Category Archives: Notions

and the winner is…

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mamayaga! congrats.

‘the songlines collection’ will be sent to you via ravelry shortly.songlines_Collage_mediumbe sure to pop into the songlines knitalong 2015 thread of ambah’s rav group.

it’s always extra fun to make something

in a happy, group of people

who love yarn

and knitting, of course,

just as much as you do, right?

and for those who didn’t win this time, check out fellow designer karen’s blog.

you can enter to win your own copy of the collection over there until the 16th.

two days ago, i picked the yarn combo

to make my own ‘yindela‘.12106105_1669841606590300_1944966418_n_medium2i have just one more deadline project to cast off

and a few loose ends to clear up,

and then i get jump into this new, fun knitting.

i’m so ready.

‘jump’ taken from 14:10 of acts.

another way to travel

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despite the fact

that there are so many pretty patterns out there vying for attention,

there are still some that grab me and won’t let go of my thoughts.

‘the songlines collection’ by ambah o’brien

is five patterns

that have done exactly that.

i had never heard of ‘songlines’ or ‘dreaming tracks’ before.

curious by nature, my fingers ran (not walked) to google them.

the results are fascinating.

Instead of making maps, the Indigenous peoples of Australia navigated vast distances by singing songlines (also called dreaming tracks) “in the appropriate sequence, often traveling through the vast deserts of Australia’s interior.”

“Since a songline can span the lands of several different language groups,…(describing the location of landmarks, waterholes, and other natural phenomena) different parts of the song are said to be in those different languages. Languages are not a barrier because the melodic contour of the song describes the nature of the land over which the song passes. The rhythm is what is crucial to understanding the song.”

the songlines collectionafter reading that,

i went back to look at ambah’s designs again.

now i see the red sands of the simpson desert, and the grey of worn ancient stones.

look how she’s mixed the colorways to create such depth and texture

like the ‘contours of the land’.

i admit to an overactive imagination, and yet

i can almost see the things that the loops and swirls of these shawls

might represent on a long trek across the desert.

i can almost here the rhythm of the people’s

footfalls as the older ones

teach the younger the dreaming tracks by which they will one day understand

their native land and describe it to their own children…

my favorite here is ‘yindela‘,

because in a way it reminds me of the landscape of my own history.yindela

once i decide on the colors that will mean the most to me,

i’m looking forward to the rhythm

of the knitting.

as i remember the songs of my own childhood,

each stitch will become part of my personal ‘songline’.

how very, very cool is that?

maybe now you want to win a copy of

‘the songlines collection’ for your very own? okay.

leave a comment below saying which of the five you’d most like to knit.

if you want to, tell us why you chose that one, too

(be sure to leave your rav name

or some other way for me to reach you if you win).

leave your comment by midnight this sunday, october 11th.

then, on monday the 12th, i’ll pick a winner

by random number generator.

can’t wait to read

what you’d choose (and why).

 ‘desert’ taken from 14:3 of exodus.

but…

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you know you’re a knitter when

all you want to know

about the newest edition of a clothing company’s catalog

is what yarn that is on the front cover

and none of

the pretty new things inside

are able to clear the disappointment out of your thoughts

that nowhere (and you scoured each page)

iside, is the name or even fiber content the cover yarn noted.

doesn’t it look soft and like it wants you to make something with it?IMG_1622 sq‘new’ taken from 14:7 of job.

coming back around

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ages and ages ago,

i was very excited about a new design

that i had planned for galler yarn’s ‘asana bulky’.

it’s thick and thin. it has tone upon tone. the personality nearly oozes from the fibers of it.

asana sqi jumped into the planning

for a hugely cozy large cabled collar

topping off a cardi that felt like wearing a squishy hug around.

i was only weeks away from being ready to release the pattern when

a fellow designer released nearly the same thing.

no, she had not seen mine,

and no, we had not talked and inadvertently copied each other.

they were predicting a cold, cold winter and i think we both set our sights

in the same direction.

that happens.

so the knitting was frogged and i began again.

trying to listen to what else the yarn wanted to be.

the thing is, i still wanted it to be

the big collared cardi with extra wide cables.

i couldn’t hear other options as they dropped off my needles and into the swatches

because i didn’t want to hear new options.

i think from a creative point of view,

i sort of dug my heels in

and pouted.

it’s been many, many months since then.

more cold weather is predicted for this winter

and i took the asana out of the bag to have a looksee.

i love this yarn. it’s so interesting and different.

the color variations give the stitches such depth.

there is now enough distance

between my head and the original idea

to hear what this yarn wants to be. finally.

of course, i’d like to tell you that i am not affected

by these things.

that i am never a moody creative,

that logic rules my process at all times so i always get done

what i intend to do in the time i plan to do it in

but, it’s not truehttps://www.talithakuomi.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=8389&action=edit

i imagine that you wouldn’t believe that of me anyway.

at this point, you know me all too well.na sq

so, here’s to a new pattern

rising up from its old abandoned beginnings.

if all goes well this time,

it should be keeping some of us warm

by the time we hit the deep chill of winter this year.

