And so I have…here and here and here. The only thing better than knitting, is to draw or paint what I’m knitting or crocheting. I loved making this little painting of my hands knitting a scarf. Mind you, this lace scarf was begun several years ago…but I have finished it! And I’ll give you a proper reveal soon!
So here’s the photograph I worked from to create the above painting. I thought you might like to see the reference photo and how it gets translated into line and watercolor. I also thought you might like to see some of the projects I’ve been happily working on of late.
I knitted this little cupcake hat for my niece’s one year birthday back at the beginning of March, the early days of my U.C. diagnosis. That’s my beautiful sister with her fifth child, Brynley.
Then I finished this pair of socks, which I wore and wore through the chilly days. For some reason, I kept messing up on grafting the toe together. I’ve done the kitchener stitch successfully many times before, but a brain glitch prevented me from getting it right on both of these socks. Of course, I made it work somehow so the socks hold together without being uncomfortable.
So, on THIS sock, finished just recently, I was delighted to work the Kitchener stitch correctly! Yay! Maybe my recent surgery re-worked my brain as well!
And I love the colors in this yarn!!!!!
This is a random photo of the basket of yarns I used for my Resurrection Shawl.
And this is the beginning of another multi-yarned confection, all in creams and whites! I have quite a vision of this shawl in its finished state…we’ll see how it all turns out.:)
And a photo of me knitting on our front stoop. This was taken prior to being in the hospital, hoping and praying that the medications I was on would put the U.C. into remission. There’s something about this photo I like… 1. I love knitting outdoors, even if it means wearing a coat and knitted hand mitts. 2. Knitting became synonymous with “hope” during my recent illness. Knitting and Hope…I like that.
Well, that’s enough for now…I’ll share more “knitterly notes” with you soon. I’ll be stocking the Shoppe with some new items soon…more on that coming up!
**Thank you so much for visiting me here on Drawn2Life!! I can’t thank you enough for sharing in these creative ventures with me!
***And…if you ever wanted to take up knitting, try my little photo tutorial HERE. I haven’t yet transferred it over from Drawn2Knit. It will happen someday. For now, check there for free patterns and tutorials.
****ANNDDD….if you’d like to try your hand at drawing/sketching OR need a little boost or encouragement to get back into it…check out my Drawing Your Life Mini Lessons. These were offered last year and still receive a lot of traffic. I hope it’s helpful to you all!
When I received the diagnosis that I had Ulcerative Colitis, and the medicines that were intended to put it into remission, I had such hope of recovery! I wanted to make something through the recovery period that would be a part of my healing and then represent God’s faithfulness to me as I wrapped it around me. The above drawing is what I sketched out as I envisioned this shawl. I was also asking my Father that I might be well enough to wear it on Easter Sunday. I drew this in mid March.
As events played out, I was unable to wear this Easter Sunday. I had my colon removal surgery on Good Friday and was in the hospital on Easter. I couldn’t knit during the three weeks I was there, too many pic lines and iv’s going in and out to make it a comfortable endeavor. But when I got home, I began, very slowly to continue work on what I was calling my Resurrection Shawl. Here are some pics of different views of it. I have been so pleased with how it turned out. Crocheted flowers appliquéd onto a loosely knitted simple shawl. I used all kinds of things to knit with: lace, ribbon, and all sorts of colors and textures of yarn. A few things changed from the original sketch. It was so fun to see it come to life.
And this past Sunday, I felt well enough to go to church and sit with my church family to worship. I wore my Resurrection Shawl as a testimony to my Heavenly Father’s faithfulness to carry me through a rather horrendous ordeal. He is still carrying me…knitting me together one day at a time.
**I am beginning the process of combining my three blogs into one. It may take a while, but you will start to see some changes here at Drawn2Life as other Pages are added, and blog posts are slurped in. I’m very excited to have all my creative loves under one roof! Like the tagline I recently changed at the top: “Drawing, Knitting, Illustration, Crochet…it’s all Life, it’s all Good!”
The difficult thing about knitting is that i t i s s o s l o w . Much like the Slow Food Movement, knitting or crocheting anything is truly the opposite of our instant gratification world. Perhaps we need to have a Slow Clothes Movement, or Slow Gift Movement. Making anything is WAY slower than buying it, and if you have to make it stitch by stitch, then the going is even slower. Sometimes this irritates me. I get an idea and I want to be able to sit down and crank it out! Nope. Not w h e n y o u k n i t !
And yet…the awesome thing about knitting is that i t i s s o s l o w . Like drawing, I can almost feel my heartbeat slow down as I knit. Click, click, c l i c k, c l i c k… on and on, even if its only for a few rows. I like the repetitive nature of it, especially when I’m not using a pattern with extensive instructions. I’m still working on Brown Sweater. Actually, I have all the knitting and assembly done. Now I’m working on the embellishments. Maybe by Christmas I’ll finish it. Maybe. Life has definitely ramped up a bit here in November and I know December won’t be any slower.
