The Love Blanket

Do you remember your little comfort buddy from when you were tiny?  My older sister had her teddy bear, Jonathan, but my younger sister and I were firmly in the blanket camp.  Meredith had a little blue and white blankie with a horse on it, Pony, and I had a fuzzy pink blanket with satin trim, Pinkie (...toddlers tend to be quite staunch literalists.)

So blankets are comforting, right?  They're fuzzy, you can snuggle up with them and they're pretty portable/practical when traveling.  And they happen to be a fantastic way to use up all the leftover yarn odds and ends sitting around in your preciously-small apartment storage space.  I made the original Love Blanket for Darling Kai.  (Reason #1: his bedding was kinda wooly/scratchy; Reason #2: who doesn't want their boyfriend to think of them when he climbs into bed?)  

So I knitted up a giant love blanket for Kai last year as a Christmas present and soon after he started having dreams that about it.  He'd be in some dire nightmare situation and in his peripheral he'd catch a glimpse of the Love Blanket glowing in the corner--Love Blanket to the rescue!  I think the moral of the story is that my knitted creations have magical powers. (Yes, I am taking commissions...).

The Original Love Blanket

Right around the same time, I find out (joy of joys!) that I'm going to be an auntie.  Sister Kate is having a baby boy and we just celebrated with a shower last weekend.  So obviously the little one needs a blankie with magical powers. 

Baby Mango's Love Blanket

I'm super addicted to the pattern for this blanket (based this Knitty article). You start with a little tiny circle in the middle, add stitches as you swirl around, and the blanket gets bigger and bigger.  It works especially well with my disdain for planning--it's a pattern that encourages improvisation; you can make it as big as you like, adding colors and stripes whenever, until it reaches blankety perfection.

I hope the little mango has dreams about  his glowing, super-powered Love Blanket; that he wears it as a cape while he flies around his apartment; and that he loves it down to the nub.

Guest Post: iheartmies and a lot of one thing

One great thing about having creative friends is that you get to have these full, funny, long conversations about the things that fascinate you.  In a friendship that is approaching the ten-year mark, iheartmies and I have been having a years-long dialogue about a lot of one thing.  Really it's a conversation about transformation by simple multiplication.  I get such a kick out it, that I asked her to write something for the blog.

But first a little intro to the lady: she's a bloody Renaissance woman, a damn fine karaoke companion, and I seriously admire her collages (and covet one of the queen and Tricky Dick...hint, hint).  There's a very good chance that she is the only thing keeping me hip at this point in my life.  Without further ado:

talking to jenny about muses
for her
circles
for me
it is a lot of one thing

 

why do i like a lot of one thing?
and why is it my muse?

lets just break it down into fundamentals

shit lets make a list
im good at lists

So where and why do we see a lot of one thing?
(1) nature - to carry on ones species

(2) social - to have a sense of community

  (3) creative - because visually, it is stunning

(4) something about space/universe the unknown 

(1) nature - this is a couple of things, but not scientific for purposes of this discussion

mathematics and procreation
this is general
we are not talking adoption or twins
those situations make the math complicated but follow with the perpetuation of a lot of one thing
so
1 person + 1 person = 3 people
1 flower + 1 bee + 1 flower = fruit + honey
apids (man i hate those invertebrates, stop eating my kale! jerks) they just multiply
1 apid x my kale = hella aphids
so as we see in ourselves and nature
there were fewer of us and things
now there are more of us and things
shit dies to but, not as fast

 

(2) social - sense of community
we migrated to people and stay in groups
as do other animals and plants
some of this is just nature
some of this is social - common cultures, age groups, genders, etc.
gathering with likeness is common and comforting
its gives us something to relate too
chinatown
old folks home

(3) creative - because visually, it is stunning
hundred of things coming together to become one thing
its where complexity and minimalism meet
it makes something so intricate in number but so simple in form

 

(4) something about space and the universe/the unknown
space
its infinite to us
we cant count all the stars and they are millions of miles away
those numbers can not be broken down or distinguished in our minds
but we can grasp the idea of the universe, its a lot of one thing condensed into a concept
the idea that we are comprised of, surrounded by and submerged in a lot of one thing is my muse

a lot of one thing
its simple but, its complicated in its execution
it allows us to relate to something with multiple scales
its a way for the human mind to make sense of a large number

Let iheartmies keep you cool too:

photos

etsy

music

Dreamy List

Here is a list of things I would like to do someday:

1. Be a cowgirl
2. Take a trip to Marakesh, buy a monkey at an exotic pet market and smuggle it back to the US as a baby in a blanket
3. Make wine from grapes I stomp with my own feet
4. Create a garden that tells the time of day by which flower is blooming (it's gardenia o'clock!)
5. Spend an entire month without a cell phone, clock or computer
6. Take a summer to cross the US with a van and teepee
7. Tour some islands in the South Pacific in a canoe
8. Train a herd of goats to follow me around as I sing to them
9. Learn to play Chopin on the ukelele
10. Take the Trans-Siberian railway to Mongolia
11. Break into a pool somewhere in the United Arab Emirates
12. Have a pet elephant
13. Compete in a camel race
14. Create a miniature farm with pygmy goats, Shetland ponies, miniature cows and my pet monkey as a cowboy
15. Turn 80, move to Florida, wear only terry cloth clothing and play bridge and shuffle board all day

I'd love to hear yours!