"Cinderella Concept by Mary Blair" courtesy of Peko-Chan

Last night hubby and I had an interesting conversation about products. What our late night talk boiled down to was this: the best and most complex products must begin and end with simple and exciting ideas.

Take the photo above, for example. It is a conceptual drawing by Mary Blair of the transformation scene in Cinderella. What is fascinating about this drawing is that though it does not look like any of the final drawings used in the movie, you could never mistake it for anything but what it is. The idea is there. The idea of graceful movement and excitement and magic, the very essence of the scene are contained in this drawing. And clearly this drawing was kept in center focus while the scene was animated. But, clearly it was not copied exactly into the movie.

The same thing is true of designing knits or software or probably anything. A successful product needs a master vision that captures the vital parts of what will be created. A picture of what you want to create that gives a project focus yet allows for the inevitable modifications that must come as the idea is made concrete.

What do you do with only one skein of a very rustic, very cheerful, very green skein of Donegal Tweed?

If you're me, you make these:

With the help of a contrasting yarn, I made sure that I used up every inch of this yarn. I love it that much. In fact, this was literally all the yarn that remained from the skein after completing these two projects.

I must have temporarily gained psychic yarn powers in order to know exactly when to switch to my contrasting color on the fingerless gloves.

The hat is roughly based on the Sugar on Snow pattern from Knitty. Such a cool idea; but I like it better in just a plain rib. And the fingerless gloves are my pattern, but it still needs a little refining before I put it up for sale.

I've got to wait till fall before I'll really get to enjoy these two items, but they were fun and fast to knit.

When you're waiting for paint to dry, you really only have short periods of time between coats. I discovered the wonder of watching every single episode of Heros on my computer. I'm all caught up now and ready, waiting, and anxious for the next episode to come out. Is Peter dead?!

I've also been working on the purple sweater design.

This sweater keeps on morphing on me. I've changed my mind about needle sizes, stitch pattern, motifs, lengths, you name it. And yet I'm enjoying very much working on this pattern. The yarn here is the real challenge. I really, really like it, but it was a gift. And like so many gift yarns, it's not something I would have picked out myself. This means that I'm out of my comfort zone, and it's showing in my process. Just about every detail has changed as I've swatched, sketched, and swatched some more. I'm pretty sure I'm finally ready to start knitting. But not today. The shelves need another coat of paint and I need some more time to make sure I've got the idea of this sweater just right.

This book has been on my reading pile for a while now:

The other day I noticed this book on hubby's reading pile:

Ever since doing that reading on the bogus clan aran sweaters I've been thinking quite a bit about the idea of a history sweater. It would be quite a challenge to graphically represent my life, or my family's. It strikes me as both a knitting and personal challenge. One I'd like to get to soon.

Oh! And I forgot, I got into a class with Janet Szabo, the queen of cables, at Maryland Sheep in wool. It really does seem like the pieces of a meaningful aran sweater are just falling into my lap!

I miss you, dearest blog readers! I have been completely overrun in the home improvement project that will not end. This project looked simple enough, but I'm learning that small-space projects make every detail important and also more difficult to execute. In the end it will be worth it. Right?

Anyway, I've got many FOs to share. But for now it will have to wait. Hubby's office must be completed before my normal life can resume. Until then I'm sharing with you my favorite picture from a short, warm walk I took a week or so ago. Despite the recent cold snap, greens like this only appear when spring is on it's way!