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Friends, I Found Them

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Scatterbrained creativity and nature walks from the Bannau Brycheiniog. Queer like lichen.
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Friends, I Found Them

Meeting my beloved Amanita muscaria

Katie Green
Oct 7, 2022
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Image description: a tall proud fly agaric mushroom amid the grass and moss. The white stalk is upright and has a perfect little frilly skirt beneath the curved red cap, which is glistening and covered in distinctive white spots. Not pictured, Katie skipping around the moor with utter delight.

It was mid afternoon in the first week of October. The rain had finally cleared, so we decided to risk taking Jack out for a walk, hoping we’d keep mostly dry. We donned boots, coats and headed for a regular spot. The place we normally park was full of cows - not Jack’s favourite - so we parked elsewhere and walked through the woods. Exiting the woods over a stile to join our more usual path, a flash of bright red on the ground. There they were, Amanita muscaria at last!

Image description: A young fly agaric mushroom emerging from the moss and grass. A white stalk topped with a rounded bright red cap, flaked with little white spots.

I don’t know what it is that’s so charming about the red and white of the fly agaric mushrooms, nor how I fell so much in love without having met them in the wild. I’ve been gripped by a particular fascination for fungi of all kinds for several years now, but these elusive mushrooms hold a very special place in my heart.

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Image description: Katie, a white human with short hair and glasses, with hands in pockets and looking off to right of frame, grinning. Katie is wearing a dark brown spotted cardigan with a colourwork yoke of red spotty fly agaric mushrooms. Behind Katie is a big mossy oak tree.
Fairy Ring Cardigan - designed by me in 2021

All this year I’ve been working hard on two new knitwear designs, inspired by Amanita muscaria: a pair of socks and a hat to match my Fairy Ring cardigan design from last year. For me, publishing a knitwear design is not just about writing the pattern and knitting the garment: I like to design and illustrate a beautiful booklet that captures the spirit of my idea, and this year I wanted to add some other new items to my shop to complement those. I’m in a season of preparation, as I hope to launch the patterns and all these goodies at the start of next month, there’s a frenzy of finishing, photographing, and plenty of excitement as deliveries of cute new things arrive at my studio.

Image description: a hand knitted sock lies of a bed of squishy moss. The sock is mostly darkest brown with mid brown heel and cuff and colourwork spots. Around the ankle is a zig zag of green, and growing up from there is a parade of fly agaric musrooms: white stalks, red caps, and the characteristic spots are in the process of being embroidered. A needle threaded with white yarn lies atop the sock.
Fairy Ring Socks - pattern forthcoming in 2022!

In my latest podcast, you can watch as I begin work on the cover designs for these pattern booklets, which I’m painting in gouache over the course of a few weeks. I like to take it slowly with painting, stepping away and revisiting a piece several times over rather than sitting with it for long stretches of time.

Image description: a studio table shown from above, with paint palette, brushes, tubes of gouache and a painting-in-progress all lying on top of a very dirty tea towel. The painting shows the head and shoulders of a supremely cute red squirrel who is wearing a red woollen scarf and a hat with green brim, dark brown background with mid bron spots, a parade of red and white mushrooms all around, and a pom pom on top. The background of the painting is green.
Front cover painting for the Fairy Ring Hat pattern

Coming towards the end of a big project like this always feels like a difficult transition. I used to think that I should feel elated, but now I’m familiar with my process I expect and know it feels more like grief than joy. This particular project has, as I feared it might, come to an end just as another big life transition is happening: I’m preparing to move house, this time to a different part of the country, which brings with it a whole host of complicated feelings, elation mixed with grief, not to mention a deep level of chaos and logistical stress!

More on the relocation soon, I promise. For now I’m focusing my work and creative energies on this pattern launch as much as I can, so I don’t miss the moment I’ve been working towards for a year because I’m too busy being stressed about something else. Taking the time to prepare, finish, photograph and getting ready to share something I’ve poured my heart and soul into the last few months is a joy I want to savour the last moments of.

Image description: A mature fly agaric mushroom, with a tall white stalk and frilly skirt visible. The cap is upturned into a cup shape, with white gills showing beneath the surface of birhgt red flecked with white spots.

And as I do those final preparations, stumbling upon my mushroom muses in real life for the first time felt like a really good omen. Mushrooms are such a fleeting presence: emerging seemingly out of nowhere after the rain, and just a day later keeling over and looking frankly quite gross. Catching these friends at their most triumphant reminded me to savour the last bits of work on this beloved project, before I’m ready to let it go out into the world.

Thank you for reading, supporting and sharing my work - I couldn’t do it without you!

Katie (and Jack)

P.S. Winter greetings cards are now in my shop, in case you’re organised and ready to think about such things.

P.P.S. Episode 49 of The Green Bean Podcast is out today!

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Friends, I Found Them

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Aurélie D.
Oct 10, 2022Liked by Katie Green

yay! Finally you found them ! :) I am very happy for you. Indeed, they must be a happy omen. So don't worry too much because lots of new things and discovers are waiting for you! You will see, your new designs will be very well received. Good week !

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