City Views, Country Dreams

Good evening from New York.

Winter has finally claimed our city.  I am so glad to have had this Sunday off, and to have been able to spend most of the blue skied day in hibernation, only venturing out between 2 and 3 this afternoon, hoping that the strong winds will have brought the official effective temperature closer to freezing.

This was not the case.  The wind was still strong, and everyone I encountered along the sidewalks on my quick walk to the grocery market seemed very intent on their own individual destinations.  These folks were not always mindful of their fellow pedestrians, sort of like what happens when umbrellas give us an excuse for bad walking manners on a rainy day.

It was wonderful to get back home and make that inevitable pot of tea.  PG Tips it was.

My apartment is usually very overheated, but today I am grateful for all the heat that the continually hissing radiators are emitting.  Yesss, I am.

Enough of this weather report.

I'd like to show you some of the projects I've been working on in my hours away from my job.  The following photos show a two-toned, popcorn-stitch-accented crocheted hat that I can report has been keeping my head warm this past week.

I made this up as I went along, using a black worsted weight black wool yarn, accented by a dual strand of vintage Rowan 4-ply Botany yarn and Rowan ivory-ish tweed 4-ply.  The overall shape is like a Russian turnip dome building, meeting up with a classic beret shape.

I was also inspired by the pop-up Japanese tie-dye technique called shibori.  I have several scarves made by this intricate method, and loved the idea of making my own modest tribute.


Another of my New Year's projects has been an initial experiment with a medium new to me, acrylic ink.  Perhaps many of you are also fans of Milly's beautiful Drawings from Nature posts?  If you have not visited there, may I encourage you to do so?  She is one of the folks who initially encouraged me to start this blog.


She's a fine artist, who definitely has mastered the use of acrylic inks.  Last week, I made a quick visit to my favorite NYC discount artists' materials shop, and bought three bottles of acrylic ink, in black, white and sepia.  This afternoon, I opened up a page in one of my mostly empty sketch books and played a bit with the sepia and white ink.  I'm being brave in showing you all the results, and hope that in the weeks to come, I'll have much better examples to share.  I did like using the inks, finding them somewhere between watercolor and gouache, featuring some aspects of each of those two media that I have liked.

Now, let me return to another yarn fueled project.  I am knitting a long, fringed scarf as a surprise farewell gift for a work colleague who will be leaving at the end of the month.  I'm using all four-ply yarns, most of which I bought many, many years ago at Liberty's then excellent yarn department.  I do hope that department still exists!

The colors in this scarf are a bone  Botany (same as in the hat) and three different grey tweedy yarns.  All are Rowan yarns, though I think most might no longer be available.

Let's see, what else have I been doing when not at the shop, trying to keep up with certain 2012 resolves?  I'm reading two books.  One is a recent Alexander McCall Smith novel, The Forgotten Affairs of Youth, featuring his philosopher heroine, Isabel Dalhousie.  


The other novel is Heat Lightning, by Helen Hull, published in 1932, by Coward, McCann, Inc.  I was not yet born in 1932, and Coward, McCann, Inc. no longer exist.  However, Persephone Books are going to reissue this book.  I am finding its plot rather like the story line to a classic film of that era.  I see the scenes in black and white, though Ms Hull's excellent writing also exposes all sort of grey.


Perhaps you readers will now sense that this post has featured a certain colorway?


As we all take our additional steps into this new year, le'ts hope for lots of color, more as each day dawns.


Thank you all for your comments.  I continue to be amazed to have visitors from all over the world.