Unless I knit! Do you think that between knitting and drawing, I could actually slow t i m e d o w n . . . ?
“How in the world do you do what you do?” This is an interesting question I get either verbalized or emailed to me. I’m always surprised at the question. I wonder what it is they perceive I’m doing or accomplishing, since USUALLY I’m thinking I can’t do anywhere near what I’d like to do or accomplish. Crazy isn’t it?
Typically my first thought is: I have no idea. In the past I have said, “I do it because it’s my sanity.” And that is true. I’ve also said, “I do it because I have to/need to.” And this too is true. I’ve also responded, “I do it because it’s so fun!” True too! But recently it has begun to form in my mind, the real “how” of all the creative stuff I love: drawing, painting, knitting, crocheting, designing, illustrating Genevieve, blogging, writing poetry every now and then, and the occasional collage. If this seems too self-oriented, then do just click away from this post. I only write it in hopes that it might encourage or inspire you in your creative endeavors! Here goes:
How do I do a creative life?
1. Look for Beauty. So honestly, this is the crux of the matter. Without something beautiful, I haven’t any reason to draw or paint, to knit or crochet, to write in prose or poetry. Sometimes I’m struck by a lovely thing without looking for it. Many times, I purposefully look for beauty in and around my little life. And on days when I’m hard-pressed to find anything of beauty, I search for it. It’s actually a discipline, this artist’s life…to scour your world for the Beauty you know is there even in unexpected places or places where we don’t think beauty could be found. Beauty can even be wrapped in painful or discouraging circumstances.
2. Find a way to express it. So for me, merely looking for, seeing, and noting a thing of beauty (whether it’s the inside of my dishwasher or the gorgeous fall trees in my neighborhood) is not enough. I must record, express, celebrate, honor, capture, harness it in some way. Most times, that way is drawing in a sketchbook. Or painting the faces and places in my life or in others’ lives. Other times it is writing. And yet others it is knitting something in the colors I’m seeing out my windows. There are many many other ways to express the little beauties in your life: photography, music, composition, dance, theater, etc.
3. Do what I can, with what I have, where I am. This is actually a quote by Theodore Roosevelt. It is incredibly helpful for someone like me who has more ideas I’d love to see come into being than I know what to do with. I can get really stuck in thinking: well, I CAN’T do X, Y, or Z (due to time or money or ability) so I just won’t do any of it at all. I camped out with this block for nearly two years a few years back. I was wanting to make it big-time as a professional artist, painting big paintings, being represented by a gallery or two, entering exhibits all over the region, etc. And when it seemed to be way out of my reach, I just stopped drawing and painting altogether. What ended up happening during this period, is that I picked up my needles and yarn and began knitting and crocheting like a fiend:). But one day, I literally ran into the book ISH, by Peter Reynolds, and realized that all I really wanted was to draw, no matter whether it became a professional thing or not. You can read more about that here. And you all know of my desire to travel to France, a longing to have a life that allowed for this kind of travel, (both in time and money), only to realize the amazing beauty of my own little town of Kernersville as I began to look for it and draw it!
We tell ourselves that we don’t have enough money for canvases or paints, when a cheap sketchbook and watercolors is sitting underneath a stack of books somewhere. We tell ourselves we have no time, while we sit in a car pick-up line for ten minutes and could sketch something or knit a few rows. We tell ourselves we are too tired at the end of a long day, when the very best restorative medicine is a swoosh of color on a page, or a few rows of crocheting that blanket.
4. Blast through resistance. I’ve been reading (and re-reading) a book by Steven Pressfield titled The War of Art. In it he defines what resistance is and how it keeps us from doing the thing(s) we are really longing to do and need to do. I highly recommend this book! I am continually learning all the myriad of things that resistance throws in my path to keep me from being creative. In some ways, this fight through resistance is very difficult! But in other ways it’s really simple: I put on my artist armor and hack through the underbrush of weedy resistance. I show up to the page, the yarn, the blog. Whatever it is, whatever it takes, for however long I have to give it (10 minutes or 2 hours) I SHOW UP.
5. Relish the FEW creative projects I have going. It is good discipline for me to limit how many creative balls I juggle. What has happened to me time and time again, is that when I have too many going on, my energies are splintered, my focus grows fuzzy, I feel overwhelmed to the point of paralysis, and I can’t seem to accomplish or finish anything. Boundaries are good. Limitations are actually an ASSET!! Disciplining the bouncy, creatively ADD, artist child within you is necessary to a slow-but-steady-progress kind of life. AND it actually allows me to RELISH what I’m doing NOW, being present in the lovely creative moment, instead of hurrying through it to get to the next thingS on my accomplish list.
