Being Sorry. is my latest short film. It's about three minutes long and it's about what it's like to feel this sorry.

A high quality version is available here. It streams and loads instantly. A low-quality version is available on YouTube.

Breakfast with Al Pacino is a short film I did starring Sally Arlette for a class. It's about a woman and her special relationship with Al Pacino. It's my first short and I'd love it if you were to watch it.

A high quality version is available here. It loads fast! A low-quality version is available on YouTube.

"Bears on Swings" is a public art installation I did as part of UNBOUND, for our school's art festival. UNBOUND, which I co-curated with my best friend James Pearson, enables students to take their works out of the gallery and studio and place them in a public setting. I built the website and narrated our podcast which James composed. It's good! I participated last year with my piece, "Call Your Mom" and co-curating with James was great.

I have a lot to say about UNBOUND, which has become a platform for controversy regarding the topic of censorship at our school's arts festival, but I don't know if the time is right to discuss it. I'm going to remain gracefully silent for now. Anyway! Here's my statement for Bears on Swings:

Bears on Swings is a celebration of the springtime depicted through nature's most notorious hibernators: bears. The work is comprised of approximately thirty hand-knit stuffed bears suspended by swings from the trees which line the academic mall.

The use of knitting as a medium is part of an ongoing effort in the exploration of the domestic arts. As for the concept, bears on swings are simply adorable.

I simplified Vanessa Carter's Bubby pattern and used size 8 needles and a lot of the acrylic yarn I had from when I was learning how to knit. Into each swing, which I built in our woodshop, I nailed a large nail in order for the bears to have something to sit on and hold them upright. Another successful adorable work!

Also The Hand Off received an honorable mention at the URECA show, where undergraduate students are nominated by professors to submit work. I get $25 and a free lunch in the Dean's Suite.

If you want to see more Bears on Swings installation photos, they're available.

Hello blog. I feel better now. Here's a sculpture I did in the fall. It looks like the Star of David head on, but as you rotate around the sculpture the form gets abstracted. Conversely, it's an abstract sculpture that just so happens to look like the star of David from only two points of view.

The thing is five feet by five feet by nine inches and cost me $150 in steel.

YOU MUST VIEW THE VIDEO IF YOU WANT TO "GET IT" (20 MB)

Hey. Promise me you'll come back to this blog a bunch in the next week. Everything happens at once and I have a bunch of fine art related stuff coming up in this week alone!. One is even almost knitting related and the other is certainly Al Pacino related.

3/4ths view.

Full frontal David.

Hi blog. How are you? I am AWFUL. Here's a piece I drew in 2005, but updated it. It's a Flash movie, about two and a half minutes long. Click on the image above or click here to view it.

First I took a picture of a canvas.
Then I overlayed the drawing on the canvas in Photoshop.
Then I painted the picture in with my opacity set such that the paint looked like it was being absorbed by the canvas.
Then I embroidered a few stitches and photographed those.
Then I made them all designy in Photoshop as to create a landscape.
I placed the landscape behind the people.
Then I exported two layers from Photoshop: (1) the background, and (2) the people.
I made a Flash movie with the two components moving at different rates.

Ta da!

Also my Women and Children piece got an honorable mention at the LICA Show.

Finally. These are Brown Socks for my husband Brian. Brian is not my real husband, but we were lab partners once and people (Lauren) told us we were like Lucy and Ricky.

Brian saw me knittng my toe-up Jaywalkers during many of the thousands of credits we were taking together this past fall. I offered to make him socks and he and his size 13 feet took me up on it! His only request was that they should be brown. Immediately, the Diamond Waffle pattern sprang to mind, as I'd been wanting to knit it for someone since I saw it.

My gauge was so ridiculously off and this pattern was so very specific that I just used the Universal Toe Up Pattern and put in the diamond waffle. I appreciate very specific patterns in the sense that they read like lab manuals, but at the same time I end up stripping them down to just what I need. I don't think I should do that because I don't learn or challenge myself that way.

These socks were modeled in 1-litre and 20-ounce Dasani bottles because I have nowhere near the size feet required to model these, no matter how many socks I pile on. From some angles, they look like real feet. In fact, I could not fathom such a size's dimensions and I used this tool to give me an estimate. It was very useful, though I found that when I apply it to my own feet, the figures are a little on the low side.

In the end they fit, and Brian wore them last Thursday. The diamond waffle pattern doesn't show up so well in the photos, but he showed them to mutual friend and the friend told me that he dug the diamond pattern (HE NOTICED!) so it does!

