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My mother's button box .... and mine

One thing that has traveled with me over many moves across more than half a century is my mother's button box. 

She would have turned 87 yesterday.

Her veil that she wore on her head to church and my brief attempt to sort into bags were more or less recent additions. 

The rest is as I have known it from childhood.

It fascinated me then - to sort through it,  marvel at the touch and sight and sound of all those buttons.

To recognize buttons taken from a coat or a dress.

To learn details of history not in my memory.

To search for a button needed for one missing on a garment and find a match.

To search for buttons wanted for a new project and perhaps delight in finding  a set or perhaps delight in the challenge to create a new set.

The most special button was always the clear amber one which becomes warm if I hold it.

It was from a button factory that an aunt and uncle had owned.  I never saw it but the thought of a place that made buttons - and such a beautiful and unusual one -  the thought of how it must have been done and what other kinds there were and how were they stored and how were they sold and the thought of many many many people wearing clothing with 'family' buttons on them - overwhelmed me. 

This is my present button box.  It has changed over the years.  I once had jars and jars of buttons.  It was fun to collect them over the years.  Fun - and liberating - to get rid of them in one simplifying.

Perhaps because of - or, in spite of! - the presence of my mother's button box with all its personal history - my button box now reflects a more immediate collection.  The old button bag is from some other family but I treasure it muchly.

Mine are sorted into whites and wood and metals and interesting and buttons-to-be.

Hyperbolic crochet .... a bit more playing

Some buffalo wool and a large hook ....  partway into the process ......  the wispy-ness of the fibre,  the whiteness of the white,  the satisfying feel of the wood allow full rein of the enjoyment of watching what unfolds - or, in this case .....  folds

 

... until the ball of yarn is all used up and it nestles around my hand like a kitten.

A much finer yarn and a much smaller hook and the wonder of what would happen to increase by 2's in rounds of single,  double,  treble and quadruple crochet formed a strucrure that was resembling a stadium ..... well, sort of. 

Enough for the moment. 

Hyperbolic crochet ; some things to do with the creations.

Hang them or set them somewhere and enjoy them as you catch sight of them.  They are beautiful!

The recesses formed make interesting nooks to tuck small gifts :  handmade truffles;  Dinky toys;  garden seeds for next year's planting;  smaller hyperbolic crochet;  etc.

Three of the density of the orange one (last two posts) make unusual juggling balls;  four would make the act of juggling more challenging and elevate it to an artform.

Toy for a baby.

Strung together in same or varying sizes - what a scarf!

An accessory such as a pom pom or flower brooch or buckles for shoes.

A teeny one attached to a hair elastic could be a ring.

A larger one attached to a larger hair holder could be a bracelet.

Other ideas.........??????

Hyperbolic crochet; thoughts/feelings about the process and the expression

Trotting around the circumference with thicker sturdy yarn and a large hook .. working into the back of the stitch ..  outdoors on the patio at the Polish Deli.

Easier to see and make each stitch.  Easier to watch the less intense increase of 1;1;2 and see it take shape.

There is the sense that I am making the motions but the piece is evolving to the dictates of the yarn and the tool and the ratio; perhaps that has to do with my 'surprise' at the result(s).  The 100th monkey comes to mind.

Is this Origami?  It is certainly folding,  perhaps not in the traditional way;  paper is fibre;  linen is fibre.  It satisfies me as Origami does and increasingly as freeform Origami does. 

With the denser orange model I thought of a city core expanding into neighbourhoods expanding into suburbs.  There was the feeling of being 'distanced' from what was happening but yet an awareness because of - what? - the fact that it was all connected and finding its own space and my place kept changing,  stitch by stitch, and was never crowded. This was up until five rounds and 192 stitches.  What would it be like at ten rounds and 6144 stitches.  One hundred rounds?

The 'housing' features of both the orange and the multi-coloured struck and stuck because of the potential for the ultimate of indoor/outdoor living.

All those areas, those rooms, those spaces!  Imagine such a structure in a transluscent material,  either solid or flexible,  permanent or portable,  serving as home(s)/gardens/habitats.

I wonder if the shape has been considered as a conduit for wind, or water,  or electricity,  or light,  or .....?

Is there something to be learned here about the organization of excess?

Is this a nudge forward toward the missing link that we have yet to understand about time and which will give us a beneficial tool?

Tomorrow I plan to post a few suggestions for more immediate uses for hyperbolic crocheted items.

Hyperbolic crochet ....... playing ...... rather 'hooked' on it ......

It's quite mesmerizing. 

Three completed.  One ripped out.  Two in progress.

This  orange one in yesterday's post was actually the first one that got completed but  was number three on the list (number two got ripped out before I realized it likely would have worked if I had just known to keep on going).  

