Saturday, February 17, 2007

pink grapefruit

my mother is one of my true inspirations.

i was most inspired by a poem she wrote recently entitled "Pink Grapefruit".
i know this may sound strange, but i love the way i see myself through my mother's eyes. and words. not that she portrays me as a different person, or that what she sees is not true. it must be seeing myself from the outside in, rather than the inside out.

i've been experimenting, dying natural merino wool with Kool-Aid. this powdered drink produces the most radiant, color-fast hues. my most recent experiment produced this color.

pink grapefruit.

this hat is the result of my friday night. [and a few previous nights this week] i used a few different flavors for the body of the hat, all mixed together, which came from one skein of yarn. the birdies embroidered into the side of the hat were samples i dyed, to simply see the color the yarn would be. it may be difficult to see in the photo, but the two birdies on the left are a tan orange, while the darker birdie is a deep brick maroon.

[detail of embroidery and veriegating nature of hand-dyed yarn]

this is a hat i am going to start selling multiples of at my online store, which you can find a link to, called Pink Graffiti: embellishments and earrings. i do have a few items for sale [earrings], but i will be adding more items very soon. [i know i know, shameless self-promotion]

currently working on: felted stuffed animals [also from Kool-Aid dyed yarn, some of which was done by some of my small cousins]

9 comments:

Ruth said...

Oh, my dear, I don't know how you do it. That is the most adorable hat ever. The name for your company is perfect. And I want to come out in April to a) celebrate your birthday and b) offer a blessing to your company! We need a ceremony!

Thank you for your sweet words.

May I share your blog with Heather (fellow Sappho)?

Unknown said...

thank you mammas! that would be so fantastic if you came out here in April to celebrate!

i would love that more than anything.

and yes, please share!
love.

Anonymous said...

I stumbled on you today, not exactly sure how I got here. But, I am sooo glad that I did. Beautiful, BEAUTIFUL, hat....Please start selling soon. I want one, or two, or three.....What colors? Sam

Unknown said...

hi sam! thank you for your visit and kind words!
i am definitely going to start making making making, be sure to visit my Etsy store soon!!
are you a knitter?

Anonymous said...

Kind words are warranted for beautiful fiber arts crafted with passion and artistic vision.

No, I don't knit. I've tried. I love the feel of bamboo needles in my fingers and the textures and colors of natural fibers. ~~~sam

rauf said...

oh yes i can see the birdies. very impressive, I will not wear orange though, Don't have that kind of courage but it will look beautiful on ladies. Why not men ? Sure it will look good on men too.
My mom used to knit sweaters for all, this particular design was her favourite or my friends demanded it. But i have never seen her making like the design on the shawl you made. Today I don't have a sweater. Delayed my visit to Banaras in North India by a month as I will not be able to take north Indian cold, going there on 10th next month. Here in south India we don't need any sweaters, its always very hot here. December January used to be pretty cold and we wore swaters mom knitted, but it is not cold anymore.

Unknown said...

why not men! orange is definitely one of those colors. like yellow. this is a bit of a pinky orange.

i would love to see your mother's sweaters, Rauf! i have yet to knit a cabled sweater...or any kind of sweater for that matter. it's my next adventure.

the weather must be beautiful there. i'm quite envious. i'm craving a bit of warm weather right now.

Ginnie Hart said...

RUTH!!! Can you come to NYC while we're there and we can all be together?? Oh, wouldn't that be a blast!! PLEASE!!

Lesley, you could sell boatloads of these adorable hats! And I mean that sincerely. We see that style in Germany all the time but not like this! If you could make these fast enough to make a living at it, you wouldn't need to find another job!

Unknown said...

wouldn't it be great if she came to nyc!!!! amazing.ness.

and thank you so much aunt bootsie! that is so kind of you to say. i just started another today....more later! i wish i could knit faster! i want to slow time down. well...don't we all.