Pattern Diamond Waffle Socks by Danny Ouellette.
Yarn Knitpicks essential, Cocoa, 2 balls
Needles Size 2 Susan Bates 29" circulars using Magic Loop
Notes Used the Universal Toe Up Pattern and superimposed the diamond waffle on it.

Dasani feet.

They almost look like real feet.

Unstretched.

I started these in another yarn during Cloverfield, ripped and reknit while watching There Will Be Blood, and sewed everything up while watching O Brother Where Art Thou. They're for a friend and they've got a button detail on the wrists.

Pattern Garter Stitch Mitts by Ysolda Teague.
Yarn 1/4th a ball of Brook's Farms Acero (blue green purple black) coupled with 1/4th a ball of Knitpicks Shadow in Jewels.
Needles Size 4 Knitpicks needles.

Down.

Up.

Button button.

Hiiiii bloggg! This is another sewing project, a cupcake apron for my roommate Ruchi. This is the perfect gift because:

1. She is totally into cupcakes they are her favorite thing.
2. She recently picked up the hobby of baking and aprons are a staple of baking.
3. It's handmade, which is a requirement for my gift-giving.

I got the fabric, ribbon, and pattern from jcarolinecreative, which has such an extensive selection (yay!) but I drove myself insane trying to find the perfect fabric as Ruchi would have loved so many. Woven fabric is so cheap compared to yarn and I definitely respond more to textiles. Plus sewing is fast and with each thing I make I get better and better. I've sort of plateaued with knitting; I started doing things my own way rather than learning the proper techniques and that has inhibited my learning.

There are some technical aspects about the apron which aren't perfect and they betray that the item is handmade, but that gives it charm. I finally learned to sew in a straight line (that little flipper thing that "locks" the fabric in place when you flip it down? It totally needs to be down!) and I'm proud of that and I cut the pattern out on my own using Kraft Paper, which I have a ton of that I didn't know how to ditch...until now. NOW I CAN MAKE PATTERNS.

I also made piping, which was kind of a pain in the ass in the way that I know that with enough practice I will master it. The ribbon detail on the pocket is an afterthought and is therefore not neat. I had to take that part from the neckstraps (like a graft) and I added a snap enclosure for it because it could no longer be tied around the neck or fit over the head if I had sewn the edges to make like a closed neck. The apron is tied around the back.

Pattern From jcaroline creative
Fabric Robert Kaufman medium weight cotton; Cloud Cupcakes - Sweet Tooth.
Extras Ribbon: Like this, but in orange; also some snaps and some cording and bias tape for the piping.

Pants vs no pants.

Sloppy details, but an attempt yet.

Hellooo. I made another box bag. This one for my friend Brian's girlfriend. I got some heavier needles for my machine and was able to get this one looking mostly like the example I followed, nevermind some quirky slantiness. I intend to give this to her when I gift Brian with his handknit size 13 socks which are probably too small (complete, but waiting for a trip through the wash) for his birthday.

This item is "interfaced" with canvas, lined with old pajama pants from Old Navy, and the exterior fabric is from Reprodepot, who, by the way, LINKED ME THANKS.

Goatse-ing the bag. Plaid inside!

I have a backlog of completed and near-completed items to be introduced but my camera is a total diva. It has some sort of congenital defect and it's entiteld to free repair but the problem is intermittent so I've been waiting for it to screw up so that I can do something specific to it so that Canon can confirm the problem, but of course it only screws up when I really need it to work and it hasn't screwed up since I learned what I need to do for Canon. I baked over 40 heart shaped butter cookies for Valentines Day and gave two to each of my friends telling them to eat one and share the other with someone they love and it's as if it never happened.

I also started school again and do some minor knitting during classes and the like but that's pretty much it. I'm having a great semester so far and I've met some amazing people. I gave up sculpture because of my sudden but not unexplained distaste for that microcosm of The Art Department and so many opportunities have opened up to me as a result. I've got a lot of stuff going on beyond the realm of what this blog is typically about and I look forward to introducing it all once my camera stops being all Beyonce.

This is a headband they call Panta (Me? I like to call it a tiechel), which I have knit and unknit several times in my two years of knittingship. Boredom, running out of yarn, poor fabric drape...they're all to blame. But now, if it's not a pair of size 13 socks I'll knit it.

Pattern DROPS Headband
Yarn Mystery tweed
Needles Size 7 Susan Bates

This yarn looks exactly like Elsebath Lavold's Silky Tweed but knits up like twine. I hate how it feels, and I never even NOTICE how yarn feels. Between my time burning my hands on hot glassware in the lab, hot pans in the kitchen, hot metal in the metal shop, or a hot iron when I straighten my hair, I don't have a lot of sensation in my fingertips therefore I'm not as tactile as others. I bought three balls at WEBS once because I was seduced by the color which now reminds me a little bit of vomit.