Well, there it is. An answer to a question you may or may not have wondered. It has helped me to write it down. It’s a touchstone for me. A way to remember why and how it is I do what I do. Perhaps it will help you as well.
**Addendum: If any of you saw my recent Instagram photo, you would see that I’m not doing that well with #5! Oi! What’s a girl to do?!!
For all who are seized with thoughts of yarn and needles clicking together and wools to wear and gifts to give and designs to try and stitches to learn. You are not alone.
Do you knit?
(To the tune of “Do your ears hang low?”)
Do you knit and purl?
Do you give it all a whirl?
Do you continental knit? Like the Europeans do?
Do you throw it o’er your needle, like Americans will do?
Do you knit and purl?
If you knit and purl
You can make anything in the world…
You can bobble, you can seed
You can cable, lace, and swirl.
You can make a vest to wear
Or a headband for your hair…
If you knit and purl.
Would you knit and purl
If you knew it would unfurl
All the knots in your life?
All the tangles of your world?
If you knew it would bring joy
and cause your heart to skip and twirl?
Would you knit and purl?
-jpe
**Pssst…and did you know I have a secret blog called Drawn2Knit? Well, it’s not really a secret. But it’s for beginners…any who might like to learn some basics of knitting! Check it out here!
I do not know why I chose you. I’m sorry to say it! Brown? Really? Brown yarn has never been something I gravitated to in the midst of luscious raspberry hanks, purpley-hued skeins, vibrant lime balls, sumptuously variegated twists of wool or cotton hanging in a glittering yarn shop. But here you are sitting in my lap, being woven ever so cheerfully (for now) with two sticks.
Perhaps it was the rich chocolatey nature of your brown. Definitely NOT the mousy browns I sometimes see and cannot abide. Maybe you caught me off guard with the ever so subtle flecks of red here and there, or the halo effect of wisps of wool that peek out of the stockinette. Still, you are dark. I do not knit with dark.
Maybe it was the vision I had of you all worked up into the wonderful original sweater creation I have teeming in my head? Oh wait, no. Two years ago, when I bought you, I had something else in mind for you. And through the last 24 months, that vision has changed numerous times to land here and now with what I feel is your destiny. Hmmm…why indeed did you find your way into my stash?
Was it the incredible deal of getting 478 yds of wool in ONE hank? And then only needing two hanks to make whatever I had envisioned then? The very thought of knitting a sweater for only $28 would’ve been enough to draw peels of glee from any knitter! Add to that the fact that I could use size 10 needles with you, thus allowing for a quicker knit and more immediate results. But I failed to take into account this one thing:
No, two things: aging eyes and my lack of stick-to-it-iveness. I did not take into account that my eyes were losing their ability to see clearly up close. And now that I have these new-fangled, totally awesome glasses which allow me to see my knitting better whilst also viewing a movie, I nevertheless have more issues with constantly looking at dark. And dark you are! Perhaps a few cones aren’t firing anymore in my middle-aged eyes. The delightful little v-shaped stitches that are so fun to watch being made, are not as easy to see in the dark chocolatey brown.
I fear you may wind up being set aside. Or worse, stuffed in the back of my closet with so many other UFOs! My inner knitter is far to easily enamored with other yarns and projects that lie in wait in my stash of wools and cottons. You need not fear being replaced by newly bought yarn, as I have severely curtailed my visits to any yarn selling establishment! But I do have enough yarn to tickle my fancy for at least a year, maybe two. My stick-to-it-iveness wilts in the face of a new vision of yarn creation goodness.
Yet, I am resolving this day, even though I can’t figure out why you are here, to continue on this journey of bringing into reality the vision I have in my head. And to that end, I have drawn this vision and have posted it prominently in my home so as to remind myself of the goal before me. I will endeavor to wear my blinders to all other delicious colored yarns and the possibilities they pose! I will push through the sameness of brown for 956 yds. of knitting! The real fun will be in the embellishments I have planned for you! Just you wait.
Please ignore all the mutterings and grumblings I may utter under my breath as I knit. Please be patient with me. I know you did not want to wind up in the hands of a begrudging knitter. If you will keep on alluring me with your red-flecked chocolatey goodness, I will keep on clicking those needles. And one day, you will be enjoyed on my shoulders for colder days.
Did you know that I love yarn?? Did you also know that today is “I Love Yarn Day“? Woo! Hoo!!!!
