Tag Archives: artistic differences

cey & i: blog tour day 3

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when i design,

i live with the pieces.

they spend time with me on the couch,

at the kitchen island, shrouding the to-do list on my desk.

since i was being really particular about the fit of chroma,

it spend a lot of time

in pieces

on the dress form, which i moved room to room.

the kids are so used to this kind of behavior from me

that they hardly notice anymore,IMG_6567 3but it struck me as i took this quick shot one summer afternoon

(as my son and his friend from down the street were building)

that my working form,

clothed in a bias cut dress and the dark teal rocker shrug,

does not do a good job of blending into the background

of the front hallway.

c’est la vie.

today for day 3 of the tour,

check out tabetha hedrick’s blog as she features this shrug

(and just so you know for in the future

tabetha’s always got gorgeous photos of knit things up

for ooh-ing and ahh-ing over).

‘summer’ taken from 26:1-2 of proverbs.

cey & i: blog tour, day 2

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today is boot sock day.

appropriate since it’s 15* outside.

these were designed to go from comfy boots to stage shoes

and back again without a hitch.

trume socks side by sidethey’re as pretty as they are practical.

the angora and nylon in the mix make them super snuggly,

while the rich colors and tweediness keep things interesting.

the rocker style (lighter in these photos) is straight ahead ribbing.

the boho version is wide eyelet lace

to sweeten things up a bit.

either way, they’re cushy and warm.

check out the slate falls press blog today for a chance to win the pattern,

and a discount on it if you don’t want to wait.

joanna also asks me

music related things like ‘if you could be an instrument, what would you be?’.

betcha can’t my guess my answer before you look…

‘straight’ taken from 15:21 in proverbs.

cey & i: counting by tens

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ten patterns, ten days,

ten…oops, i mean eleven, ‘artistic differences‘ pattern giveaways,

and a free pattern to boot.

i can hardly stand all this excitement

this early on a tuesday morning.  wink.

for starters, today is the kick-offIMG_8018bt

on the string theory yarn company blog

of the book’s tour (ten days long)

for my new collection.

there are ten patterns

and each day of the tour

one of those patterns will be given away free.

as to the eleventh giveaway,

IMG_8029btbe sure to continue on,

the day after the tour ends,

for a wrap up on the classic elite blog

where one winner will receive

a copy of ‘artistic differences’

and yarn to make the pattern

of their choice within.

as if that’s not enough,

‘tring‘ was released this morning.

this little project bag (think socks or a hat)

is reversible so you get two personalities in one

(see how i tied it into the rocker vs boho theme of the book there?).

i’m too excited today to sit still, so let’s head on over

to janet’s string theory yarn company blog

and get this party

started.

‘released’ taken from 105:20 of the psalms.

cey & i: worth mentioning

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this sort of thing is simply not done.

large yarn companies do not put their weight and resources

behind indie designers while simultaneously

giving those indies the freedom to express themselves through ‘doing their own thing’.

1101540778ArtisticDifferences-cover-dbi should say ‘it hadn’t been done’, but it has now.

classic elite yarns did just that,

took the path not taken,

in collaboration with both julia farwell-clay and myself.

now, you can call it what you want,

but588940896FromFollyCove-cover-db

in a day and age when ‘branding’ is king,

for a well established company

to go that far outside

their own comfort zone stylistically

is brave, and groundbreaking,

and maybe even a little bit fierce

(i mean ‘fierce’ here in the best possible sense).

so when you see ‘artistic differences‘ and ‘from folly cove‘

some afternoon (at tnna, vklive ny, or your lys)

let your mind consider for just a minute that it took

two designers and

a whole lot effort from a supportive yarn company

(run by a team of powerfully creative women)

to take these ideas from possibility to becoming real.

if that doesn’t make you smile,

a big old unexpected in the middle of an average day kind of smile,

in the midst of the dog eat dog kind of world that business tends to be,

i don’t know what will.

‘path’ taken from22:37 of 2nd samuel.

cey & i: variations

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we are all different.

that’s the way it’s supposed to be.

a world of clones would be boring at best and dysfunctional at worst.

knitters are a good example of this.

no matter how much

i like a designer’s version of a pattern,

it’s inevitable that someone will make modifications

(lovingly called mods)

and the piece will take on a whole new personality;

a fresh life of its own.

in ‘artistic differences‘ i wanted to expand on that.

setting aside a knitter’s skills (which can be many),

how does a person’s personality affect their choices in knitting?

