KARABOUTS

Feline World Mourns The Passing Of Steve Jobs

Steve Jobs died last week. The world lost a true visionary and design genius.

With Steve at the helm, Apple designed revolutionary products that we have come to know and love like the iPhone, iPod, iPad and iMac.  

However, one product that hasn't received much attention is the product our cats consider Apple's greatest technological advancement - the iPurr cat bed.

These portable, heated cat beds come in three sizes (13-inch, 15-inch and 17-inch) for small, medium and large cats.  The beds have an adjustable LED back support panel and a sleeping surface made of individual "keys" that depress to cradle your cat in comfort - much like a coil-spring mattress.  Every bed has a battery that heats up and keeps your cat warm, and an internal fan that makes a gentle hum to lull your cat to sleep.  The beds are made of aluminum which won't irritate kitty's coat and is easy to wipe clean.  Sure they're a little more expensive than other cat beds (new models start at $1,199.00 on Apple's website).  But if you love your cat, it's worth it.  As you can see, our cat "sleeps different." 

Rothko Rug

What do abstract artist Mark Rothko and former letter turner Vanna White have in common?  Probably not much but I've managed to unite them in my latest crochet project - a rug based on a painting by Mark Rothko made out of Vanna White's acrylic yarn.  Rothko's painting sold for $72.84 million at Sotheby's.  Vanna's yarn sells for $3.99 at Michael's Crafts.

Here's the painting:

And here's the rug:

To make this rug I used a technique called wiggly crochet that I learned from Susan Lowman.  If you're interested in learning how to make a wiggly crochet rug of your own I suggest you order this excellent booklet written by Susan.

This rug is so pretty I may just hang it on the wall (and someday sell it for either $72.84 million or $3.99). 

 

a day at the track

Mike and I were fans of the Animal Planet show "Jockeys" so we decided to make a jockey doll.  Today we took our jockey to Belmont Stakes, the racetrack that will host the third and final leg of the Triple Crown in about two weeks.

Our jockey stopped by the stalls.

Then he checked on his horse.

He finished the day by watching a couple of races from the stands.  

We got a lot of attention from the "real" jockeys.  These three guys were pointing and smiling as they rode by where we were standing.

It was a good day.



 

Year of the Rabbit

This is the Chinese year of the rabbit. Or more accurately the year of the hare, since China has seven native species of hares, but no native species of rabbit (Wikipedia told me this!).  A rabbit year is a placid year, very much welcomed and needed after the ferocious year of the tiger.  In honor of the year of the rabbit, Origami USA offered a class on how to fold John Montroll's origami rabbit during their March fun folding session.  I made a rabbit in class, then came home and folded up a few more to send to my nieces and nephew.  If you want to make a rabbit to celebrate the new year you can find the pattern in Montroll's book Mythological Creatures and the Chinese Zodiac in Origami available on Amazon.com.

I had such a good time at the fun folding session that I decided to join Origami USA.  Because I'm now a member I get their magazine, The Paper.  The Autumn issue of The Paper had a pattern for this Northern Cardinal by Roman Diaz.

Roman Diaz's designs are ingenious and elegant and since every crease has a purpose, they are fun and satisfying to fold.  You can find more of Diaz's interesting work here.  I've ordered his book so expect to see more Diaz models showing up on this blog.

I'm looking forward to the big Origami USA convention the end of June.  It will be held at F.I.T. here in New York City.

Adventures in Entrelac

I recently learned a new crochet technique called tunisian entrelac.  This technique creates a checkerboard pattern.  It's fun and not hard to do once you get the hang of it. To practice I made myself this scarf.

The scarf is my customization of a pattern for a pretty wrap by Allison Cohen.  I love how the variegated Alchemy Migration yarn forms blocks of color.

As soon as I leaned this new technique, I decided to incorporate it into a Karabouts doll.  Mike had done a sketch for a jockey doll (we're addicted to the Animal Planet show "Jockeys") so I figured entralac crochet would be a great way to make the diamond pattern on a jockey silk.

Here's Mike's sketch:

And here's one of my early attempts at working out a jockey shirt pattern with some yellow and blue crochet thread I had on hand:

Once I got a pattern that I liked, I put it on a doll.

I'm really excited about this guy, not only because I get to use my new skill of entrelac crochet, but also because he STANDS UP ON HIS OWN!!!!!!!!!  I've been working on figuring out a way to make our dolls stand for some time now. 

