One big step for kitten kind

DeeDee's first foray into the back garden. By ljcybergal.

Bosco our beautiful blue-eyed flame-point Himalayan cat died this afternoon while we were out. We got him 13 years ago when he was just a kitten. The vets sent him home to die with us in January so we feel fortunate we got a few more months with him, spoiling him and taking very good care of him. He was the gentlest animal - he would never hurt another animal and he adored rabbits of course. I don't think he suffered although he lost so much weight it was heartbreaking to pick him up. I did make sure to hand feed him canned cat food with a spoon several times a day and I took him outside on the back patio every afternoon to get some sun and fresh air.

Kitten attack

Our already insane kitten Tiger, who went even madder when we let him run around outside for a little while. By raindog

I still haven't decided on my next knitting project but I need to choose something soon. The first Red Sox/Yankees series starts Monday so I need something that is not too complicated.

I'm currently leaning toward the scarf in the Japanese book. With any luck I'll have the colors in my stash to coordinate it with the Dale of Norway Sirdal cardigan I made a few years ago.



Not much else is going on here. I have some purple cotton fabric I'm going to use to start sewing some summer pjs today.

Tiny tiny kittens

Tiny faces, tiny kittens. By Ms. Info

Here they are finally. I used size 3 (US) dpns, sport weight stash wool, and the Japanese/Scandinavian pattern. I'm at a loss for my next knitting project - maybe some bright yellow feather and fan socks for myself.

Full of woe kitten

This cute little kitten looks like she has all of the world's problems on her shoulders. By sbluerock.

Work

I have been working hard on a performance by Performaria, an academic group I'm directing. And also, in the free time, seeing films at the Indielisboa festival. I hope to bring more on all of the above soon.

Ambush kittens

Dexter (the gray) and Clie (the dark) are waiting for an unsuspecting human. By Mary Richman.

momma puppy

Puppy and Tiger

hello all... this is my new friend ..:P

golden puppy again

Kitten impossible

A kitten on a mission. By Elizabeth Mobley.

Puppy with Rabbit Toy

Puppy Puppy

I've been meaning to show you my three favorite pairs of gloves modeled instead of squished in the scanner.

Landra's Gloves from Folk Knitting in Estonia in Stahl baby merino with her fancy-schmantzy cast on.



One of the Holy Grails of knitting - the Sanquhar gloves done with size 00 dpns in Shetland laceweight. The pattern is from a Japanese web site which you'll find if you google "Sanquhar." I love wearing these outside at night because they kind of glow in the dark.



Probably my favorite gloves - the photo doesn't do them justice. These are the Vanalinn gloves from A Gathering of Lace done in some old stash Nylamb. The pattern is easy and I plan to also make these in black with a longer cuff.

Kitten with six toes

This beautiful polydactyl kitten is called Fluffer Nutter. Kitten picture by Lisa Ramos.

puppy?

anyone know what races of this puppy???

Hey cute...look at us ..please

Look at my Tongue

Christian Tedeschi

I believe in art that one trips over,
Tumbles blindly
Down several flights of stairs
To end up on their own two feet.
Virtually unscathed, and
Into the arms of their sweetheart.

- says Christian Tedeschi. And it is true of his works: at first glance they seem scary, dangerous, aggressive. But once we look more carefully, we see a light-heartedness that enchants. For once, the heavy matter turns into crystal form. For once, Beuys is misundertood as he should be, without the huffing and puffing of someone too old to be a disciple. And so, the matter dances and plays. It swirls in the air as if it weren't suspended. It moves by itself. But don't be fooled - it does nothing of itself. Even if it takes 10 seconds to reorganize it, the world stands anew. Enthropy? Erosion? A gentle spin of time?

Technorati: fine art, visual art, art installation, art, contemporary art, new art, vvoi, vvoitek, modern art, cool

Curled up asleep kitten picture

By Elizabeth Mobley. Elizabeth has sent a whole bunch of beautiful cute kitten pictures and it was really difficult to pick just one so I'll be posting a few more of them later.

I just checked out a new knitting book from the library - The Knitting Answer Book by Margaret Radcliffe. So far I've just read the section on stranded knitting but I was happy to see that she specifies that Fair Isle knitting is only one type of stranded color knitting. If I could just stop sewing and cooking I'd actually finish my gloves to show you.

To celebrate Earth Day we decided it was wise to use up all our organic produce from Los Poblanos Farm before the next box arrives. Together we made Rick Bayless' Spicy Mushroom Tamales along with some stuffed zucchini and a salad.

BEFORE




AFTER




The tomatoes and poblano chiles aren't organic but I believe everything else is. I rarely see tamales served with sauce here but DH likes them with his red chile sauce. Today is the first time I used frozen masa dough (the only time it is available fresh in abundance is near the holidays) and it turned out really well. Too bad the smallest size is 5 lbs. The recipe was more labor-intensive as usual but they were the tenderest tamales I've ever had.

A Glimpse of Infinity?

Camera Obscura 2005/1-Inf is a worldwide project in which two holes of a twin-holed pinhole camera are being auctioned simultaneously on Ebay every week. This project is dedicated to the polish artist Roman Opalka and his work 1965/1-∞. The highest bidders in each case receive one after the other a pinhole camera loaded with a piece of unexposed sheet of 5x7 Inch b/w film.

