Pippy Knit-a-Log

February 23, 2010

Vote for Marcel- help animals! + brief knitting and drawing updates

It seems my Knit-A-Log time has been eaten by my facebook/Ravelry/flickr/blog reading time! Well, here is a quick update, with (hopefully! Because who knows where time goes when you get sucked into that black hole of everything!!) more to come! First of all, Marcel wants everyone to know that he is entered in this Spay Day Pet Photo Contest for raising money for the Humane Society. We know there are a lot of causes to give to, and a lot of people are fairly tapped out at this point, but we thought we would see if Marcel's mug could raise a couple of $$ for the animals. So Marcel sends out his best love and sincerest gratitude to all who lend a helping paw and vote for him.
So yeah, other than that, I've been knitting and have finished so many little things- 5 hats since December (one for my downstairs neighbor for Christmas, one for Dan, one for Mummy and 2 for me,me,me!!), one baby sweater for Charlotte, (which hopefully will get to her before she's in college- its a race against time!! These babies grow fast in Knitting Time. I have a small purple sweater in progress which was intended for a certain Caroline, made in 4 year-old size. The child is now 6, I believe- please tell me she isn't 7- How does it happen?? Time accelerates!) and countless hemp washcloths. Now I'm making another pair of Fetchings in a lovely bright blue/green for me. (the color is actually much brighter than on the screen. Yarn courtesy of the dear Biko and bought at Nina on a lovely warmish,wandering afternoon. We also had German chocolate cupcakes from Alliance Bakery- omg, they are totally from The Devil- in a good way!!)
Oh, and at Christmas I knitted like a skillion of these tiny acorns- which, if you believe, like Corey does, and you have faith, you can plant and grow a sweater tree in your backyard. Or you could just hang them on your Christmas tree, which I did.

Marcel has more news and he is poking me with his pata, whispering, "tell them about the book! Tell them!!" Because he's very excited about the new zine we have been making called Marcel's Happy Book. We've posted some images from it on my flickr page-

Will post updates when its all finished!
Here is me on one of my few Bike Winter days- it is truly sad how much of a winter biking wuss I have become- I need to get out and do it some more as it makes one feel quite invincible. And plus keeping moving is actually much easier than waiting for a bus or train in the cold. Its a fact! And yet, and yet. Sigh.

One always looks hotter in a helmet. Its true!!
So soon I will be posting pictures of tulips.

Posted by pippypippy at 06:39 PM | Comments (0)

September 23, 2009

Readymades with Pippy and Marcel

Lately I've been on a thing.
Maybe it is just regular old nostalgia and I am just making more of it.
Maybe its because its fall and I can feel things preparing to go to sleep. I'm hoping that while things are sleeping I might stay awake for some of it, this time around, and get things done, in the darkness and the quiet. There is something soothing about the insulation of cold and snow, if one has a good cave to hole up in, and good socks, and lots of wool to knit with.
The scarf I am affectionately calling Bert is all done and all the ends woven in -

It is from this pattern that I found on Ravelry, and its super easy and mindless but not at all boring, in fact I am thinking I may have to do another one or two. It looks really good on, so I am hoping for a cool day, even. Kind of. The best part is I made it from leftover scrap yarn. There were some tense moments when I thought I had run out of gray, and when I actually did run out of white, but I think it worked out really well. You have to sometimes embrace the element of chance, with knitting, even if your knitting brain resists! Just take a deep breath and repeat, in the words of The Yarn Harlot, "there are no knitting police. There are no knitting police".

I also finally finished sewing in the ends for the Mums's Simple Yet Effective Shawl.

Which was meant to be a birthday present last year (in January)!! Its true I am a bad daughter. But it will still be effective, and simple, and cozy this winter. The Polska mittens, I think I can finish by January. Really, I mean it!!

Meanwhile, it was (and is!) Charlotte's first birthday, so I made a little sign to go under the Happy Birthday sign I made for Lucy- we just swapped out the Lucy part.

The consensus seemed to be that it worked out quite nicely.
I still thought it needed something, but I couldn't put a finger on what, (although I came close to adding glitter- rainbowish white iridescent glitter leftover from my unicorn horn some Halloween Critical Mass rides ago) but decided in the end to keep it sweet and minimal. So yeah. Charlotte got cake on her face but in general quite a bit made it into her mouth. A good time was had by all!
Oh, and I gave Charlotte this shirt from Threadless-

I think she liked it but it was hard to tell.

Marcel doesn't like to be left out.
Especially when I run in to get coffee. Although he does like how people walk up and pet him periodically, and tell him how cute he is. And the fact that he knows I will share a croissant with him for being such a good boy-

He's fine! Don't be fooled!

Oh, and I made a new painting, which some of you may have seen already, which can be viewed, for your viewing pleasure, on my flickrs, which, if you haven't gone there you really should. Seriously.

More soon!

Posted by pippypippy at 10:19 AM | Comments (1)

August 29, 2009

Pippy's House of Happy

Oh! Can you feel the fall-ness in the air? It really is practically time to break out the wool and get knitting in earnest (not that I ever put away the wool entirely, there's air conditioning but you know. Its hard to be enthused about making mittens in summer). So I am having mixed feelings, as I hate for the time of long dog walks in the park, happy bike riding, the garden full of flowers- with some new and surprising beautiful thing blooming every day- and leafy trees, and drinking iced coffee and reading outdoors to come to an end. And for the dark to come, but we are trying not to think of that! Yesterday I thought I was going to die of a mysterious stomach ailment. Today I woke up and felt much better and thus, found many happy-making things around to take pictures of. First I was examining my mindless project (also known as tv/movie knitting, the thing you can work on without paying too much attention) which is an extra-scrubby washcloth made from some hemp that I love/hate knitting with.
The really cool thing, besides the finished product, which is quite nice to use in the shower for maximal scrubbing power, is what it looks like when you hold it up to the light.

Another one-

In fact, it is this organic, abstract expressionist quality that convinced me to keep doing it, because the thing itself is not always so satisfying to look at, from a purely aesthetic perspective. A curtain made from it might be cool, too.

So yeah, not hideous, but not as pretty and happy as something like this-

Which is the second of the Polska mittens I am making for the Mums. The little row of green stitches are where the thumb is going to go. There is not so much more to do, but it is like Second Sock Syndrome- the second one just kind of drags. But I'm getting there.
Or there is this-

A stripey scarf from a pattern I found on Ravelry

Its also pretty mindless to knit, but satisfying in its own way. I am excited to finish it and wear it. (I'm calling it my Bert scarf, because striped scarves always make me think of Bert. Hi, Bert!)

Ok, so then too I have been working on this kind of crazy chicken painting, which is turning out pretty well, I think-

And I made this little embroidered thingie for Lucy, my niece, although I am not sure what its going to be yet.

I was going through some stuff in a box and I found the heart already done, it was a valentine I had started to make for someone, some time ago and never finished. Since I was practicing some new stitching I decided to add to it, and one thing led to another. A voila.

Oh, and one last happy-making thing- there are monarch butterflies literally everywhere. They seem to really enjoy the high branches of the trees outside my front window, so Marcel and I watch them from the bed, well, I watch them, Marcel is indifferent. But yeah. So many butterflies! Amazing.

Posted by pippypippy at 12:02 PM | Comments (2)