These hooves look like leaves to me

Spent some time this weekend chez Mum, the two of us sitting in the back yard, in the shade, knitting. My part of the conversation consisted of mumbling numbers and "Slip, knit two together, pass" and "no, no. where was I?"

Some recent revelations include: I apparently knit using a combination of "Eastern" and "Western" techniques, given how I approach knit and purl stitches. If you're interested, this concept is covered in several different books, usually a "history of knitting," and I read about it in a friend's copy of the History of Hand Knitting, although I see that Samurai Knitter discusses it in a thoroughly humorous and instructive manner.

This gets really cute, I now realize, when I follow some of the more interesting patterns, such as the leaf pattern from the Super Stitches stitchionary. Actually, it's called "Horseshoe lace" - but honestly it looks like leaves to me, so I've been using it for a sweater pattern that's in progress.

After a while we decided to head over to the DeCordova to see the 2008 Annual Exhibition, which had some great stuff from people like Mark Schoening and Yana Payusova, Lea Gauthier, whose work deals with food, agriculture and the interaction between people and food through plant growth, and another artist, Niho Kozuru, whose statues were inspired by New England architectural details, but were made from some colorful polymer material that really made me (and other exhibit attendees, I gathered) think of yummy jello... Also, "Moving Through New England" - selections from their permanent collection - some amusing paintings if you're a local, since many were from the 70s. My favorites were "Beach Peas" and an image of the Providence River on a very calm, foggy dawn.

I think my next museum jaunt should be to catch the "Keepers of Tradition" exhibit over at the Museum of Our National Heritage (and hey, it's free, which is never a bad thing.)

Until next time,