Knot Knecessarily Known Knitting

Since I'm using the same picture as my avatar both here on the blog and on Ravelry, I thought it would be fun to share the picture in context. It was taken by a dear friend last year during Dragon*Con, which is in downtown Atlanta during Labor Day weekend. The sculpture behind me is Ballet Olympia , which is in the SunTrust Plaza. The SunTrust building is on a triangular lot formed by Peachtree St NE, Baker St NE, and Peachtree Center Ave NE. This is the spot where Peachtree St NW jogs right, becomes NE, and leads from downtown towards midtown. It is on the block immediately north of the Hyatt Regency, which is one of the main hotels for Dragon*Con. According to a quick internet search, the sculptures were designed by architect John Portman in 1991-1992. There are also fountains as well in this sunken plaza. In terms of urban landscape design, the setting is pretty nice. As the title suggests, I'm sure the sculptures were part of the maniacal renovations of the city for ...

I know that I tend to knit the more idiosyncratic items. I've done an ouroborus sweater, a labyrinth sweater, a mobius scarf, a jester tentacles bag. I know I am, in fact, outside of the mainstream of knitters. I've been editing my stash into Ravelry . And since I moved the whole stash around a month ago, I was well-reminded of intended projects just waiting to be cast on. The South Cobb Arts Alliance member show just went up, and I didn't have a thing to put in it this year. That's a testament to how much of my knitting has been for other things -- two baby sweaters for the NGKG presentation, scarves for the nieces and nephews, samples for the classes I'm teaching at the shop. I decided I really, really needed to knit something for myself. And I might as well post it on Ravelry. So there are over 150,000 people on Ravelry right now. I decided to see what other people have done with this pattern. Hmmm. There aren't any other people who have posted this...

One of my very favorite places in the whole world is ZooAtlanta . I was a volunteer docent there for four years in the early '00s. Even now, a day at the zoo is, for me, a great way to relax. I am a panda fanatic, so Lun Lun, Yang Yang, and Mei Lan are always a major draw for me. But I've also learned over the years to love some of the other animals, too. And I've learned that standing and quietly watching can be very much worth the time. I needed to relax on Friday, so I made it a point to go visit. This spring the zoo welcomed several baby critters, including Argus pheasants, black-&-white-ruffed lemurs , a red kangaroo , and three African lions . But the one I really went to see was the baby warthog , who has already been named Georgia P. I don't know if the "P" is short for "peach" or "pig" or something else entirely. Her parents are Verne and Shirley, and they arrived at the zoo just last year. The names are easy to re...

Artists talk about "happy accidents" -- art projects that don't go exactly the way the artist expects, but they still turn out very well. My most recent foray turned out that way. I teach at The Whole Nine Yarns in Woodstock. The shop is hosting its annual Christmas in July event later this month. For that event, I needed to come up with a free pattern. Something quick. And simple. Okay. If you've been reading this blog, you know that quick and simple is rarely my approach to knitting. So this was a real design challenge for me. I poked around in my folder of patterns and came across some old yarn ball patterns. These are patterns where you knit a ball by making a series of short-row wedges. Each section is similar in shape to the skin of an orange or lemon wedge. I looked around the shop and picked out a skein of Arucania Limarí multicolor (color 556). It's a bulky weight yarn. This colorway is turquoise with dabs of rusty red. I knit up the ball shape, closed o...