Anyway my camera is broken so here are some photos from Photobooth, which means in every photo I am looking at my screen and not making eye contact and it looks like I have Aspergers.

Tzeitel, Hodel, and Chava.

My second Odessa (Nodessa) which I knit for my grandmother in 2006 was just backadded.

Nodessa!

I consider myself pretty candid about things I make. However, for my first major sewing project in years I think I'd rather pretend that my first time came out totally awesome and hide all the ways I felt challenged or may have screwed up, which, for the purposes of this entry, are all theoretical. I think that when it comes to first times, it's perfectly okay to not try to be perfect, but that's the only time it's okay. Expect more indiscretion the next time I make this bag, which will probably be once a week until I work my way up to Amy Butler's Weekender Bag, which has been in my future since I saw it on craftoholic.

I haven't been able to do a single thing until I made this bag. I go back to school Monday and owe a boy with size 13 feet a pair of socks and I only have one toe. I did this bag all in one night (as in, all night) and there are some definite "lol"s about it. I used all recovered materials which made it easy to not be precious, but then there were some aesthetic compromises I would not ordinarily have made. Canvas was the "interfacing" and clean parts of soiled pajamas made up the lining on the inside. I paint, therefore I soil clothes and happen to have well over 100 square feet of canvas ready. The outer lining was made up of fabric scraps from some fabric I had bought from reprodepot once. I intended to make a mixed-media project from it but I guess it never materialized. :) I bought the zipper months ago in Boston and I have no idea why. My mom's house is still kind of new to me and I can't find anything (also, she hides things) so I used the straightening iron I use for my hair to iron out the fabric. That part was awesome.

I used my late Great Aunt Dorothy's sewing machine. IT IS ACTUALLY VINTAGE. IT IS FROM THE 1960S. IT REMEMBERS A DIFFERENT TYPE OF BRING OUR TROOPS HOME. I don't know anything else about this mystery machine. My mom supplied me with a Singer manual from 1968 but the machine doesn't say Singer on it anywhere and the model number taxonomy doesn't match the Singer convention. I thought it might be a Pfaff because of the way the knobs are styled, plus the old Pfaffs went crazy with the knobs and this has three. I hate that I'm a total genius and yet even with magic Google I cannot identify this machine. It sucked when trying to figure out the freakin Rube Goldberg device that is threading the needle and I'm still not sure why sometimes I get a zig-zag stitch when all I want is not that. There were a lot of knick knacks that my mom gave me along with the sewing machine and so to get near the zipper I used some foot that was just slimmer than the default but I don't know if it was a zipper foot per se. There's so much I need to learn about this machine it's amazing(ly ill-timed with the start of a new semester).

I had to handstitch a lot at the end because the fabric was too thick and I didn't know to handle it, plus I was cranky. I think handstitching is invaluable anyway, and would not mind improving my hand at stitching. I want to make these bags for everybody and put goodies in them and give them as gifts. Actually, when I was done sewing this one, I thought about putting my sewing notions in it but that reminded me of this joke that either belongs to George Carlin or Rusty Ward about buying a garbage can and carrying it home in a bag, then putting the garbage bag inside the can.

References
Parikha
She was the original and she helped me track down some links after they got moved when she changed her blog!

Drago Knit Fly
The tutorial I actually followed.

Japanese Translation
This is one of the links Parikha used to make her bag...I found it among bookmarks! So prudent!!

Hi! These are socks for my roommate's boyfriend, Zach. According to Ruchi (roommate), Zach has sweaty feet, so either the wool content will absorb the sweat or make him sweat more, and then absorb it.

Pattern Thuja by Bobby Zeigler. Knitty, Winter 2005.
Yarn Knitpicks Essential in Grass. 2 balls.
Needles Susan Bates size 2 circulars.

My initial problem with socks wasn't so much heel flap or turning it, it was picking up the stitches after the fact without getting holes. When I saw the holes I'd rip the whole heel flap back because starting over is how I problem solve. So I have a lot of experience turning a heel which is the only not-boring part of a sock. Anyway, Zach's mom is a knitter and I took this opportunity to try out a few techniques:

1. The Classic Weil Gauge Modification
I knew I wanted to knit socks on 2s, whereas the pattern has the socks knit on 6s (WHO KNITS SOCKS ON 6s???) Hilariously, our gauges only difffered by HALF A STITCH PER INCH which would have me casting on 48 stitches ON TWOS instead of the recomended 44 ON SIXES. I cast on 52 for good luck. The mathematics of pattern adjustments aren't difficult for me because it's just a bunch of proportions which you can set up and solve verbosely.

