Love & Forgiveness in black & white

Two trees growing together in Meherabad, India, one black, one white. Their images, growing together, hugging and supporting each other, always inspires me.

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Iris tapestry

Rendering of lovely Irises on a gift bag. Been keeping the bag for 10 years for this purpose…

 

 

 

* Apologies for any hideous advertisement that may be added below – I’m really sorry!

Some of my best friends

‘Some of my best friends’ is a new series of trees at Meher Spiritual Center. All the trees there are gorgeous and intriguing, but these are trees that I don’t just see on passing, but actively look for.
Some of them – like some of my best friends, have died.

The knittings are not accurate to reality, and mostly were knit without a chart. They are based on drawings, and the feelings I got from these trees.

 

This first one I call ‘The Greeter’. It stands right at the gate, small and humble, with a little heart shape cavity.

Somehow it reminded me of the row of little white hearts on the floor between Baba and Mehera’s tomb, so I added the colorful hearts at the base.

 

 

The tree at the cross road, with a little mushroom at it’s base:

 

This small long leaf pine tree died in the last storm:

 

The golden tree, on the way from the gateway to the main parking lot, is not there anymore. It was beautiful, and right by the roadside. It’s leaves were golden, probably because it was dead for a while, but very beautiful.

I knitted it twice. This is a big curtain/baby blanket size:

and a very small version, about 10×10″:

 

The “Dancing Trees” are on the way to the beach, by Gator Lake, and I am always enchanted by them:

 

 

 

* Apologies for any hideous advertisement that may be added below – I’m really sorry!

Seclusion Hill

A knitted picture of Seclusion Hill, Meherazad, India, where Meher Baba did a lot of seclusion work.

Size: 18X12″, mounted on foam board.

The picture is for sale on my littlebabas shop.

Fuzzy trees, Gator Lake, Meher Spiritual Center, Myrtle Beach, SC

The area of Gator Lake is magical, even a bit spooky: the light is always special, no matter what time a day, the trees – magnificent. The photo above is far from doing it justice.

The knitted picture is a re-knitting of a pattern I did years ago, called ‘Fuzzy Trees’. The pattern is a bit involved, but made easier by knitting sideways (so the trees are just stripes). I tried to start with extreme colored shadows, and moving to very similar shades of light & dark on the ground, but could not resist making the tree still bold in color.

Hope you like it…

 

Lily-Silly, pattern for knitted picture

I can not resist Water Lilies. I am totally infatuated with them. When my husband and I go to Brookgreen gardens, he can have the camera for forever – until we get to the Lily pond. There, the camera is all mine. They are spectacular.

This chart however is based on Water Lilies at Long Lake, Meher Spiritual Center, Myrtle Beach, S.C.

If it seems complicated – it isn’t. Most people who tested it finished their picture in 4 days (unless they started unraveling – big no-no!), and immediately started another one.

Here is my last version of it, with embroidery to enhance the Lilies:

Knit level: knit in st.st with mixture of carrying yarn & using it locally (stranding & intarsia).

Pattern includes: chart, knitting-aid notes, how to fix mistakes, and how to mount/hang the picture. (embroidery instructions are not included – get creative and show me what YOU can do!).

Pattern is available in my Etsy shop: LittleBabas

and on Ravelry: PictureKnitting

The Blue Lake Knitting Pattern

New Pattern!

The Blue Lake is an easy way to start knitting pictures.

It is very easy to knit, and makes a great gift.

Pattern is available here.

The chart is 50 sts and 36 rows, about 4 hours knit-time.

Use yarn & needles of your choice, as gauge is not crucial.
Thin-med weight yarns are the best (sock-worsted).
In general, big needles & thick yarn = big picture, and small needles and sock yarn = small picture.

The needles should match your yarn weight (see suggestion on your yarn cover).

Knitted in st.st with mixture of stranding & intarsia. Do not let these words intimidate you. Use common sense, make all possible mistakes, and fix them later (how to enclosed).
If you need any help, or not sure about anything, just contact me.

Yarns: very little yarn of each color, and if you run out – improvise!
You can substitute yarn, or change the pattern.
Do the same when you make a mistake: instead of unraveling, change the pattern (if possible) to suit what you did.
Do not hesitate to mix different kind of yarns. The yarns need to be similar in thickness/weight, but do not need to be of the same kind.

Water: self striping yarn, sparkly, or solid color yarn.
Optional: knit a band of a slightly different color in the middle.

Mountains/trees: Use 5 different yarns, or alternate colors to use what you have. Use browns, greens, or any color you like. If you run out, make the mountain shorter.

Sky: Self striping or solid. Add more rows at the top if you need, to fit better into a frame size.

Clouds: are optional too. I like using whites, but what would YOU like to do?

Pattern includes:
Love
Chart
Light written instructions to support the chart
Explanation about the difference between mounting and using a frame, to using a dowel
How to mount the pictures
Light instructions for using a dowel.

Read before you print. The instructions have a lot of full color photos. The only thing to print is the chart page.

I wish you luck, I hope you will enjoy it and make millions of them to give everybody you know.

Picture knit exhibitions

October, one of my favorite months, got me doing 2 mini exhibits:

The exhibit in Little River library:

and an exhibit at Myrtle Beach mall, till end of November:

Above: The woods,  Meher Spiritual Center.

Below: Light/The ancient one, and Meher Baba’s signature, Damadi, and hand gesture:

 

 

Below : (the painting is not mine but part of an ongoing exhibit) The Invisible knitted portraits of Meher Baba, in yellow and peach:

 

 

‘Color & Picture Knitting’ book

 

Dear Tracy,

I can not find your comment, so will answer you here, as other people asked about the book too.

The book is a work book. It explains how to knit pictures, from easy ones to more involved. The patterns in it are like exercises. They are meant for you to knit them and hopefully hang them on your wall or give as gifts.

You may not sell my patterns, but you may do many pictures using the charts in the book, and even sell the pictures you knitted yourself.

I am saying that the charts are exercises because my purpose was to give you enough information so that you can continue to make your own charts and do your own pictures.

So, to sum it up, the patterns in the book are for you to knit in order to learn the techniques used.

After the picture is knitted and BO, you can block it. For this you will need to stretch it upside down on foam board or anything else handy, spray lightly with water and let dry for 24 hours. Because of spraying it with water, you need to use stainless steel pins. You can buy them in a sewing store.

Some people prefer ironing their knits, I do not.

After the picture is well dry, you can attach it to foam board that is cut to fit the size of the picture. For this you can use straight pins (they do not have to be stainless steel).

Some people glue the picture instead of using pins, I do not.

See next blog post for detailed account of the charts in the book.

The book is available on Amazon.com

Good Luck, hope you’ll enjoy it, and feel free to ask questions.

 

Meher Center Exhibit, Aug. 2016

I’ve been working all year on this exhibit.
In a way this is a summery of my life since I came to Baba, and specially of my first trip to Meherabad, India.

Knit-wise the pictures are knitted in stranding, intarsia and one in what I call weaving style. They vary in degrees of easy – intense knitting.