I haven’t shared much of my yarn goings on these days…so TODAY is the day!! I finished a vest that is waiting to be blocked and buttons added. I need to do this as the weather is just about right for it! I’ll show you when it’s all done! And with what I had leftover from the vest, I’m knitting a simple lace scarf.
Can you see why I love yarn?? Color, color, COLORRRR!!!! And Noro yarns are some of my all-time favorites!! If you’re interested, you can read about my love of yarn here and here and here.
Did you also know that I like to design my own knitted and crocheted things? Check out my new page for the FREE patterns you can download!
Does it have something to do with the brown mess of twigs and sticks, mud and leaves, tenderly assembled into a home?
Is it the wonder of these little creatures so diligently crafting their home to house and hold their little-ones-to-be?
Is it the pretty, soft-colored eggs that lie there in expectant waiting?
Does it represent hope? new life? spring? future joy?
Perhaps it is all this and more. Perhaps it’s the perfect picture of an exquisite everyday exclamation! A monumental mundane! A typically UN-noticed and hidden jewel perched precariously in a tree, exposed to wind and weather, yet enduring.
When we peer into a Bird’s Nest, do we see ourselves? our lives? our life’s work?
I don’t know. All I know is that I love to draw them. Love to knit them. Love to crochet them. Somehow they speak to me of Spring. Of Hope. Of Life.
Say What? For those of you who do not knit, DPNS may be a new word. It’s actually an anacronym for Double Pointed NeedleS. These are knitting needles which have points on both ends (instead of just one end) and are only about 8″ long. I LOVE working on DPNS!
They are used for knitting in the round, meaning that you work around in a circle, rather than back and forth on a flat, rectangular piece. They allow you to create hats, tubular scarves, sweaters and sleeves without seaming, handbags and all kinds of other rounded shapes. My recent craze is knitting these awesome bird’s nests and eggs:
Aren’t they fun?? I can’t decide which I love most…the PROCESS of making them or the END RESULT! Both are de-light-ful!! Being a crocheter as well, I’ve often thought that it was only in crochet where you could begin in the middle of a circle and work your way out. BUT NO! These eggs and nests have showed me how simple it is to start at one “end” of an egg, increase to the desired circumference, and then decrease to the other end. All in one piece! Then the nest is really the same concept! You just squash one half of the “egg” shape down into the other half and voila! You have a nest! So, so fun to make.
If any of you are knitters and you want to make this, click here for the FREE pattern from Purl Soho. It is off of their blog, the Purl Bee, which is one of my absolute favorite spots for inspiration and patterns (both free and for purchase) for knitting, crochet, sewing, quilting, etc. It is visually one of the most beautiful craft blogs on the web! As an artist, I adore feasting my eyes on how they have photographed the creations and the type of projects they seem to choose are wonderful.
Oh my…in linking you to The Purl Bee, I see a Big Cuddly Bunny I’ve just gotta make for Maddie! And I have THIS PATTERN on order for more bunnies…so full of character, I just can’t resist!! Drawings and photos forthcoming!!!!!
2. A question follows on its heels. How can I make that shape in knitting?
3. Paper & folding ensues. Ahh…so that’s how!
4. Another question pops up. What can the shape be used for other than a sachet?
5. Leaving shape open on one side. Yeah, righto. A gift box!
6. Yet another question. How can I make it festive?
7. Jar of leftover bits of yarn, ribbons, and raffia says “Use Me!” Oooh, yes!
8. Button bin starts yelling too! Even brads work pretty well for a gift box! (Lime green polka dots are brads!)
9. Et Voila!
To view and/or purchase this knitted pattern...CLICK HERE!!
**A Note on Baby Steps: It needs to be said that each Baby Step I’ve posted here, actually has SEVERAL baby steps imbedded in the making of each one!! So, for instance, in creating a pattern for others to use, you have Step One: Idea. Step Two: Working out the idea ( in pen & paper, yarn & needles, etc.) Step Three: Sitting with the completed “prototype” to see if you are satisfied with it, or whether it needs something else. Step Four: Typing up the pattern in humanly readable terms rather than the chicken scrawl you have on a throwaway piece of paper. Step Five: Photographing the finished project. Step Six: Adding photo and EDITING the pattern for mistakes. Step Seven: Downloading pattern to Yarnworks site, Etsy, Ravelry, etc. Whew!!
The KEY to creating by the Baby Step method: DO NOT let yourself look ahead to all the zillions of steps you need to make. JUST BE PRESENT IN THE ONE STEP YOU NEED TO MAKE NOW!!! This helps me so so much! I get too overwhelmed by all the ideas swirling in my head and all the steps necessary to make the idea a reality. I have to HAVE PATIENCE and MOMENT PRESENTNESS. Not easy for me. But it is so rewarding to see the idea come to life and to share it with others!
