Carson Ellis's Blog, page 5

Watch this a hundred times and shed a tear for the great Janis Joplin.

Here I am modeling my first knitting project of the season.  It's my own pattern.  Do you want to make it?  Here's how, roughly:

CO 88 stitches

(I used alpaca yarn and #6 needles)

Using black, K1, P1, K1, P1, K1 (seed stitch) for the first and last 5 stitches of every row.

Follow the chart below for the middle 78 stitches.

Knit until you reach your desired length and then sew the ends together.  I was lazy and used my sewing machine.  Voila!

junkyard

graveyard

Uh oh, ma's on the roof again.

We've been to The Columbia Gorge Model Railroad Club show three years in a row.  It's only open to the public on weekends in November and may just be our son's favorite place on Earth.  At this point, it feels a little grueling – I know the whole place like the back of my hand – but it's pretty amazing if you've never been.

by London Scout

People have been making and sending us Wildwood-inspired art and I just posted a heap of it over on the Wildwood blog.  For what it's worth, I find this kind of thing pretty moving.  As far as I'm concerned, it's one of the highest compliments you can pay a book.  Keep 'em coming.  You're brightening my rainy Portland days.

The New York Times asked me to do an illustration for this Op-Ed piece by Ukrainian surrealist Andrey Kurkov and I was all, "You had me at Ukrainian surrealist."

We had a couple of models at the museum today for our teen drawing workshop.  They were great.

[image error]

More legible version at www.picturebook.co

Colin, Ursula, Le Guin, and Kim Stafford are all reading at this benefit for the Forest Park Conservancy on Wednesday.  I'm projecting illustrations.  Come by and support the FPC!

This painting was inspired by Habibi, Craig Thompson's epic, new graphic novel.  It'll be shown, along with other Habibi-inspired art, at Floating World in Portland where they're hosting a release party for the book tomorrow.

[image error]Habibi is a marvel that has to be seen to be believed.  Seriously.  I don't know how Craig does it.  It took him six years to complete and, with 670 densely, brilliantly illustrated pages, it seems like it should have taken twice as long.  Run to the nearest independent book store and buy this book (unless you're a kid, in which case wait until you're older because it's super dirty).  And, while you're there, pick up I Want My Hat Back by Jon Klassen,  Hark! A Vagrant by Kate Beaton, and The Apothecary by Maile Meloy.