Personal/creative challenges

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  • Raptor EyeRaptor Eye Shipmate
    Nick Tamen wrote: »
    I’ve started a private retreat of a few days to try and get a good start on my current artistic challenge. The church I grew up in is celebrating its sesquicentennial this year, and the planning committee asked me to write a hymn for the Big Occasion in the fall. Various ideas have flitted in (and out) of my head over the last few months, but I’m hoping that between now (Wednesday) and Friday inspiration takes hold and I make some real progress. I’d really like to have it done before summer starts.


    🙏 Prayers for Divine Creative Inspiration.
  • CaissaCaissa Shipmate
    My wife has purchased a finger painting workshop for me for our anniversary this year; I have purchased her a third felt workshop as my gift.
  • CameronCameron Shipmate
    I hope that the result is the world’s most beautiful finger, and a delightfully tactile workshop experience.

    :mrgreen:
  • PigletPiglet All Saints Host, Circus Host
    Raptor Eye wrote: »
    Nick Tamen wrote: »
    I’ve started a private retreat of a few days to try and get a good start on my current artistic challenge. The church I grew up in is celebrating its sesquicentennial this year, and the planning committee asked me to write a hymn for the Big Occasion in the fall. Various ideas have flitted in (and out) of my head over the last few months, but I’m hoping that between now (Wednesday) and Friday inspiration takes hold and I make some real progress. I’d really like to have it done before summer starts.


    🙏 Prayers for Divine Creative Inspiration.

    To quote the late, great Francis Jackson when David had commissioned a Gospel fanfare to go with FJ's Communion Service in E, "one never quite knows when the Muse will strike". ❤️
  • Nick TamenNick Tamen Shipmate
    Piglet wrote: »
    Raptor Eye wrote: »
    Nick Tamen wrote: »
    I’ve started a private retreat of a few days to try and get a good start on my current artistic challenge. The church I grew up in is celebrating its sesquicentennial this year, and the planning committee asked me to write a hymn for the Big Occasion in the fall. Various ideas have flitted in (and out) of my head over the last few months, but I’m hoping that between now (Wednesday) and Friday inspiration takes hold and I make some real progress. I’d really like to have it done before summer starts.


    🙏 Prayers for Divine Creative Inspiration.

    To quote the late, great Francis Jackson when David had commissioned a Gospel fanfare to go with FJ's Communion Service in E, "one never quite knows when the Muse will strike". ❤️
    Thanks y’all. I’m home from my short retreat. Divine Creative Inspiration/the Muse did at least pay a visit; the hymn isn’t finished, but I got a very good framework in place for the text, which is now maybe half written.

    Whew!

  • BroJamesBroJames Purgatory Host
    Do you have an existing tune in mind?
  • Nick TamenNick Tamen Shipmate
    BroJames wrote: »
    Do you have an existing tune in mind?
    No, I’ll be writing that as well. Sometimes, text and tune come to me together, sort of as an already-established couple. Not this time, but that’s okay—this is a time where it feels right for the text to come first.

  • MaryLouiseMaryLouise Shipmate, Host Emeritus
    Nick Tamen wrote: »
    Piglet wrote: »
    Raptor Eye wrote: »
    Nick Tamen wrote: »
    I’ve started a private retreat of a few days to try and get a good start on my current artistic challenge. The church I grew up in is celebrating its sesquicentennial this year, and the planning committee asked me to write a hymn for the Big Occasion in the fall. Various ideas have flitted in (and out) of my head over the last few months, but I’m hoping that between now (Wednesday) and Friday inspiration takes hold and I make some real progress. I’d really like to have it done before summer starts.


    🙏 Prayers for Divine Creative Inspiration.

    To quote the late, great Francis Jackson when David had commissioned a Gospel fanfare to go with FJ's Communion Service in E, "one never quite knows when the Muse will strike". ❤️
    Thanks y’all. I’m home from my short retreat. Divine Creative Inspiration/the Muse did at least pay a visit; the hymn isn’t finished, but I got a very good framework in place for the text, which is now maybe half written.