7272cropand does the end result ‘look’

more like them than

the designer’s

version

did ?

when an existing song

gets dolled up a bit

by a new band,

we label it ‘a cover’.

when the original artist

reworks the tune

it’s labeled ‘a remix’.

you seldom see remixes

by knitwear designers.

instead,

we decide what a thing will be

and then do our best to present it in that light.

maybe it’s my musical background showing, but i’ve always loved

the contrast of the textural similarities and differences

between song remixes and the originals.

the group of patterns in

artistic differences is my version of ‘knitting remixes’.

 i took two parts of who i am,

a little bit boho and another little bit rock & roll,

and allowed each pattern in the book to reflect those two sensibilities

(just for extra fun, there’s a third mod written in for each pattern as well).

here’s a band i love doing a musical thing that’s similar

with their song ‘gang of rhythm’

(be sure to check out their ‘powerful’ version

which starts in all its rock and roll vibe-ness at the 7:22 mark).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=p3MeWfYG-UI

now that you’ve heard it done musically,

check out the book to see me doing it knit-wise.

then the question becomes this:

what is it that makes you different?

and how in the world are you gonna knit that?

needles at the ready and

thinking caps on…

‘fresh’ taken from 92:14 in the psalms.

cey & i: the shoot (part 3)

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it takes so many people to pull off this kind of a thing.

like claudine who brought extra waters in the morning

and saved me from insanity

with her eagle eye

when i misplaced a small knit accessory

(for the third time) just as it was time for that particular piece’s close-up.

like kim with her cheery smile and boundless energy for getting

whatever needed done, done right

like meg, with an uncanny ability to be there at just the right timeIMG_6577crop

to hold things like the photographer’s light diffuser

and who had her mind’s eye focused on final layout

on a day when i could barely see the nose in front of my face.

and like susan, whose skill at funneling the creative energy in the room

into useful forward motion throughout the day

(among other skills too numerous to list here)

is unparalleled in my experience.

behind the scenes is a fascinating place to learn.

it felt like i crammed for a final,

pulled an all nighter,

and then celebrated the victory,

all between the hours of 8am to 5pm.  what a fabulous ride!

‘pull’ taken from 41:1 of job.

(this post is part of an ongoing series,

chronicling my collaboration with classic elite yarns on

an indie collection.  all posts tagged with ‘artistic differences‘ and titled ‘cey & i‘.)

cey & i: the shoot (part 2)

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friday has flown by at a furiously fast pace.

filled to the gills with, well, stuff.

but, my head is still swirling with images and memoriesIMG_6579cropfrom the hours spent below ground level

in cambridge’s club passim

along side (among others) hayleigh and

the talented lesley.

it takes

so much prep

and touching up

to make it all look natural and (ironically) effortless.

‘fast’ taken from 41:17 of job.

(this post is part of an ongoing series,

chronicling my collaboration with classic elite yarns on

an indie collection.  all posts tagged with ‘artistic differences‘ and titled ‘cey & i‘.)

cey & i: fresh copy

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there comes a time when

so much is scribbled out and written in

that you need to just print a whole new chart to clear your head.

at least that’s what happens to me.IMG_6476crop2despite all the ‘3 steps forward and 2 steps back’ over this last design

i have cast on and am all forward motion now.

still anticipating a tangent, or two,

but it’s a good start.

having to chart this one

and longing to be mobile, i have once again

turned to my new knitter’s pride magna pattern holder.

i’m finding that i so prefer this to all the other

more awkward ways i’ve tried to keep track on charts before.

highlighters, highlighter tape and just crossing out

IMG_6471are frustrating compared

to the simplicity

of moving the magnetic strip

to wherever i am

at any given moment.

steady on.

me & the magma,

& my minnow merino,

and these square

‘symfonie cubics’ needles

are going to be best buds

for the next couple of weeks give or take a little,

and i’m chomping at the bit to go, go, go.

‘compare’ from 28:17-18 of job.

(this post is part of an ongoing series,

chronicling my collaboration with classic elite yarns on

an indie collection.  all posts tagged with ‘artistic differences‘ and titled ‘cey & i‘.)

cey & i: exactly

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17 days until the photo shoot for ‘artistic differences’.

feels like yesterday that susan and i first sat in her office

and discussed ideas and possibilities.

still, 17 days until

my end of things is done.

then the cey staff tech editors, layout and various other people

have the ball in their court.

here’s the thing.

i’m still swatching for the last piece

of the collection.  back at that again tonight.

IMG_6318cropand it’s not that i couldn’t have knit the full piece

about 10 different times over.

i could have,

and it would have been 10 different variations on a theme.

but, it’s not quite what’s in my head yet.

this is why

i often refer to myself as a ‘hack’.

i know i have skills, experience, and all kinds of excitement for the process.

what i don’t always have is the ability to mold my fingers

and the yarns they’re holding

into the picture in my head the first time out of the gate.

or the second, or the third.

so when i say ‘hack’, i mean not intuitively able

to leap from idea to final design in a single bound.

maybe no-one can.

some people sure do make it look

just about easy, though.

my friend pam send this quote to me sometime before i woke up this morning:

being a hackperfect.

this is exactly what i mean when i label myself a ‘hack’.

it is often one mistake,

one detour or another, that

pulls any given design of mine into a place

where it can hold its own as an original.

this is mostly likely why i always feel more like a happy kid

whose crayon drawing was hung on the fridge

by an adoring parent who sees the effort as beauty

rather than a grown-up holding her own as a ‘knitwear designer.

i admit that every time i write

‘knitwear designer’

as profession on a form, i giggle a little.

so now you know.

‘original’ from 24:13 of 2nd chronicles.

(this is an ongoing series of posts chronicling

the process of my yet to be released collaboration with classic elite yarns.

to search, all post titles will include ‘cey & i:‘ and be tagged with ‘artistic differences‘.)