How to win his house mate over...

Look at Eckhart Tollecat loving his new Pi bed! It took until today for him to get in it and try it out. He was really bad right before he decided to try out his new bed. I do believe he finally tried it out because I've been begging him to for weeks and he was trying to win me back for being bad. It worked. Next I'm going to knit him a catnip mouse pattern that is free on Lion Brand Yarn's free pattern site. So back to the needles. I'm just a mouse away from seeing you soon.

Spotting UFOs

I'd like to say I haven't been keeping up with my blog because I've been abducted by aliens. But, to use the proper wordage...I've been taken away by UFOs.
It being Spring time, many of the human species find a hunger to clean up our living spaces and reorganize as a welcoming in of the Spring season.
What jumped out most to me in my home were the HUGE number of UFOs (unfinished objects) I have all over the house. Why? Because for some reason, the next step of each project had a problem, so I'd go on to another project until I came up with a solution. You know what I'm talking about...problems like...running out of the right yarn, or you're designing a piece and can't really figure out the next step at this time, or if you're working with instructions, maybe you misplaced them. The toughest part of facing our UFOs can be that we forgot where we left off and have to figure that out...which isn't always a smooth transition.
So, here is one of the many UFOs that I completed recently.
It is a cat bed. The instructions are found for free on this wonderful knit site Kitty Pi .
And here is such an entertaining page where you can list your kitty bed with your kitty modeling it and tell your story once it's finished! Kitty Bed Gallery
Now, I'm not sure if Eckhart Tollecat will even use his bed once it's dried. But if he does, I would love to post it on the gallery page. And if he doesn't....it will stay the extravagant bar stool cover it is at this time. That's the fun of creating....there's always a new way to see things and use them.
I hope the Spring season is inspiring you to bravely face those UFOs, keeping your projects your friends and not leaving them estranged aliens.

Either You're Een or You're Out....Is Knitting a Dying Art?

My cool friend, Jackie went on a trip to Chicago. The Hershey Store had these designs from Project Runway on display. How nice to see them in their stillness to study the detail! I don't know about you, but I'm addicted to watching Project Runway. It's so inspiring to see what talented designers create under such a high stress deadline. It's also fascinating to see how stress brings out peoples' character.

I wonder if Jillian's dress could be displayed without roaches coming to eat the Twizzlers. That was an amazing feat to put and keep that design together. I was at the edge of my seat wondering if it will hold together.

My point here is to ask the title question. I hear and read that "knitting is out." I hear that Project Runway has made sewing the hot skill people are hungry to focus on. PR is responsible for increasing the enrollment in fashion schools as well. Does that mean that knitting has died on the vine? I can't imagine it has. Don't fashion shows have knits as well? And the major biggy that I love about hand knitting is that it's portable. You can't take a Bernina on the subway and do a few seams until you get to your destination. (Though I hear there are teeny hand machines people use.) I've heard celeb knitters in interviews mention knitting is not what it was even five years ago. I don't want to believe this. What do you think? I am still teaching people to knit and maybe knitting and sewing will do a Reese's peanutbutter and chocolate merge and create a new craze in the future. Being a Tolle fan, I can't worry about the future. So, I'm going to accept the "isness" of fashion and expect that knitting is going to hold its own. Is there an "isness" to fashion? I'm going to have to ask Eckhart Tolle.

Mistakes Are Our Friends

First of all, I'd like to thank my awesome art business coach, Michelle http://michmysticdesigns.blogspot.com/ , for kickstarting me on finally making this blog.

This is a photo of me back in 1965. I had just learned to knit that year. Remember Earl Sheib the auto painting guru? Well, his wife, Mady, opened a knit shop in my home town and my Mom and I learned to knit there. I was ten. This is the first sweater I ever knit.

I remember the instructions said to rib in K1P1 for an inch and a half and change to St st. I didn't know what that meant, so I just kept on ribbing until I reached the arm hole. I brought the sweater in to show Mady how I was doing. I remember her putting her head in her hands. Then after a long pause, she said, "That's okay, you can make it a poorboy sweater." Poorboy sweaters were just starting to be a hot item back then. They looked cool with hip hugger mini-skirts and fishnet stockings. That was my first taste of learning to take advantage of my mistakes. Some of the best art comes out of going with the flow of the unexpected (or mistakes.) Jazz singers and musicians do it all the time. Performers do it all the time. Artists do it all the time. I highly recommend making friends with mistakes. Because sometimes they aren't miss takes at all. They are new road takes that put you on an exciting new journey called "finding your style." Does anyone have any mistake success stories they'd like to share? Please share them with your Knitfunctional Family.....