to completely insane. I may have been wrong about Britney, but Pat Fields will never steer me wrong.

Way past retro

2007-09-28T14:14:00.001-04:00

That my friends is the amazing antique spinning wheel my lovely friend Melissa found, and that her equally lovely husband just dropped off to Brooklyn Generalfor me. She told me it was broken, and very very old. It actually only needs a new drive band, some serious CLR treatment on all the metal parts, and if I feel like it a new footman for one of the treadles. Though it works just fine as a single treadle. It even has a built in lazy kate in the top. It looks and feels like the kind of wheel people made really functional yarn/twine/rope on, back when it wasn't just a hobby for the fiber obsessed like myself.

I am hoping after A LOT of tlc that I might be able to convert it into a wheel to spin all the crazy beautiful stuff from the Pluck Fluff book that is not going to go as smoothly on Lucille

Here keeping my fingers crossed.

What the.....

2007-09-27T15:08:00.000-04:00

While cleaning out my iphoto library today I found a photo from my friend Amy's surprise graduation party. I was being teased for having my knitting at the bar in my bag, so I pulled a Yarn Harlot and took a photo with my drink of choice (cough*schmirnoff ice*cough)

The only problem being that I have no idea what the hell I was knitting, when I bought that yarn or why I was carrying around wool in the summer in St Louis, MO (side note, if you've never been to STL, just imagine the most humid disgusting suffocating atmosphere imaginable and you have STL in the summertime). It appears that it was knitting on a circular and is that seed stitch perhaps? I’ve ruled out a sweater, a toy, or a scarf, and it is definitely not my normal color of choice, and it is no longer in my stash of unfinished knitting. For now I guess I will just blame it on the gremlins.

Summer: a photo essay, sorta

2007-09-20T21:30:00.000-04:00

The summer is over and it feels like it was about 2.5 seconds long. That might have to do with the fact that we managed to travel across a good portion of the eastern half of the country in a little under 2 months.

There were family celebrations

We traveled to the amazing beautiful Smokey Mountains in TN for Gene’s Grandparent’s 50th wedding anniversary. Being in the hillbilly version of Vegas, Gatlinburg TN it was of course a hillbilly themed celebration.

And I also procured an amazing airbrushed t-shirt from one of the ten million air brushed t-shirt places

There were weddings

That would be wedding dress two of three. It was my present to my wonderful friend Carrie who got married in August. She lives in the Midwest. I am in Brooklyn. Thankfully I didn't completely screw things up and the dress turned out lovely.

There was the Chicago Comic Con

We met up in Chicago for a weekend of all things dorky with some of our friends from St Louis. Wendy and I only went for the first day, while we can definitely get our geek-on, we aren’t quite at the same level as most of the attendee’s

But there were t-shirt boths galore, some video game Karaoke, and the always popular baby bottles of wine in the cafeteria

and my personal favorite, a freaking kntting convention going on next door

That was me before Wendy used her awesome powers of persuasion to get the door people to let us into the market place where I got this

From a women with some amazing fibers, that sadly doesn't have a website.

All in all it was a very nice, if sort of hectic summer. And now I can pretend that we don't ever have to travel again...yes I'm delusional, I like it that way.

Numbers

2007-09-11T19:53:00.001-04:00

Today is September 11th and I am reminded that I should be able to see the twin towers from my living room window. I purposefully never looked at any information about the WTC tradgedies before today. When it happened I was still grieving for my mother and I couldn't handle trying to grieve for the nation. I made sure my friends in NYC were safe and I compartmentailzed the rest so I didn't have to feel that ache that I knew every single family member of somebody who died that day was going through. Today I finally saw the number of people who died.

2996 people.

2996 families that are still healing from the loss of that day, mothers, fathers, wifes, husbands, children, who are missing somebody so important in their life it that it will never be the same again.

Then I thought of Iraq. We have been "fightning the war on terror" since it happened. First in Afghanistan and then in Iraq. Trying to make sure that we keep something like that from ever happening again on US soil.