Here's a close up.

It's like magic - only it's really more like lead fishing sinkers in his feet!  Hey, whatever works...

Let it snow

We're having a snow storm today in New York City...

so I thought it would be a good day to blog about my first attempt at making crocheted snowflakes. 

I was inspired to make snowflakes by my friend Johanna who sent us a crocheted snowflake with her lovely handmade holiday card.

I'm not sure which pattern Johanna used, but I used this free pattern I found on the blog Attic 24.  I made half a dozen snowflakes out of some natural wool I had in my yarn stash. Since I learned about starching from my crocheted lampshade project, I decided to starch my flakes.  

Below is a comparison of a blocked and unblocked snowflake.  You can see from the photo how starching and pinning really brings out the beauty of the crochet stitches.

My snowflakes look great on the tree...

but once the tree comes down I think I'll hang them on my windows so that I can enjoy them all winter long.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

Crocheted Lampshade

Mike and I found a floor lamp at Bed Bath and Beyond that was around 15 bucks because it had no shade.  We brought it home and I decided to crochet a shade for it.

I started by crocheting a big circular sort of thing with a hole in the middle.  I used Lion Cotton yarn.  I alternated rounds of single and double crochet.  On the single crochet rounds I increased the same way you would if you were going to make a crochet ball.  When I was done it looked like this.

Next, I cooked up a stiffener.  I used regular old cornstarch and water.  I mixed about 8 tablespoons of starch into 2 cups of water and cooked it until it got thick, shiny, and translucent.  

I poured the starch into a bowl and let it COOL DOWN (very important!!).

Then I threw my crocheted circle into the bowl of starch and worked the starch evenly into the cotton yarn with my hands.

Next, I rolled the crochet circle in a clean towel to get rid of the excess starch.  When I was done it looked like this (it grew quite a bit).

Then I stretched the crocheted circle over a big bowl (covered with saran wrap) and let it dry.

Once the shade was dry, I attached it to the top of our lamp with the existing hardware and flipped the switch!

The Birthday Suit

You thought our dolls were all about the outfits?  We'll here's a fellow with no outfit at all!

I tied chinese button knots to make his nipples.  I improvised the fig leaf. I like how the leaf turned out.  Hopefully I can remember how I made it!

Art Wednesday

Today Mike and I stopped by the Christopher Henry Gallery at 127 Elizabeth Street (Between Grand and Broome) to check out the work of Polish artist Olek.  Olek is a sculptor and mixed media artist and one of her mediums is CROCHET!!!

We ran into Olek on the street beside a car that she has totally covered in crochet for the show.  The car is parked right outside of the gallery.  There's a crochet-covered bicycle too - up the street a bit.

 

On the first floor of the gallery is a crocheted living environment.  The floor, walls, chairs, tub, sink, bed, tv, even the iron and ironing board, are covered in a visually arresting explosion of bright acrylic yarn.  

On one side of the room hangs a rack of Olek's wearable crochet suits.

You may have seen people wearing these suits around town during one of Olek's performance art pieces.  I've seen photos of people donning these wearable crochet sculptures on the subway, at the waterfront, and on New York City sidewalks.  

If you go upstairs, you'll find video installations, beautiful photos of people in crochet suits, and a mixed media sculpture piece or two.

The show will be up through October 17th.  Check it out.  You can also check out more of Olek's interesting work here.

 

 

Morrow County Fair

When I was a kid I raised lambs and showed them at the Morrow County Fair in Mt. Gilead, Ohio.  

Last week Mike and I went back to the fair to see my niece Sophie show her market ducks.  After 30 some years, not much at the fair has changed.  

4-H kids still wear white shirts when showing their animals. Here is Sophie with her market ducks.

 

A wide variety of animal breeds turn up - like these fluffy-headed fellows

 

and these guinea fowl.

 

Bunnies are still adorable.

 

Even this Flemish Giant who apparently bites...hard!

 

Boys still blow-dry chickens.

 

And girls still hose off hogs.

 

Goats still beg for attention.

 And kids happily give it to them.

 

A tween's best friend is still a pig...

or maybe a goat.

 

And my family still ends up at Marshall's, a Mennonite-run funnel cake stand where they grind their own wheat into flour using a John Deere grinder that sits beside the stand.

Good times!