ConnieLene – KnitDesigner

The balls are back like rows of Bridesmaids awaiting to move forward in the church.

They will look grand back in position. Trouble is, and I do not know if this is trouble yet, there were 24 balls (not the 25 I originally stated), now there are 20 waiting. I do hope the evenly spaced balls will look as grand on this elegant curve if there are only 20. It could also be that when I go back today that another 4 will have materialised.

A Yarnbombing, A Graffiti Art Knit installation, or an Urban Art installation will occur here again I am sure. I do hope the powers that be in Haarlem will let them sit and rest a little before removing them next time.

We checked today and they are not back, the Great Balls of Haarlem, and the road works continue. Not one person (Dutch person) that I have spoken to seems to know if the Balls will return. Surprisingly no non Dutch person has been able to help either.

I am working on a ball warmer design with a company logo for a special ball we have found. We think we could install it on 1st April – April Fools Day. That is the target date but it does depend on completion of a number of little projects that are progressing – so the date could change. We just thought April Fools Day had a great ring to it.

We will keep you posted.

not knitting, not knotting, knitting knotting, not knitting, knitting yeah, I am knitting.

Well, I will be very soon.

I have been working all day or so it feels, on setting up a Facebook business page – and I keep saying to myself – why? It doesn’t look like a business page, it doesn’t act like a business page – or maybe I am just not a business pager. But the little supportive voice in New Zealand who knows all about these things – profiling and all that stuff tells me I must.

So I am, or I will, or I am progressing – nearly.

I did not choose the option of “other business” (and in hindsight I probably should have done so), and I did choose the “artist” option and it makes a difference to the tabs you receive to play with – and hey you can’t rename the tabs. Well I haven’t discovered if you can rename the tabs. There is no specific function under the tab so why not be able to rename it??? Why can’t I change the business page type to “other Business” without losing what I have already created.

Maybe I am just not a business pager – that could be it.

Carbon Footprint - Shadow Knitting - Small wall hanging

But I will be back shortly to a multi coloured beret, and then I am finishing my intarsia carbon footprint bag. I have said it before, and I hope you don’t mind.

I love intarsia

I don’t love pictures in intarsia

I am okay with graphs, I can create them, and follow them, and they do create pictures.

The trouble is I got quite excited about the concept of representing a carbon footprint in knitting or crochet, you know – using our wonderful skills and creativity in a world confused by our presence. So CARBON FOOTPRINTS on our bags, afghans, sweaters (maybe), wall hangings (which is where I started), where ever you like. I just can’t get excited knitting pictures using the graph, (too formal I think) and that is why the Carbon Footprint bag has taken eons.

BUT I absolutely love free form colour work – intarsia knitting – and it keeps calling me, which stops me from what I should be doing.

Maybe, that is why I don’t get the Facebook Business Page model – the nearly formal activity that a business page should be, in an informal social environment.

Berets not including the felted one – because I have not felted it as yet.

Also Berets not including my funky fuzzy, multicoloured one – I haven’t knitted it as yet. Sorry Jeanette – at least it is still summer time where you are in Australia. And this morning we got up to another surprisingly white day – a reasonable sprinkling of snow. It is disappearing fast as the day warms up.

Cool Berets, Gorgeous Colours

There will be a pattern for these Berets using Vero, or another 12ply yarn.

And for you knitters out there – the front beret has been blocked, the back two had not been blocked when the photograph was taken. They are drying now.

Read all about it the tree is no longer wearing a fashion scarf

I hope someone takes the scarf and enjoys it as we left it hanging over the tree supports.

It has been fun, we have had a ball – and we are hoping for a return of the great balls of Haarlem, so that the fun can continue. We will keep you posted.

Back to berets, graphs, carbon footprints, bags, jackets, intarsia, e-book and so on. This interlude has been great fun, and we have together had a great deal of fun with it.

I just hope the world of fibre textiles – cottons onto creative textile art installations on spherical objects.

I wonder what we will do next year – to brighten up our winter evenings. It has been necessary in this cold winter with short daylight hours to create something which is new and exciting, to stimulate us, and maybe challenge and also delight others. The Ball Warmers have done that for us, and the tree and scarf was what started it all off, after that fateful email that I received about knit art Graffiti.

Next winter, well I don’t know what we will do. But now we must disrobe the tree and allow nature to create its own wonder with the birds, bees, leaves, grass, flowers, sunshine and the people in the parks. The scarf is no longer required to brighten a winter day.

Could this piece about the tree with a designer scarf have belonged here on Connielene instead of on Our Story here in the Netherlands. I don’t know – so you could check the story by following the link.

