my favorite poncho

Last spring I was in AC Moore and they had this great yarn 50% off: Gedifra Distrato. It was in my favorite colors; yellow ochre, burnt orange, and brown with alternating stripes of cotton/rayon and fur, very yummy and soft. I paid 3.50 a skein, and bought all of the skeins that were left (9 or 10 as I recall). I ripped a free poncho pattern off the rack and designed a poncho that is two rectangles sewn together. I alternated stockinette for the fur stripe with a simple lace pattern for the cotton. After I sewed the rectangles together I made a fringe with just the cotton part of the yarn. Here is a nasty cell phone picture of my nice poncho:





This yarn is always on ebay and if you can get it for under $5 it's a steal.

I will post a nicer picture and a pattern to download when I get my birthday present!

have fun today, Sue

Knit with me: A twin set

About a year ago I bought a dozen skeins of Peer Gynt dk in an oatmeal tweed color. I bought it specifically for a cabled pullover from VK (can't remember the issue now). Well, I started the sweater but after a while the pattern became confusing and didn't look as intricate as it did in the photo, so I gave up on it. I've been wanting to make a nice twin set to wear to work and as I surfed the knitting web magazines I came upon two patterns that I think will go great together. The first one I found was at MagKnits, a t-shirt pattern by Grumperina.

Picovoli by Grumperina

I ordered the yarn Shine in cream from knitpicks for this t-shirt since it needs a bit of stretch (look at those boobs, that's the best part about this top, how flattering it is to boobacious babes). I received the yarn yesterday (my first purchase from knitpicks) and it matches the oatmeal yarn PERFECTLY! That's a good sign.

Next, I found a very nice cardigan at knitty.com called Bristow.

Bristow by Melanie Gibbons

I'm hoping that the pattern on this cardigan flatters the oatmeal tweed yarn. I've started the back and I love the brown flecks. The yarn is slightly scratchy but not too bad. I'm feeling good about this project.

The photo problem is basically fixed but I realize that my nasty cell phone shots are ugly (plus it looks stupid when you have the cellphone covering the sweater!! So I'm going to try and get a reasonably priced digital camera for my birthday. That will be a good investment when I start posting my paintings and patterns.

Yeah, it's Saturday. I'm hibernating today with my knitting and a book I picked up at the Cornell library called "The Artist and the Emotional World."

take care, sue

Still working on photos

That's me!! Yeah!!

Well that didn't work

Ok, let's try it a different way. With a gif file:

Having Trouble with Pictures

Hi,

I'm going to try to upload some pictures directly into the blog post, because I can't do it through my profile. Something about this blogsite not being Mac compatible!! How is that possible in this day and age? Don't get me started...

here is a shot of my Cornell yearbook photo (i didn't order any shots so this is the proof). I graduated as a late bloomer from Cornell University in 2005 with a BS in Sociology. What a great experience. I'm an Ivy Leaguer Now!!



Also, here is a muff that I made for Rachel for Christmas from Knit.1 men's issue.



Well, if you come to my blog, let me know if you see my pics.

new thoughts about a creativity magazine

Hi,

As I said, the ideas for the blog, website, podcast focus changes every day. I wrote my sister Patty who is a webmistress and teaches web at a prep school in PA. Here are some of the ideas I jotted down for her input:

I'm trying to revive my "creativity" and I've noticed some really interesting Blog sites where people seem to actually be making money from their specific art. Since I'm all over the map (i'm not sure whether I'm a musician, an artist, or a knitwear designer!) I thought, hell, why don't I just do a website magazine where I just practice being creative in whatever hits me. I've already picked out a name "Cloud Heights" which relates to an I Ching reading that says:

The wild goose gradually draws near the clouds heights.
Its feathers can be used for the sacred dance.
Good fortune.

Would you be interested in helping me create this website? I not only want to talk about art and creativity but also do a section on spirituality. There could also be a "Joe Corner" where we could publish some of his writings.

Here's another twist. I want to start a podcast that would be associated with my guitar site. I got some breaking news last week. The website where my guitar site is housed is going to become the official Joni Mitchell webiste (jonimitchell.com). This is pretty huge so this may also bring a lot of hits to my creativity site.

Let me know what you think. Maybe Sara can help, too! Maybe we can have fashion and culinary tips from Kate. Maybe we can post some of your photos for sale. MBs jewelry. A Percolators CD. It could be anything that works ... freeflowing creativity ...

thinking about this is really exciting.

sue

Music for Youth Joni Mitchell Tribute at Carnegie Hall

Hello,

I am very excited to get my tickets for this event which is happening on Feb 1. Here is the URL:

http://www.musicforyouth.org/joni/index.htm

I hope to meet up with my other Joniphile friends and as usual hope for a SIQUOMB siting. Or maybe this time I'll finally meet her! I'm not getting my hopes up on that one. Just hoping I can get there and the tickets aren't sold out yet.

Sue

My Joni Mitchell Guitar Site

Several years ago I started a Joni Mitchell Guitar site in conjunction with the Joni Mitchell Discussion List website. I worked with three other musicians to build this thing into a monster database of Joni's tabs. What is very interesting about this site is it teaches the musical student how to acurately play the song in Joni's original alternate tunings. I'm very proud of this site so if you would like to check it out, go here:

http://www.jmdl.com/guitar/

I have ideas about someday doing a podcast related to Joni's music, but I'm not sure how to do that yet so I'll continue to explore.

sue

Artist - Sue McNamara

the question is what kind? of artist. or do I really have to answer that question. probably not. Today's creative endeavor was having lunch with someone I was afraid I didn't really like that much. Guess what? I went and it worked out fine. We don't have a lot in common but we had a great conversation and all rocks have been thrown off the path for us to work together. Keep an open mind, Sue. That's the first step for a creative life.

sue