don’t get lost, albatross.

here is one of the strangest things about designing.

i have spent weeks and weeks with solitude wool‘s yarn

targhee2 (oh how i love it!).

i have adjusted and re-swatched until

i has just the gauge and drape (or lack thereof)

that i’d hoped for all along.

i’m happy with the proportions and sizing.

it really is just what i envisioned it would be.IMG_5590brightnow i have packed it into a little box and

mailed it to wonderful strangers whom i have only ‘met’ via e-mails.

in a while, crocodile.

soon they will primp and preen it for a photo shoot.

a few months down the road, the pattern will be released and

it will travel place to place

(with more nice people i don’t know except via e-mail)

as a sample of what this yarn can do.

come back soon, baboon.

about a year from now, when i am knee deep into

one new design or another,

it will quietly return to me without notice

in the big black mailbox at the end of the drive.

keep it real, harbor seal.

having not seen it for so long face to face

i will look on it again with fresh eyes.

sometimes these reunions inspire me,

sometimes they lead me to shake my head

at how much i didn’t know a year ago and how much i have learned.

often i laugh for sheer joy

at holding the stitches in my hands once again.

always i remember the process of how that idea came to be a real tangible thing.

then i bundle it away for a time and get back to the deadline at hand.

over and out, rainbow trout.

‘fresh’ taken from 47:9 of ezekiel.

busting out

this is my m.o..

a deadline approaches

and ‘boom!’ my head is instantly

full of new ideas inside and new designs that i feel i must explore or i will burst

IMG_5527sat

but, the deadline is the priority.

so, i plow ahead at the task at hand

waiting impatiently to finish so that i might

play with the new ideas.

thankfully, the new ideas (though they churn around a bit)

do wait impatiently for me.

tomorrow morning the deadline and all its details will be conquered

and happily behind me.

then the new ideas can burst dramatically into bloom.

this, however, will not stop them in a few month’s time

from being the new deadlines that i am cramming to get past.

i need a new, more consistently even, m. o..

‘inside’ taken from 32:19 of job.

layers

just tying up the

loose ends of the week

both emotionally and yarn-wise.

i’m not back up to speed on living in full color yet,

but shades and tones are creeping back onto my radar.

IMG_5570p-izeand it always feels good to put the finishing touches on something

a few days pre-deadline.

then there’s time to set it aside for a few days,

coming back with a clear mind for any final edits before

it heads off to other hands.

safe travel little idea come to life.  be well.

‘loose’ taken from 33:23 of isaiah.

cey & i: mirage

radio deejays

sit alone in small rooms

and create what sounds like a music filled party on-air.

we tune in to join in on their fun.

they call it the ‘theater of the mind’.

three days ago, i drove

(windows rolled

as far down as the rain would allow and music blaring-

to give you a good picture of my frame of mind)

about an hour north of here to a classic elite photo shoot.

i had never before been to a professional shoot.

i had no idea what to expect.

i arrived to find

things already in motion

as a nondescript corner of the yarn company’s warehouse

was being morphed into a pleasing backdrop for

perfectly party ready cold weather knits.

now, all of us knew full well

that it was just dangling strings of little twinkling lights,

huge rolls of hanging paper, and pretty girls dressed in hand knits

but the illusion worked its wiles on us as well.

IMG_5410crop satwe talked of garden parties floating in

citronella candles, rascally gnomes, and sparkling drinks.

we talked of possible menus and childhood memories, stopping now and again

to ooh and ahh over the cut of a cardi or the drape of a wrap.

the dark gloom of the rain outside,

with its huge drops pelting down

on the metal truck dock delivery doors,

seemed ever so far away as the models spun and the camera shutter

captured the nuances of this carefully crafted diversion.

do you know how many things can be done

with hanging lights, willing models and a really good photographer?

i started to keep track, but lost count shortly after lunch.

IMG_5412cropthe buzz

of all that creativity

emanating from

six people working

very closely together

in that one made-over corner

distracted me, but

more on that…

tomorrow.

‘rain’ taken from 26:4 of leviticus.

(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‘.)

the un-painting

this is not the picture

that my daughter was making last night.

she carefully imagined and cut out white paper shapes

(an oval, a square, a group of parallelograms and various rhombi).

she then proceeded to color each one a solid shade.

IMG_5380cropthey looked nothing like this picture.

can you guess how this piece was part of that process?

no?  this was the piece of paper she put under the shapes as she colored

to make sure no paint got on the kitchen island.

i watched her pass out her shapes

early this morning.

one for the van driver that takes her brother to pre-k.

one for her own bus driver.

one for the little boy who rides bikes in our driveway

on warm, sunny afternoons.

she about burst with the sheer joy of having something to give.

i almost cried watching her.

then, after she’d left,

i salvaged this page from the recycle pile,

because it was my favorite all along.

i guess i’m not only a ‘process knitter’,

seems i’m also more into

other processes

(like her one specific night of painting and her deep

concentration at covering all the blank white on each shape).

results are great.  i get that.

still, getting there remains more than half the fun for me.

‘night’ taken from 28:11 of genesis.

cey & i: decoding

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’.

IMG_5372satwithout 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‘.)

grey skies

wool and solitude go together well for me.

IMG_5171cropi like to knit

in the dusky quiet hours

just after my kids

fall asleep.

i like to knit in bright

noisy rooms as well,

but there is something

about knitting alone

that i find extremely peaceful.

so when

this morning’s sun turned to afternoon rainIMG_5167crop

and my youngest

decided to play contentedly

with his trains,

i sat myself down

near a window

and had a little knit.

solitude wool is new to me,

i fell almost instantly in love with their artisan yarns.

this is the kind of yarn that as i pick it up i am moved by how

suddenly connected i feel to the sheep

IMG_5172satwho wore it first.

a new project

started in such sweet fiber

on a bright grey

afternoon

couldn’t help but make

me smile.

 see that

was just what

today was missing.

‘quiet’ taken from 19:40 of luke.