Robot Art and Indie Craft in Boston - Joy!!!

The hubby and I were lucky tonight to get to two fabulous events, the Cabin Fever Indie Gift Show in Boston's SoWa art district and I...You...We...ROBOT: A Visual Homage To Our Inner Geek! at Space 242 nearby on East Berkeley Street.

We arrived in the South End a little too early (doors at the craft show opened at 6) so we walked around to a few of the studios open for First Friday to stay warm, and see what was happening in the Boston art scene.

After viewing some of the less-obtainable art, we paid our $2 and ran amok at the gift show. Perhaps it was because we found so many wonderful, inspiring things. Or perhaps it was because spending under $100 on a lovely oil painting seems smart after passing up $7000 ones at the studios nearby. Whatever the reason, we are thrilled with our new objects d'art!

In particular, we scored a painting I've been lusting for on Etsy for the past year by Botodesigns.

Tea Ceremony

Here are cards from a few of the vendors we visited (and many of whom we deprived of several lovely things). The full list of vendors can be found on the Cabin Fever website. If you are hanging around Boston on Saturday, February 6th you should go check it out!


With our happy bag of goodies in tow, we next headed over to Space 242 to see the display of robotic art. Lots, and lots of robots in many different media. Many items to tempt. Among my favorites were "Longing," "Sundae-bot" and "The Robots Steal our Jobs".

This should be a yearly event, and next year, they need to include some fiber robot art (hint, hint).

Check out this video of artists discussing their inspiration:

If you can't make it to Boston before the show ends on February 19th, you can always visit Space 242's set of images on Flickr.

Here's a photo we took of a bit of graffiti art spotted in the studio bathroom. Shocking!

Bots over Brooklyn

We had a wonderful visit to Brooklyn in July. Some of the high points:

Got to see brother Bill in a production of Hamlet in J.J. Byrne park in front of The Old Stone House. It was a perfect summer night, and the performance was very enjoyable despite the tragic plot. There are so many familiar quotes from that play - I'd forgotten where they came from.

Did you know there are fireflies in the city? We saw several playing hide-and-seek between folks spread out on the lawn to watch the play. Who knew?

As the city that spawned Etsy, it should not have been a surprise that Brooklyn houses a diverse and interesting artist community. We spent quite a while window shopping. Found a very friendly LYS (local yarn store) called Knit-A-Way and dropped some cash on a few skeins of Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino. Yum! Also found a cute pair of robot earrings. Joy!

At one point, we stood transfixed by the contents of an antiques shop window which was filled with amazing robot sculptures.



Yet another thing to save my pennies for (or is that buy lottery tickets for?). But which one? Ms. Jello, Simplex 3, or Spot?? Sigh....

Shopportunity

So no good deed goes unpunished, right? I loaned my sweet Avenue A | Razorfish USB flash drive out to a co-worker. Long story short, co-worker departed with the drive and says they mailed it back. A week ago.

Excuse to go shopping? You betcha!

Reason departed, and BOTH of these sweet mimobots will be mine! Let the Empire beware...

In search of the Mecha Dunny

I have a small addiction. I've been collecting series 5 Dunnies. The lure of the blind box. The quest for the rare Dunny. I only buy one. Here and there. The problem is that most of them are really so, well, ugly. And the object of my desire is so very rare...


Surely going to the source - the Kidrobot store in NYC - would bring me luck? No soap. Drat and double drat. A duplicate Dunny!



Oh Mecha Dunny, where are you??

RoboGames: Olympics for the circuit board crowd!

Wish I could have made it out to RoboGames 2009 in San Francisco June 12-14 this year. Looks like it was a lot of geeky fun! Now that's an Olympics I could compete in! (maybe...)

Take a peek at this documentary from the RoboGames site. Best quote "Anytime you get geeks thinking in mass, you get societal benefits from that."

Robot Pooch is in the houuuuuuuse!

I received an order from central command to add a robotic pooch to the robot line - and "poof" here he is, "Cyber Bow-wow".

Thanks for the idea CB.

Now should there be a Cyber Puss? Somehow, the idea of a cat behaving in a human-serving manner does not compute. Much as the cat-haters out there would love the idea, I'm thinking not.

Pin me

Here is the Proto Robot Brooch as it looks "on". Flogging Molly t-shirt not included.

I do have one for sale on Etsy, if anyone is interested.

Speaking of which, does anyone have a good online source for brooch pin fasteners? I want to make a bunch more of the little guys and I want to spend my time knitting, not driving, parking, getting parking tickets, paying parking tickets.... yes, donnez-moi the internet-don't-have-to-leave-my-house transaction s'il vous plait.

Anyway - know any good sources?

Thanks in advance.

La Knitterre Robotte

Robot Away

New from the robotknitter development labs comes the Proto the Robo Brooch.

