Monday, May 17, 2010

Sunday, Arty Sunday

This past winter, I met Lois Benson at a knit night at Fibre Space in Old Town, Alexandria. (I LOVE that shop.) Lois is a weaver and has a studio space at the Torpedo Factory, also in Alexandria. Old Town is probably one of my favorite places I've visited since I've been in Maryland and when I met Lois she said that I just HAD to visit the Torpedo Factory. Yesterday, I finally did!

In the late morning, I met a knitting group for brunch at Teaism in DC. Then we moseyed over to the National Portrait Gallery to knit for a bit. I finished my moebius cowl that I knit out of handspun fiber from Loop. I just need to weave in the ends and block it out. (Pictures to come soon.)

From there, I took the metro to the King Street stop in Old Town and hopped on the free trolley that traverses the length of King St. Public transportation is pretty flipping wonderful. Last stop, Union St and the Torpedo Factory!

It was amazing. There are so many different talented artists, some of whom were working on their one of a kind pieces right there in front of you. I chatted with some folks about the retreat center, but mostly just soaked in all the creative goodness. My favorite was the work of ceramics sculptor, Robert Rosselle. He makes these large, hollow sculptures that have peep holes built into them.


And then when you look inside, you see this...

A turtle swimming through space and a little man in a canoe!

Here's another...

Wait for it...

Man riding a dragon?! Whaaa?! So cool! This one was entitled "Star Wars."

I've never seen anything like that before. Very interesting. Here are some other pictures of some of the artwork I saw...

A sculpture of a man eating...

Those "Do Not Eat" silica packages.

ABC gum portraiture.

This is the work of Pat Mong. A sphere made of metal tubes.

It's sucking in my breath and soul?! Oh artists. So eccentric :)

Monogrammed rubber gloves by Natalia Vega Forero. Go feminist artists!

Folded, cut, and Sharpied paper by Gwendolyn Graine.

A loom, warped with metal wire!

Metally!

Woven metal sculpture by Cindy Lowther.

Painted silk by...

This lady, Anna Yakubovsakya. She's from St. Petersburg, Russia. I had to take a few photos of her until she was satisfied. I wish I could have had an invisible double of me with an invisible camera because every time I showed her the picture I had just taken, she laughed and the candid smile she had was just beautiful! Also, I like the sound of a Russian accent.

After I had explored all three floors of artists, I stopped at a Starbucks for an iced chai latte before hopping back on the trolley to N. Fayette St. to one of my favorite yarn shops, Fibre Space! As it so happened, THE Jared Flood was there teaching a workshop. GAH! I wish I had registered for it. I didn't get a chance to chat with him, but I did steal a few glances. AND! I bought some Dragonfly Fibers sock yarn. It's a gorgeous colorway with oranges, purples, and grays. I bought this yarn to make socks for my mother. I WAS working on socks for my mum with some alpaca sock yarn that I bought at Yarntopia in New York. Those socks have begun to be frogged (meaning I'm ripping out the stitches) for these reasons:

1) I think the yarn may have been cursed. The woman who owns the shop is kind of a grump and I was a little pissed at myself for buying yarn from her shop. I think as I knit with this yarn, the bad vibes that had soaked into it were entering my body through my fingertips and making me grouchy.

2) I set these socks down during the Ravelympics so that I could work on my first sweater (also currently unfinished) and I think there was too much down time between when I set them down and when I picked them up again. I just wasn't excited to knit them.

3) I started knitting socks for my mom because I thought I had not knit my mother anything...ever! Then, after I had started them, I remembered I HAD knit my mother something a couple of years ago. A really cool, slouchy, racerback tank (this link will only work if you're on Ravelry...sorry). D'oh.

4) The yarn and the sock pattern didn't go well together. I was knitting a cable pattern with DARK alpaca yarn...so the cable didn't really show up. And it was a lot of freaking work for the cable NOT to show up.

So for your entertainment, I leave you with some photos of me ripping out the socks...

Watch out! She's crazed!

Out of control.

Catharsis.

Eww.

What a weirdo.

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