renewal notice.

photo by garth johnson

i was offline so long that i neglected to mention my involvement in renewal notice, a group show curated by garth johnson on the topic of reuse. the exhibition runs in conjunction with this year's american conservation film festival in shepherdstown, west virginia.

the show (and garth's presence at the festival) are related to his book, 1000 ideas for creative reuse. i have to admit that none of my work is in the book. i considered submitting some work when the call was out but was feeling gunshy after an entirely unrelated and strange experience with another publication. i now regret my hermit-like reticence as garth has become a good friend who i consider to be exceptionally thoughtful when it comes to art, craft and intellectual pursuit. he is a veritable bridge of a man, linking various worlds that tend to misunderstand one another (art, craft, academia).

my contributions to the exhibition are a small sampling of plastic bag models from the toronto hyperbolic crochet coral reef (pictured above, right) and a selection of buttons from the security envelope project (not pictured). i could not be happier to be involved. thank you, garth.

renewal notice has a brief run from yesterday (november 4) through november 7, 2010. if you re in the area, you might want to go check it out.

reefer madness.

today shan and i went and threw the toronto hyperbolic crochet reef back into it's special trunk. it was sad. the fly gallery was a great month-long home to the reef and scott and tanya could not have been more lovely to deal with. big thanks go out tot tara, too, for hooking up the installation as part of the city of craft installation programming.

here's a bit more...

hyperbolic frolic.

just a few images from last night's hyperbolic reef growing stitch-along at hart house. it was a near record-breaking turn-out that yielded some great new models for the reef and lots of chatting.

building the hyperbolic reef.

just a reminder, toronto, that tonight is the big free hyperbolic crochet installation/workshop at hart house.

check out the hart house craft night site or the toronto church of craft page for more information.

off to pack up my hooks!

oh, up there are the two new models i have to contribute.

if only time were hyperbolic...

...and expanded out into infinite directions from any given moment in time. maybe it does. i'm not actually that smart. i don't know.

but i certainly feel overwhelmed by projects, emergencies and drudgery these days.

this post, though, is about a project - the nicest of the three activities mentioned above. i recently found out that the toronto hyperbolic reef project has been accepted to city of craft's installation programming. yes, even we organisers need to apply under the iron-fisted regime of new installation coordinator, tara bursey. that's not true; tara's not a tyrant by any stretch. she's just more organised and thoughtful than we had managed to muster in previous years.

but, i digress. the greatest part of our hyperbolic news is that tara secured the fly gallery on queen street for our reef. and we get it for the entire month of december! the fly is a (relatively) small window gallery but still presents a lot of space to fill. and, although the call to contribute is open to the entire city, i am too panicky to allow our collection's growth to rest solely in the hands of potentially unreliable unknowns (no offense...please feel free to prove me wrong). so i have been busying my hands during 'off' moments (read: while i watch the news) by constructing a few new models.

pictured here is a new pseudosphere/anemone-in-progress made of crazy novelty yarns. it is going to undergo a few more metaphorphoses before it is done but so far it is coming along nicely. weird, but nice. it also serves to consume a little bit of my nightly stress.

hyperbolic and bucolic.

...just a preview of some hyperbolic reef action that will hopefully launch a great and vibrant reef for the city of toronto. models by shannon gerard, angelune des lauriers, kalpna patel and myself. set up in shannon's living room so we could measure it and take stock.

a touch of endlessness.

monday night's city of craft deadline also meant that the toronto hyperbolic reef contributors had to come together to submit our installation proposal. of course, this meeting mostly involved absent minded crocheting (we are not the type to leave hands idle) as we took turns working on our proposal.

this left me with a newly started model which i had to come home with and work on. this meant pulling out my stash of crazy yarns for the reef project which also meant finding other hyperbolic beginnings. pictured above is a nudibranch i had started a while back (and finished last night). it is made from a crazy collection of mixed-guage yarns in a hyperbolic double spiral. i find it really difficult to properly match these insane yarns and colours but i think i did a pretty good job in this case - especially when you see what real nudibranchs look like:

photographer unknown

...it's a tough act to live up to, but one that offers many possibilities when in comes to colour and palette. and here i thought neon was invented by the 80's.

