land art, handknit style

loving these images from Knitted Landscape.

Isobel and Cleo

my needneed-wantwants sprang into overdrive when i saw this collection from scotland's Isobel and Cleo. so intense burns my love for these magnificent knits, all of them, that i have vowed to make 2010 my year to successfully replicate two items from this collection. okay, one. and if i come into a large sum of money, i'm buying them all. starting with those Grape Stitch Back Seam Leggings. love! at! first! sight!

the vivian girls

i love a cleverly named band. and i've loved henry darger's exceptionally deranged lifelong work, *in the realms of the unreal ever since we stumbled upon a showing of his work at PS1 some time in the 90s. the epic piece documents an otherworldly battle between evil adults and an army of children led by a band of cherubic and heroic innocents known as the Vivian Girls. i've got a soft spot in my heart for outsider art, and darger's genius qualifies as an extreme case.

(*the documentary of the same name, however, drones on and on (and on and on) but on the plus side, does offer quite a bit of insight into the artist's tragically lonely life and unorthodox creative methods. for instance, upon his death, stacks and stacks of telephone books were found in his apartment. darger had re-purposed the pages to serve as inspiration journals, pasting in prototypes, images from magazines, color swatches, and fabric bits he wanted to replicate in later works atop page over page of thin newsprint. interesting crazy shit like that pepper the film, but overall it is a total snoozer. tony only hung with it for about 15 minutes before throwing in the towel. i watched it all, but i yawned about 75 times from the middle to the end.)

so when i read about the NY band vivian girls my interest was peaked. dreamy vocals, a heartfelt lo-fi sound, and cute girls worthy of their band's namesakes make vivian girls worth a listen. especially on a gray and snowy day like today, when i'd love nothing more than to wrap up in a darger-inspired quilt and knit until my hands bleed. will somebody make me one already? please? it would make me so happy and i would love you forever.

if i could live there, i would live there

* Carroll Gardens door
* MoMA greatness
* graffiti at the Lorimer Street stop
* tin wall at Union Pool
* subway besties

new hat love

let's talk about my new hat for a minute. it rules. i bought it from a street vendor selling hand knit & crochet items for $15 in Soho. sherrie claims it's magical because it turns me instantly blonde upon donning it. something about the mystical powers of a cream hat with swiss miss braids. i'm pretty in love with it and now want to learn to crochet so i can replicate it.

How Purl Scout Earned Her NYC Merit Badge

Cozied into our handknits, and fully prepared for what was the honest to goodness coldest weekend of the year so far in NYC, K1-D2 made good on their promise to locate excellent fibers, cheap scrumptious eats, and promote our manifesto of peace, love, and inebriation with our knitting.


On day one, The Knitorious M.E.G., Slip Yum Yum, & Purl Scout (yours truly) got down to business with a trip to Purl in Soho for Cascade Magnum yarncakes (color #9464, holla!), heavenly buck-fifty pizza biancas @ Grandaisy Bakery, bargain finds @ Pearl River Mart, a nature hike into Central Park, a spiritual cleansing @ St. Thomas Cathedral, & a FREE VIP taste of Tim Burton's genius @ the MoMA. And that was all done before nightfall!



As for activities post-nightfall...well, I will defer to others with a more coherent understanding of our whereabouts & goings-on, as the Purl Scout was busily representing RVA knitters with her heroic drinking abilities.

On our last day in NYC, after grabbing a $2 egg on a roll and eating it on the stoop of a magnificent Brownstone, I stumbled upon the cutest little yarn shop just blocks away from our home base in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn. La Casita carries a delicious selection, has fair prices, a roaring fireplace the owner encourages you to knit beside, as well as having the nicest staff ever.

I scored some yummy Spud & Chloe Outer in a dreamy hue of orange heather and then strolled back through our hood one last time before loading into the Mini for our voyage home.

What's that old saying? Oh, yeah...I remember: I Love NY.

gandhiwarmer

i will write more about my amazing weekend in new york in later posts. this post is all about the gandhi warming project. i was lucky enough to be a part of a fabulous project, the brainchild of my dear friend tippy tippens, to honor mohandas gandhi on the anniversary of his death. visit her site www.gandhiwarmer.wordpress.com to learn more about her installation in her own words, which show best the kind heart and wonderful spirit responsible for creating this beautiful piece of work.