it looks like steve the may
has a bit of swatching fever (always a good thing for a designer).
i feel pretty honored that his goal is to make
a pair of my trume socks.
can’t wait to see what color he lands on
and if he loves them as much as i love the pink ones
that i wore this past saturday
to the book signing at the hub mills store.
nothing, in my opinion, makes high heeled mary janes
feel better than cushy
boot socks.
17 days until the photo shoot for ‘artistic differences’.
feels like yesterday that susan and i first sat in her office
and discussed ideas and possibilities.
still, 17 days until
my end of things is done.
then the cey staff tech editors, layout and various other people
have the ball in their court.
here’s the thing.
i’m still swatching for the last piece
of the collection. back at that again tonight.
and it’s not that i couldn’t have knit the full piece
about 10 different times over.
i could have,
and it would have been 10 different variations on a theme.
but, it’s not quite what’s in my head yet.
this is why
i often refer to myself as a ‘hack’.
i know i have skills, experience, and all kinds of excitement for the process.
what i don’t always have is the ability to mold my fingers
and the yarns they’re holding
into the picture in my head the first time out of the gate.
or the second, or the third.
so when i say ‘hack’, i mean not intuitively able
to leap from idea to final design in a single bound.
maybe no-one can.
some people sure do make it look
just about easy, though.
my friend pam send this quote to me sometime before i woke up this morning:
perfect.
this is exactly what i mean when i label myself a ‘hack’.
it is often one mistake,
one detour or another, that
pulls any given design of mine into a place
where it can hold its own as an original.
this is mostly likely why i always feel more like a happy kid
whose crayon drawing was hung on the fridge
by an adoring parent who sees the effort as beauty
rather than a grown-up holding her own as a ‘knitwear designer.
i admit that every time i write
‘knitwear designer’
as profession on a form, i giggle a little.
so now you know.
‘original’ from 24:13 of 2nd chronicles.
(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‘.)
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‘.)
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.