ConnieLene – KnitDesigner

Just now it is not easy to find something to tell you about.

Maybe this is called Writer’s Block
Maybe it is called Designer’s Block
Maybe it is called Knitter’s Block
Maybe it is Ball Withdrawal Block
Maybe it is just called Blockety Block

Whatever it should be called in my case – I do believe I have a big case of whatever it is just now.

I am knitting – slowly.
I am thinking about new designs all the time – but slowly.
I am quietly frustrated trying to slowly complete those creations that I told you I was knitting.

So yet another to do list

1. mohair shell sample
2. 100% wool shell sample
3. finish and photograph the carbon footprint bag
4. publish the carbon footprint shadow knitting graph
5. complete and publish the pattern for the sleeveless jacket in English
6. translate the pattern for the sleeveless jacket into Danish
7. maybe translate the pattern for the sleeveless jacket into Norwegian maybe
8. finish black ball cover
9. decide where and when to install black and white ball covers
10. Intarsia E-book or print book planning
11. I may be thinking about knit kits (thank you Constance for bringing that up)
12. I may also be thinking about cloaks again (thank you Constance for bringing that up as well)
13. I may be thinking about the Alexandra Blossom Festival committee invitation to participate in the WoolOn Creative Fashion Event of the 2010
14. I may be thinking about the Fibre and Fleece Exhibition
15. I am NOT thinking about creating for either event while I am in New Zealand
16. I may be thinking about “King of the Mountain” run/walk in NZ on the first Sunday in July

And I am planning a trip to New Zealand to see our very special small person (grandson), our daughter, my courageous Mother In law, and family and friends – and that seems more important than everything and anything else just now.

Maybe that is the cause of the blockety block.

Because this a state of Blockety block – or is that Blankety Blank – if I have forgotten anything then please please remind me, thanks.

And in case it occurred to you, the Constance mentioned above is not me, myself and I. My name is really Connie Lene and not not Constance.

Oh, and did you pick up that my Norwegian is not as good as my Danish, which is certainly not as good as my English.

I hope that after looking through the site you will choose to be a fan of my Facebook Page or as it is now on facebook I hope you will choose to like ConnieLeneKnits

You can find me in many places on the net –

My Etsy Shop Unique Boutique Knits for patterns and garments

Crazy but this is my other Etsy Shop Connielene Capes and my unique and unrepeatable knits Capes because I adore cloaks and capes, the others because I cannot tell you exactly how I created them other than the pattern for the style but not the intarsia on them.

And because I managed to create and install a Ball Warmer and really enjoyed the experience and the story World Urban Art – a site still in development – Installation art in the urban environment including Knit Art Graffiti or Yarn bombing.

Our travels in Europe – two oldies from New Zealand exploring the Netherlands, Denmark and Europe as time, money and energy allows.

You can find me on Ravelry here and believe it or not I am also on Twitter here as Connieleneknits

I am a Freelance designer, knitter, lover of colour; lots of colour, Intarsia lover, pattern writer, fashion knit trend follower, Colour and yarn trend follower.

They tell me that I am also artist, graffiti knit artist. I know I am a storyteller, writer, blogger, mother, wife, sister, grandmother, teacher, friend, photographer, and speaker.

My loves are colour, texture, shape, flow, drape, drama, magic, passion and yarn and I hope you enjoy the results.

When I can I do participate in fibre exhibitions, and I have curated two exhibitions with a wonderful artist friend. In 2009 I had a felted jacket in WoolOn at the Alexandra Blossom Festival, and a dress with intarsia of course in the Alpaca Festival in New Zealand.

My Mission is to excite and challenge all knitters, designers and wearers of hand created pieces – to experience more colour in their own knitted pieces and to enjoy the freedom and the magic of wearing such a unique piece because it is created with many colours, passion and with magical yarns

My Major Project with delivery in 2011 is My Intarsia Knitting – Book as yet with no name.

I hope you will be a fan of my Facebook Page or as it is now I hope you will choose to like ConnieLeneKnits on Facebook.

I am going to knit NOW – because I may have an opportunity to maybe install a red and white ball cover in Maastricht on Friday morning if Best Beloveds work means he needs to be there overnight.

I cannot install alone, and there have been no offers of assistance in the Netherlands – so I must use Best Beloved to record the activity; and of course, I must also finish knitting the cover or it will be an opportunity wasted.

Must knit, must knit, must knit, must knit
red and white, red and white, red and white, red and white

Am a bit stressed about this one
Must knit
must knit

NOT a Danish flag then.

Our very local yarn shop has just been sold. My Dutch language is not very good – so I don’t know yet if that means that the business has been sold and it will still be a yarn shop, or if means that the shop only has been sold, which means there will not be any yarns available within 500 metres of where I live. And those yarns in the little shop are all reduced in price, and some reduced very heavily indeed. It makes my pulse race the thought of lovely yarns at reduced prices. What to do?

Of course I have been in there looking at the yarns, (only at the ones at reduced prices of course), and trying so hard to justify buying some more yarn. Why!!!!

I have so much yarn already.

But then “Is it possible to ever ever have sufficient yarn?” I don’t know the answer to that question, do you?

But there is an event coming up, a huge national celebration all over the Netherlands – Queens Day Koninginnedag the biggest, most orange party you could ever ever imagine.

But, back to the yarn – they had orange yarn (now that is such a coincidence), acrylic yarn, entirely suitable for a yarn bombing, urban art, graffiti art knit, knit art graffiti, guerilla art, you name it – this orange yarn is so suitable for a piece or two for Queen’s Day.

I do not usually have very much Orange yarn in my collection, nor do I usually have very much acrylic yarn in my collection. Now I have both of those and it is only 19 days to Queen’s Day.

