GOING FOR BRONZE

BRONZE NIGHT

I'm deep inside a bronze period. Consider this the result of long evenings, candle light and the preoccupation with indoor comfort. As I type, a fire burns in the grate and my tea is simmering in its pot. Warmth, light: what a season doesn't give naturally through climate, we have to create for ourselves. Knitting must have been discovered for times like these.

Now that the gifts are ready, the shows are over and most of the commissions well on their way, my thoughts turn to knitting for myself. Since I have a new BRONZE leather jacket (thank you Coldwater Creek), I figured I needed a properly bronze cowled capelet to go over it, seeing as leather isn't particuliarly warm for all its beauty. Calling together my earthy-colored yarns, with a special invitation to the smallest bit of sparkle for a faint glow, I knit exactly that. Here's the result, also shown as a background to the latest view from the kitchen scene above.

What do you think of my model this time? Her name is Dorcus and she's a dummy, something I can say without concience because she's headless. Headless Dorcus will be called into active duty to model any time my goddess, Hannah, isn't available, my friends aren't within arms' reach, and I'm feeling unphotogenic, shy, or stricken with pixel panic.

Pixel panic isn't the same as pixie panic, by the way. Pixie panic usually happens at the bottom of English gardens just before midsummer's eve when suddenly the unsuspecting gardener is accousted by a cloud of rambucious fairies, which later turn out to be flies. This happened to me once but in my own garden shortly after my neighbours plied me with some kind of drinkable concoction known to expand the imagination relative to alcholic content.

PS: Thanks, Bob & Judith, but Peter Pan couldn't make a more powerful gin & soda. I'm sticking to green tea from now on.

Oh-oh, I'm babbling. Lunch break is over and now it's back to my other job but before I finished this entry I babbled a little inside...

THE SHAPE OF THINGS TO COME

Here's a preview of things to come: January's pattern, the asymetrical vest/top in jewel-like colors. A kit will be available for this that I'm in the process of gathering now in colors of rich blues and greens with shots of purple. The yarns are diverse, as always, but expect a little silk to be sending ribbons of soft luster. 

FASHION, MEDICI STYLE OR HOW JANE GETS INTO HER PURSE

While in Florence this summer I bought a purse (and gloves, and a pashima or two, and beads, and yarn...) that has held my imagination captive ever since. It features a screen-printed representation of a 15th century Florentine painting entitled 'Calvacade de le Magi', a fresco Cosimo de'Medici commissioned by Benozzo Gozzoli in 1459  which is now housed in a family chapel.

The above picture, taken from a few inches of my purse, features a cameo appearance of the top Medici of in the calvacade wearing his jewelled-encrusted cloak with his curls perfectly coiffed (this is pre-pomade, Clairol and anti-frizz concoctions, remember) and riding his non-gas-guzzling steed ( a hybrid of which would have resulted in a mule, I think, or is a donkey?).

Well, let me tell you, I am just so impressed by these guys' fashion sense. Forget for a minute that the jewels they displayed were real and that it probably took days to outfit a single Medici for these ceremonial romps or that the servants were most likely slaves. No matter, because we're talking fashion here (which makes slaves of nearly everyone) and, for fashion, pomp and circumstance, 15th century Italy makes Hollywood's red carpet look like a rug commercial.

Click to read how this troup has inspired my latest designs...