There is a sense of global fraternity and timelessness in this project that's appealing. Opałka is a great reference to have - he is an artist I have come to appreciate and there is much to learn from him. One of the things is persistence. Another is discipline. Yet another, choosing the right format. If you get your format right, the work works with you, if not for you.
I'm not convinced that the authors, Przemek Zajfert and Burkhard Walther, figured out the format right. Not that it's bad - it works, and the kaleidoscope of scenes actually starts to develop. The actual photos must be immensely more interesting, with details we can barely figure out or imagine on the net (the quality of the posted pics could be better!). Still, that's just one part of the picture. Another is the question of, well, infinity. Of time. Or rhythm. Or a key of some sort. In this case, there is none. Time is gone, there is no development, and the pictures represent - whatever someone wants them to, plus the usual pinhole surprize. And that's a pity. One could easily imagine a slightly more disciplined version, with a "theme", or some rules that would create a more coherent whole. Otherwise the risk is getting simply too creative.
(Below - images of Opałka's work.)

Technorati: photography, visual art, art, contemporary art, new art, vvoi, vvoitek, modern art, cool

I pick you kitten picture

5 year old Buddy pats 8 week old Vinny. By Elaine T.

I still have to do the fingers on the second Japanese/Scandinavian glove. Part of the reason I'm such a slowpoke is because I stupidly started the second glove the same as the first, thus making two right hand gloves. DUH I then just worked the chart backwards which worked just fine. I should get some good knitting done tonight while watching the Red Sox with DH.



The second reason I'm so slow on the gloves (which really are a fast glove project I promise!) is that I've been making pajamas. Last weekend I made DH a plain boring navy pair and here is the pair I'm working on now. You can't really see from the pattern but the sleeve cuffs and bottom hem have a ruffle which I'm going to do this afternoon. I love the flannel I chose but after prewashing it shrunk in width several inches making laying out the pattern challenging. Fortunately I bought extra fabric. I need to find different buttons.

Help meee....

I love Frog

Hey I got new friend... a frog!! :P

Hey..what are you doing.. :P

Mirror kitten picture

There's no mirror - just two kittens copying each other. By Gini.

Another cute picture of hugging kittens

Here are my cats, Nelle (the calico) and Misa. They're sisters and absolutely inseparable - they do everything together, be it eating, sleeping or going to the toilet! By Riikka

Cattelan's perverted victory

Of course, it's not his fault. He simply made the art. And if someone interpreted it wrong, well, they interpreted it wrong.
As many of you know, in 2004 the Italian sculptor Maurizio Cattelan hung three plastic dolls of children from Milan's oldest tree.
Shortly after being officially "open", the exhibition came to a sudden end: Franco De Benedetto, a Milenese man, decided to cut the children off. He cut two ropes, but swayed and fell when cutting the third one. He was injured and taken to hospital.
Cattelan graciously didn't press charges, but the city of Milan did. And won. De Benedetto will be spending three months in prison for destroying a work of art. Mind you, it took them nearly two years to establish this was indeed a work of art, as that was the prosecution's main argument.

Some say he simply misinterpreted the nature of the work:

Maybe, as the ambulance blared through the Milan streets, di Benedetto was moved to reflect on the violent collision of two types of judgment: civic and aesthetic. He seemed to have mistaken one for the other; or rather, he’d disallowed the second as soon as he set out on his hapless clamber.

I quite disagree. I think the whole work was based on the game between a work of art and a "natural" surrounding. As it is often the case with Cattelan, it was supposed to create uncertainty about the exact role of the work. Only here, it could easily bring uncertainty as to whether the sculptures were real or not.
In places where guns are illegal it is also a crime to pretend one has a gun. Even if you said it was a work of art, you would still be inciting a certain type of behaviour, suggesting a certain reality. I believe this is exactly the case here. This is not to say Cattelan is a criminal, case closed. Not at all. But since he plays in the real world, he should accept the real world's rules. And he does - by neither accusing De Benedetto formally, nor insisting on hanging the children again. But he creates a situation and then washes his hands, as if he wasn't its author. De Benedetto hurt himself and wound up in the hospital. This should be enough. The contact between art and reality is made quite explicit in this fall. The score seems so naturally set. Why go further?

Technorati: visual art, art installation, installation, art, contemporary art, new art, vvoi, vvoitek, modern art, cool

Rolling kitten picture

Thought you might like this picture of Sumiko
when she was about five weeks old. By Fa.

Anne sent me this photo of a beautiful child's hat and mitten set she's making out of Cascade 220 and 3.75 needles. She's unsure of the source of the mitten pattern but she used Charlene Schurch's Norwegian braid for the cuffs. Aren't they lovely?




Anne says the mitten pattern came from a book now lost after a move that I mentioned on my blog. Anyone have any ideas? I looked in two Nordic books and Folk Mittens to no avail.

Lisa is now also doing the Japanese/Scandinavian glove-along. She's doing them in a lovely variegated yarn.

Hugging kittens

Nars (left) and Longo (right). By Amy.