After working with the green  linen  (first on list, still in progress)   I wondered what a soft yarn would produce.  Hayfield Exquisite Shimmer (61 acrylic, 39 nylon;  a long time resident of the stash) was started with the Ch 2,  6 sc in second chain, 2 sc in each sc around and around etc.  This is it at rnd 4 with 96 sts using a #6 hook.  It is just starting to roll in on itself in a very relaxed way.  Not easy to see the stitches when crocheting.

Round 6 with 384 sts.  Decided it was just the right size and time to stop.  Could not convince self to attempt rnd 7 and 768 sts. 

Green bulky linen which had been number one was in plain view and having ripped out number two thinking it wasn't going to work but realizing it likely would have if I had continued and having green bulky linen in that same state but not ripped out  - well, I was wanting to take it further.

It is still a work in progress  but I worked enough on it to be captivated by the shape it is taking.

Again it started with Ch 2,  6 sc in second ch from hook,  but this time the increasing was *  1 sc in next two scs,  2 sc in third sc,  repeat from * around and around etc.  And I worked into the back of the stitches. This was a less intense increase with a P hook and thicker yarn which made a definite difference but I could see it was going to roll inward so I put it aside for the moment.

The thought of what it would look like to use a different colour yarn for each row led to robbing the stash of a WIP for the Philosopher's wool, doubling the strands, using a large hook,  9 sc in the second ch from the hook to start, and being delighted at how quickly the thing grew! 

This is the third row with maroon partway around at 42 sts. 

Now it is round 4 with blue halfway around at 72 sts.

Round 4 complete with 144 sts.

A final round with salmon (288 sts) and the most satisfying visual effect.  The different colours on each round worked out better than I expected.

Tomorrow I plan to post on thoughts that arose as to the potential of this 'structure' and perhaps report on some progress of the bulky linen and the ivory WIP's.

A Week of Hyperbole : Teeny tiny tutorial : Hyperbolic crochet thingumajig

This intriguing structure is an expression of hyperbolic crochet.

What I did to get this result is chain two stitches with the yarn and hook shown,  then do six single crochet into the first chain stitch,  then  crochet two single crochet stitches  into each of those six stitches and - keep going! - two single crochet into each stitch around and around and around the circumference.

It is flat for a bit and then - and this is very interesting both to watch and to feel happen - the 'two stitches in one'  begin to 'crowd' that circle......and crowd it more.....and the thingumajig starts to make its own space by folding in on itself.  

I stopped when I ran out of yarn so that is 30 yards in that palm-sized piece.

The rest of the week's posts will be about further playing with fibre and the technique,  wondering about the potential,  coming up with uses for the finished objects.

Ginger grater .... mini felter?

When I saw this in the thrift store I knew it had something to do with cooking (being in the kitchen section was a huge clue!) and I have some memory of owning one before.  But I was unsure if it was for garlic or cheese or spices ......  so I tried it on ginger.

It worked splendidly. 

Now I am wondering how it would be for hand felting mini objects like buttons or baubles  or doll faces ....

Scarf ; arms used as knitting needles - next ... ?

The scarf that I made  in the summer is now being worn as the weather has turned cool. 

I much like its warmth without weight and the looseness of the 'negative spaces'.

I like the freeform spinning  and using my arms as knitting needles.

It would be great fun to take the spinning wheel out to a field and meet the sheep about to have its locks shorn and sit there with the raw fleece and spin it into yarn and  arm knit it into something and then show it to the sheep.  Perhaps this will be arranged. 

The ....... Deuces?

We will soon be into the second decade of the 2000's.  When I realized this, due to having spent some time across those ten years wondering what we should call the time after the Eighties, the Nineties, the..... Twonies?  Twothousandeths?  and seeming nothing definitive is in use, I suddenly thought,  "What the deuce could we call them?"  Deuce!  Oh.  So I googled to see what the word actually meant.  Well, there are several meanings.  Peace as in the two finger symbol.  I like that.  A tennis score.  Dice with two spots.  The devil. 

Deuce 09?  Coming up to Deuce 10?   

Bookmarks

There is a tradition in this circle of book-loving family and friends to give bookmarks as gifts, usually handmade ones. 

Although I have several books on the go at one time usually only one of them is fiction which requires a bookmark and so most of these lovely markers are 'waiting'. 

Then it occurred to me that I could use a different one each time I ended reading in the same book!

Dah dah!  This is not the actuality but the demo of the actuality so I will have to see how it actually works.  The satisfaction of frequent use of them all may be shadowed by them being too awkward.

It was fun, in any case, having them all out for a 'showing.'

By the by,  I have learned that I am not the only one to read non-fiction books such as knitting or self-help or anything to do with home and garden (and I wonder if this a very common practice) from back to front and usually in segments, not whole pages.  With inspirational types of books I close my eyes and open to a page and read what my eye falls upon and stop reading when the flavour ends.  Cook books get the same treatment and I can 'read' an entire cookbook simply by looking at the pictures.  Is this called skimming?  I find it quite satisfying.