The body count in Iraq from March 20, 2003 to today

135,335

135,335 lives for 2996.

Violence will never make peace, it will never make us safe, it does no good at all. It only causes more pain in a world that has already had quite enough.

One of Three

2007-06-23T18:13:00.000-04:00

For the last two months I have been spectacularly busy. Here is some of the stuff that’s been keeping me busy

Big project #1

Red Metal Mailbox presented Old tricks for a second time. The show did so well last spring we decided to remount it again this summer. Every time I see it I am so proud of it, I can’t believe what an amazing show we put together. If you are in the NYC on either of the next two Thursdays you should check it out at the Chocolate Factory Theater in Long island city.

Project #2

Wedding dress 1 of 3 is done and in the hands of the lovely bride. The wedding is next weekend and I will have some much better pictures afterward, but while I highly doubt her fiancé would ever stumble across my blog I’m not going to chance any bad wedding mojo by posting pictures of the dress before the big day. But I cannot even begin to say how relieved I am to be done with it, Hand beading can really cut into a girls knitting time.

And with spectacular timing my friend Pam decided to host a “spinning weekend” at her insanely gorgeous house in Montauk. Here is the view from the back porch

Pam, Heather, Lulu and I got to escape the city and spend two beautiful wonderful days doing nothing but spinning, knitting, and walking around town, and freaking out the locals by knitting at the local bar

We also did some clamming

Not growing up in a family that fished or hunted, it was pretty awesome to forage the clams from the harbor and then cook them that night for dinner. In between drinking and clamming I also learned the magic loop method and how to turn a heel short row style and got a decent amount of spinning done, a pretty amazing two days. And now that I am back its on to Two of Three and Three of Three and a few more weeks of a crazy schedule.

But I’ll always have Montauk.

An Open Letter

2007-05-17T18:22:00.000-04:00

To the gremlins that have been stealing my seam rippers,

I am willing to start hostage negotiations,

Please leave your demands next to the Bernina, at the site of the disaperance.

If it has anything to to do with me calling you gremlins instead of your prefered term mogwai I am very sorry and will work on correcting my language, but can not make any promises until I no longer have to try to take out stiches with 7 inch scissors.

Thanks

McK-

Henry the Dinosaur

2007-04-30T18:54:00.001-04:00

Henry the Dinosaur
Originally uploaded by Mary McK.

Meet Henry the Dinosaur

After months of procrastination and putting other projects first I finally have items for sale at the Coffee Den

He is the first pattern I’ve made that actually turned out how I wanted him to, which is extremely exciting. I have a few more toys still just in “prototype” mode, but they should be full on toys with in the next few days.

In other news I volunteered to spin at the Prospect park zoo fiber festival this weekend. My random observation from the weekend, did you know that children can felt wool rologs with just their tiny sweaty little palms? I am hoping this information will come in handy one day in life. You know whenever I am having a felting emergency all I will have to do is scrounge up an irritable toddler and I’m all set. That’s the way it works right?

Philly is kinda tropical...right?

2007-04-20T10:15:00.000-04:00

So any one else ever have a sewing machine literally bend its gears rather than to continue to sew for you? I’m not sure what I did to piss of the craft gods, but well they were not happy with me yesterday.

My sewing machine decided to basically die, 4 hours before a final fitting. Which now due to an unexpected last minute trip to Philadelphia this weekend I won’t have time to make any last adjustments. Lets just say it was an unpleasant afternoon, But I didn’t have to go buy a new machine, which was looking like a very real possibility, And I was able to hand sew what was necessary before the tech rehearsal and they looked amazing if I do say so myself.

So now my Bernina is in the shop having mighty expensive repairs, the poor thing has been in storage since my first apartment in Chicago, two moves ago (It was my cheap Kenmore machine that bit the bullet) Lets hope that they repair it before the end of next week otherwise I will be doing a lot more hand sewing.

