August | 2011 | knitibranch

It’s Accordion Festival time here in Cotati, California, and the day I’ve been preparing for ever since I realized I couldn’t finish this piece in time for IYBD. I bring you the Jim Boggio statue, dressed as the King of the Stomach Steinway:

Jim Boggio: King of the Stomach Steinway

The organizers of the event loved it, and even acknowledged me from the stage, and I saw many people taking photos of each other with the statue, so I think this will be one well-documented piece, even if it is only up for two days.

Crown & robe knit for Boggio statue in Cotati, CA

King of the Stomach Steinway

I’ve just returned from a week in Alaska with my sweetie, and finally found a tree in Sitka to stitch up a piece I’ve been holding onto for quite some time. Back when my dear friend Jeanne was struggling with the cancer that ended up killing her (god damn fucking cancer) I wanted to make her a lacy scarf in a brilliant shade of blue. Her sensitive skin couldn’t tolerate wool, but I found the most beautiful saturated blue silk, and a lace pattern called “spider stitch,” which was perfect, since her husband’s name is Spider.

So I knitted like mad and finished this lovely thing, blocked it, and while it was drying started fretting because it had that weird smell that silk sometimes does, and I thought she might not be able to wear it smelling like that. PANIC! I rushed out and bought another yarn entirely, one made from sugar cane that was very soft, but the color wasn’t nearly as vivid, and it lacked the lovely sheen of the silk scarf I’d already made. I started knitting the second scarf, but ultimately, I gave her the silk one, the smell was not a problem, and she was wearing it the last time I saw her alive. The second scarf sat unfinished on needles from then on, and Jeanne’s been gone for more than a year now.

I’d met Spider and Jeanne before going to Alaska with them in 2007, but it was in Alaska that we really became friends, and it felt somehow right to find a place in Alaska to put up that unfinished scarf I’d started knitting for Jeanne. I finally got it stitched onto a tree just moments before I had to get onto the bus that took us to the Sitka airport and on our way back home. Two little girls came up and asked me about it and I did a horrible job of explaining what I was doing. Hopefully they’ll read this and have a better idea what it’s about. My dear friend Sharon was on hand and took photos, which I’ll post when I receive them. In the mean time, I have this: