I.Maker.365.

(019) hang time

For many years I have had to travel a lot for work; a relentless schedule of hurrying here, to get there, in time for that, to ultimately get back and do the other. Always thinking of next always in preparation for what’s coming. In this entire shuffle though, I have noticed an island. The island lies just beyond the security gates and TSA, and extends to that hallway just before baggage claim at your destination.

 It is time that you are only secondarily in charge of, time where you are trying to make the best of what you have to work with. Some use it productively, to “catch-up on work” or catch-up with friends or reading. But inevitably it seems like extra, extra time, extra hours, somehow a bonus to the actual travel stasis time you are waiting to pass.

 I’ve noticed others tend to us this stasis time less productively, to conjure existential angst, to figure out the exact reasons they bug you so much, or generally to wallow in ennui of epic proportions. It is to you people (that’s right I said “you people”) I offer hand-craft.

 Last week week I had to attend to some family business in Florida. It’s a short flight, about two and a half hours. Normally I scan through various media devices and poke at various written tomes until, like a caged animal, I am delivered to my destination.

 This time I decided to man-up and take my knitting. I know that statement might sound a little oxymoron-ic, but I’ve only recently begun to feel comfortable knitting in front of strangers. I remember after 9/11 how up in arms some of my knitter friends were about the ban on knitting needles on planes. They claimed they would go insane without it.

 Last week I got it. I was working on a second Fibonacci sequence scarf. The two and a half hour flight felt like about thirty minutes. I put four inches on the scarf. I didn’t overthink anything. Travel eased by the focus of maker morphine.

(016) testify on making

Over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend we hosted a pie party. The idea was bring your favorite pie, or bring whatever left-over pie you want gone. My friend Alex showed up with a tasty homemade chess pie. I hadn't seen him in a while and he asked what I'd been doing lately.

I told him, amongst other things, I had recently started writing a blog about making. He asked why he hadn't heard about it. The answer was quite simple. Having developed user generated and social strategies for getting the word out for the better part of 10 years now, I keep reminding myself, there has to be a there there first.

Eight posts does not make a blog on making, fifteen simply states that I have been able to stick with it for two whole weeks! Needless to say my aim was to get some variety and girth behind this project before tooting my horn too loudly.

One of the things I've wanted to do since the start is share not only what I've been doing, but what others have done too. To that end I am looking for a few folks that want to testify on making. I've approached a couple of ringers to get started on a various topics. But I wanted to offer you, the hand-full of casual readers, an opportunity too.

What's your passion? Cooking, knitting, auto restoration, beer making, Rasberry Pi, wood-working, welding; what gets you going, and what is it that keeps you there?

Testify on the art and love of making. Help me breathe more community into these posts.

Drop me an email, let me know what you're making, we would love to hear from you.

(002) the fibonacci scarf and hood

I've been working on a winter clothing piece in the past few days that I wanted to share. The task I set for myself was to make something that looked more organic in form. I have a
tendency to put lots of angles and lines in the costumes I design, so the main goal was to not do that.

I call it the Fibonacci scarf because the knitted portion follows that numerical progression. 1, 2, 3 ,5 8, 13, 21, 34, 55. The scarf was knitted on circular needles. I cast on 87 and then overlapped the remaining 55 to start. Then I repeated the sequence over and over. k1, p2, k3, p5, etc. once I finished the sequence I reversed the knits for pearls, meaning one complete row before repeating was actually two.

As would be expected with a number like this the pattern started to look organic, cloud like almost. I think I'm going to play with it more with other yarn soon.

The rest of the Seuss-ian extravaganza is faux wolf fur. I have quite a bit of it left over from some costume pieces I was working on last year. After I made the hood for Noga (see previous post) I wanted to extend that into something more balaclava style.

I keep calling it a prototype cause I'm sure I will make something later that a little more refined. But in terms of make something that looked kooky and organic, I think I nailed it.