Despite the long line outside of Amoeba Records in San Francisco last Saturday, we still managed to score most of the special releases on our list. We were lucky we were not looking for the really rare stuff. The guys … Continue reading
Category Archives: Object of desire
Robot Art and Indie Craft in Boston – Joy!!!
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The hubby and I were lucky tonight to get to two fabulous events, the Cabin Fever Indie Gift Show in Boston’s SoWa art district and I…You…We…ROBOT: A Visual Homage To Our Inner Geek! at Space 242 nearby on East Berkeley Street.
We arrived in the South End a little too early (doors at the craft show opened at 6) so we walked around to a few of the studios open for First Friday to stay warm, and see what was happening in the Boston art scene.
After viewing some of the less-obtainable art, we paid our $2 and ran amok at the gift show. Perhaps it was because we found so many wonderful, inspiring things. Or perhaps it was because spending under $100 on a lovely oil painting seems smart after passing up $7000 ones at the studios nearby. Whatever the reason, we are thrilled with our new objects d’art!
In particular, we scored a painting I’ve been lusting for on Etsy for the past year by Botodesigns.
Tea CeremonyHere are cards from a few of the vendors we visited (and many of whom we deprived of several lovely things). The full list of vendors can be found on the Cabin Fever website. If you are hanging around Boston on Saturday, February 6th you should go check it out!
With our happy bag of goodies in tow, we next headed over to Space 242 to see the display of robotic art. Lots, and lots of robots in many different media. Many items to tempt. Among my favorites were “Longing,” “Sundae-bot” and “The Robots Steal our Jobs“.
This should be a yearly event, and next year, they need to include some fiber robot art (hint, hint).
Check out this video of artists discussing their inspiration:
If you can’t make it to Boston before the show ends on February 19th, you can always visit Space 242′s set of images on Flickr.
Here’s a photo we took of a bit of graffiti art spotted in the studio bathroom. Shocking!
Knitting poligamy and the lucious Lace Scarf
There are those who can love only one project at a time. They are the monogamous knitters. They don’t have huge stashes of projects begun but not yet done.
Not me. I am a knitting polygamist. Did you ever wonder why there are so many different sized needles? The monogamist knitter would say that this is to allow for the possibilities of knitting in different gauges. The polygamist knitter knows that this is to allow for having twelve projects on needles at the same time.
I saw this amazing cover project by Tanis Knits in last winter’s Vogue Knitting Magazine but did not immediately purchase the wool for it because:
- my many other projects waiting to be completed were glaring at me
- the wool for this project is very expensive
- ever since the eighties, when all my knitting was done with yarn that should be glad I don’t play with matches, I must must must use the real, designer yarn for my projects
In a moment of weakness (and due to the fall yarn sale at Webs) I succumbed to the lure of the Alpaca, pulled out my MasterCard and ordered the yarn. Two weeks of both instant and delayed regret followed as I waited for my pricey purchase to arrive. First to show up on the doorstep were the size 19 rosewood needles. What a tease! How cruel of them to send the needles and then tell me the yarn is back-ordered!
Soon enough a very large and heavy box with 20 skeins of yarn arrived (and more guilt). Once I laid hands on the first skein freed from the plastic packaging all regrets faded away. Have you ever held baby angora bunny mixed with downy chick fuzz and a little bit of fluffy cloud in your hands? The Blue Sky Alpacas Bulky wool is amazing, decadent, and all-around fantabulous. I gave serious thought to replacing my pillow with 8 or so balls of this heavenly stuff. Only the thought of having to hand-wash this wonder on a weekly basis prevented me.
I’ve made it through the first pattern repeat and figure that due to the enormous gauge, I should have this baby completed in a couple of weeks. The finished measurements have this scarf at over 11 feet long. I’m going to see how it goes – can’t have my precious dragging on the ground.
Note to my currently passed-over projects, I’ll be back for you soon!
Bots over Brooklyn
We had a wonderful visit to Brooklyn in July. Some of the high points:
Got to see brother Bill in a production of Hamlet in J.J. Byrne park in front of The Old Stone House. It was a perfect summer night, and the performance was very enjoyable despite the tragic plot. There are so many familiar quotes from that play – I’d forgotten where they came from.
