Back to Knitting

I did actually learn something new the other day when I actually left the house to enjoy the sun. I did not take my laptop for a walk to hunt Wi-Fi (though I did the other day), since I have scheduled surgery for a port to be installed directly in the middle of my forehead. Apparently my imaginary health insurance covers it.

I learned about felting, which means to knit something in real wool and then shrink it on purpose. Basically, you knit it huge, wash it in hot water with your other stuff, then pull it out and "plunge it into ice-water," as Cathy Montoya at Montoya Fiber Studio tells me. You should see some of the stuff she does. Wonderful. Different wools felt differently, and you can tease it a little to emphasize smoothness or hairiness. Purses and bowls and hats. Go visit.

A word on my nom-de-blog:

When I first set this thing up in Blogger, I didn't know what I was doing and so wasn't sure what name to use, so I just typed in "fp", thinking I'd have to type it repeatedly whenever I posted. Too, I had a vague idea that I might want to set up different blogs for each aspect of my multiple personality disorder (painting, politics, printmaking, sweaters, Jazzercize, whatever). Clearly, this one blog and my feeble attempt at a few web pages, consumes every ounce of strength and nanosecond of time I have available, so that's unlikely to happen. But since I've been chatting away for the past year all over the web as "Cynical" (though in the political realm I've become more Hopeful over time now that Bush has been dropping in the polls), I am now removing the mask and Revealing Some.

Which gets me back to printmaking, in a way, since the last big (for me) series I did was "Escapes and Reunions," in which I played with self-portraits and figure studies and the artist's relationship to her model, escaping from self, covering self, revealing self -- you know, the usual. When I get a better website (i.e., leave the now-loathsome Compuserve and figure out Dreamweaver), I'll Reveal More and get a better gallery going, with my resume, Artist's Statement, and the rest all in one place.

I have started the Right Front (of my sweater, not a political movement, folks).

- posted by Cynthia @ 11:08 AM | | | Link |