Inspiration in other's work (pt. 1) ...in my sketchbook

While in Denver last week, I had the chance to go explore the Denver Art Museum. With two buildings chalk full of paintings, sculptures and installations, I definitely felt waves of inspiration hitting me!

Sketching the work of other artists is a great way to  think about incorporating different mediums, lines, colors and forms in your own work. 

And since I was out of town, I had very limited drawing supplies with me (a sketchbook and a pen). This meant that there was no way for me to capture an exact replica of pieces, which really isn't the point anyway!

Also, drawing in ink was not allowed so I had to be fast before I got "caught" by anyone! Oops!

My goal was to render the gestalt of each piece so that at a later date, I could go back and add my own touch to each piece.

  

 This is also a way to make museum trips more exciting and memorable for the kiddos. I've got a few other sketches to work on, and I'll try to have them posted later this week!

(The original artwork was from the Robert Motherwell collection on display through May 27th)

Road trip knitting...off the needles

This past weekend, my husband and I took our annual trip to Denver for skiing, brewery tours and fine art gazing. It usually takes us eight or so hours to get there plus many hours of hanging out with our friends so several knitting projects are usually required. :-)

I cast on the Social Climber Cowl by Liza Gustain about halfway along our journey (had problems with my first project which I will write about when I finish that project), and it kept me very happy both on the road and during our vacation.  

If you have never knit lace and are thinking about taking it on then this is the project for you. The pattern makes it easy to "read" your knitting and mistakes are easy to find/correct with this weight of yarn. 

 Since I was often talking while knitting, there were a few instances where I had to drop down several rows to fix an error. Also, I think that it is important to note that I finished weaving in my ends the day after I finished knitting. See! There is hope for me yet!

This week I am featuring print-maker Bill Flick. Hope you all enjoy watching him work as much as I did!

Here is a link to his website if you want to see more.

Off the needles!

So I finally finished Clockwork by Stephen West and am loving it!!

 And by finish, I mean that I got around to sewing in the ends after I completed the knitting two months ago. (If case you haven't been reading my blog for very long, this is completely normal for me.)

Now all I have to do is figure out what to do with my leftover yarn from this project, but I'll leave that to another day. 

For now, I've got my eye on some nice Kureyon that I've had for quite some time now...

... and these Easy Peasy Mitts are looking quite nice. :-)

Happy Valentine's Day! (sketching and stamping)

In my sketchbook.... using crayons as a resist

Hey everyone! Sorry for the long delay of this post. I'm trying desperately  to get my house ready to sell by the time the weather is nice, and last week I got on a total roll and neglected my creative habits. 

Now I'm back in the swing of things and had a little fun using a crayon as a resist. See the white lines outlining the leaf motif below? Crayons (specifically the wax in the crayons) are what did the trick!!

Enjoy!!