Change is Good

On October 15, 2004 I started this blog.  I had planned to write a blog dedicated to rediscovering knitting, and my triumphs and tragedies.  At that time I worked at a desk job - as a receptionist with a Master's Degree in Theatre History and Design.  You can imagine that the innnertubes, and the knitting blogs out there in the blogosphere sustained me between answering the phone in my mellifluous tone, "Unnamed Penison Company, this is Chela, how may I direct your call? Make it snappy I'm reading Yarn Harlot..."  The amazing community of knitters sustained me through that agony.  Then the "oosband" got a job in Santa Monica.  I was thrilled to move.  Shortly after arriving there I was hired by Studio Daedre as a glitter artist.  Not only was I thrilled to have a fun job, but I made several forever friends there including Daedre and Scott Berryman (owners of the Studio), and JoAnn Stevens-Flores, a remarkable painter and cheeky gal!

While in Santa Monica I worked at the Studio, took continuing classes at Santa Monica College in photography and Photoshop, started working as a professional photographer, and realized that I am an artist at heart.  And then and then and then...  I realize as I am reading this I am boring myself!!!

If I wanted to share my interests blog by blog, I'd have to maintain six or seven blogs.  Suffice to say, I work as a photographer, but I use my photography in my art, I paint with watercolors, but I use my watercolors in fabric design, I sew, I knit, and most importantly I cook.    So we are undergoing a change here at Throw Sticks.  Yes I throw, I don't knit continental, I still throw sticks for my dogs, I still want to throw my knitting across the room on occasion, but maybe the name isn't entirely relevant to the new scope of the blog, however  I promise I will "throw" as much creativity as I can dish.  I do maintain a professional photo blog at NotoPhoto.Blogspot.com, where you can see work that I do with some of my clients.  Throw Sticks is simply my happy place, I plan to post my art work, photography, knitting, cooking, design work, and perhaps even travels.  Don't expect superior photography, I use my IPhone for most of my craft snaps, it is so easy!  And more than anything else I want to share the work of wonderful artists and c
rafts people I meet.

Oh and I still knit, a lot, and I love it.

So I just got the new Vogue Knitting.  I was seriously nonplussed...  I don't know if it is the fact that our weather has just now become hot, or because I object to cropped sweaters.  Please, I am a near 50 year old woman - not in bad shape  - but I want a sweater that covers the important parts.  Call it what it is a "shrug"!  The American Heritage Dictionary defines shrug as " To raise shoulders, esp as a gesture of doubt, disdain or indifference".  That pretty much meshes with my feelings about the shrug as a garment.  Ok I admit the second definition is "A short woman's jacket or sweater open down the front".    And then in the second story there is this:

Stunning.  Lace.  Knit.  And my latest obsession; lace, change, dresses.  I have to start the Noro dress before I start this, and I might even knit it in PINK!!!!

On a final note, I just saw this on my Yahoo news feed.  Quite amazing work.
http://news.yahoo.com/photos/paintings-that-look-like-photos-slideshow/

Change, its good.

Nuts for Noro

I don't know how I have gone these many years without using Noro yarns.  I would see them in knit shops and think "how gaudy", or "too much color for me".   What was I thinking?  Colorwork always seemed so mysterious to me, I have knit one intarsia piece, and thank goodness it was felted because it was one hole after another.  I've done stripes.  But nothing so vibrant as the mosaic knit dress (see my earlier post on swatching for the Noro dress), or as completely engaging as the cropped jacket that I am knitting right now.  I find myself thinking "one more row, I just want to see how the color changes...  just one more row".


Below to the left the fronts are seamed at the shoulders and neck, and a small detail of the wonderful way two Noro colorways change.  I'm smitten!  This is Silk Garden in #252 and #272.

This is the back.  What fun.  Its just stunning.  And so much fun to put together as well.

In other news I have studio envy.  My office is in the attic of our house, the ceilings are at a pretty sharp pitch.  If I am working at my desk I am fine, but if I move too much one way or the other and stand up suddenly its headache city!  My dear friend JoAnn Stevens-Flores over at Doodle Paint Draw built her studio in a little shed in their backyard.  I should clarify, her terrific husband built her the shed, and finished it beautifully.  That got me to thinking, I have a garden shed with a potting bench...  I have been dabbling in watercolors and encaustic painting (which really needs to be done in a ventilated place), I need room where I can be messy and not get paint and goo all over my knitting or my camera equipment...  Welcome to my summer studio!

And finally, this is what knitters do at Thirty Seconds to Mars concerts.  We knit.