Solas na Cruinne

“Success is simple. Do what’s right, the right way, at the right time.”
~ Arnold Henry Glasow, American Thinker & Humorist

I did it! I did it! Check it out…a successfully turned sock heel. No tears. No tragedies. No runs. Just a heel…simple.

I have finally made a sock that is shaped like a foot! Imagine that? Lil’ ole me? How cool!

I told the harrowing tale of my lack of sock-making prowess in a previous post. After nine tries with several different techniques, patterns and yarns, I have achieved sockdom! Yay for me! Two pairs complete now.

Anyone who doesn’t knit is probably thinking, “Okay, so this chick is crazy.” But anyone who does knit and has tried to graduate from flatness (ie. blankets and scarves) to shapeliness (ie. sweaters, teddy bears, gloves and socks) can probably grasp my joy.

Making a thing rounded, and knitting so that it turns corners etc., is essentially easy. But if you’ve never done it before you don’t KNOW that.

The directions for heel turning, and necks and armholes and other such things, seem counter-intuitive to the first-timer. Hence the problem. You don’t want to do exactly what the directions say, you want to interpret them, through the mind if a flat-knitter.

All I can say is: “Don’t interpret, just do!”

Once I figured that out, it actually worked! Imagine that? Directions that work? LOL.

Now that I have done it a couple of times I feel really confident about sock-making. There is no longer anything about socks that I am unable to do, but I must admit that I don’t particularly enjoy the picking up stitches after you’ve turned the heel. I can do it though, just not as enjoyable as, say, doing the toe.

I promise that once you’ve turned ONE heel (or maybe TWO,) you will have it mastered. :-)

So here is to self-striping yarns, yummy dye lots, squishy alpaca, shiny silk, curly mohair and, oh yeah, Happy Knitting!

By the way, you can find me on Ravelry as owlsocks. ;-)

“If the fool would persist in his folly he would become wise.”

~William Blake, English Poet & Visionary

As some of you may know, I am a knitter. At least, sometimes I am.

I did my first stint of knitting when I was about seven. Then I gave it up when I was nine.

I got into knitting again when I was fifteen and gave it up when I was sixteen.

I picked it up again when I was 19 and put it down yet again when I turned 21.

Well, I am now a successful knitter in that I have kept with it, seasonally, for the past five years.

But, my whole reason for returning to knitting was to knit socks. Socks, socks, socks. Lots of socks. I collect them and wanted to make some of my own instead of continuing to buy nylon socks that were made in China.

Loved the knitting. Hated the socks.

I never finished a single one.

Actually, I really liked the socks, but they did not like me back.

I did eventually get used to the concept of double-pointed knitting needles and the whole knitting-in-the-round thing. But, after the 4th one that had to be ripped out during tragic heel-turning episodes, I decided to put socks aside and go back to baby blankets and scarves.

Then, a year later, I broke out the luscious pile of sock yarn and tried again. Twice. With the same sad and frustrating results. So, back to afghans and hats.

Then, just last autumn, I tried again. Equipped with the Addi Turbo 12″ circular sock needles, I felt determined and sure that it would be different.

At first, it was awesome! Knitting cuffs on the Addi is a breeze! Which brought me, at light-speed, to the heel. Dead in the water, AGAIN. And, AGAIN!

Well as I write to you today, I am on my 9th attempt at sock-making. I feel that nine is a lucky and magical number. (I hope!)

I am very excited and truly hopeful that this time the creativity will be effortless (or relatively so) and I will achieve a completed pair of handmade socks by the New Year.

The yarn that I chose is a lot of fun, Zwerger Garn-Opal Harry Potter in the Ron colorway. It makes me feel a little bit like Mrs. Weasley. ;-)

Maybe that’s why I am calling this project my Weasley Scrunchie Socks.

The pattern is a free one, the Squoosh Sock by Yarn Zombie.

Right now I am more than 6 inches into the first sock. I think it’s knitting up nicely, although the yarn may be better showcased using a different pattern, I really like the combination. Fun yarn + fun pattern = Fun socks!!!

Wish me luck (and patience) as approach the heel turning…I’ll need it!

**Ravelry users can find me here.

“A snowball is simple, direct and familiar to most of us. I use this simplicity as a container for feelings and ideas that function on many levels. ”
~Andy Goldsworthy, Environmental Sculptor

When we are talking about art, and we are talking about frugality, we should definitely be talking about Andy Goldsworthy.

His art is something that bridges the gap between both art and eco-friendliness but also speaks to us of other, perhaps more important, concepts like innocence and spirit.

Andy Goldsworthy, a British Sculptor who does some fantastic site-specific sculpture using natural materials found on location, has such a unique style. His work is transient, deliberately and most naturally temporary, lasting only so long as the winds, the seas, gravity or mankind allow.

He takes his inspiration from the colours and textures in the landscape, from the patterns so common in nature herself, and he delights in transmuting things from their ordinary form and function into something equally natural but yet astoundingly different.

Andy has been working since the seventies, when his disagreement with the restrictive programme at his art college led him to seek solace in the real, in the inspiring. In other words, in nature.

To look at some of his early works check out the online catalogue at Glasgow University’s website. Or if you’d like to watch a documentary about his more recent works, check out Rivers and Tides.

Since his beginnings Andy has become renown for his distinctive and ephemeral brand of landscape art, encompassing pre-dawn ice sculpture, beach sculptures that just barely beat the tide and leaf collages which tempt the fury of the winds.

There is something so sacred and yet so human about his type of artwork. It makes a beautiful and terrifying statement about the way in which man has such a great, and yet such a fleeting, effect on his environment. His pieces remind us of our divinity and our own mortality.

Andy’s casual, quiet nature, as well as his somewhat reclusive lifestyle in the Scottish Highlands, has left much room for new artists to follow his lead and, over the years, many have. But only one really deserves mentioning in the same arena as Goldsworthy, not necessarily for the grand scope of his works but for his similarly spiritual and unassuming approach to his craft. And that is Shane Hart.

Hart’s impromptu art, a precarious balancing act between upright stones that seem to have no right to defy gravity, has been given the name of Uppala Yoga. And it is certainly rooted in the philosophy and peaceful grace of yoga.

The uppala stone sculptures present elegance in the face of resistance, defying gravity with an awe-inspiring simplicity. To stumble upon one of his works unexpectedly would certainly challenge our own impressions of what is possible and what is divine.

All-in-all I am enamored of those who can, from found natural materials, channel through their unique spirit an original piece of low-tech art that showcases the innate magnificence in all creation.

The spiritual beauty in accepting, and even embracing, their art as temporary and transitional is what is most moving, and like all good art it speaks to that silent something in our human core which defies explanation. Now THAT is real art, here today, gone tomorrow yet leaving us with a splendid feeling and a memory that will last forever.