Friday, January 30, 2015

Colour work

My excuse for starting another pair of socks for myself is that Jan is going to Florida for a holiday pretty soon and won't need warm socks as much as I do.   Sounds valid, right?


This is the start of a pair from yarn I bought at least a year ago and, since they are going very quickly and successfully so far, I should have started them as soon as I got that yarn home.  I think what stalled me was the colours - I bought the yarn for its fiber and weight only.  I didn't love the green and red together enough, and I didn't have anything to match them if I ran out of yarn three rounds from the toe, so I just put it away and tried not to think about it.

Now that I'm knitting though, Wow! I really love the way the colours are coming together.  You'd think they'd read like Christmas with so much red and green and snow, wouldn't you?  but they don't.  In fact, the longer I look at them, the more I think of them positioned against this painting:


That's my friend Ady's work superimposed on my photograph.  Of course the colours in my sock are more muted than in her geraniums, but it really is similar, isn't it?  I think I will have to call these my geranium socks.

It's a treat to be sitting and knitting again because lately I've been giving quite of bit of my free time to help Ady pull some of her paintings together into a website where people can see them. 

Here's one I see every day, because it hangs in my front hall:


Talk about colours!  Though Ady often makes prints of her work available, I was able to buy the original of this one, and it is a wonderful thing to come home to.  At the condo I will hang it in the front hall again, this time facing mirrored doors, and I am really looking forward to seeing the repetition in its reflection.

Here's another of my favourites.  Over the years I've been able to acquire several of Ady's things and I have one similar to this that's just a little more spooky:


Across from my cosy knitting chair in the living room, I've hung a print of one of Ady's amazing rose paintings - not this exact one, but you get the idea.


Ady works in other paints and styles and something about this drippy abstract watercolour makes me go a bit swoony:


Trees on a rocky shore in colours that make me shiver a little, as though I am out on a northern lake in the rain.  In a good way, because I know that when I've seen enough I can go home to hold a steaming cup of tea and remember it all from a warm place by the fire.  I own the original of this too, and after the renovation I will be able to give it a proper home on its own wall.  Long overdue!

Oh, and I also have a print of this clever watercolour.  Click on the image if you need to look closer to see the surprise...


... surprises are Ady's specialty.  (and if you really can't find the secret images, definitely go to her site - the answer is on her biography page.)

Anyway: her site is done now, and online for your viewing enjoyment, and let me tell you, my own little collection is just a small part of the gorgeous and inspiring things she's put online.  Drop by for a look and have a wonderful weekend!



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