PieceWork Magazine is running a contest for needle art brooches. I heard about it from InterweaveNews on Twitter. (Who says Twitter is not a useful tool?)

So, of course I had to come up with a wearable robot. A robo-buddy who can go with you everywhere. Hoo-ha!

Wish me luck!

Meanwhile, need to get back to the labs and start working on the next generation of robo-knittetics.

Peace out.

Robots looking for good homes

Well, here goes nothing... I have been obsessively knitting up proto robots in various shades and hues and have started putting them up for sale on Etsy. I have more to go as soon as my in-house photographer takes some photos - and he is waiting on the sun. Could be a while here in still-wintry New England.....



Know anyone who would want to take one home?

http://robotknitter.etsy.com

Posted my first free pattern!

I finally got around to typing up the instructions to my proto robot pattern. You can download it from my new website robotknitter.com.

Please give it a try and let me know how it goes. Send me links to your completed robots so I can share them here. If you are a ravelry member, be sure to link to the pattern too!

Happy knitting.

Robots to Love

I happened to actually read one of the emails Boing Boing sends me the other day, and noticed a wonderful piece of robot art painted by Brian Despain.



It was love at first sight, alas the $300 price tag for a limited edition print would cut too deeply into the yarn budget. For those with the moola, there are 7 left as of this posting here.

For those with less cash to spend, you can buy a skin for your laptop, iphone or [insert name of technology object here] on the GelaSkins site. You can also download free desktop art there as well. So cool!!!

Robot Finished!

Finished! Hubby has put in a vote for no felting... so guess I will have to knit another for the great felting experiment. Yay!

To felt or not to felt, that is the question...

Finally, a new robot design! This little guy has been floating around in my head for the last 6 months.


Thinking I am going to felt him and see what happens... after I sew on the other arm, of course.






Before I go into the fiery furnace that will forge my strength, shall I contemplate the color blue?

Eva Revoltech playtime

Just got my hands on a Japanese Revoltech action figure - an Eva from Neon Genesis Evangelion. These are seriously cool and ultra-posable, as promised.




Eva in the box. Too bad I can't read Japanese...



















Sprung free of cardboard and plastic trappings.
Rrrrr.

Ready to save Tokyo from the Angels
(disguised as rogue Totoros...)!

Time to finish a project - Tab Button Jacket

I cast on this lovely project almost 2 years ago now. Certainly not the oldest WIP (that's work-in-progress) in my stash, but when you start measuring a project in years, it gets a bit embarrassing.

So, I am taking a break from all things robots until I get this jacket d-o-n-e. I'm knitting it in a lovely sea-foam green and have completed the back and most of one front panel - bets on when I finish the whole enchilada?

Oh, and check out these robot magnets. I just bought a set of 3 (no pink robot alas) from my favorite book and stuff store, Brookline Booksmith.

So I guess I am not off robots entirely, just off knitting them for now!

Number Three contemplates the meaning of life

Welcome Number Three!!!

The world can be a cold hard place for a robot. We think you have a pretty sweet deal though. At least you joined the world on a beautiful day!








Thanks! It's really great to be here.

Must....have....must....have.... Femisapien!

Get your credit card ready. She's coming this summer. I wonder if I can program her to knit?

Check out the write-up on robotsrule.com

Robostein -- It's alive! (almost)

Almost done with robot number 3. Jeff hasn't named him. Yet.

Great free robot pattern

I found this great pattern for a knitted Marvin the paranoid android (from the movie Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy) written by a knitter named 'miss-cute-boots'

Wow. Too cool.

"Freeze? I'm a robot. I'm not a refrigerator. "

Discovery of knitted robots on planet Earth

It all started when I stumbled upon Craft Magazine this past December. I picked up issue #5 from my favorite bookstore (Brookline Booksmith) and saw an ad for a boxed set of the first four issues which I had missed. I was struggling with what to knit for my husband's cousin's newborn baby. And then I saw it. A knitted robot on the cover of issue one. So hip. So cool! I immediately ordered the box set from Amazon.

So how foolish did I feel to discover (one year after the rest of the world) that the pattern for Jess Hutchison's robot was not included in the book. Mad web searching for the pattern commenced, followed by a half-hearted search for her pattern book on eBay.

No luck.

If I wanted this robot, I was going to have to come up with the pattern myself. So I did. I have never been comfortable with doing things without a pattern – partially due to my natural laziness I'm sure – so it was a great stretch for me to try to do this without my training wheels.

The first robot went well and came out pretty close to the real deal. It went so well that a friend quickly signed up for the second one. I am working on the third one for my husband now.

The next step, of course, is to come up with my own pattern…..

Here's a picture of bot #2:


If I can do it, so can you......