2. Tubular Cast On
This isn't particularly new to me. I've practiced it a ton of times but I always thought it took too long to do for too little payback. Now that I'm a faster knitter and have sworn off the long-tail, it's worth it.

3. Magic Loop or something like it
I always thought this meant something else and I wish I had my facts straight before I went and did surgery on my too-long size 10 circular needles to make them small enough to accomodate my Foliage. And here I thought I was being so clever! I could have magic looped the shit out of it. Anyway I don't think what I'm doing is exactly magic loop, just kind of beating the yarn into submission around any circumference I desire. So I'm just going to call it CHLOE'S MAGIC LOOP OF TERROR

4. *THICK HEELZ* and *COMFY TOEZ*
I doubled the yarn for the heels and the toes. I just thought it would be more thick and comfy!

5. The stitch-markers-as-abacus method of keeping track of rows
If I had to do something five more times I'd just put five more stitch markers at the end of the round and remove one every time I did it. It worked with 100% more efficiency than writing that information down, because when I have to write anything down I don't, making me 0% efficient at writing things down.

I'm wearing my poms underneath these socks for added bulk to my feet so that I can try these on and photograph them. These socks are knit for a man and I have little dainty girly feet.

Some people are pigeon-toed. Some people think it's cute to be pigeon-toed. And some poeple's feet turn toward 3 o'clock when they walk down stairs when feet generally point to 12 o'clock.

Hello! This is the Banana Republic Hat for my friend Chantal's birthday. Chantal looks gorgeous in green. As I was knitting it I felt like I had fiberglass filaments in my eyes and nose. I'm not allergic to anything so I don't know what's up with that. I would hate for this to make my friend uncomfortable but nobody mentioned anything on Ravelry and people were even making stuffed bears out of this - stuffed bears FOR CHILDREN - so I'm hoping it's just me.

I met Chantal on the first day of our summer-long Organic Chemistry intesive. She was my best friend from the first day to the last. Two weeks after I met her, Berroco announced their fall preview and there was a sweater named Chantal. That's my first Chantal knitting story, and this blog post is my second.

I used the three patterns available and just combined them, kind of like making a baby with three parents. I'm not so happy with the unevenness of my stitches (I was using my mutilated 10s) but nowadays manufacturers make machine-knits look like they have character so it's not an issue.

Pattern The Craftster One
The Robin's Egg Blue Hat
The One That is Available as a PDF
Yarn Berrocco Air in green, from the charitable Cirilia
Needles Size 10 Susan Bates circs
Other Materials A suitable button that I got at BUTTONS.

This is the "From Now On" part of the post.
1. I had to thread the "base" of the hat with some leftover yarn to give it some structure because after blocking it just lost all its shape. I blocked this hat to even up the decrease pattern on top because it always bunches up when I do it and I think from now on I'm going to alternate a row of stockinette in with each decrease row.

2. I think I'm going to abandon the long-tail cast on forever and just go for tubular if there's ribbing involved, or provisional in all other cases. With long-tail either I overestimate by like a kilometer or I underestimate by too many stitches to just increase on the first row. It's stretchy but a bind off just looks so much crisper and I have more control over it. The long-tail cast on is the worst part of knitting next to 1x1 twisted rib but without the "it was worth the effort" sensation. So from now on it's so long to the long-tail!

Pretty decreases that happened all too suddenly.

The yarn it shimmers.

Anyway so I spent some time with my friend Joe "AS SEEN ON LAST COMIC STANDING" DeVito the other night and realized that I am incredibly self-conscious (self-deprecatingly proud) about the knitting thing. Like I say "knitting" and then I feel like I have to mention how I do the AARP crossword every day or how I carry Tums with me everywhere because of my bad heartburn. Recently someone asked me what I was doing at the moment and I actually said "knitting my roommate's boyfriend a sock and missing Jeopardy." For all we know, from that statement my roommate is my roommate in a nursing home and the boyfriend is a man she met after her first husband of fifty years died. But I mean all that stuff (the crosswords, the knitting, but not so much the acid reflux)...that STILL makes me cooler than like Hannah Montana and texting to vote in American Idol and watching movies on my telephone right?

No it's not because I had to think REALLY REALLY HARD to come up with just THREE examples of what people are into today. It's like with every stitch I just go back in time a little bit. Wait, and I'm BLOGGING about this, what the HELL am I talking about???