beck's blog

Wednesday, July 27, 2011

New York State of Mind Afghan - Liberty Statue

This afghan did not take very long to complete.
I wanted to make a it tribute to the 10 year anniversary of the 9 -11 disaster coming up.
But since it's finished early, I'm posting it now because I'm in a
A New York State Of Mind

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(Please click on all the photos to enlarge them).

I wished I'd pulled down that bottom right corner just a little bit more to straighten it out better. Oh well.

I used this coloring book page offered for free by Shala Kerrigan online.
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I graphed that photo at microrevolt's knitpro site.
For the buildings I extended out the afghan left and right by making the basketweave stitch. It's really neat because of it's textured "windows" effect, (if you know what I mean).

I tried to make the skyline sort of change up to clouds instead of just all solid blue.

Now, I wanted to let you know how meaningful it was for me to make this afghan.

You see, I actually went on a trip to New York back in the late 70's with my best friend Sue, (who lived in New Jersey at the time). Her awesome folks were so nice to drive us out to see the sights of New York City. (In fact, we drove all the way to Boston and saw a lot more places as well).

Anyway, I wanted to post a few photos from my old album. Yes, real photos. They are yellowing and sometimes blotched with a bit of age to them. But they are so neat.

First I want to say that my friend Sue had a beautiful heavy nice proper camera and she was really into taking pictures and developing them herself, so her photos are in black and white. Mine, on the other hand, were taken with a cheap Kodak camera. Yes, they are in color, but they are not nearly as good.


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We took a ferry to the Statue of Liberty but we didn't go off the boat or climb the statue or anything.
There were lots of folks on the boat. Thank goodness I see there were refreshments on board! LOL!

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Sue's camera with black and white film.


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Oh dear! I'm breaking my rule of never posting my photo on the internet!!!! But I had to show you what a dork I was that day with my Beatles t-shirt and floppy hat with Beatles buttons all over it. LOL!!!!!!!!

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Here's the World Trade Center towers taken by me with my lame camera. I wish all those folks on the boat weren't so much in the way!

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Now this is Sue's photo. It's overexposed and you can only just barely make out the towers.

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Here's both photos in my photo album side by side so you can see hers really does have the towers in the shot. They are just faintly there.

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So then we did go up one of the towers to the observatory deck. This is a photo of two bridges from my camera.

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Here's Sue and I on the observatory deck.

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Yes, I saved this shot for last. Sue is now wearing my silly hat. If you're going to be a tourist, you must take some silly shots so that years later you can look back and have a good laugh!

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I'm ending this post with my afghan again. I really like this one!

Let's see. I'm also going to end this with an old Grammar Rock song.
I had a great time on this trip and New York is an awesome place!
I took a ferry to the statue of liberty
My best friend went along with me.
We took a lift to the top of one tower you see,
and 30 years later it's just a memory.
I find it quite interesting
that
"Toleration and liberty are the foundations of a great republic."
Frank Lloyd Wright

Monday, July 11, 2011

Maxed Out Afghan

Another Peter Max afghan.
This one is designed from a Peter Max American express credit card which I found online.
(Please click on the photos to enlarge them).

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It's so hot out today and the sun made the colors in the afghan look different in the photos so I'm posting two shots of it.

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This second photo is lighter and brighter looking than the first.
I like how both photos looked so here they both are.

Anyway, I know you crochet fanatics will want to see the back so here is that.

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Not too messy at all.

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So, I found out there are/were three Peter Max designs for American Express cards. Naturally, this one, (my fave), doesn't seem to be available anymore. Why am I always the last person to find out about cool things?
Anyway, the other two are the Running Man and the Love ones.

I think this falling man image is from an Earth Day; Every Day poster of Peter Max's

I think it's the perfect design for a credit card.
I see it as me - falling into debt. LOL!!!!
Truly! (In fact, I wasn't even sure if I could pick up my medicine at the pharmacy today because we are totally Maxed Out on our credit limits.) Happily, (or not), I was able to get the meds.

Anyway, the afghan is tunisian crocheted with a size J cabled afghan hook.
The yarns are either I Love This Yarn from Hobby Lobby or Red Heart yarn.
For the sun, I used two colors of a sparkly yarn called Bella. I'm not sure you can see the sparkliness in the photos.
Ok, my computer is telling me sparkliness isn't a word. LOL!
Too bad because I'm using it anyway!

I hope you enjoy looking at the afghan.
I just love Peter Max's work, as you know, and when I saw this credit card design I just had to make it.
Especially since I can't even get the darn thing on a credit card anymore.
(And even if I could get the image on a card, I couldn't even afford to put any money ON the card anyway so it's all moot, isn't it?)

Well, instead, why don't I just sit back and enjoy the image of myself falling into that big abyss of debt I've created, shall I?