Arm Knitting

This weekend, I visited Hanna's family in Northern Virginia. We went into DC to drive around and look at her project site for her Thesis, and I visited my old coworkers.

I was on Pinterest Saturday morning, looking for pottery inspiration, when I searched the term "chunky scarves". A tutorial for arm knitted infinity scarves popped up. I watched the 18 minute how-to video, and decided that I was capable enough to try it out. I dragged my friend Hanna to AC Moore, bought $20 worth of chunky yarn (I got excited), and set to work.

Simply Maggie's tutorial explained everything clearly, in terms that a non-knitter like myself could easily understand. I was able to figure out what "casting on" and "casting off" and "working yarn" all meant pretty easily. And it was SO EASY to make the scarves! Literally, half an hour later, I had a great chunky cowl scarf.

I used three strands of curly green yarn for my first cowl.

Hanna actually knows how to knit and crochet, so she had a leg up on me.

We watched Pirates of the Caribbean while arm knitting. During the movie, each of us made TWO scarves and were able to take breaks to focus on the pirates.

 

ARENT THEY AWESOME.

I made two more scarves on my four hour drive back down to Blacksburg from NoVA. I can easily get two scarves from one skein of yarn (albeit one will be much smaller than the other, because I didn't use the yarn evenly...), so Hanna and I decided to swap one of my orange scarves for one of her maroon ones. Her orange scarf turned out to be a lot smaller than mine, but it still looks good.

I noticed that her scarves were closer to her neck than mine are, and they're knitted tighter. Maybe I have bigger arms? Maybe I'm still a beginner knitter and have no clue what I'm doing? Either way, it's cool to see the differences in our work.

Around the World Blog Hop

I have a few quilt blog friends. We're doing this traveling quilt thing that is taking a little longer than I think any of us anticipated. And one of the participants, Anna, invited me to participate in the Around the World Blog hop- I talk about myself and the work I'm doing!

1. What am I working on?

Great question. Until Saturday, I didn't have a sewing table, so I hadn't been sewing. But I have been doing a lot of things in school.

I'm taking a pottery class. I learned how to make pinch pots (which sadly got annihilated in the kiln last week by an exploding piece) and some draped pieces, and I glazed for the first time on Monday. They came out on Thursday, and look pretty neat.

My lonely pinch pot.

My draped egg bowl.

 

My deformed draped egg bowl.

My jewelry cup.

I'm working on my architecture Thesis this year. The goal is to study wilderness and architecture, and how buildings can work with their environment to bring people closer to nature. What I've ended up doing is just cutting cardboard for an increasingly frustrating topography model.

2. How does my work differ from others in the genre?

Well for one, it isn't much sewing... haha! But really. I think I differ in my slowness. My time is divided between many many things, and when I do have time to sew, I like to do it in long batches. I don't sew for thirty minutes here, thirty minutes there. So, it takes a while to get a stretch of time I can sew in. So, all of my pieces are WIPs.

Like my Sister's Ten BOM from 2013.

Or my collection of baby quilts, needing to be quilted.

3. Why do I write/create what I do?

I began this blog to keep track of my quilting. I maintain it because my grandma and my friend Andy like to read it :)

I love to be busy. I fill my time with crafting and architecture because I don't know what to do when I have nothing to do. So I create in order to keep my mind and my hands busy. It's why I love being an architecture student, and it's why I love to quilt.

4. How does my writing/creative process work?

It's been hard recently. I have felt no motivation to write at all. So I'm sitting here, forcing myself to type something. I've just felt so busy lately, so I haven't had any time to think about things I've experienced and done. But when I do sit down to type, it just flows.

As far as creative process goes, dude. My studio desk is full of inspiring quotes and pictures and paper to draw on, but guess what I've done. I made a mountain out of cardboard. Not a building, but just a model of a mountain.

I have ideas for some pavillions and buildings. I just need to get the ground done first. So, I guess, process wise, I work in stages. Finish one, move on to the other.

Thanks for tagging me, Anna!

A Recap

I realize there's been a lot of radio silence here on the Blog of Couch. I did a lot of things in August, and I just kept doing things, and I never sat down long enough to think about them introspectively.

But here's a quick smattering of what I've been up to.

I went to Mount Rainier National Park.

  

I saw misty subalpine meadows, the Nisqually glacier, and became a Junior Ranger.

 

I hiked and trekked and climbed.

Then CJ and I drove from Seattle to San Diego.

 

Oregon was lovely- the beaches and sand dunes were fun.

  

We drove the coast most of the way down.

 

Then school started and the College of Architecture turned 50, so there was a big party.

And now I'm sitting at my desk, thinking about architecture.