cey & i: beautiful disaster

sometimes

even failing can be really lovely.

cey’s montera is a versatile work horse yarn.

it’s been in their line-up for quite a while now

and i just love the feel of how it knits up.

it brings so much personality

to the table.

IMG_340dimmedbut, despite the things that it can do,

i can’t get the cables i have planned

to stand up and ‘pop’ enough in it.

so, it’s time for a little

rearranging of fibers and colors.

not that that’s a problem for me in any way.

getting to dream about what more yarns could be,

and picturing in my head what a different color will do to a design

are my version of daydreaming.

really for me

any excuse to try to listen to what a yarn wants to become

is an unexpected treat thrown into a normal day

like running out of homemade bread and having

ice cream for breakfast instead.

all good.

‘stand up’ taken from 78:13 in the psalms.

a little to the left

i am trying to find my ‘vibe’

as i photograph soon to be released new designs.

i’m not so very skilled with picture taking.

there is so much that can go wrong with each shot.

which unnerves me to no end.

but, i’m giving it a good solid try anyway.

today,

with the intense light

being 14″ of freshly fallen snow,

my lack of experience with glare and lighting

did not work in my favor.

IMG_3285artedcrop

however, thanks to picmonkey and my ‘creative pinky’

(akin to a ‘green thumb’ which apparently skips a generation

as my mum and daughter both have one, but not me)

i wound up with this nice ‘warhol-esque’

selfie (see the newest design?).

clearer shots coming

very soon.

truly.

one sock in front of the other

in a day and age where ‘magic loop’ is the new black,

IMG_3027shadei know my opinion won’t be popular.

still,

i do not like

knitting small circumferences

on circular needles at all.

up until now,

to avoid the dreaded ‘m. loop’,

i have worked sleeves and fingerless gloves

one at a time on my tried and true double pointeds.

IMG_3028cropsocks,

however,

are a bird of

a different color.

last year i finished

one (matching) pair of socks.

this has never happened before.

when i managed to make it through one,

second sock syndrome always blocked

my path to sock number two.

pondering this

(all the while tapping

my chin like winnie-the-pooh does

because it really couldn’t hurt

and i figured it just might help),

it struck me that when i finish sock one, beginning it has blurred by the passing of time.

i’m uncomfortable starting the 2nd when i can’t remember starting the 1st.

IMG_3031cropthe goal is to have them be mostly the same after all.

so i invested in an extra set of double points.

now i can knit the cuff of sock one

then go directly to the cuff

of number two.

next, the straightaway to the ankle of two,

followed by the same bit of one.

i find that the stress i’ve always connected with socks is almost gone doing it this way.

here is is the first week of 2014,

and i’ve already finished my first pair of the year

and started on my pair number two.

for me, that’s unheard of.  makes 2014 look like a huge step forward

IMG_3030shadefor ‘sock knitting tal’.

my tootsies are

just gonna

love me!

‘color(s)’ taken from 17:2 in ezekiel.

cey & i: forward motion

math tamed: check.

swatches done: check.

wet blocking complete: check.

pinning it up to get a better look: check.

the magnolia becoming wearable: to be continued…

IMG_2586crop

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 ‘tamed’ taken from 3:7-8 of james.

(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‘.)

socks by sunday: day one

my friend julz challenged a few of us on thursday night,

as the first big snowstorm of the year was barrelling down upon us,

to knit a pair of socks by midnight sunday.

any socks, any size, any weight yarn.  only requirement = a pair.

i’m in! as i have been wanting to try ‘rye’ by tincanknits

and this is as good an excuse as any to cast on.

not much to do last night except knit, watch the snow fall, and wrap up to stay warm.

i did all three

with malabrigo rios (in playa).

by bedtime, my socks were done

(you didn’t really think i was gonna say actually ‘done’, did ya?)

from the top down through the cuffs and the ankles.

i have plans to attack the heel flaps first thing in the morning

whether we’re buried completely in snow or not

which i seriously think we could be.

IMG_0400

‘done’ taken from 2:3 in genesis.

cey & i: down, but not out

even with 2 pencils in play

there was so much tip breaking and wearing down points

that i eventually resorted to a trusty pen.

still, it went something like this:

*write, reconsider, scratch it out; rep from * until your very last nerve is frazzled.

then wait and

…hold on!

time for a time out.

i find a break almost always helps,

or at least it gives me the perspective to cut my losses and move on.

in this case, it gave me the ‘ah ha’ moment that i’d been missing.

IMG_0400

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

whew.

that one was a little too close for comfort

but, all’s well now.  on to the re-swatching and the actual casting on.

‘comfort’ taken from 16:5 in 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: ‘bossy’ is misunderstood

“i’m the boss of my knitting”.

i am, although today the knitting doesn’t seem to know it.

working on the math for the first sweater in the collection.

using a lace stitch pattern

that repeats every 4″.

this is a designing challenge,

because if it’s not adjusted in some way

the only chest circumferences available would be

28 (36, 44, 52, 60) inches around.

not gonna work for way too many shapes and sizes of knittahs.

hence,IMG_2588urban

today

finds me

currently

hunkered

down

at this

little desk

in my little

workroom,

a #2 pencil

 and

a back-up

at my side

(oh, how it annoys me to have to stop mid-way thru a math equation to sharpen a tip).

IMG_2567colorwarpi’m hacking away at

my brainstormed

list of

possible solutions.

and one of them

is going to

work.

my new pin from

lys ‘in the loop’ is here on the desktop reminding me

that “i’m the boss of my knitting”.

take that you wiley lace stitches!

‘sharpen’ taken from 27:17 of proverbs.

(this is part of an ongoing series of posts

chronicling my collaboration with classic elite yarns on an

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

cey & i: of chairs and collections

IMG_2529cropthis is the chair

beside susan’s desk

at classic elite yarns.

as creative director,

her space fills quickly

with color cards,

various mood boards,

swatches

and nearly endless

 fresh design possibilities.

to begin something new,

one morning just over a week ago

this lemony vintage chair was filled with, well, me.

we talked of ideas and angles, palettes and themes, and of course, yarns.

by the time i had to drag myself away to get the kids off the bus,

we had finalized everything down to the color choices

(ie: all the colors warming the chair above)

for an indie collection of my new ideas

that cey and i are collaborating on.

i admit,

that as the stack of colors grew,

i began to feel a bit giddy with the excitement of it all.

to be given such freedom of choice and professional support

was moving to the creative side of me in a way that i find hard to describe.

what i can say clearly, is that the practical side of me went

right home and eagerly cast on for the first sweater.

‘clearly’ taken from 6:42 in luke.

(this is to be an ongoing series of posts

chronicling the process of this collaboration from swatches to release.

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

tactile

textural adjective

:a characteristic quality; essence

:relating to a surface that is other than smooth

:the visual and especially tactile quality of a plane

:the characteristic structure of the interwoven or intertwined threads, strands,

or the like, that make up a textile fabric

okay.  so,

i like to touch things.

cozy soft or heavily textured.

a flat surface turned 3 dimensional or silky smooth.

and all the better if my eyes feel like they can ‘touch’, too.

rough old tree bark, the surface of water at the hands of the wind;

these things really catch me and hold my attention.

what started as this: IMG_2051cropped which made me think of this:images

was ‘captured’ in the stitches of this:tasa swatch fade

grew firmly in my mind into this:sketch0004crop

and with the help of classic elite and their mountaintop ‘crestone‘ became this:DSC_3035

‘tasa’ now available here as a free pdf download courtesy of classic elite yarns.

‘smooth’ taken from 3:5 in luke.