our application relates to opening the toronto hyperbolic reef to more contributors, so polish off your hooks, toronto. our fingers are crossed that we will fit into the programming (yes, i have to apply, too). one way or another, toronto's reef hopes to grow and needs a lot more contributors to do so.

installed.

after putting finishing touches on my plastic bag hyperbolics, i hustled over to theknit cafe for this evening's installation.

maybe some images will speak louder than words. or why not go take a visit?

in order, these pictures are:
1. bay bag mass by yours truly
2. milk bag cups by shannon gerard
3. blanched pods by kalpna patel
4. jelly fish by angelune deslauriers

there is also a chance that this reef will grow before your very eyes during the month it is up. we are also planning a closing party on earth day, april 22. everyone is invited!

further hooking.

above is the newest of the plastic bag hyperbolic models i have been working on. i was really excited when i discovered this specific type of vegetable bag that can be cut thin and crocheted at a relatively small guage. these bags have writing on them so i separated the bag parts into 'dirty' and 'clean.' this is the clean model. i am making another one using the exact same pattern, only out of the dirty bag parts so it has little blotches on it. oddly, that one is turning out bigger and looser which i can not understand.

this little guy is making me happy. the specific kind of plastic gives the form a soft opalescence. it is firm and soft all at the same time.

by the way, if any of you torontonians have any extra plastic bags (especially my most coveted yellow bay bags), you can still drop them off at the knit cafe. we have another plastic bag crochet yarn meet-up planned for this weekend and all of our stocks are running low. bag contributions would be much obliged.

i should probably also mention that if you are in the mood to learn some basic crochet (and contemplate some higher mathematics), i do have another hyperbolic crochet class coming up at the knit cafe at the beginning of april. you can check their course schedule here for all the details. these classes are totally not hard and a lot of fun.

small displays of excess.

...the collection of hyperbolic beasts grows. this one is a double spiral made from some weirdo mystery yarn that karyn gave me from the workroom vaults. double spirals are a lot of laughs! they can sit in many different poses, including spiraling tubes and flat-wormesque convolutions.

also, after some back room whisperings, it looks like a toronto reef is in the works. as with all coral reefs, it will take a while to establish itself and will grow slowly over time. but i do foresee a great bloom at a yet-to-be-determined point in the future. stay tuned for news. but until big plans present themselves, feel free to take a look at the growths that have grown out of one of our living room chairs (sorry, sweetie)...

new sea creatures.

i have a guest in town, so my writing is falling by the wayside. but here are some new creatures (some for the plastic bag project and some for something beyond).

a love letter to crochet.

up there is a brand new white heart i got from shannon yesterday. i love it so much, shan! so much, in fact, that i continue to wear it over my heart even the day after valentine's day. it looks like a deformity under my coat and also reflects my current feelings about the world. i have a friend who used to work in biotech doing something with pig hearts. i wonder if they blanch when devoid of blood. i will have to ask her. i know shannon also consulted an expert in updating the design for her crocheted hearts - a medical illustrator, no less. karyn wrote all about it in a recent interview with shannon here.

as for me and my hooking, i just wrapped up a super fast hyperbolic model over the last couple of days.

after reading about the institute for figuring's various hyperbolic sub-reefs (the toxic reef, the ghostly bleached reef, et al), i felt motivated to get over my personal fibre snobberies and dive into some weirdo yarns i had kicking around. although i usually lean towards working with natural materials (and took a more stark mathmatical approach of only making hyperbolic models out of solid colours), the arguments for crocheting out of discarded materials seemed to me (in a lesser way) to seep into the shameful stash of acrylic and novelty yearns that i never use. i have collected this stuff over years to make soft toys and hats for vegans but my interest in both undertakings has steadily waned. over time, i have developed a pronounced distaste for synthetic yarns, likening their content to that of garbage bags - a non-biodegradable, spun fossil fuel that i didn't want to interact with anymore. now that my crochet adventures have brought me full-circle to crocheting with actual plastic bags, it seemed time to revisit my shame stash - or at least the stuff that didn't sell at the trunk show.

