i just finished working with
a beautiful tweedy yarn and i thought,
“i love the vibe of this. why didn’t i think to include some things that were
softer and tweedier in the upcoming collection?”
so, as is my prerogative as both a woman and an artist,
i proceeded to change my mind…
and staying true to their easy to work with nature,
classic elite yarns quickly sent the new colors
right to my back door.
majestic tweed and inca alpaca are going to make for
fun new swatching tonight.
thanks, cey.
placement is key.
in trying to make these
mountain colors hand-painted mitts
simple enough that i could work them without a pattern
(after i’d gotten through two or three pair to learn the way),
i find that just where all the bits go matters so very much.
i started with one cable.
that left a big,
awkward swath of
reverse stockinette
at the base of the thumb.
no good.
without reworking the rest,
i tried a second cable
at the base of the thumb,
but then it seemed
to rise up out of nothing and
i didn’t like it a bit.
there aren’t that many
stitches
to work with here
so i figure
every time i knit them wrong,
i’m getting closer
to the few options left
of where they
really do belong.
slow but steady wins
the race.
i don’t often feel
rushed or hurried by outside forces.
i’m pretty easy going in my days and at ease in my nights.
but on days like today, the rate of speed at which my head
is churning out new ideas
threatens
to topple me into something like stress
or nearer to chaos than i want to choose to live.
time for ice cream, a breath of prayer and a little strumming
in my prototype mountain colors glove
to set me back on course.
i have friends
with go to patterns.
if they get stuck at
an airport,
or come to a place
that needs some pondering
on whatever
they’re currently working on,
they ‘go to’
their fail safe pattern.
they’ve made
it many times over.
they know it by heart
the yarn weight
and needle size
and how many sts
to cast on
are always
on the tip of their minds.
they can merrily
start and work until
something stops them
at any given time.
oh, how i want one of these:
a pattern i get that also gets me.
one that is simple enough to live in my head,
but interesting enough i’d happily knit it over and over again.
i am trying
to create one
with the ‘sandstone’ tones
in the mountain colors
that i’ve been swatching.
so far,
the balance between
easy enough to knit
without the pattern
in front of me
and interesting enough to knit more than once
is eluding me.
but, i think it will all come together soon
and this yarn is such a nice way to work through the process.
do you have a go to pattern?
please do share so it can inspire me.
thanks.
‘share’ taken from 4:28 in ephesians.
any yarn can be cabled,
but not all of them do it well.
with a yarn that is too soft, you loose the crisp detail.
with a yarn too stiff, the gaps from pulling to twist the cables don’t fill in quite right.
i adore this simple cable knit up in
mountain colors hand-painted yarns’ ‘3 ply wool’
(shown in the colorway ‘sandstone’).
lots of stitch definition
and enough give to make the cabling look unforced.
today i’m still swatching,
but i feel like the yarn and i have almost
come to an agreement over what it intends to be.
more pics and the inspiration behind the process soon…
‘give’ taken from 18:36 in the psalms.
you’ve been patient.
so patient, as my designing has taken every detour in sight lately.
this week, finally, i can share some new patterns.
three new patterns to be exact.
it’s april, right?
so when it rains, it pours.
now i don’t have ‘sneak peeks’ per se.
instead, i have a ‘behind the scenes’ shot from during
the photo taking for each new pattern. ready?
for tomorrow’s pattern, this is my youngest testing out
the remote attached to the camera to see if the set-up is working.
and yup, he pressed the button to take this picture all by himself.
the photographer for wednesday’s pattern
was my 14 year old.
she said she just ‘couldn’t resist’ taking pictures of the yard
in between taking pictures of the knitting.
last, but in no way least,
is friday’s pattern.
picture this, i’m making
some slapped together kind of dinner
when i look out the window and the light is gorgeous.
the ground is wet from rain and i’m in my slippers and the food’s on the stove,
but i’m running out (zig zagging to find dry spots) to the kid’s clubhouse to take pics.
a designer’s gotta do what a designer’s gotta do.
i didn’t even burn dinner
too badly.
so this last shot is me balancing on the base of the clubhouse
trying to keep my feet dry long enough
to catch some of the light.
three patterns in four days, starting tomorrow…
in the twilight
at the window
in the final light of day
sits the mountain colors waiting
for a time when i can sit today.
all the kids are winding down now
and the evening, it is nigh.
soon the 3-ply will set with me
as we muse on
the day gone by.
‘nigh’ taken from 24:32 of matthew.
the thing about blogging as i go,
is that i very seldom go in a straight line.
it’s full steam ahead for a few miles (or days) and then something catches my eye.
maybe the drape of the yarn gets me thinking,
maybe the colorway starts to pull me in another direction,
maybe a certain series of stitches does something i didn’t expect..
whatever the reason, i don’t end up where i said i was headed.
took me four different colleges in two different states to get my degree
so it’s not just in knitting. my overall life seems to go like this.
and i’m ok with that.
actually, i’m more than ok. i’m good with it.
i’ve learned to enjoy the scenery out whichever window i’m sitting in front of.
you know?
but i feel a little like
i’ve pulled you all this way and that,
right along with me, as i’ve talked about
working with julie asselin‘s super bulky ‘yotta’.
i was glad to have you along for the trip.
hopefully my distractible mind didn’t wear on you too much.
and (drumroll please) i’ve finished the piece.
probably hard to believe
after all the
twists and turns, but it’s 100% true.
here’s a sneak peek:
i plan to release the pattern early next week
and you will absolutely be the first to know.
thanks for keeping me company
during the whole process.
i really liked that.
my ‘nearly wordless wednesday’ photo
from yesterday caused lots of questions to come my way.
most of them along the lines of ‘what in the world is going on there?’.
many times in need of a zipper to be shorter
than what i had on hand, i have shortened.
when you’re dealing with a metal zipper, it’s quite simple.
use needle nosed pliers to remove
the little metal stopper that halts the zipper pull from pulling all the way off.
make desired length by using scissors to cut the fabric backing in spaces between
the close-set metal teeth (that’s the hardest part),
then reattach the little metal stopper at the new end of the zipper.
takes maybe 10 minutes and you’re good to go.
but the zipper i was tussling with
is molded electric blue plastic.
it wasn’t key to any project (since i found a replacement)
so i thought i’d see what was possible.
turns out what is possible is to make a huge mess,
pretty quickly and with very little effort.
huh.
then i got an idea. an ‘awful’ idea. i got a wonderful, ‘awful’ idea!
(a la the ‘grinch who stole Christmas’)
and it has to do with julie’s super bulky
and with the reason i wanted a zipper in the first place.
and i frogged back (that’s the only ‘awful’ part about it)
to ‘no knitting done at all’ once again.
today i didn’t knit much.
i started feeling all inspired by the above pic,
so i drove and i did paperwork (not simultaneously).
i walked by the fjord colored yotta, in the bowl on the kitchen island,
as i tried to slow down the chatter in my head and hear it tell me
exactly what it wants to become … and it did.
might even be finished by tomorrow.
definitely making headway.
until then, remember that brave (wo)men don’t slay their dragons
(or their unproductive tendencies and quirky character traits),
they ride them.
the view from up here, by the way, is stellar.