But yeah lots of other random stresses this week and I am ready for some kind of tropical vacation right about now. But instead of the Caribbean I do have my gift from my Secret Pal, I received The Knitting Circle by Ann Hood in the mail and so far it is really a beautiful book. I have to read it in small doses though. It is the story of a woman who deals with the loss of her young daughter by learning to knit. So while really touching it hits a little close to home, especially during a hard week. But I am thoroughly enjoying it and am taking it with me on the train to Philadelphia this afternoon. Lets hope I don't cry like a baby in font of all the NJ commuters on the Path train.

Nostalgia in a random post .

2007-04-05T18:29:00.000-04:00

There are few things I miss about living the midwest but here is one of them

There is nothing quite like a thunderstorm rolling over a cornfield (or if you want to be technical soybean field). Second only to a field full of fire flies on a summer night.

End Random post.

And Her Name is Lucille.

2007-04-04T16:55:00.001-04:00

So I ordered my spinning wheel, the only downfall was that I was going to have to wait until July since they were on crazy back order. Well apparently somebody cancelled their order and a wonderful package showed up at Brooklyn General yesterday.

Meet Lucille, She is a Louet Victoria in oak and she is beautiful,

Yes I know it’s kind of weird to name inanimate objects, but well I never claimed to be very normal just ask Sally my Lap top.

So yeah, yesterday was basically like Christmas for me. Not to mention that I got to go to an amazing place called Material for the Arts. Its basically a huge warehouse space that takes donations of great stuff that is then passes it on free to non-profit organizations in the area. Not only did I get some great fabric for an upcoming project, it was also Crazy Hat Day

Yeah we totally won. Not the most flattering photo of myself ever, but its hard not to bask in the glow of victory.

Oh The Beauty

2007-03-18T17:50:00.000-04:00

So if you have read my “about me” blurb, you know I am not really an organized person. It’s in my nature to pile things in stacks and plan to deal with them later. Or my personal favorite of hiding things in boxes and planning to deal with them later because then they are out of site, and often forgotten about. Well last night I had an oh so clever idea (well clever to me, my standards aren’t that high) To go buy some PVC pipe have it cut to 65” and carry it home (It’s PVC, how much can it weigh?) And finally put all my yardage of fabrics on them so they are not just in a folded mess on my studio shelves. In Theory it sounded so easy I couldn’t believe my great idea.

I need to remember that I don’t live in the Midwest anymore. There’s a reason people say “If you can make it in NYC, you can make it anywhere.” Even the simplest task can end up being the most difficult, exasperating, soul sucking experience you can imagine. Long story short, PVC is not that light, and carrying 40 feet of it no matter how manageable the pieces have been cut and taped together, its still freaking heavy. Especially over the mile of sidewalk I have to navigate between my house and the Home Depot and I won’t even get into negotiating the subway.

Also the Home Depot might want to evaluate their customer service. Expecting a customer to navigate through a crazy busy store with 4 pieces of 10ft PVC pipe down an escalator into the basement with 8 foot ceilings, by themselves isn’t great idea and when the customer points that out, eye rolling from the employee is not appreciated. Why the hell can’t they put the PVC pipe cutter near where they store the PVC?

But I am now the proud owner of several lengths of PVC that are great at holding my yardage neatly. I have only gotten through the wedding dress fabric so far but it still makes me quite happy to look at

I’m going to ignore the not so organized yarn stash behind the bolts and just focus on the beauty of neatly rolled fabric.

Toddler Couture

2007-03-09T23:34:00.000-05:00

My prediction was correct I am quite obsessed with spinning at the moment. Here is my newest, less bulky yarn.

It’s a bamboo and tussah silk blend, and quite possible the softest yarn I have ever felt. I haven't set the twist yet, so we'll see if washing it affects the feel of it. Eventually I am going to dye it but for now I just like to admire it and show it to friends and family who feign enthusiasm.

I did take a break from the spinning to try my hand at Toddler clothing design.