i have to admit that this latest model looks more like a sea creature than any of my self-imposed purist hyperbolics. the plastic makes it luminous and the bizarre loft of this yarn gives it a loamy, spongy feel. it also measures 10 inches across and only took a few hours to make. score a few for synthetics. it will also last forever and survive moth attacks.

i am now working on another model out of what seems to be a mix of cotton and fiberglass. i might even edge it in eyelash yarn. crazy.

i am not saying that i am about to go out and buy a bunch of new crazy yarns, but i certainly feel inspired to go through what i have and possibly acquire more if it is used and free. but i don't entirely know what i am going to do with all these models. my overbearing aesthetics (and kindly life partner) probably won't allow for keeping these as part of my home's decor. i am considering shipping them off to join the reefs maintained by the institute for figuring. but i could also be coerced into beginning a collective toronto reef, if anyone else is interested (global coral proliferation is a peripheral goal of the iff). who is interested? and what should we do?

how moths can devour the fabric of the universe.

is it just me, or is toronto entirely crawling with moths?

i finally unpacked my hyperbolic models only to find some familiar wormy cocoons in their folds. the damage was not severe (and could have been much worse) but it certainly conjured up notions of time-space wormholes. i wish my brain was capable of more than notions. this is why i crochet.

the unpacking was motivated by many factors - a desire to have an unpacked home, the upcoming hyperbolics i have committed to crocheting and a hyperbolic crochet class i am teaching at the knit cafe in april. it was time to dust these puppies off and contemplate them once again. it's the impending spring, i guess. a time when the desire for thaw turns a woman's fancy to the frilly lettuce of advanced mathematics.

the universe being what it is (perfectly ordered by a process of infinite luck), my friend leah just mentioned a fantastically generous hyperbolic quest she has been on while touring in the baltics. there is no need for gifts, little wayfarer. but i won't lie; that would have been an amazing surprise.

hyperbolics in plastic and the oceanic travels of shopping bags.

pictured above is the beginning of a hyperbolic model i have been working on made entirely from plastic bag yarn. this is for an upcoming project (that will find its way into the window of the knit cafe) spearheaded by angelune des lauriers and intended as a craftivist earth day project.

angelune has assembled a group of crocheting friends (including shannon, kalpna, leah, marnie, myself and others) to make these plastic models, aping the oceanic forms of corals and other sea animals. the notion is to assemble a great plastic reef as a way to bring attention to the great pacific garbage patch (also known as the trash/garbage vortex or garbage island). this fetid new continent, located somewhere between the hawaiian islands and the coast of california, is reported to be twice the size of texas and is composed prominently of discarded plastics. it weighs an estimated three million tons and has resulted from a combination of ocean currents and collective carelessness (although i'm not sure quite how much we should blame the ocean). other reports note the area to be more like a massive garbage stew (as opposed to one contiguous garbage heap) which might explain why google earth doesn't just simply display this 'island.' regardless of these details, there is much agreement that this is a big mess and it's our fault.

so what is there to do? well, currently, i have decided to crochet plastic coral in the hopes that someone smarter will see this project, be alerted to the ocean's ordeal and brilliantly solve the problem. i know it's not the most active choice, but it's better than freezing in a state of absolute confusion and doing nothing at all.

and what can you do? if you are a genius, you can figure out how to fix this problem and make the world okay again. if you are not a genius (or if the above task is going to take you a while), you can drop off your colourful plastic bags at the knit cafe to be turned into yarn and then crochet models. for me, the ideal bag is ripped and unusable. i can still work around most rips when making the yarn and don't need the handles at all. this also makes me feel that the bag has been used to its maximum ability.

i should also mention that this project is highly derivative of some incredible past works, most notably the hyperbolic coral reef conceived by the institute for figuring to address issues of marine coral blanching and the later plastic bag sea crochet of helle jorgensen. in the name of education, these undertakings seem open to future interpretations/incarnations but props are certainly due. go check out their sites.



