Fiberfiend is currently blogging on her attempt to knit an almost authentic Bohus sweater.

Monday, March 16, 2009

I Get By with a Little Help



I like knitting lace - most of my recent knits have been lace. I'm not much of a Knit Along girl, though, but I thought I'd give it a try, so I joined the Ravelry KAL for the Vernal Equinox Shawl, and this is the result. I have made shawls in the past, but always rectangular ones, never a triangle or semicircular.

The interaction of other participants was new to me; I live in an area where I don't know any other crafters, and have become kind of a Lone Knitter, if you know what I mean. No one else to look at my work as it progresses, no one else to oohhh and aahhhh over the intricate pattern or the subtlty of my ssk left leaning decrease, no one to recognize the beauty of my Wollmeise. I don't get a whole lot of feedback, as it were, except from DH who, bless his heart, would praise a garter knit scarf on par with this lovely shawl if I knit it. So when another knitter complimented my finished Vernal Equinox I was first surprised, then pleased, then, in an odd way, felt a little exposed. I mean, no one who knows anything about the craft has ever looked at my work before. No one who could tell if I screwed up the pattern in row 189 has ever had the opportunity to point that out to me. All of a sudden my own standard for what's "good enough" seems a little low (and I'm known as something of a perfectionist.)

Being part of a larger community could be both a good and a bad thing........



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It's a Compromise



The third version of the sleeves is where I'm going to stop. The cap sleeves didn't work and the 3/4 sleeves made me look square. So just-to-the-elbows it is. All in all I like the look, and the cashmere is light as can be. So now we're off to other things.....

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Wednesday, March 11, 2009

What's New?





I'm working on the second version of the sleeves for the Cathedral Cardigan and it looks like I'll be starting on the third version at any moment; I just can't seem to find the right fit. But that doesn't mean I haven't been busy. I finished my car project - my very first Baby Surprise Jacket (I've been an EZ fan forever; hard to believe I have several little ones to knit for and have never made a BSJ!) and the Vernal Equinox KAL shawl; isn't it lovely?

Working on these projects simultaneously had me thinking about the concept of monogamous knitting. I've heard that there are knitters who have many many projects going on at the same time; they put one down and pick up another like changing clothes. I have read about projects that sit unattended for weeks, months, even years at a time, waiting for their turn to come back into favor with their maker.

But I'm not like that. I have a real need to finish things. There are no bags with half knitted sweaters buried in the back of my closet. There are no socks missing a mate. I have no avoidance issues with sewing up and finishing.

Now, I do have more than one knitting project going at the same time; there's always one in the car that I work on when my DH is driving; there's one on the sofa where I knit when I sit with my family and watch TV; there's one in process on my knitting machine and there's one I'm designing. And there's no cross-over; the car project never sees the one on the sofa, the sofa project doesn't go for rides, and the design project, well, she's just a little special, like a new baby. And when each project is finished, another new project takes its place. Each project is like a child, and I stay with each until it's off the needles and ready to leave the house.

It's not exactly monogamy, but it's close.
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Thursday, March 5, 2009

In Appreciation of Designers



I wonder sometimes how the professional designers do it. I've read some of their blogs and listened to some of their podcasts and I still don't really get it. How do they come up with something new and make it work? Since I "design" only for myself and things I want to wear, I suppose the process is different, but I'm still curious. My "process" goes something like this: 1)see something in a magazine, on a tv show, or in a dream that I like; 2)get a picture in my head of what it would look like on me; 3)modify the picture in my head until the item looks good on me (sometimes the process comes to a shrieking halt right here, since I am never going to look good in the tight-under-the-bust, deep-decolletage, short-puffy-sleeve articles so popular right now); then try to figure out how to make it. Though I am usually a "project", not a "process" kind of knitter, when I'm trying to come up with a pattern I can focus on the techniques to get me where I want to go. I don't mind frogging something that doesn't work and trying again until it does (however, I once read where Meg Swansen knitted the sleeve for a sweater she was designing seven times before she got what she wanted. I'm not that focused! BTW, the photo is one of Meg's designs.) My only problem seems to be that I don't anticipate finishings as well as I should; the facings and buttonbands, hems vs ribbing, and so on. It might help, I suppose, if I could sketch the design before I try to knit it, but I have no ability whatsoever to draw to scale or with perspective. I can see it in my head but can't put it on paper.

So when I see great knitwear designs I stand in awe. The brains of designers must just be bigger than mine. Or their gene makeup is different.

My mother had the crafty gene; I'm sure that's where I got it. She had trained as a seamstress, and made us wonderful matching outfits every Easter for years and years. I didn't realize it until after her passing, but she tatted and sewed and crocheted and did macrame and was a pretty decent cook. She didn't knit, though; I had to learn that on my own. But she had a way of looking at complicated techniques in sewing and making them seem easy. I bet if she had wanted to design knitwear she would have been another Elizabeth Zimmerman type. If only she had passed that ability on to me.

In my next life I want to be Connie Chang Chinchio or Norah Gaughan. Or Meg! It's probably sacrilege to want to be EZ, isn't it? One can only hope......
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Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Sleeve Whisperer Wanted


While Iwas waiting for the sleeves to tell me what they want to be, the neckline and button bands made themselves known to me. I only wish they'd been clearer sooner; I would have knit them as part of the body. If anyone speaks "sleeve" I'd love to know what I'm supposed to do next. Suggesstions welcome.
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