Knitting in Fine Art

by Kelly

Looking for ideas for a new header, I did a search for 'fine art knitting'. Ambitious, ain't I? Thought I would share the beautiful images. All from WikiPaintings

Portrait of Madame Boissiere Knitting


 

Artist: Gustave Caillebotte

Completion Date: 1877

Style: Impressionism

Genre: portrait

Technique: oil

Material: canvas

Dimensions: 65 x 80 cm

Gallery: Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas, USA

Scheveningen Woman Knitting

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Artist: Vincent van Gogh

Completion Date: 1881

Place of Creation: Netherlands

Style: Realism

The Knitting Lesson

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Artist: Jean-Francois Millet

Completion Date: 1869

Style: Realism

Genre: genre painting

Technique: oil

Material: canvas

Dimensions: 101.3 x 83.2 cm

Gallery: S

 

The Knitting Shepherdess

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Artist: Jean-Francois Millet

Start Date: c.1856

Completion Date: 1857

Style: Realism

Genre: genre painting

Technique: pastel

Material: paper

Dimensions: 33.7 x 25.4 cm

Tags: arts-and-crafts, pastoral-scenes

 Something I noticed while looking at portraits of knitters - they all have terrible posture. My physical therapist would be patting all those slumped shoulders and saying   "Relax, now. You're beautiful and you should let the world see that."  (She even gave my husband permission to do this! I had to explain that he has a different approach - He sneaks up behind me, says "Posture monster!" and tickles my sides until I straighten up.)

I could have saved myself a lot of trouble by going to charm school all those years ago. Although, if someone told me to balance books on my head, I'd likely be sneaking one off the pile so I could read it.

And now a random YouTube video moment. No, that's not me,  but this is a great example of the sort of geeky talents that I especially admire in others.

 

Ninety-five Degree Afghan

by Kelly

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Oddball that I am, I crocheted this during our recent (and ongoing) heatwave. Ninety-five degrees in the shade? Sounds like a perfect time to  make a ripple afghan in cool blues and grays.

I do like how these pictures turned out, though. The sunlight shining through the holes in the afghan looks just like sunlight sparkling on water. Note to self - from now on, take pictures only on scorching summer days with 98 percent humidity and glaring sunlight.

 

 And on cold winter days I will curl up in the comfort of my ninety-five degree afghan and remember the sweltering weeks of summer when I made it.

On another note, the above pictures were taken on our screened back porch. This is the only part of our house that I have ever loved. I hate the poky little kitchen, the leaky roof, the bizarre electrical wiring, the partial chimney from a long ago fireplace hidden in the utility closet. But the back porch is a little bug free haven where we can escape and pretend we are living in some breezy vacation locale.

Of course, even here there is room for improvement. Here's another view of the porch.

I would like to think that this picture expresses something profound about the ephemeral nature of the creations of the human race, and the overwhelming urge of the nature to sweep away the old and begin anew. But in all honesty, I think all it says is that it's time to nag my husband about getting out the weed whacker.

A Change in the Weather

As these Brookfield residents enjoy their icicle treats, I find myself strangely turning back to crocheting. Now is really the time I should be at the beach reading and yet, for some odd reason I have been on a crochet tear all week. I have so many unfinished projects that I vowed to start getting some of them off my plate. I finished my bright pink camisole - and actually wore it! In retrospect I really should have done it in white or some other unassuming color - the pink is a little LOUD. I'm finishing up a market bag and interspersing that with dishcloths here and there (they're so easy they make me feel like I've actually accomplished something). Sushi mats are next - still have a shawl that's 2/3 done. It's all I can do not to look for the next project :)

July 31 Days of Giving Calendar

Found this interesting link on the Red Heart site this morning. It's a calendar of giving opportunities. A nice list for some ideas about what to do with all your handiwork.

http://www.redheart.com/files/cc11947_RH_July31DaysOfGiving.pdf?utm_source=Publicaster&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=31%20Days%20of%20Giving%20Back&utm_term=July+2011+Giving+Back+calendar

Rippleing Waves Blanket

by Kelly

What I'm working on now - I made a baby sized ripple blanket once before, and it was really easy and fun. So I decided to make a larger one for me. So I staged a raid on Donna's yarn stash (which is so much larger than mine!) and picked out nine or ten skeins.

Crocheting for Charity

Kelly posted a nice article some time ago on handcrafts for charity - I stumbled across this list so I thought I'd share - http://www.dailycrocheter.com/charity.php

I'm usually the one lagging in this department. Both Donna and Kelly made a nice donation to the Fossil Ridge collection last year. I've actually done a few things for this year's contribution, so mark me ahead of my usual game. There's lots of good ideas and links here - I'm liking the red scarf project in particular, but many to choose from.

Hi Everyone,

Now I am the one who has been MIA. I was visiting with my brother for a few days over the Fourth of July and of course I have dozens of things to catch up with. The trip to see my brother is 7 hours each way so I take crochet projects and a book to read whenever I go. My husband drives and I crochet. Here is a picture of the dishcloths I made. You can find the patterns for all of these at http://www.bestfreecrochet.com/. These dishcloths all have numbers. I crocheted #148, 167, 170,172, 173, and 175. I also crocheted 20 small squares for an afghan I am working on.

I took some pictures of the fireworks display with my phone. Here is an example. The pictures aren't really good but the fireworks were gorgeous.