do you see it?
i am apparently in a bit of a favorite color rut
as these are the colors in my latest project and 3 new designs.
although, ‘rut’ isn’t really the right word for it since i’m happy as a pig in mud about it.
i guess i’m in a red/orange groove.
let the beat play on.
‘happy’ taken from 128:2 of the psalms.
note: yarns shown above from right to left:
swan’s island ‘bulky’, classic elite yarns ‘chateau’, 2 tones of schulana ‘cashmere trend’
and cascade ‘ultra pima fine’.
i first saw kate and the yarnit
friday night at vklive in new york city.
this little nugget is so obviously made by a knitter for knitters,
that it stuck in my mind
despite all the other distracting lovelies in the marketplace that night.
by early saturday, i was sporting one
slung over my right shoulder.
now, you
can read all the great features of the yarnit
but here’s another one that isn’t mentioned:
it’s therapeutic
(unofficially, of course).
i am not very good at waiting in lines,
or walking slowly through a crowd to get where i’m headed.
no, i’m not very good at it at all.
i quickly feel impatient and fidgety
(do you see where i’m going with this?)
but, with the yarnit on, i have knitting at the ready.
my hands are happily busy so my patience kicks in,
leaving my head free to take in the rest of the scene
and enjoy my surroundings.
by saturday night i had finished the cowl
that i brought as great knitting for on the train.
by sunday i had started to design this new hat.
it’s straightforward and easy to keep track of
while you and your yarnit are on the move.
i am about to write up the decreases
and will post finished pics
as soon as i can.
yarn.
oh how love it.
i don’t love it tangled and unruly, though.
so, there’s this little contraption that i got in new york city: the yarnit.
i’ll tell you more about it and i at vklive tomorrow.
today i just want to show you
how happily it sits on the piano in my kitchen
(yes, i said ‘piano’ and yes, i said ‘in my kitchen’).
i can knit a few stitches, stir whatever’s on the stove,
all the while knowing that the yarn will be exactly where i left it
(having not rolled down under the piano where the dust bunnies thrive).
the yarnit sits there while i chase after
whatever kid needs whatever thing at any given moment, too.
it’s sort of a nanny for my yarn and
this busy mama is really loving having a yarn nanny.
for sure.
‘chase’ taken from 12:11 of proverbs.
oh, how i have longed for
a quiet space to be alone with the music in my head.
especially on a show night, there is no room to think.
i never did have the advantage of a fire escape to retreat to,
but i would have loved it out there.
the sounds of the city, the night’s lights, a slight breeze,
and ‘cade’ at my neck to pull up as a snood if the breeze turned stiff.
today for the blog tour, ruth (of rock + purl)
is featuring this cowl and taking comments for a giveaway.
…back to the fire escape of my dreams.
this particular fire escape
didn’t have quite the romance of the daydream.
to get this shot, we walked up to the sidewalk
(club passim is one level underground)
around the block to door # 26,
up three flights of stairs to the offices,
out the french doors of the conference room onto the fire escape itself,
and then two and a half flights down the actual fire escape
on the outside of the building.
i say ‘we’ because lindsay and i were up there together.
i’m just outside the camera’s lens to the left.
this is one of my favorite shots of the day.
it’s easy for me to look at her in my boots and my skirt,
playing my guitar in a cowl i knit
and feel like i was
really there.
but then again, i was.
‘think’ from 18:12 of matthew.
photo courtesy of classic elite yarns.
when i want to take
something out of my head
and have it look in real life what
i saw in my mind’s eye, i turn to clearance rack
sweatshirt fabric and packing tape.
true.
i know people who use paper,
but i have trouble looking past the lack of drape involved
plus, i want to move it all around and try it on and paper tends to want
nothing to do with me after that.
big scissors are my friend for cutting and trimming, ditching and recutting…
…until the mock-up is close enough
meaning with my eyes squint shut a little i can
pretend i’m looking at the real thing.
it does take a little suspension of disbelive, but you know what i mean.
so last night i took over the kitchen island, and begun.
only took me 4 different new shapes
to get to the one that behaved like i wanted it to.
tonight, the math begins.
i have this swatch.
it looks very simple,
but i knit it almost two years ago
and i have absolutely no idea what the stitches are.
i’ve stared at it until my eyes get blurry.
i’ve written down every possible stitch combo that i can think of.
at this point i’ve reknit them all and nothing comes close.
now, it’s an easy stitch pattern. i know that it is.
the result is a very simple textural-ness
that really appeals to me.
fed up, i’d almost
decided to throw the little swatch away
as seeing it everyday on my bulletin board
and not being able to conquer it was really dragging me down.
then yesterday morning,
i took a little ride with my friend wendy.
we talked about everything (like we always do)
and i finally got round to a little vent about the ‘swatch with no name’.
without missing a beat, she (focused on driving at the time) said,
“can’t you just undo the bind off and gently pull the stitches out
to see what they were in the first place?”
can’t i just undo…?
hey, why didn’t i think of that?!?
it took me all of five minutes this afternoon to unbind
a few rows and figure out the stitches that have been so eluding me for weeks.
thanks, wendy,
for letting me consistently
bum rides to in the loop sit ‘n’ knits
and especially this week, thank you for seeing through my confusion
to the straightforward answer
that has been right in front of me all along.
‘name’ taken from 1:3 of song of songs.
(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‘.)