    Whew!

    @Nick Tamen I've been praying for your creative retreat and composing inspiration, and am very happy to read this!
  • Nick TamenNick Tamen Shipmate
    Thank you, @MaryLouise!

  • FirenzeFirenze Shipmate, Host Emeritus
    Hauling this up into the light to say I've had the revolutionary insight that the way to get better at something is to practise. Which I tend not to do, since I always want to go straight to perfect.

    Having failed at flowers (so complicated) I've decided on still life of anything that crosses my path. Box of Mangoes wasn't too bad; Turnip and Onion less successful; Tankard, Glass and Lemon passable.

    Anyone else doing watercolour?
  • Oddly enough, my new creative project seems to be setting a curriculum of sorts for a person contemplating grad school in a year or two, who has several areas that need improvement. I'm pretty stoked, I think great things could happen.

    My “student” is making great strides, and I’m so excited for him. Lots more to go, but a strong foundation is being laid, and he’s made a good start on two major skills/objectives.
  • PigletPiglet All Saints Host, Circus Host
    Firenze wrote: »
    ... Tankard, Glass and Lemon passable ...

    I saw Tankard, Glass and Lemon on Farcebark, and it was many rungs further up the ladder than "passable". 🙂

  • jedijudyjedijudy Heaven Host
    Piglet wrote: »
    Firenze wrote: »
    ... Tankard, Glass and Lemon passable ...

    I saw Tankard, Glass and Lemon on Farcebark, and it was many rungs further up the ladder than "passable". 🙂

    I agree!!
  • KarlLBKarlLB Shipmate
    edited August 2024
    Did an acoustic cover of Take on me (people old enough to remember the 80s will know) at the open mike. Has rather a challenging vocal range so I'd been putting it off for months.
  • KendelKendel Shipmate
    KarlLB wrote: »
    Did an acoustic cover of Take on me (people old enough to remember the 80s will know) at the open mike. Has rather a challenging vocal range so I'd been putting it off for months.

    Bravo, @KarlLB!

    I am redesigning an Alice Starmore sweater I started over a decade ago and hated knitting. Miserable main chart! Test knitting the new chart I developed by knitting socks with yarn I bought for my birthday. After I finish the socks, I'll swatch with the sweater yarn.

    It's such a beautiful sweater. I still want it. 32st/10cm; 110cm circumference; 15 or 16 colors; steeked cardigan with button bands, and of course I will subversively add hidden, interior pockets.
    Some assembly required.
  • FirenzeFirenze Shipmate, Host Emeritus
    Kendel wrote: »
    I am redesigning an Alice Starmore sweater I started over a decade ago and hated knitting. Miserable main chart! Test knitting the new chart I developed by knitting socks with yarn I bought for my birthday. After I finish the socks, I'll swatch with the sweater yarn.

    It's such a beautiful sweater. I still want it. 32st/10cm; 110cm circumference; 15 or 16 colors; steeked cardigan with button bands, and of course I will subversively add hidden, interior pockets.
    Some assembly required.

    I can see the attraction. I do intarsia knits from time to time. My favourites are where you make up two balls of yarn, then knit up the pattern (squares, triangles, poppies whatever). A lot of Kaffe Fassett works like that. I like the resultant aleatory effects.

    The watercolour project continues: branching out into landscapes (from photographs).
  • BoogieBoogie Heaven Host
    I'm starting a drawing course in September - eeep!
  • FirenzeFirenze Shipmate, Host Emeritus
    Boogie wrote: »
    I'm starting a drawing course in September - eeep!

    Best of luck with that. What would be the best of luck is a good tutor. Sadly the art classes I would normally go for are currently being taught by perfectly amiable chap whose methods - largely copying existing artworks - I find actively depressing.