 ‘abandoned’ taken from 54:7 of isaiah.

big yarn, big needles

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if you liked yesterday’s new pattern ‘burza‘

because of the extra super bulky yarn from tjockt

and the idea of using the supersized needles,

then you might want to take a peek

at the ‘desert night cowl‘

in the new issue of knit.purl magazine.

also worked in huge yarn, this cowl takes a smaller amount of it.200g

200g (150g if you’re really careful with keeping short tails) is all it takes.

that, size 35 needles and a stitch marker…

well, they don’t really make stitch markers for needles this big,

so what you need is a scrap of pretty yarn

long enough to make a loop that fits around the needle

with enough left over to tie a knot.

now you’re good to go.

it’s an adventure to knit this big.

it uses different muscles and exaggerated motions

and i find it very, very satisfying.

‘idea’ taken from 17:20 of acts.

cozy x10

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‘burza’ means ‘storm’.

and in a howling wind (with or without snow or ice or hail),

this is just the kind of cowl i’d want. wouldn’t you?burza6sqit uses extra super bulky yarn. yes, you heard me right.

this kind of yarn uses big needles

(which i find to be crazy fun to work with)

and it knits up fast.

really, really, really fast. about 2.5 hours

from start to finish.

honestly.

burza.

photos by kristielee.

‘Storm’ taken from 55:8 of Psalms.

sneak peek time

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tomorrow is the day

that i’m going to release a new pattern.

just a little graphic editing to do and it will be good to travel out into the world.

here’s what i can tell you about it today:

the yarn is super(sized),

the piece itself is cozily oversized,

and it’s a knit that only takes a couple of days,

but results in a huge punch of the very best kind of drama.

so, until tomorrow,

here’s the sneak peek to tide you over.

sweet dreams!

burza sq‘tomorrow’ taken from 6:30 of matthew.

good grief

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today is the kind of day

to perk myself up into feeling like what’s ahead of me can be conquered,

by singing along with good ol’ charlie brown for just a minute.

“if i start writing now

when i’m not really rested

it could upset my thinking which is

not good at all…i’ll get a fresh start tomorrow

and there’s always the next day unless something should happen

why does this always happen?

i should

be outside playing, getting fresh air and sunshine.

i work best under pressure and there’ll be lots of pressure if i wait till tomorrow

i should start writing now…

but if i start writing now, when i’m not really rested

it could upset my thinking which is not good at all.”

to round things off, here’s me fully ‘peanutized’.

profile-picture-1443014054you can get peanutized yourself (for free) right over here.

just for fun,

because ‘a cheerful heart is good medicine’.

turns out that smiling really is good for you if it’s genuine.

‘cheerful…’ taken from 17:22 of proverbs.

therefore

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it is possible

to focus so fully on

what is set directly in front of you

that the rest, the things in the constantly changing periphery,

can become a bit of a blur.IMG_2111 uptoday i think maybe that’s for the very best,

otherwise the constant distractions might keep me from

seeing the bigger picture,

and my priorities might be more at risk

in an ongoing kind of way.

‘set’ taken from 12:1 of hebrews.

post-contesting

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since i got the results yesterday

(of the final design that i’d asked you all the vote for),

i thought it was about time that i fill you in on what went down.

the ‘sun shine sack’ was not one of the top 3 in the watg voting,

'sun shine sack' by talitha kuomi (1)so, now i get to decide what i want

to do with the idea

on my own.

but,

i thought

i’d enlist your help.

are any of you crocheters?

if so, does anyone have an interest

in my putting together a real pattern

(right now it’s scribbled notes on a wrinkled lunch bag)

for this net-like tote?

i was in the top 3 for the #hkminicomp.

i was on the top of the voting for round 1, and held a firm 3rd place in round 2.

so, holla knits will not be publishing my ‘status of the stratus’ mini collection,'status of the stratus' collage

which (ironically) is probably better in the end

because i had more than 3 pieces

that i wanted to include

and now i can go back, firm up the other ideas, find the loveliest yarns out there

and make this an e-book all on my own.

the goal is to finish it for next fall

and i think i’ll stick to it

because i really want to be able to wear these pieces myself

and a few leaves have already changed,

making it already too late to knit them for this fall.

‘leaves’ taken from 4:12 in daniel.