I have an orange hat to wear to the party, but I might also have a little orange knitting to install somewhere as well. I’ll let you know.

I feel like I am buried under balls of many types – polystyrene for textile art knit applications in the public arena as well as hundreds of balls of yarn for patterns and ideas – and I come up for air and hope the ball in my hand is suitable for the idea running around in my head.

I have purchased 2 large polystyrene balls – one about 160 cm round and the other about 124cm. These nearly match two out in the big wide world. It means I do not have to go out and test the knitting against the balls.

The problem is, or it may not a problem and just something new to consider. I want to create textile art pieces for these balls for permanent exhibition.

How do you keep a ball standing still?

How will a knitted textile stand up to being on a spherical object long term?

Does anyone do it already – so that I can find out the answer to the permanancy question?

I think small round weights of some kind will hold it steady, or perhaps the ball could be set into a round saucer shape inside a square plinth or stand, or something. That part can be worked out quite well.

But the spherical textile – what will happen there – I do not know. So only time will tell, or maybe someone will help me with that information. I do hope so.

The trouble is that these balls keep on coming into my head space – and I am working on my patterns, and I do need to do to that to help pay for future yarns, and I am just a bit discombobulated.

I am also working out which patterns to include in my Intarsia book – so I become even more discombobulated – if that is possible.

This little post will be so brief that you just might miss it.

There will not be a creative knitted / designer covering placed on a ball in Maastricht tomorrow – April 1st, April Fool’s Day. Unfortunately creating and knitting a sphere – with a logo – is much more difficult that estimated and the installation is postponed.

It will happen – I have the yarn, the spherical object, and its size. I have the will, I can knit and I will find the way to make that logo look right – which right now it simply does not.

If all else fails it will be knitted in the company colours without the logo. It will not be as effective without the logo but if it has be then it has to be.

Hope that does not happen.

Will keep you posted.

This is a link to an interesting list of April Fool’s Day hoaxes. This is not because mine is a hoax, it was fully my intent to install on April 1st – too much work, too little time and the complexity of adding a logo on a spherical piece of knitting just got in the way of completing the piece.

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.

I am gobsmacked, my heart is pounding – the news is in: the balls are back. That is the great concrete balls of Haarlem Town Square (Grote Markt) are back. They are not back in their original position as yet, they are sitting and waiting to be repositioned as the road works continue.

So just maybe a yarnbombing, a graffiti art knit installation, urban art piece, yarn storming, street art piece will be able to be installed in Haarlem again.

Did you know that according to Wikipedia yarn bombing is almost exclusively about reclaiming and personalizing sterile or cold public places?

Having said that I do not think that the Haarlem Town Square is a sterile and cold public space. We have had wonderful meals here, fresh mint tea here, greeted Sinter Klaas here, farewelled Sinter Klaas here. We have bought bird food for the birds, partridge for us, and winter truffle, olives, olive oil, flowers, fish and yarn here in this square. We have listened to jazz at the Annual Haarlem Jazz festival as well as at various venues around the square. We have participated in food and wine tastings, been enticed by the idea of the Keukenhof Gardens and so much more.

Can you say that about your town square?

We have crunkled across the snow, taken our bikes through the square (once), welcomed Olympians to the square, participated a couple of times at the local stitch ‘n Bitch at the square. We have eaten kibbeling, frites, stroopwafels, poffertjes but not raw herring in the square. Tried various beers, wines, olives, and breads, in this square. We have spent a couple of days at a medieval village and market in the square.

There is just nothing cold and sterile about this space.

BUT the balls, the great balls of Haarlem, now they were cold.

The websites are back up – thank goodness.

I will upload the photographs we took in the rain today. That is the photographs of the Grote Markt (Town Square) of Haarlem in the rain, and no balls for the ball warmers to warm, or to protect from the rain. Hope the photos are okay as it was a dreadful day here.

If you should know where the great balls of Haarlem are please let me know – as you can’t take it (the knowledge) with you.

I have had an offer from Wellington, the capital city of New Zealand, to send one of the Wellington balls to me here in Haarlem. Should these balls be the same size as the Haarlem Balls – I think I should probably send a Ball Warmer or two to Wellington for them instead. The balls are too heavy to send across the world. Nice thought though, bringing a Wellington Ball to Haarlem.

Someone out there has my first ball warmer – here are the photographs.

Help! They are gone !

Who took the Haarlem Balls?

Those elegant balls in the most gorgeous town square (Grote Markt) we have been in. Those gorgeous balls that were used to sit on and talk to your buddies in the summer.

Those elegant balls on an elegant curve delineating the road from the square.

Those balls that were so right in a town square of such age, beauty and elegance. No other shape, or style of divider could ever do in that space.

And then of course there are the Ball Warmers themselves, so far none of the measured balls in Maastricht or the loosely measured balls in California match the size of these Haarlem Balls.

So my knitting pattern suggestion will never have another use.

The snow ball and the formal ball gown – will not have a place where they can be proudly displayed.

Snowing, a grey ball being disguised as a snow ball

Why oh why has this happened?????

Is it because I cannot read sufficient Dutch to have known they were to be removed?

Or is it because the newspapers that I can manage to read some of, were not delivered?

I could have installed the Ball Warmers – even for a brief time. These Ball warmers will never be seen in all their glory. People using the square will not be able to smile at the silliness, or the surprise, or the delight of great concrete balls with covers; knitted art designer covers.

Right now I am so shattered, and as I didn’t take my camera with me today – I do not have a photograph of the square without balls.

I will add photos of the square without the balls later maybe, when I have the strength to return. Maybe, just maybe, they will be put back before I can return there.

And this will just have been a nightmare.