It's a birthday present for the coolest two year old I know. And I am hoping I didn't make her a dress that she'll have to wait another two years to wear. I guess I'll find out on Sunday. I am also in a mad dash to finish an octobot for the same little lady by Sunday. I have most of the robot done, but have only cast on for one tentacle of the octopus...looks like its going to a long Saturday with me on the couch with Veronica Mars. On second thought that doesn't sound so bad.

Like a record baby...

2007-03-07T23:52:00.000-05:00

I just started a spinning class and after my second one, I think I am hooked. Here is the very bulky fruits of my labor.

These are my first attempts, the one on the left is from learning to card the wool.

This is my first real skein of yarn. Its merino silver in raspberry and lilac with some silver alpaca blended in.

I am pretty pleased, and planning a trip this afternoon to buy my own carders and more fiber. I have a bad feeling there is going to be lots of spinning and not so much knitting in the next few weeks.

Spring is for sweaters

2007-03-03T16:58:00.000-05:00

It’s almost like spring is on its way to NYC right now and its putting me in a ridiculously great mood. Im sure finally getting a handle on my work life is a huge part as well. As part of the “work restructuring” That’s been happening around here I now work at Brooklyn General in Carroll Gardens two afternoons a week. It’s this wonderful knitting store that also carries fabric and spinning supplies. It is proving to be just as enjoyable to work there as at Coffee Den, the coffee shop I work at 1-2 days a week. And I of course already spent most of my first paycheck yarn for a new sweater. I couldn’t bring myself to frog the green sweater so I bought new yarn on the basis that I wouldn’t wear a green blazer-ish sweater (which is a blatant lie) but I love the new yarn, which is Elsebeth Lavold Silky Wool. And I am currently in Math Heaven while I figure out the pattern. This is the part that I love, I’m just not going to think about the fact that by the time I am half way thru the first sleeve I will probably be ready to chuck it all out the window, sigh.

Secret Pal 10

2007-03-02T09:24:00.000-05:00

Here is my questionarie for Secret Pal 10!

1. What is/are your favorite yarn/s to knit with? What fibers do you absolutely *not* like?

Alpaca has to be my all time favorite, but any natural fiber will warm my heart. I’m not a fan of acrylic, but I do have some in my stash it just tends to get passed over when its time to pick teams for dodge ball.

2. What do you use to store your needles/hooks in?

At the moment I have a cute bucket thing I got as a x-mas gift from a client. But I keep my “current” needles in whatever bag I’m using to lug my stuff around the city at that moment.

3. How long have you been knitting & how did you learn? Would you consider your skill level to be beginner, intermediate or advanced?

I learned to knit several times during my childhood taught by my Mom. I never seemed to make it past swatch stage until my early twenties when I rediscovered and taught myself (sadly my Mom had passed away) I would consider myself an intermediate knitter on the verge of advanced-intermediate.

4. Do you have an Amazon or other online wish list?

Yes, Yes I do.

5. What's your favorite scent?

I love florals or citrus. My perfume is Stella by Stella McCartney if that helps.

6. Do you have a sweet tooth? Favorite candy?

Chocolate rules my heart. As do homemade cookies.

7. What other crafts or Do-It-Yourself things do you like to do? Do you spin?

I sew, mostly for work but also for fun. I just took my first spinning class this week, and really like it so far.

8. What kind of music do you like? Can your computer/stereo play MP3s? (if your buddy wants to make you a CD)

I’m a little all over the place as far as music, I listen to basically everything except hard-core metal. But I am always up for suggestions.

9. What's your favorite color(s)? Any colors you just can't stand?

I love purples and blues, I guess all jewel tone colors. No colors I can’t stand but I rarely make anything in bright yellows or oranges unless it’s an accent color or toy.

10. What is your family situation? Do you have any pets?

I am recently married to an amazing guy named Gene. We live in Brooklyn New York, so far just us no babies or pets.

11. Do you wear scarves, hats, mittens or ponchos?

Scarves constantly, hats and mittens when I remember, which isn’t often. Never got into the ponchos I’m too much of a hoodie addict.

