Guess Who Came To Juneau?

My knitting continues at a very slow, unbloggworthy pace. I keep adding "just one more repeat" to my Shetland Triangle Shawl. I hope to finish it soon. I've been surprisingly monogamous with this project, probably because I have memorized the pattern and it now fills both of my knitting needs: complex enough to keep me interested and simple enough to be carry along or TV knitting. Now that the end is in sight (really, I'm on the last repeat), I'm starting to get the itch to start a new project. Hopefully there will be some interesting knitting happenings around here soon.

In the meantime, it's a crazy time to be an Alaskan. Things got even crazier a few weeks ago when Dolores Van Hoofen made a stop here. She's been on a whirlwind campaign tour. I was honored to be her Juneau host. While Franklin maintains that you "really can see Russia" from the Governor's mansion, I'd like to point out what else you can see... (Mudflats is a great resource for those of you who are interested in the bizarre saga of Sarah Palin and politics in Alaska.)

I'll leave you with the official press release from Dolores' visit:

Fibertarian Candidate, Dolores Van Hoofen, photographed in front of the Governor's Mansion, on her campaign stop in Juneau, Alaska.

After spending the afternoon wandering about in the rain shaking hands and kissing babies, Ms. Van Hoofen needed to find a place to spend the night. She was delighted to learn this lovely white mansion had a vacancy. Ms Van Hoofen wasted little time making herself at home. Though she declined to eat the mooseburgers she found in the freezer, out of Unglulate Solidarity; she did avail herself of the on-site tanning bed.

One in Eight *

I've recently finished a stealth project that's been in the works for a while. I'm unveiling it today, as October is Breast Cancer Awareness month. I created it for an annual art exhibit here in Juneau: Bra Dazzler. It's a fundraiser for a local non-profit, Team Survivor Perseverance, that provides fitness and exercise programs to women affected by cancer.

It is totally unlike anything I have ever done before. I tend to knit wearable things, and I don't think of myself as artsy.


Let's just say that there was a serendipitous convergence of top-down hat knitting and hearing about this exhibit last year. Then I went to see the exhibit and there was such a wide range of styles and materials employed, that I was emboldened and decided I was brave enough to give it a go. I started working on a prototype last spring, and once I had it figured out, I began slowly knitting breasts. They were great little take-along projects, and I kept them going in the background.

When we returned from our last trip of the summer, in August, I realized the deadline for exhibit submissions was earlier than I expected. So I went into high gear and started churning out knitted breasts. Turns out, the knitting was the easy part. Nick helped me figure out how to assemble it. (Thanks, honey!) In the end, it's pretty darn close to what I envisioned when I started out; that makes me very happy.

One in Eight
Created for the Bra Dazzler 2008 Exhibition in Juneau, Alaska
On display at the Juneau-Douglas City Museum
October 3-November 1

Yarn: Cascade 220; shades of grey, black
and kool-aid dyed lemon-lime
Needles: US size 5 dpns and US size 3 circulars
Size: Canvas measures 30" x 24."
Each breast is approximately 5" in diameter.
Most surprising this about this project: Think about it .. 16 knitted breasts .. eight pairs .. brought to you by a knitter who has trouble getting a second sock finished!

*The risk, if you are a woman, of getting breast cancer in your lifetime.