    I want to draw or paint real things - or at least a photograph thereof.
  • That sounds great, Boogie - I’m starting a Masters degree in early modern history in September :)
  • SarasaSarasa All Saints Host
    Love the sweater @Kendel. I hope your redesign works well. I have a very pretty lace scarf I've tried to knit countless time, but I keep going wrong with the complicated pattern. I really ought to stick at it and try and do it. Mind you I have another project I haven't started and a dress I've knitted but not sewn up yet to do as well.
  • KendelKendel Shipmate
    edited August 2024
    Sarasa wrote: »
    Love the sweater @Kendel. I hope your redesign works well. I have a very pretty lace scarf I've tried to knit countless time, but I keep going wrong with the complicated pattern. I really ought to stick at it and try and do it. Mind you I have another project I haven't started and a dress I've knitted but not sewn up yet to do as well.
    Thank you @Sarasa!
    Those last hurdles of finishing can be daunting. But once the sewing is done you gain the reward of the finished dress.

    Lace is a challenge I enjoy, but it can be daunting. Counting becomes an obsession.
    Firenze wrote: »
    Kendel wrote: »
    I am redesigning an Alice Starmore sweater I started over a decade ago and hated knitting. Miserable main chart! Test knitting the new chart I developed by knitting socks with yarn I bought for my birthday. After I finish the socks, I'll swatch with the sweater yarn.

    It's such a beautiful sweater. I still want it. 32st/10cm; 110cm circumference; 15 or 16 colors; steeked cardigan with button bands, and of course I will subversively add hidden, interior pockets.
    Some assembly required.

    I can see the attraction. I do intarsia knits from time to time. My favourites are where you make up two balls of yarn, then knit up the pattern (squares, triangles, poppies whatever). A lot of Kaffe Fassett works like that. I like the resultant aleatory effects.

    @Firenze I love Fassett's work. His color mastery is unbelievable. But I detest performing intarsia. Stranded knitting changed my life!
  • FirenzeFirenze Shipmate, Host Emeritus
    I'm not sure how stranded knitting differs from intarsia. In both you're carrying one (or more) yarns behind the live stitches, are you not?
  • la vie en rougela vie en rouge Purgatory Host, Circus Host
    Intarsia is different because the blocks of colour are larger so you use a separate strand for each block and wrap them around each other to avoid making a hole. In stranded / fairisle you're usually only making a small number of stitches of each colour so you keep floating the other strand along the back without cutting it off.

    @Kendel that sweater looks amazing. I would never have the patience.
  • A week ago, I did make it at last, for the first time in years, to a meeting of a club I’m going to rejoin.
  • KarlLBKarlLB Shipmate
    Today I intend to cross the Ts and dot the Is to get my TTRPG into a state where it can enter wider Beta testing.
  • KarlLB wrote: »
    Today I intend to cross the Ts and dot the Is to get my TTRPG into a state where it can enter wider Beta testing.

    OMG cool! What genre, if you can say?
  • KarlLBKarlLB Shipmate
    ChastMastr wrote: »
    KarlLB wrote: »
    Today I intend to cross the Ts and dot the Is to get my TTRPG into a state where it can enter wider Beta testing.

    OMG cool! What genre, if you can say?

    It's present dystopia, based on a series of novels written by a friend of mine: https://chrisbonnello.com/underdogs/

    (Hosts please remove if I've crossed the promotion line)
  • KarlLB wrote: »
    ChastMastr wrote: »
    KarlLB wrote: »
    Today I intend to cross the Ts and dot the Is to get my TTRPG into a state where it can enter wider Beta testing.

    OMG cool! What genre, if you can say?

    It's present dystopia, based on a series of novels written by a friend of mine: https://chrisbonnello.com/underdogs/

    (Hosts please remove if I've crossed the promotion line)

    Cool!
  • FirenzeFirenze Shipmate, Host Emeritus
    Intarsia is different because the blocks of colour are larger so you use a separate strand for each block and wrap them around each other to avoid making a hole. In stranded / fairisle you're usually only making a small number of stitches of each colour so you keep floating the other strand along the back without cutting it off.
    .