12. What is/are your favorite item/s to knit?

My favorite has to be knitting toys mostly from my own designs. But that might be because it’s the only knitting project I finish with any regularity

13. What are you knitting right now?

An Octobot and an Aquabot.

14. Do you like to receive handmade gifts?

Always

15. Do you prefer straight or circular needles? Bamboo, aluminum, plastic?

I am a fan of Wood needles in general unless it’s circular and then its Adi turbo all the way.

16. Do you own a yarn winder and/or swift?

I own a ball winder, but I still haven’t bit the bullet and bought a swift yet.

17. How old is your oldest UFO?

I have a seed stitch scarf that just celebrated its 2nd birthday this Christmas.

18. What is your favorite holiday?

Hmm…I don’t have one really. I got soured on holidays after my Mom died. But I guess my wedding anniversary if that counts, September 2.

19. Is there anything that you collect?

Does hording knitting books count?

20. Any books, yarns, needles or patterns out there you are dying to get your hands on? What knitting magazine subscriptions do you have?

I have a subscription interweave knits. But I regularly buy Vouge knitting, Fiber arts, quilting arts, and American Craft. As well as any other knitting magazine that might look good that month. If you couldn’t tell I have a slight problem with magazines=>

21. Are there any new techniques you'd like to learn?

Always. I just started experimenting with Entrelac, But I would love to learn the “right way” to do fair isle and intarsia.

22. Are you a sock knitter? What are your foot measurements?

Since I have never actually turned a heel I don’t think I can say I am a sock knitter by I am a sock designer in my head. The tiny needles just scare me a little but I am slowly but surely making my way there.

And to much mocking by my older sister, my foot is a size 10 us women’s

23. When is your birthday?

September 22, 1980.

Only the strong survive

2007-02-28T22:40:00.000-05:00

Here is a little bit of what I have been up to the last few weeks.

And here is a shot of just “Octobot”

Not as much I would like, but not to bad. I’m in the process of reorganizing my job situation., which is taking up more time than I expected. I thought freelancing was supposed to be all lunch meetings and relaxing afternoons of sewing and knitting, um yeah not so much. As much as I love the fact that I work for myself now, I was definitely unprepared for how much time it takes just to keep yourself organized and on top of things, not to mention all the actual work. But things are starting to fall into place slowly but surely, and my needles are finally starting to get some use again I think they were getting a little lonely not being dragged all over NYC everyday. I am starting to get a little burned out on the toys and I might switch back over to my “sweater”. I put sweater in quotations marks because of course I have decided I am going to frog it and start over. I want to make something more structured and blazer-like, I’ll post some sketches when I get a chance to scan them. Poor sweater, it never knew it didn’t stand a chance.

McK-

Winter Hat

2007-01-28T21:17:00.000-05:00

Winter Hat
Originally uploaded by mcknits.

Long time no Post. January has been kind of a blur. Lots of toy knitting going on but sadly not many pictures. I plan on fixing that the week but I did manage to get a picture of my new winter Hat. Now that winter has decided to actually rear it's ugly head here in NYC I realized I had no winter hat. Seemed like a great excuse to finally buy a ball of Noro that I kept eyeballing. Its knit with one ball of Noro silk garden on size ten needles. I used the scarf hat recipe (or lack thereof) from the Yarn Harlot's last book.

You also get a view of my New sweater from Ohio Knitting Mills. Its this great store on Smith street that bought out the inventory from a closing knitting factory and is selling off all the sweaters knit between 1947-1977. There is some great stuff in there. Definitely some serious inspiration.

Felting Adventures with Mozart

2007-01-03T22:05:00.000-05:00

Thing I have learned so far in 2007....

