Tag Archives: cey

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: remember?

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back in june

i wrote about this cey photoshoot.

the deary rain outside and

the bit of a garden party going on inside.

all the while,

the creative director,

make up artist, and assorted crew,

working hard behind the scenes to pull it all off.

the happy atmosphere being adeptly captured

by the hard working man behind the lens

and now you can see the results.3964_medium2classic elite’s december book ‘winter lace’

is special to me because i got to be there while the images were coming together.

hope you enjoy a bit of being ‘behind the scenes’.

i sure did.

‘happy’ taken from 7:14 of ecclesiastes.

‘leanna‘ pic courtesy of classic elite yarns.

(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‘.)

cey & i: zero to sixty

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after a drive alone,

with both my thoughts and the music uninterrupted,

this is what i did friday morning:IMG_8045urbsat in the brightly colored conference room at the cey offices

and signed 60 copies of ‘artistic differences’

for classic elite to bring to tnna the first week of january.

after a year of creating all the parts

and collaborating it together

my book will face the world for the first time without me.

safe travels little book.

i’ll catch up with you at vklive ny to hear all your stories.

‘face’ taken from 80:3 of the psalms.

cey & i: the blues

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i had never really thought much about what extras

might do to a knit until last year when i was challenged to ‘knit my life’ for the fiber factor.

i mean, what range of personalities would

shoes and a belt or

a silken scarf and a hat give to

a hand knit cardi or a v-neck pullover?

preparing for the photo shoot with classic elite yarnsIMG_6538put my mind on that track.

now i look around and see how very much each wearer’s

(esp. each knitter’s) personality shines through

based on not only what they’ve knit and how,

but by what they pair with their lace weight shrug or newly finished socks.

i love how this handwork that we love,

has enough room

for each of us to be ourselves, with all our quirks intact.

knit on, my friends.  knit on.

‘blue’ taken from 2:7 of 2nd chronicles.

(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 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‘.)