on a more pragmatic note, i have also learned that bamboo hooks and plastic yarns do not mix well. be forewarned, lest you suffer the same fate as me. i'm glad i hung on to all my metal hooks.

i will soon abate.

hyperbolics have taken over once again. these teaching stints at the knit cafe have really rekindled my destructive addiction to hyperbolic crochet. i had to cut myself off for a while back in the fall so that i could sober up and focus more attentions on my potentially money-making projects. after the financial battering my play gave me, this was a pretty important move.

it's not like i'm any richer now. but spring is in the air and a young lady's fancy can so easily turn back to the corpulent frills of these wooly figures. needless to say, i'm back to my old tricks - crocheting on the streetcar and rebuffing the advances of chatty strangers. i mean, if they really wanted to know what i was doing, they'd find my blog, right?

to the end of furthering the cause (and as an aid to students of hyperbolic crochet everywhere), i have created a new hyprbolic crochet taxonomic gallery on flickr. there is another hyperbolic crochet group there but the administrator seems to have lost interest and, unhindered, the pool is filling with pictures of hats, amigurumi bunnies and other off topic flotsam. the aim of this new group is to both share pictures of hyperbolic models and to share their increase rates/materials/guages/whathaveyous. hopefully, this will prove helpful to those continuing on in their own arguable useless addictions. we at the sweetie pie press are nothing if not enablers.

this hyperbolic life.

photos by belphoebe

today was spent in the most delightful manners. an early morning trip to st. lawrence market to goof around with the reverend (i bought i really nice dress that was not part of the plan), an afternoon class on hyperbolic crochet at the knit cafe and a nerve-wracking performance of an excerpt from my play at the summerworks festival launch party. the latter activity was only nerve-wracking because i made it that way. i just haven't been in the swing of scripted performance lately. but the crowd was exceptionally warm (read: wine drunk). thank you for that. and thank you, michael, for inviting me out of my rut.

the crochet class, on the other hand, was much less stressful - although i always feel a self-imposed pressure/fear when teaching anything to anyone. regardless of my neuroses, an afternoon spent in simple crochet and complex mathematical thought is always restorative. like a knob, i didn't bring my camera so i've stolen some pictures for this posting. that also means you will get to see a picture of me explaining excesses of surface by flapping my hands about.

the hyperbolic future.

for those who'd like to know, know this:

i will be teaching another workshop in hyperbolic crochet at the knit cafe in april, complete with on-hand resources and mind-bending conversation about advanced geometry.

it will be sunday, april 13, 2008 from noon o'clock until three o'clock in the afternoon. if you'd like to book yourself in, you should do so through the knit cafe. word is, space is filling up.

here's a write-up for the workshop for those fond of "information":

In this one-day class, students will cover basic skills involved with crochet-in-the-round to create a pseudosphere (or the hyperbolic equivalent of a cone). We will cover basic crochet topics such as yarn selection, gauge and hook matching and even stitching techniques as well as delving into the possible variations of hyperbolic models. Mathematical materials, books and articles will also be on hand for reference (although, make no mistake, your instructor is much more knowledgeable in crochet than higher mathematics) and discussion of hyperbolic possibilities is encouraged. From this course, students will leave with the skills to make as many hyperbolic cones as they should ever want with infinite mathematical variations. The course also teaches the basic skills for crochet-in-the-round, which can also be used to make simple hats, potholders, tea cozies, slippers and other round things.

no rest for the wicked.

today i taught my first workshop at the knit cafe here in toronto. what a thrill! i got to indulge in a great passion of mine, hyperbolic crochet. it was a really lovely group of workshopees, too. and although we managed to digress into all sorts of conversation, i think we probably also discovered the true nature of the universe by 3:00pm.

with such platitudes as quantum physics behind us, marnie and i then hustled over to the workroom for a bit of supply swapping. it was a pretty overwhelming amount of stuff and i only found myself with a bit of energy for sifting through all the yarns and fabrics. i ended up with a couple of great finds, though, including some pretty choice wool fabric that may soon become a pin cushion.