1. That felting is a glorious and addictive thing.

2. That felting small objects by hand in your kitchen sink is easy and fun.

3. That felting larger objects by hand in your kitchen sink my cause serious nerve damage in hands and back.

Here are some of the small things I worked on over the weekend

A felted crane for the Knitnowar 10o0 cranes project, and two little peanuts that I think are going to be little felted owl stuffed animals. All of the them were pretty quick to knit and the felting process didn't take long at all once I figured out that nothing was really going to work except using my own two hands and a lot of alternating between hot and cold water. I am conveniently going to not mention all the time I wasted trying to turn my kitchenaid mixer into a felting machine. After my little projects worked out I moved on to something a little larger,

Meet Mozart

here is before

And After

He will have a face tomorrow after he dries a little bit more. I don't know if I will stick with calling him Mozart but I got it from a guy I work with who called me the Mozart of knitting today when he realized I was knitting with a pattern I made myself. I didn't have the heart to let him know that I would be more the "guy on the subway platform way out in queens" of knitting rather than Mozart. That title I believe is held by Elizabeth Zimmerman.

If anyone is interested in the Knitnowar project there is more info over at Yarnboy

Here is a better pic of my finished Crane

I knit the gauge a little tight on this one, and I didn't felt him very long. I was too excited to see how it was going to turn out. But it sounds like a wonderful project and I am definitely going to RSVP for 10 cranes!

And now that I have shared I am going to hobble over to my couch and stay there for a very long time until I get feeling in my lower back again. Just reason number 100 to hate not have a washing machine in my apartment.

-McK

Home Sweet Home

2006-12-29T19:11:00.000-05:00

We are finally back in NYC, and I am loving the thought of no more traveling for at least another month. Our Christmas vacation to Chicago was lovely, lots of quality time spent with Grams and lots of chips and chocolate and all types of bad (but oh so delicious) food were consumed. I got a lot of wonderful and thoughtful gifts this year, I am especially excited about the knitting books

And a subscription to Net Flix. I plan on spending as much time as possible on the couch watching movies and knitting. Thought my completely empty calendar for January is starting to fill up rather quickly now that I am back.

I brought along the green sweater and some other random yarn to work on some little toys I was designing in my head. The hilarious part was I opened a part of my backpack I hadn’t checked in a while and found this

I don’t know what I was even working on or if this particular yarn was trying to stowaway for the trip. I did start on a new toy but I ran out of yarn so I am hoping to finish knitting him tomorrow and then I think I am going to venture into the world of felting . Oddly I even with being a textile major I never did any felting so the adventure starts this weekend=>

-McK

Tis' The Season

2006-12-19T14:13:00.000-05:00

For headaches, insomnia and stress induced eating that is. I am finally done with my “have to get done list” cards sent, presents sent and all of my freelance work done! Sadly I have had very little time to knit this month. I finished all the bells and whistles on Pedro,

He is a Llama of Fire. Since most of you are probably saying “a what?” I’ll explain. At my best friends wedding a while back we(the bridesmaids) were talking about how we didn’t want to cry at the altar during the ceremony so we were coming up with silly things to make us giggle to think of if we thought we were going to cry. Well my friend Amy has a little bit of a Llama addiction so “Llama of Fire” was born. It worked wonders for that day we all mostly didn’t cry, great. Well the next day was not to great, one of the bridesmaids, my friend Wendy’s father past away. It was unexpected and horribly sad and just not good, like most unexpected tragedies. The next day I was in this great store in my college town called Beyond Timbuktu and noticed they had little carved wooden llama beads for sale. So I bought a llama bead grabbed some of dyed red and yellow fabric from my textile class and created a llama of fire bracelet which I gave to Wendy at her fathers wake. It had only been about a year and half since my mom had passed away(also unexpectedly and I just remember needing a distraction something to take my mind away from where I was, and I figured Wendy was probably in that place as well. It worked at least as much as little things can and I know she still has that bracelet even today. So when Gene and I heard that friends of ours were having a spectacularly bad few months I decided to put my knitting skills to use and make another llama as a way to send our love from far away. He made his way to Illinois and is having a very good time with his new family.

The rest of my month has been filled with Sewing. I had 4 projects that all had deadlines last week. So instead of knitting I’ll show you some of the costumes

The pink coat is made out of felt, its for a dance/theater piece where the dancer Velcros stuff to herself, and it makes her look like a Jackie O’ Paper doll, kind of awesome.