Did you know there are fireflies in the city? We saw several playing hide-and-seek between folks spread out on the lawn to watch the play. Who knew?
As the city that spawned Etsy, it should not have been a surprise that Brooklyn houses a diverse and interesting artist community. We spent quite a while window shopping. Found a very friendly LYS (local yarn store) called Knit-A-Way and dropped some cash on a few skeins of Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino. Yum! Also found a cute pair of robot earrings. Joy!
At one point, we stood transfixed by the contents of an antiques shop window which was filled with amazing robot sculptures.
Yet another thing to save my pennies for (or is that buy lottery tickets for?). But which one? Ms. Jello, Simplex 3, or Spot?? Sigh….
Shopportunity
So no good deed goes unpunished, right? I loaned my sweet Avenue A | Razorfish USB flash drive out to a co-worker. Long story short, co-worker departed with the drive and says they mailed it back. A week ago.
Excuse to go shopping? You betcha!
Reason departed, and BOTH of these sweet mimobots will be mine! Let the Empire beware…
In search of the Mecha Dunny
I have a small addiction. I’ve been collecting series 5 Dunnies. The lure of the blind box. The quest for the rare Dunny. I only buy one. Here and there. The problem is that most of them are really so, well, ugly. And the object of my desire is so very rare…
Surely going to the source – the Kidrobot store in NYC – would bring me luck? No soap. Drat and double drat. A duplicate Dunny!
Oh Mecha Dunny, where are you??
RoboGames: Olympics for the circuit board crowd!
Wish I could have made it out to RoboGames 2009 in San Francisco June 12-14 this year. Looks like it was a lot of geeky fun! Now that’s an Olympics I could compete in! (maybe…)
Take a peek at this documentary from the RoboGames site. Best quote “Anytime you get geeks thinking in mass, you get societal benefits from that.”
A Whirlwind tour of the Sheep Shearing Festival at Gore Place
Angora bunnies from Evergreen FarmYesterday, we went to the annual Sheep Shearing Festival at Gore Place. We could only stay for an hour-and-a-half before departing for our cider bottling adventures, so we had to run through instead of meandering around as usual.
Alpaca couple posing for the cameraYou know that first really nice day of warm weather after a cold New England winter? The one where you forget all about hats and sun block? It was that kind of day. What a different atmosphere from the cold and drizzle of last year.
We spent a lot of time with our old favorites – Seacolors, Evergreen Farm, Bartlett Yarns, and with our new favorite, Ellie’s Reclaimed Cashmere. I managed to limit myself to just one skein of cashmere – pretty good considering how tempting everything looked and felt.
Reclaimed cashmere. Must touch. Must have.
Will and Ellen of Ellie’s Reclaimed CashmereIf you are in the Boston area, make sure to check out the festival next April. Now back to treating that sun burn…
Robots to Love
I happened to actually read one of the emails Boing Boing sends me the other day, and noticed a wonderful piece of robot art painted by Brian Despain.
It was love at first sight, alas the $300 price tag for a limited edition print would cut too deeply into the yarn budget. For those with the moola, there are 7 left as of this posting here.
For those with less cash to spend, you can buy a skin for your laptop, iphone or [insert name of technology object here] on the GelaSkins site. You can also download free desktop art there as well. So cool!!!
Knitting Cafe
On a recent trip to the MFA store, I picked up a new knitting book called Knitalong. I could not resist the pattern of the felted origami crane. In between the knitting patterns, the book is about knitting traditions, and the thread of crafting together as it has spun out over time – from quilting bees to crafting get-togethers.
The book also describes the emergence of a relatively new phenomenon – the knitting cafe.
So on a recent visit to NYC, I sought out and visited a knitting cafe called Knit New York. The sign out front contained one of the most evil marketing messages I have ever seen: “Knit for Free”. Wow. Yes, knitting is free, but the yarn, the needles, the bags, the stitch counters, tape measures, and on and on, are not. Joy!
Inside, they have cute little tables with flowers on them. They have these fabulous yarn storage shelves – look like something from Imelda Marcos’s closet of dreams.
The staff was very friendly, but there was something about the place that did not tempt me to linger — not what I expected to find. Also, the espresso machine definitely had the look of something that has been unused for quite a while.
I guess I had my hopes up after reading Knitalong. Does anyone have any good knitting cafe’s to recommend?