    When I'm knitting intarsia I carry the colours along the back (catching the carried yarn every other stitch) unless there's a really long stretch to the next occurrence.

    I recently did a knit which was a kind of sampler of the smaller Fassett motifs, so not that different to Fairisle.
  • ChastMastr wrote: »
    A week ago, I did make it at last, for the first time in years, to a meeting of a club I’m going to rejoin.

    Awesome! What kind of club, if it's okay to ask?
  • PigletPiglet All Saints Host, Circus Host
    Whatever it is, CM, if it's something you're going to enjoy, go for it!
  • KendelKendel Shipmate
    KarlLB wrote: »
    Today I intend to cross the Ts and dot the Is to get my TTRPG into a state where it can enter wider Beta testing.
    Cool! Hope testing reveals all the few kinks, and that they are easy fixes.
    Firenze wrote: »
    I'm not sure how stranded knitting differs from intarsia. In both you're carrying one (or more) yarns behind the live stitches, are you not?
    Stranded /Fair Isle knitting uses the same colors, usually two, across the entire row. The colors for each row are alternately knitted on the front of the piece or stranded across the back of each row of knitting. Stranded knitting can be used for tiny areas of color or massive, depending on the type of fabric one desires to achieve. Stranded knitting usually uses fine yarns, because of the added bulk (or warmth) added by stranding.

    Intarsia works with bobbins or lenghts of color that are only used in sections, and then dropped on the back side of the work to be picked up again on the way back. There is no practical limit to the number of colors used. Every single stitch in a row could be a different color. Impractical but certainly possible. But it also depends on what one plans to do with the next 200 rows that might such a plan the best one.
    Because Intarsia normally adds no significant bulk to the fabric, it is easily used with bulkier yarns (dk, worsted, aran, bulky).

    For migraine inducing pleasure there are sweaters like Kaffe Fasset's Foolish Virgins (https://images4-f.ravelrycache.com/uploads/LindaKnitter/442950283/014_MAG7_Foolish_Virgins_Kaffe_LOW_RES_medium.jpg) that combine both techniques, including sections of stranded knitting on the skirts, that are all different designs, so knit in blocks -- stranded bits of intarsia. Multiverses seem simple in comparison. I gave up on that one after about 20cm.
    ChastMastr wrote: »
    A week ago, I did make it at last, for the first time in years, to a meeting of a club I’m going to rejoin.
    Yey! You seem to be feeling better then and healing.
    Firenze wrote: »
    Intarsia is different because the blocks of colour are larger so you use a separate strand for each block and wrap them around each other to avoid making a hole. In stranded / fairisle you're usually only making a small number of stitches of each colour so you keep floating the other strand along the back without cutting it off.
    .

    When I'm knitting intarsia I carry the colours along the back (catching the carried yarn every other stitch) unless there's a really long stretch to the next occurrence.

    I recently did a knit which was a kind of sampler of the smaller Fassett motifs, so not that different to Fairisle.

    Fassett! Good for you!!!
    I have only admired his work. One failed attempt. That's all.
    Your description of "intarsia" sounds like stranded or fair isle. Perhaps the use of the term is dependent in one's location in the world?
    I am in the US.

  • ChastMastrChastMastr Shipmate
    edited August 2024
    ChastMastr wrote: »
    A week ago, I did make it at last, for the first time in years, to a meeting of a club I’m going to rejoin.

    Awesome! What kind of club, if it's okay to ask?

    A men’s special interest club.
    Leather, basically.

    There was a whole thread on this… good heavens, was it over twenty years ago?? 😮 … back on the old boards…
  • Thank you!
  • ChastMastrChastMastr Shipmate
    edited August 2024
    Thank you!

    I was a little worried people might run away, even though I "came out" in that regard on the Ship over 20 years ago, LOL...

