on knitting and Hedgehogs II

I've been back in Jeddah for a month now. We just finished Ramadan, Eid Mubarak yawl. things go back to "normal" on Saturday.

I spent the 2 week break working on knitting. getting it out of my system so to speak. If you read my blog because I'm a graphic artist, all this knitting stuff may seem a little off topic. It's not. Check out my web site: kcarlyle.com most of the posted projects from my BFA/MFA involve knitting. I thought Wallace and Grommet rocked right from the beginning cuz Grommet knits. and there are knitting gags every where.

I get some rather bewildered responses from my CG friends. particularly the guys who are working in the gaming and special effects industries. I spend hours and hours and hours in front of a computer killing my eyes making stuff that has no real substance. I also knit, sew and spend a lot of time in the kitchen. It's all process to me and heads up, I am a girl; despite what my feminist friends where ranting at me during the eighties doing "women's" work will not drag me down into some pit of male domination. I think it's really sweet that all these twenty somethings have discovered knitting. But I will slug the next one who sits down next to me and tells me all about the garter stitch scarf she just made for her boyfriend.

I don't crack on people for spending hours in front of "games" blowing up stuff, and killing the person they're "playing" with. well not very often anyways, no one can explain desktop solitaire to my satisfaction. So I'm not sure why the fact that I knit stirs up such a reaction. I guess I don't LOOK like a knitter. I have had more than one yarn shop employee/owner ignore me until I got to the register and then "see" the sweater I was wearing. "YOU made that?" Maybe I shouldn't head directly for the markdown bin.

Knitting is endlessly fascinating and if you think it's all about ipod covers and eyelash scarves, well you're only partly right. The two books I've had the most fun with in the last year are: Knitting Nature: 39 Designs Inspired by Patterns in Nature by Norah Gaughan and Unexpected Knitting by Debbie New, both of which came back to Jeddah with me. So there they sit on my coffee table, one of my associates from school came over one day and leafed through Unexpected Knitting. "What IS this stuff?" um. what's the title?

I knit. sort of a lot. I finished my Level I Master Knitters [ TKGA ] 3 years ago, with one swatch to resubmit in order to pass. Of course the reknit swatch and the rest of my "Level I" is in a box that I didn't manage to find over the summer. I decided to go ahead and start my "Level II" and tear the storage unit apart next time I get to Raleigh. I seriously doubt I'll be done with the "Level II" by then. (why has it been 3 years? two job changes, I got redirected. I had to quit participating in knitting exchanges when I realized the other participants expected a timely response - most people aren't on the 5 year plan.)

w/e as Alicia would say. The link to the continuing adventures of the Hedgehogs II: Going Home is here,

Hedgehogs I: Francis and Rozis is here,

Again, the pattern for the hedgies is by Debbie Radtke, for Fiber Trends - Hand Knit Designs. and I purchased it (online) from Two Swans Yarns.

More illustrations when school is back in session.

peace, kate