Midweek Meditation -- O'Keeffe Style

“When you take a flower in your hand and really look at it, it’s your world for the moment. I want to give that world to someone else. Most people in the city rush around so, they have no time to look at a flower. I want them to see it whether they want to or not.”

“I have been absolutely terrified every moment of my life – and I’ve never let it keep me from doing a single thing I wanted to do.”    ~ Georgia O’Keeffe

In early 20th-century America, art was a man’s world, where women – even those with extraordinary talent and groundbreaking vision – were seen as no equal to men. Georgia O’Keeffe helped changed that. With an idiosyncratic style and bold use of color, O’Keeffe was at the forefront of American modernism. In a career that spanned more than six decades, she “made it possible for other women to explore a new gamut of symbolic and ambiguous imagery.”  ~ as expressed in her obituary in The New York Times*

My daughter painted the tribute to Miss O'Keeffe in an enrichment class at school when she was in the fourth grade.  I do love it!  I took these photos earlier today.  Laying the painting on the floor near indirect window light eliminated most of the reflections on the glass.  Normally it hangs in my dining room not very far away from a similar painting made by my son (Ref: Andy Warhol).  Love that, too!

* Source (Oct 20, 2014): http://www.womenwhochangedamerica.org/profile/georgia-okeefe/ 
 

Final Rose(s) 2014

This is my 300th blog post!

And my total number of "pageviews" recently surpassed 25,000.  (I think that means that 25,000 times someone clicked on a link -- from somewhere else -- to one of my posts  -- since June 12, 2011 -- the date of my very first blog post.)  (I do not think that is a lot for 3+ years, but it certainly has grown.)

The Playground Shawl KAL is off to a very fine start with a lot of lovely knitting happening!  I hope that you will consider joining us!

I shot all of the photos for the first group of KAL prizes while they rested on the very same corner of our deck (and on the same day) that I shot this photo of my final roses. 

(Sad it is for me.  The end of summer saddens me.)

My "final roses" are the ones that I carefully snip from my handful of rose bushes when I also make a stab at trimming those bushes for the end of the season.  I do love roses, but these bushes grow wildly in all kinds of wrong directions, and at least twice a year they require a whole lot of trimming.

(Sad it is for me to live in climate where roses bloom for only about 5 month a year.)

But about the KAL:  There is still plenty of time to get in on it!  You get a chance to win a prize for any project that you finish before the end of November.  I am getting ready to add even more prizes.  Just click on the links above to learn more!

I hope that you enjoy your fall wherever and whenever you are able!
 

Come to the Playground!

I would like to invite all of my readers to join me at the playground!  The Playground Shawl KAL 2014 has just kicked off this week both on Ravelry and at my favorite LYS, Gosh Yarn It!.  My great friends at GYI! have been extremely helpful in allowing me to host a KAL-information-and-discussion-thread on their group page at Ravelry.

All projects for the KAL will be shawls knit from one of the patterns in my Playground Shawl ebook.  Shown above are Cat's Cradle, Double Dutch and two versions of Red Rover. You can read more about the origins of these designs in my recent blog posts: here, here and here.  Each shawl has at least two colors, and I am so looking forward to seeing all the versions that will be created! 

Cast on anytime!  The KAL officially began on Thursday, October 2, and will end Sunday, November 30.  I just extended the end date by two weeks to allow more time for new participants to join us!  There is still plenty of time to get in on the KAL!

Oh, and did I mention the prizes?  Several prizes will be awarded and announced in the Ravelry thread, and here on the blog, during the first week of December. Each shawl that becomes a FO before midnight, EST, November 30 will be eligible for a prize.  Please make a project page for your shawl at Ravelry.  Add a photo and link it to the pattern page.  Use the tag playground2014.  When you finish the project, just mark it finished on the project page, and/or post in the thread that it is completed.  If you complete more than one shawl, you will be eligible to win a prize for each shawl that you finish.

Anyone on Ravelry, who knows of my work, is welcome to participate by joining in on this thread!  The first post describes all of the details.  In the second post is a list of all participants with links to their Ravelry project pages.  The third post has photos of the prizes.

Please come out to play!