the swap was quite well received and, with a small amount of logistical retooling, i think toronto will see more of these from city of craft/the workroom. stay tuned for more on that.

after everyone was gone, karyn, leah, jen and i slumped around on the couch and chairs (embodying the same energy as maisy here) and did some scattered scheming. suffice it to say, the wheels never stop turning and we have a couple of new plans in the works for the coming months.

oh, and i also got a sneak peek at my winning bid for the rubber ducky giveaway from shannon gerard. it's pretty amazing and smutty. she's kind of a bit of a genius.

hyperbolic crochet; what gives?

in preparation for teaching my first big hyperbolic crochet class, i have decided to pour back through my related resources and write a little rundown of this mathematical handicraft to clarify my thoughts on it. i should start by saying that i am much more of a crocheter than a mathematician, so feel free to pipe up, whiz kids, if there are holes in my understanding or explanations.

my love affair with hyperbolic crochet was ignited on a fateful (in many ways, actually) trip to pittsburgh just under a year ago. jen and leah and i were there for the craft congress and took a free afternoon to go to the warhol museum. their special exhibit was a group show concenring climate change. on top of an amazing installation by the yes men (based on this intervention), there was a huge coral reef made entirely of crochet pieces. obviously, we craft nerds were enthralled. but it got even more interesting as we started to read about the complex mathematics behind this highly organic assemblage of shapes.

the coral reef, as it turns out, was the major installation project of the institute for figuring at that time. the institute itself is a fascinating organization that does a great deal of work bridging tactile reality with more complex and esoteric arts & sciences. in thier own words:

The Institute For Figuring is an organization dedicated to the poetic and aesthetic dimensions of science, mathematics and the technical arts.

by the way, if you just poke around the hyperbolic resources on their website, you probably have a better chance of understanding hyperbolic crochet than i can give you.

leah and i each went home with the iff's new publication, a field guide to hyperbolic space. it's a great book and if any of this piques your interest, you should probably hunt down a copy (here).

oh man, this is where i have to explain the science behind the yarn. this part always freaks me out, so let's make it quick - hyperbolic crochet is the physical modeling of shapes that arise from a branch of mathematics once thought to be impossible (also a branch of mathematics that eventually disproved euclid's grand postulates of geometry - never postulate with grandeur; you will just end up with hyperbolic egg on your face).

as much as i enjoy hurting my brain with the math involved, the history of hyperbolic mathematics and its eventual crochet modeling is even more interesting. after hyperbolic mathematics was finally accepted as real (a long winding road), the challenge was set to create models of hyperbolic space. hyperbolic geometry, by the way, takes it's name from the literary term of hyperbole. in the geometric case, the hyperbole manifests itself in a continuing and constant excess of surface. put plainly, hyperbolic spaces can look all lettucey.



but back to the task of making hyperbolic models...

while these forms are easy enough to represent in two dimension or simulations of three dimension with computers, tactile models were proving harder to create. any brittle material (paper, wood) might indeed be made into a hyperbolic plane with some difficulty, but it could never be manipulated.

enter dr. daina taimina, a latvian mathematician and physicist who decided to pick up a crochet hook in 1997 to make workable hyperbolic models as aids for her students. revolutionary! funnily enough, once explained the basics of hyperbolic forms, even the most novice of crocheters could make just about any hyperbolic plane, but the breakthrough had eluded mathematicians for centuries. what's more, after sewing lines and shapes onto the models, incredibly complex mathematical theories can be easily observed (ie. the behaviors of straight lines and triangles in hyperbolic space).



my mind is too tangled to do justice to advanced geometry at the moment so it's time i left it to the pros and had this all explained to you much more succinctly by the iff.

as an added bonus, after your mind is blown by trying to envision existence in hyperbolic space you can have it double-blown considering the possibility that we may already be existing in it. but i'll leave that to you, dear reader, as i can only be responsible for so many physics-based panic attacks per day and i think i've eaten up too many already by myself.