What else? More hats!

I think I'm getting the hang of this... It is ridiculously fun, which has kept me not only off the streets and out of trouble, but maybe also out of blogland. Here are a few of my most recent hats:I think my target market may be redheads, but that's always been true, I suppose.

I really like the black-and-white spiral and the orange!

I've also made a few hats for little ones, but being as we're childless, I'm not sure who to get to model them. Maybe these are actually just a start on some very funky lingerie :)

What I've been up to, in part

So, here're a few of the hats I've been knitting:

That one's for sale, as you can tell if you click on it. These one's are not yet in the shop. You could click on them, if you wanted, for fun...

A couple more hats

These two are knitted out of mohair...

A new project

I've had a basket of knitting yarn sitting in the closet for about three years now, and until this week I hadn't touched it, partly because weaving's kept my hands full, and partly because I would have to learn how to knit to use it.

But earlier this week, I bought a knitting loom (about $7 on sale), something I'd heard of from my father, something that sounded like it would make knitting a whole lot easier.

The loom I bought is just a circle with pegs on it:It is quick and easy, though it makes a pretty loose knit. I've found this can be partly counteracted when the hat is washed/shrunk. If you don't mind having a smaller hat, you can get the knit to be tighter with hot water and a bit of dish soap (same thing you'd do for felting, incidentally).

Anyway, here are two of the four hats I've made this week.



My model kindly didn't ask for much in compensation. But he wasn't too keen on trying on the light blue mohair with the sparkles.

Art and craft

I rarely think about art, but I *do* art a lot. Or so I think.

Over the weekend, I participated in a local show, dubbed Alley Gallery (a self-proclaimed lowbrow art sale). I also wove 19 yards of cloth, enough for seven wraps of varying sorts. I'm sorry to say the latter was much more lucrative work.

While I was at the show Friday, an artist pal and I chatted about this and that, mostly money, sales and how to get by as an artist. These topics seem to occupy a fair amount of her waking hours. I don't need to make a living as a weaver, but I could if I had to. I'm sure I'd have worries, but one thing I would not worry about is whether people would buy my work.

I think weaving full time would count as being an artist for a living, but my pal hinted that might be up for debate. I know there are divides among craftsmen: Painters and photographers aren't the same animal as weavers, woodworkers, potters and metalsmiths.

And I know that people who show in galleries or do installation art aren't the same as craftsmen (and women, though I've met few craftswomen who see craftsman as a gender-specific term). But I wasn't aware that any of them really thought we (craftsmen) weren't doing art.

On the flip side, I see a lot of art that is done with very poor craftsmanship. If it were my call to make, my alma mater would require studio art majors to take (and pass, god damn it) a course in craftsmanship. I'm not saying you can't have good art without good craftsmanship, but if you're going to sell something, a little professional pride wouldn't hurt.

I guess that's another can of worms, the selling part. I've yet to weave something I think nobody would buy, but I don't think that spoils the items as pieces of art. I think that might be up for debate, too.