Now all I have to do is wrap a few more presents for friends here in NYC and pack to go to Chicago on Friday. So there should be plenty of knitting time in the next week and a half and all I can say is

WOO HOO!

-McK

Brooklyn or Bust...

2006-12-02T22:35:00.000-05:00

So this weekend the husband and I were supposed to be visiting St. Louis. Well the lovely folks at Macarthur Airport in scenic Islip NY had other plans. Apparently there is some piece of equipment that helps planes to land in cloudy/rainy weather called an EGS. Well the airport decided to try to fix this piece of equipment and then couldn’t get it working again and cancelled ALL the flights in or out of the airport for the entire day. Well the airport in question is about a 3 hour subway/Long Island Rail Road trip away from our apartment we basically just got our money back and cancelled the trip and made the long trip home. Which was probably for the best especially since there was a crazy ice storm in STL the day before.

BOOOOO

And the whole day was topped off by a ridiculous Cab ride with a crazy Chinese women who pretended she didn’t know how to get to Brooklyn but then complained that we didn’t give her the most direct route (she had places to be and emphasized this by holding up a plastic WALL clock in a gallon size zip lock bag. So why did she need directions if she already knew the best way to take us?!? Then she tried to play the “I have no change” game so we would have to give her an insane tip for a normal can ride let alone a ridiculous one; thankfully we found some dollar bills.

But all was not lost I worked on this guy

His name is Pedro the Llama, he still needs some finishing stuff done but for the most part he only took me about a day to knit. I had to do some finagling attaching the legs together and continuing on with the body. He is also a “ridge back” Llama since It was very late when I went to graft together his back before I started the neck and tail. Lets just say I didn’t quite have the patience for it and he got whip stitched. I will just have to practice my grafting (or lack there-of) on another project.

The sweater is also quite a bit longer, I just finished the waist shaping and am about to start on the shaping for the bust. I think I might start a count of how many toys I finish knitting while the poor sweater stays on the needles.

Toy Count=2

Like I mentioned before, I’m an impatient girl who like results=>

-McK

The sweater continues

2006-11-29T10:10:00.000-05:00

I am making progress on the sweater

I don't normally try to co-ordinate my clothing and bed quilts but sometimes it happens I suppose.

I took the sweater with me last night when the husband and I went to see Casino Royal. It was actually a really good movie and I was doing pretty good with the knitting in the dark thing, I even managed a few of the cables, that is until I dropped my yarn and it rolled under the feet of the guy two seats away. I don't think he noticed but I didn't want to disturb some random guy in the middle of an action movie to ask if he could hand me my Yarn. And also being afraid of what the yarn might have landed in, I decided to wait until the end of the movie to retrieve it and see if it was covered in goo. Thankfully the yarn was fine and my embarrassment was kept to a minimum at the end of the movie since the guy and his friend split pretty quickly and I just nonchalantly picked up the yarn on the way out. But after all of that I ended up not screwing the top back onto my soda properly and spilled Diet Dr. Pepper all over the sweater and the inside of my bag. So today I will be giving the sweater a bath and cursing my incredible talent for spilling anything that stains or is sticky on everything I own.

McK-

Aquabot Lives!

2006-11-24T19:37:00.000-05:00

Meet Aquabot...

Sometimes he's a fish

But then he kind of feels like changing things up

And he becomes a Robot

I gave him to my friend Steve on Wednesday and he was definitely the hit of the party. It took a little bit but I finally stopped being horrified every time somebody turned him inside out repeatedly over and over again. I was afraid that he was going fall apart but like most Aquabots he is pretty tough and is still standing, or swimming, whichever.