    (Hosts, are we allowed to post links to old threads from the old Ship here? In this case, it was in T&T... I thought about posting the link to the leather thread here but then wondered if it would be awkward for any Shipmate who might have posted a comment that they'd now be less comfortable with in the public view.)
  • FirenzeFirenze Shipmate, Host Emeritus
    Kendel wrote: »
    Firenze wrote: »
    I recently did a knit which was a kind of sampler of the smaller Fassett motifs, so not that different to Fairisle.

    Fassett! Good for you!!!
    I have only admired his work. One failed attempt. That's all.
    Your description of "intarsia" sounds like stranded or fair isle. Perhaps the use of the term is dependent in one's location in the world?
    I am in the US.

    I must have the complete (knitting) works of Mr Fassett. But I admit I've not tried many of his later, highly complicated designs.

    My ideal is something that requires minimal attention (because when are you ever only knitting?) but produces interesting results.

    At the moment I am knitting a waistcoat for Mr F, and crocheting a sort of shrug for me. The charm of the first is the yarn - soft, variegated blues/purples. The second is bands of autumnal brown, red and russet with textural interest.
  • Firenze wrote: »
    Kendel wrote: »
    Firenze wrote: »
    I recently did a knit which was a kind of sampler of the smaller Fassett motifs, so not that different to Fairisle.

    Fassett! Good for you!!!
    I have only admired his work. One failed attempt. That's all.
    Your description of "intarsia" sounds like stranded or fair isle. Perhaps the use of the term is dependent in one's location in the world?
    I am in the US.

    I must have the complete (knitting) works of Mr Fassett. But I admit I've not tried many of his later, highly complicated designs.

    My ideal is something that requires minimal attention (because when are you ever only knitting?) but produces interesting results.

    At the moment I am knitting a waistcoat for Mr F, and crocheting a sort of shrug for me. The charm of the first is the yarn - soft, variegated blues/purples. The second is bands of autumnal brown, red and russet with textural interest.

    But are the works of Mr Fassett serious, or are they Fass-EE-tious?
  • NenyaNenya All Saints Host, Ecclesiantics & MW Host
    ChastMastr wrote: »
    Thank you!

    I was a little worried people might run away, even though I "came out" in that regard on the Ship over 20 years ago, LOL...

    (Hosts, are we allowed to post links to old threads from the old Ship here? In this case, it was in T&T... I thought about posting the link to the leather thread here but then wondered if it would be awkward for any Shipmate who might have posted a comment that they'd now be less comfortable with in the public view.)

    It would be fine to post the link @ChastMastr .

    Nenya, All Saints Host
  • Jane RJane R Shipmate
    KarlLB wrote: »
    ChastMastr wrote: »
    KarlLB wrote: »
    Today I intend to cross the Ts and dot the Is to get my TTRPG into a state where it can enter wider Beta testing.

    OMG cool! What genre, if you can say?

    It's present dystopia, based on a series of novels written by a friend of mine: https://chrisbonnello.com/underdogs/

    (Hosts please remove if I've crossed the promotion line)

    Ooh, I read the first one in the series and had no idea the others were out! (Yes, I have been living under a rock for a while) I look forward to reading the others.
  • Nenya wrote: »
    ChastMastr wrote: »
    Thank you!

    I was a little worried people might run away, even though I "came out" in that regard on the Ship over 20 years ago, LOL...

    (Hosts, are we allowed to post links to old threads from the old Ship here? In this case, it was in T&T... I thought about posting the link to the leather thread here but then wondered if it would be awkward for any Shipmate who might have posted a comment that they'd now be less comfortable with in the public view.)

    It would be fine to post the link @ChastMastr .

    Nenya, All Saints Host

    Thank you! Here it is--it seems like the posts are not in order (some very early stuff seems to be on the 3rd page, for instance), but here you go!

    http://forum.ship-of-fools.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=11;t=001087;p=1
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