For some of the story in photographs see these from Flickr.

Enjoy

We will disrobe the tree today.

I am now on beret six – there is some minor madness when one keeps on playing with a piece. These have all been created using Vero yarn but in the different colours that I have here in the Netherlands.

I do miss my yarns that are still in New Zealand.

How can I miss yarn? I cannot even remember what was in my stash there – just that there were lots of yarns, in lots and lots of colours, from many different places in the world. But I do miss the variety in colour, yarn type, do not have sufficient variety here to create pieces as I was doing in New Zealand. I have purchased a lot of different yarns here in the Netherlands and some in Switzerland and in Denmark – I just do not have the quantity, colour range and yarn types here as I did have at home. It takes time to build up a new stash, doesn’t it?

What to do?

I don’t know.

So right now I am knitting berets.

Originally this was in response to a commission from a friend in Australia. But now I need to consider – do I continue with these? Do I complete the commission? Well yes that I must do, which means that beret 7 must be a funky, fuzzy, multicoloured piece. Then I must write up the pattern and then get back to that carbon footprint bag. Maybe I just put the two graphs out, one for the intarsia footprints and the other for carbon footprint using shadow knitting and leave you to decide – should it be on a bag, blanket, pram cover, cushion or on a sweater – should you happen to want a sweater with a foot print or two on it.

I guess that is what should be done.

The beret pattern – will include one in stocking stitch, and one felted from a stocking stitch knit. I won’t try to define the multicolour, multi fibre, intarsia one – that will be free form with little guidance.

I did go into Haarlem Grote Markt (Town Square) last night – just in case the balls were back. It was absolutely freezing cold and there was a different energy than on Tuesday when the Olympians came home.

See the Town Square as I saw it on Tuesday When the Olympians came home

It had been suggested that the magnificant balls of Haarlem had been removed to enable them to set up for the Olympian homecoming party – Sadly those wonderful balls are not back.

They are doing road works next to where the balls were, so maybe, just maybe they will be back when the work is completed.

So that is the news so far – NO Magnificant Balls in Haarlem – I will keep you posted.

The Balls in Wellington City, New Zealand have turned out to be beautiful ball shaped lights – so that is not a good option for covering with a creative textile art piece. Great balls of fire might follow.

We have found natural balls, the Moeraki Boulders on the coast about 40K’s from Dunedin, in New Zealand. We are hoping to find man made spherical objects even further south in Invercargill or on Stewart Island.

I have lots of knitting to do

Mind you, I always have lots of exciting knitting to do. Today I have loaded videos of my grandson with messages to his grandad onto Youtube. These were too big to attach to an email, but they were too wonderful to ignore. We do not have such records from our own children, it is so good to have these of our grandson.

So now Grandad and Grandson can both see from opposite sides of the world – what Tomas had to say and show his Grandad.

While I was working on the videos – my delicious cream neck warmer, and one Vero beret are drying. The beret I should felt is waiting, and so is my new beret on the needles.

I need to add to etsy shops as well today. It is hard to keep up with Ravelry, Etsy, knitting, felting, blocking, patterns, carbon footprint, ball warmers, spherical objects world wide, my intarsia e-book, as well as a very special small person in New Zealand and writing Our story of two older persons doing their OE (Overseas Experience) at a rather late stage of their lives.

Then of course I still need to check the tree – to see if it still has its scarf. If it does, we will remove it this weekend – to allow it to grow and blossom over the spring and summer.

I will leave the scarf hanging on a lower branch – so if someone needs it they can take it.

The news about the balls is not good – see next post

Thank you for highlighting my “Warming the Cold Balls of Haarlem” in your current HotHive Newsletter

I do hope you receive further article opportunities from all those wonderful creative people out there.

Enjoy this because the concrete ball has gone and so has the Ball Warmer

Excerpt from the Newsletter

This week Netherlands-based artist Connie Lene got in touch with HotHive Textiles to show us some pictures of her knitted graffiti, which we couldn’t resist sharing with you. Danish born Connie, who was brought up in New Zealand, has been knitting since the 1950s and when out on a cold winter’s day in her home town of Haarlem, she saw something in much need of one of her warm hats.

Connie explains, “I was wandering around town with my best beloved on a freezing, bitter, bleak and cold day and saw all the magnificent balls lining the side of the Grote Markt (the big town square) of Haarlem. I started viewing my environment with the thought of how could I artistically enhance it however temporarily.”

Hothive Textiles Newsletter February 2010

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