McK-

Transformers: fish robots in disguise

2006-11-20T16:57:00.000-05:00

So my sweater (if you can call my 3 inches of 2x2 ribbing a sweater) has been temporarily put aside while I knit a transformer stuffed animal for my friend Steve’s birthday. Yes that’s right while I knit a transformer

While my transformer isn’t going to quite look exactly like the original( lets just call it "loosely" based), I’m still fairly impressed with myself with this project only because I am making it up on the fly and it seems to working out fairly well so far. I am making a stuffed robot that turns into a fish (long explanation on why these two things, you’ll just have to trust me that he’ll love it) I am done with the robot and the fish body

But I still have to figure out how I am going to knit the fins. I have an image in my head of what I want but no idea on how to actually knit it. Kind of a problem, but if I can figure out how to solve the whole “transformation” thing, I’m hoping I can figure out how to knit a fish fin.

And to give credit where credit is due I have to say that much of my inspiration to knit toys and how to knit them has come from Jess Hutchison and her fabulous self published booklette Unusual Toys for You to Knit and Enjoy Unusual Toys for You to Knit and Enjoy I am pretty sure it isn’t available anymore, which is a shame because it is really wonderful fun and great inspiration.

All right I must now go scour my knitting books for the perfect stitch pattern for fish fins suitable for a transformer. Wish me luck

McK-

PS Steve’s birthday is on Thanksgiving so finished pictures soon!

Swatches are fun, maybe.

2006-10-29T23:28:00.000-05:00

I Knit a swatch.

That isn’t really a note worthy feat for most but for me it is a gigantic leap in new direction of knitting.

I have never been one to care much for gauge. Not that I didn’t think it was important, I just didn’t want to be bothered. Up until now I have mainly worked on projects where gauge was not really all that crucial. If that scarf was a little wider or longer, no big deal. If that teddy bear I knit was three times bigger than what the designer intended, all the better for the recipient to hug. I lived in a gauge less world and I was happy.

But today I found myself sketching and really wanting to start on one of the many sweaters I have designed on paper. I have never knit one on real life but I have hundreds in my sketchbooks. Which brought me to the realization that if I wanted to make the sweater actually fit me I was going to have to not only knit a swatch but several swatches of different stitch patterns I wanted to use.

Again to most people that is completely normal, to me it has always seemed like wasted time. I am an impatient person. The only projects that I have successfully finished are ones knit with bulky yarn and large needles and took less than a week to finish. I want results and I want them now. Not the best attitude for a knitter. Today I realized that it wasn’t only about the finish piece it was also about the process and knitting a sweater just seemed to be the most natural thing in the world.

It is going to be a sweater vest, my current obsession of the fall. I bought 3 skeins of Rowan Yorkshire Tweed Aran in a dark blue-green with bright green and bright blue flecks through out. I cast on around 2pm, and currently after the swatch I have about 1 inch of the bottom ribbing completed for the front piece and I feel fabulous about it. Normally if I cast on around 2pm I would expect to be about 3/4 finished with whatever I started by time I went to bed. I told you I am an impatient person. I will post pictures of my progress and we will see if I can leave the world of speed knitting behind and get behind this project for the long haul.

Only time will tell=>

McK-

Baby's first blog

2006-10-22T19:21:00.000-04:00

I'll start things off with an introduction. My name is Mary. I am a costume designer in NYC (www.mckcostumes.com) and I am addicted to all things textile. Like a lot of people I learned to knit and crochet from my Mom and also inherited the exceptional ability to purchase countless quantities of yarn, needles, books and even fiber and still manage not to produce anything tangible from my knitting. Well I guess they could be tangible if you wanted a really short scarf with knitting needles still attached.

I am currently obsessed with Elizabeth Zimmerman. I never thought knitting books could be so entertaining and inspiring. Check out any of her books, I think I have finally managed to buy them all. I also am a big fan of Leigh Radford and Teva Durham.

I tend to not follow patterns so much as use them for inspiration, though with my track record of follow through I'm not sure if it matters. I am currently in the process of designing some patterns of my own, and I am absolutely determined to knit finished products of them even if it kills me.

I will post pictures of my current projects soon, so that I will be shamed into finishing them. Or that is the plan, we will see if it works=>

McK-