Saturday, November 27, 2010

Textiles on the Road

Recent travels to Richmond, Virginia, and Washington, D.C., provided opportunities to see some lovely (Richmond) and fascinating (D.C.) textiles.

First, the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts has an exhibition of quilts from the Winterthur Collection.


I am not a quilter, but this collection showed the art and skill of the quilters. Beautiful!

Equally fascinating is the Crochet Coral Reef at the Smithsonian's Museum of Natural History. Though the reef is almost entirely crochet, I did see bits of knitting, lace, and other textile arts in the displays, along with plastic bags, pull-tabs, and other debris that does not belong in the ocean. I still don't understand hyperbolic crochet, but I appreciate the art in the exhibit.


The two displays have something in common: The more you look, the more you see and the more you appreciate the craft and art involved.

Saturday, November 06, 2010

Very Pink

It's pink. Very pink. I found three skeins of this yarn in a thrift store and a little more than two of them went into this shawl. It cried out for beads.


Details:
  • Pattern: Haruni by Emily Ross, free on Ravelry. I added an additional repeat on the leaf part.
  • Yarn: Mondial Prestigio Super Kid Mohair, 80% superkid mohair, 20% nylon, 245 meters/25 grams.
  • Beads: 8/0 silver-lined champagne
  • Needles: US4 (3.5mm)
  • Finished size: 26 inches center back