Juxtaposition

jux·ta·po·si·tion /ˌdʒʌkstəpəˈzɪʃən/ [juhk-stuh-puh-zish-uhn] –noun
1.
an act or instance of placing close together or side by side, esp. for comparison or contrast.
2.
the state of being close together or side by side.

I remember when I first learnt that word. It was when I did art in grade 11. I remember loving the sound of the word and the images it conjured up. I have always had a particular love for Matisse's colours and the whole idea of how placing a colour next to another changes it's language really appealed to me. Hence all my art for the next two years (I repeated art not because I had to but because I wanted to) played on the idea of colour. I was also doing life drawing (also for 2 years) at the time and the majority of my work was nudes in vivid colours with contrasting backgrounds.

I am still fascinated how colours placed next to each other interact. I love how the eye skips and travels and makes connections between colours. My last art work explored this idea in paper and I still love looking at it.

Just so with this quilt. All these squares of fabric placed fairly randomly together create a whole which my eye finds rather appealing. I'm not in love with all the fabric, but somehow the sum of the whole is greater. Bits of thrifted fabrics, squares cut out of the back of Matt's old shirts, some other fabrics I've saved over the years, and yet together they work. Some colours would clash if put directly next to each other, but by keeping a degree of separation between them they are able to communicate in a good way, keeping the eye roaming around.
The same is true with the beginnings of this blanket. The colours are also fairly random...just wool I happened to have. If I planned this out and specifically bought the wool for it, it would be more muted. But I like the fact that I am forcing myself to use the colours I have and separate the dangerous clashes with the more muted tones. I have no idea how the finished product will look: the blanket is so wide that a double rpw can just about finish off a ball of wool. As I have no repeats of these colours it will become more and more random. But look how the colours sing! It could be a very very long scarf at the moment (it's wide enough for our king sized bed)but I like the idea of a whole field of colours for the eye to roam over, never finding a peaceful place to stop. And I love the gentle undulations of hills and valleys in the wave effect of this crochet.

And while I am using up spare wool for this blanket, I should show my "special balls" I bought a few weeks ago. For my second attempt at a birthday the following Saturday we went to Greenwich to find a yarn shop. I very rarely go into these places and when I do I find it SOOOO hard to choose. Matt and all the kids came too, and surprisingly the kids were just as happy in there looking at all the colours and delighting in all the textures. I had no particular project in mind, but sometimes it's just nice to have some special wool waiting there for a chance to be used in some way. I came away with 3 different types, the lovely thick bulky wool in the grey toned piece below, a lovely verigated kettle dyed browns/grey from Uruguay and the most divine skein of Noro kochoran wool/silk/angora blend from Japan (because there are so many sheep in Japan!). Ella also insisted on buying a bargain bin 1/2 price ball of acrylic blend which although being acrylic was still gorgeous colours. She wanted to knit with it, but it lost its loveliness when knitted garter stitch, so instead I knitted up a little neck warmer for her which also doubles as an ear warmer. (see the buttoned item above). After knitting that for her it occured to me that a neck warmer was a very good idea, especially for skiing. So I made the blue one for Matt (it's very stretchy) and the other one for me (it's very stretched, but was fantastic when I was skiing to pull up over my nose every now and then). The kids love them too, and often try to take Matt's one. Super quick and easy to make (I made both his and mine in a day) and just a tube of k2 p2 ribbing. Only thing with mine is that the wool was a little too natural and I would sometimes get fibres in my mouth-hard to pick out with gloves on.

And here's the Noro which was ridiculously expensive per skein, so I only got one...here's a better view of the colours. i really should have photographed the skein before I wound it up, but I just had to touch it as soon as I could. I really am not sure what to do with it as it seems almost too good to use...maybe I'll save up and buy some more..and make something big with it.

And just to finish off with...how much fun can a little girl have with some cut up box and a bear?

LOTS! she played happily in there for ages this morning.

Have a happy weekend.