Fearless Knitting 101 - Inspiration

The Vision

ninaclock — Wed, 02 May 2007 06:19:33 -0700

"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.

With Only One Skein

ninaclock — Tue, 24 Apr 2007 10:12:46 -0700

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.

While the Paint Dries

ninaclock — Mon, 23 Apr 2007 06:29:33 -0700

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.

It must be a sign.

ninaclock — Fri, 20 Apr 2007 16:11:35 -0700

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!

Hints of Spring

ninaclock — Thu, 12 Apr 2007 12:16:28 -0700

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!

Monmouth cap

ninaclock — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 11:42:18 -0700

Unfortunately, because of copyright I can't show you a photo. But this Monmouth Cap fascinates me. This is a welsh pattern and the example shown is from the sixteenth century. That's the 1500's!! These hats were so common that people never bothered to describe them, so researchers can only guess that this one is typical.

Doesn't it remind you a modern bucket hat? I especially love the brim. I imagine the loop was for hanging the hat up indoors. It looks like it's a turned under hem, doesn't it? If you look at the closeup you can see that this was some seriously chunky yarn too.

Plastic Bags = Yarn

ninaclock — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 06:40:23 -0700

"Recycle" by teotwawki

Repurpose your plastic grocery bags and knit with them! You can learn how to make yarn out of plastic bags with gooseflesh's tutorial. The same technique can be used make yarn out of tee-shirts as well.

Aran Inspired

ninaclock — Fri, 23 Mar 2007 16:03:59 -0700

Shamrock by Still Burning

I just finished listening to the St. Patrick's Day episode of Moonlight Stitches and I'm inspired. Anne talked about this site which sells "clan aran sweaters", aran sweater patterns that identify a clan and shows its history. I put this term in quotes for good reason. Though the site appears to have a huge collection of really nice aran sweater designs that claim to come from the Aran Sweater Museum collection, I could find nothing specifically about the museum. That, according to dochara.com, is because the museum is nothing more than a tourist trap. It appears that Alice Starmore is responsible for debunking the the pseudo history of the clan aran sweater.

In any case, finding out that arans aren't the Irish equivalent to the Scottish tartan plaid, which did actually identify your clan, does nothing to mar my enthusiasm at the idea of a clan sweater.

Don't you think it could be lovely to have a family sweater? I do. With Janet Szabo teaching at Maryland Sheep and Wool this year, it is very tempting to consider putting together a sweater design to reflect my history and family.

I'm going to have to think about this some more. I probably also should finish the Great American Aran Afghan of Doom before starting another aran project!

Step Two

ninaclock — Thu, 22 Mar 2007 15:05:23 -0700

I've had this lace weight yarn forever...well, a year and a half. There's a lot of it too, 2550 yards. I've swatched it several times and determined that it looks it's best in simple garter stitch and knit at a DK gauge, US 4 needles and approximately 6 sts to the inch. Clearly this yarn wants to be a sweater.

So, I've spent some time today on my second step, developing a design. I think this sweater is going to have a slight medieval flavor to it.

Having the motif predominantly on the sleeves is inspired from the drawing of the Dutch Amager Blouse in "Knitting in the Old Way".

The motif design, is a simple stripping away of a celtic knot design I found on a quilt in flickr.

Being that the yarn is lace weight and I'm getting 6 sts per inch, figuring out how to make this design element actually show up has been a bit of a challenge. I briefly played with cables with a garter stitch background, but swatching proved that this method wasn't appropriate. A quick swatch proved that there is hope in using yarn over negative spaces to make the design. I do have some reservations, about this method, though. I'm worried that the eyelets won't create a strong enough line for the eye and the result will just look messy. Only more swatching will really give me a clear idea about effectiveness. I'm not entirely averse to lining this sweater if needs be.

Candlelight

ninaclock — Wed, 21 Mar 2007 06:51:16 -0700

Here are a few of the more successful results of a recent photography experiment:

Candlelight is the main light source used during shooting. I used one tea candle and played with it's proximity to the dying flowers in a vase that were my subject.

I learned quite a bit in this experiment: With only one hand to steady my rather large camera it was really inevitable that my photos would blur. I really ought to invest in a tripod or monopod to eliminate this problem during still life shoots. Even with such a small light source, background is still very important for a clean look. The background showed much more clearly than I expected. Candlelight has interesting effects on color. I was surprised at how dramatic a change moving the proximity of the flame to the subject could have on the colors captured and the overall effect.

I think I will definitely be continuing to experiment with candlelight in the future.