Sky Scarf, January 2012

This noon, I completed the January, 2012 portion of my Sky Scarf for Holland, Michigan. As you can see from the photo above, we are having a beautiful sunny day here and that we have had a lot of blue sky for the month. This is most unusual. I was expecting to knit a lot of grey this month. The other big change to the scarf was tearing out everything since the first post and reknitting it from garter stitch (knit every row) to a knit two, purl two rib pattern. I am much happier with this version. It is a little narrow and I think it shows off the difference in color from day to day. One month done, eleven to go. Tomorrow, we start February.

"Two for One" or "WOW! Two Posts in One day!"

Every year, Holland Friends of Art puts on an outdoor craft fair called "Art in the Park". It is held in August in Centennial Park here in Holland, Michigan. I have participated in it once and when I was on the board was involved in it in other ways. Anyway, years ago they started holding a poster competition for the members and this year I decided to enter a piece for it. Here it is. I didn't think it would hurt to show my entry here since probably only one or two people will even see it. I like how it turned out. I used only Sharpie brand markers for this. I love Sharpies but have never really used them for artwork. That might change. There are lots of colors available and some limited edition colors too, I might have to do some shopping to fill out my palette.

A new painting.

It's been a long time since I've painted anything. There, I said it. It's not like I'm not doing anything creative though. I've been reading and knitting (a lot) and making some cards, but I haven't been painting, unless you count painting my son's bedroom. So, about two weeks ago, I had motivation to finish a painting for the Holland Friends of Art Members show. I work better with a deadline, an empty frame complete with a mat already cut, a blank sheet of watercolor paper and no excuses. I must admit I was a little nervous. What was I going to paint? How would it turn out? Would it be done in time for the show? I selected a photo that I took several years ago near Asheville, North Carolina and dove in. I am happy with how it turned out. Not completey, but I am my worse critic. The best part is that I really enjoyed the process and am looking forward to the next piece. I might even have to place an order for more paper and a couple of more tubes of paint.

By the way, the Sky Scarf is going well and I'll post an update on or about February 1. Stay tuned.

Sky Scarf Post #1/2

Well, we're only a week into 2012 and I thought I would post a photo of my progress on the Sky Scarf.

I thought being in Michigan and it being winter when I started that I would be knitting nothing but grey and white for the first four months. But as you can see, it's been quite the happy mix this first week with lots of blue sky.

I decided that I would knit my two rows based on what the sky was doing at noon each day. The above photo was the sky at about 12:30 p.m. At noon it was completely grey. It's mostly grey again now at about 1:30 p.m.

My intent is to post a photo the end of each month so that you can see the progress.

One thing I haven't been able to do is twist the yarn along the edge the way she did it in the pattern. My plan is to crochet all the way around when it's done.