Rachel Beckman » Weaver & Textile Designer

Stuffed: Canopic Jars

Canopic Jars- Glass Jars, Knit, Crocheted, and Needle-Lace Cotton, 2010

A nice set of Canopic Jars from The Afterlife Store, for the mummy whose tomb has been raided and has had his sacred jars taken away to some lonely museum in Indiana or somewhere equally un-Egyptian. Wrapped for extra care; insurance optional. Special sale price: 80 Deben for all four, or 25 Deben separately.

Hats Off!

It’s Winter Break so not a whole lot going on in weaving land as of late, but I did promise you a knitted hat (person sized!) and while I finished it last Wednesday I never got around to photographing it. After my first attempt, I’m sure you are pretty doubtful of any actual success in the knitting department, but I present it to you now so you may doubt no more:

It fits and everything! I only ran into a few problems, knitting a few purl stitches where there should have been knit stitches, dropping a stitch here and there, but I think it came out rather well and will be a cute addition to my winter wardrobe. But don’t get any ideas- I won’t be knitting anything else any time soon.

A Weaver's Challenge: Hilarious Results

So…the good news is I knit a hat. And to be honest, I didn’t expect that I would follow through with this so quickly. The better news it the outcome was way more amusing than I could have hoped for. It seems I have the basics down, that is, I am capable of knitting a hat, just not a hat for an actual person. Observe:

Something tells me I should stick to weaving. But here, this is better:

I’m quite proud of myself, and while I still find knitting utterly frustrating, I’m going to try knitting a people sized hat sometime soon. Check out all of my live tweets  after the jump.

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A Weaver's Challenge

For those of you who know me, you know as an artist and a student at MICA I identify as a weaver. Fiber Artist is often to broad for me- too often people jump to fashion, or else knitting and crocheting, which seem to be pretty in these days, as the kids like to say. And let me say this, an admission that probably won’t be too popular, I am not a huge fan of knitting and crocheting. There, I said it. I’m not even a little fan of knitting and crocheting. Generally speaking, I find both tasks frustrating and difficult, whereas weaving for me is peaceful and, above all, infinitely easier (a bold statement, I’m sure). I do not fully understand the appeal of either, and I really, truly do not understand things like knitted fruits and sushi rolls. But I do understand that knitting is both useful and hip, and since my secret goal is to making the art of weaving just as cool, I am taking it upon myself to undertake a seeming impossible and potentially infuriating project to better understand that which I fear:

I am going to knit a hat.

For many, I’m sure you see my struggle as laughable and not especially heroic. But hear me out. I learned to knit my freshman year of high school, and I didn’t learn how to do a proper purl stitch till my sophomore year of college. And I still only know how to knit rectangles. Weaving, on the other hand, was a snap for me. I feel like I’ve accomplished so much in the past year and a half, and I’m only just beginning. So what is this mysterious craft I can’t seem to grasp, and how will I ever manage to read a knitting pattern with my backwards left handedness?

For the next few however-long-it-takes-me-to-figure-this-out, I’m going to be updating on twitter the hilarious trials of my journey through the treacherous land of The Knitted, in part as a distraction from not having access to my loom, and in part as an earnest attempt to learn a skill that may in fact prove useful. You can view the updates here or on my homepage, and I’ll post the final results on my blog. What’s next, crocheting? (Yes). But for now this hopeful wanna-be-hip weaver is armed with a purple pair of needles and some Salvation Army yarn. We have so much to look forward to:

Exhibit A: Ugly Scarf Detail, 2007

The Re-Emergence of Personal Projects- and More!

Tis the season! With a week left of finals, Jacqueline, Bryan, and I (respectively) decided to do a little de-stresser in the holiday spirit by building graham cracker houses. My other roommate, Andrea, also built one (the Empire State Building, she’s an environmental design major), but I didn’t get a good picture of it and now it resides in our fridge, just waiting to be eaten. Don’t they look scrumptious? My favourite is Jacqueline’s, which we dubbed the insane asylum. It was falling apart all over the place, but it was definitely made with love.

Since I’ve had a lot of time to lazy around, being mostly done with finals and all, I’ve had more time to contemplate what exactly I need to do to be ready to propose a show with Jacqueline in the spring, make inventory to get my website and Etsy shop up and running, and keep my sanity by doing the things I love.

I bought this yarn at MICA’s Art Market the other day, and I couldn’t resist knitting it already- the color is so wonderful! I started out making a scarf, seeing as that’s the only thing I can actually knit, and then realizing that the yarn is a tad to scratchy for wearing, I decided that I’m going to make a wall hanging instead. It’ll give me an excuse to use the felt I made last year for some applique work and embroidery. Now all I need is some imagery. Perhaps some more Russian folktales?