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Juxtapoz and Delocated

That’s comedian Jon Glaser of the television show Delocated wearing one of my knits in Juxtapoz Magazine. How awesome is that?

I was asked to create a custom ski mask for this Juxtapoz shoot back in March. The idea was to have a ski mask blend into a wallpaper background. (They also got guerilla fiber artist Olek to contribute – check out her awesome work here.)

The only problem was they needed the mask for the shoot within ten days. TEN DAYS! At first I thought that was too quick a turnaround, but then I remembered I’m a glutton for punishment. I am the person who finished that Obama sweater in less than a week, after all.

When I got the wallpaper I wasn’t sure it could be done. Matching the color was difficult enough.

And then there was the problem of matching the elaborate pattern. I initially wanted to knit the pattern into the mask, but after a few rows into the swatch I realized that was a terrible, terrible idea.

It then occurred to me that I could knit the whole mask in one color and then embroider the pattern on top. It was a simultaneous “Eureka!” and “Duh!” moment. Why didn’t I think of this before I wasted a day swatching and charting?

So, once the mask was done I traced the wallpaper pattern onto some parchment paper:

I then pinned it to the mask and started embroidering through the paper. Have I mentioned that I’ve never embroidered anything in my life? I had very little idea what the hell I was doing, but at this point I had about 6 hours left before my deadline so I didn’t have much choice. Sink or swim.

Embroidering this sucker took all night. No, seriously: I pulled an all-nighter to get it finished. And the whole time I was stitching I kept thinking “this is a disaster! This looks terrible! It’s never going to look right. I just stayed up all night for nothing!”

I honestly thought that it looked terrible. Maybe it was the sleep deprivation or the tedium of picking away the million little pieces of parchment stuck under the embroidery, but I really truly thought this thing was a failure. As I walked to my bathroom to try it on and compare to the wallpaper background, I was convinced Jon Glaser would take one look at this thing and throw it out.

And then I tried it on:

You can’t tell from my glassy eyes or tired frown, but I was elated. This was a HOLY SHIT IT ACTUALLY WORKS moment.

(Also, check out the insane wallpaper in my bathroom. I can’t take credit, as our landlords installed it before we moved in, but I do love how crazy it is.)

I then drove to a hotel in Hollywood to drop this thing off with the show’s art director before he caught a flight to New York. And then I passed out for 3 hours before I went to work.

And that’s the story of how I got a ridiculous ski mask into Juxtapoz Magazine. This is in the July 2012 issue which should be on newsstands now or you can buy a digital copy for download here.

Categorized in: Writing