How EZ Always Brings Me to My Senses!

For the past couple of weeks I’ve been knitting up samples and beginning the pattern writing for a new collection, then I got stuck with one design.  

Three pattern reps (of 2 cable stitch patterns) worked well enough at a larger gauge, but then I wanted a 2nd sample in a thinner yarn and spent a couple days fighting with it.  I tried 4 reps with this thinner yarn.  Of course, it works, but the resultant size would be too large for the intended purpose, and 3 reps would be too small.  I then substituted a different cable for one that I used in the first sample, but I didn’t like the look of it.

No matter how much I wanted to use this particular yarn with these particular stitch patterns, it would not work.

Finally, I remembered an anecdote by Elizabeth Zimmermann, in her Spun Out #11 “Fisherman’s Guernseys”, where she talks about how she admired Mrs. Laidlaw’s guernsey pattern in Gladys Thompson’s book, “Patterns for Guernseys, Jerseys, & Arans”, except whatever yarn Gladys had used allowed her to get 10 sts/1” in pattern.  Elizabeth picked up size 0 ndls and Homespun wool, and, naturally, couldn’t get any tighter than 6 sts/1”.   Gladys must have been using fingering wt. wool, not worsted wt.

LOL, this reminded me that yarn can not always do what we want it to do, just because we wish it to do so!   Of course, after 3 decades knitting and designing, I do know this, but even seasoned knitters can fall into the trap of fruitlessly trying to make a yarn fit the bill.

In the end, I acknowledged that if I wish to make a 2nd design sample with 4 reps in that particular pair of stitch patterns, I will need to use a sport wt. or, possibly, a DK wt yarn.  

I put that design temporarily on hold and CO another color work design, which always soothes me and flies off the ndls!

Which reminds me of another of Elizabeth’s anecdotes about being in a boat knitting, whilst her Gaffer fished, making the first ever Aran sweater, for Vogue, if I remember correctly, and how it felt to her like her hands had done it before, long ago, in another life, on another shore.  I know that feeling well.  I feel it when I weave, spin, and when I knit, especially color patterns.  The hands remember, even if we don’t.

May your yarn always give the correct gauge, and suit its desired purpose!
Dawn

The Pause and Reassessment Month That is January

Every month seems to have an impetus that drives us forward.  April and May have us eager to get out into the garden.  June, just to be outside and enjoy the pleasant weather and blooming gardens before the heat and humidity descend in July and August.  October, eager to revel in autumn’s colors and cooler temps, then the rush forward through all the holidays.

Then comes January.  Which can feel like a month without a purpose.  With February, at least we can feel closer to springtime, but January?  It’s almost a non-month.

And that’s OK.  We all need time to recover from all the recent busy-ness.  I tend to knit on small projects and watch far too many whodunits, the better ones of which tend to be darker, brooding, like “Endeavour”, “Inspector Morse”, “Inspector Lewis”, and the latest one I’ve eagerly watched – “Unforgotten”.  LOL, however, this doesn’t help the feeling of malaise that can permeate January.  

So, after about 2 weeks, I pull myself up my bootstraps (one of those old, odd phrases!), and shake off the not-wanting-to-do-much, and begin to dig into one of my least favorite chores – paperwork, namely tax prep, but also (as I’m turning 65 in April), wading through the piles of Medicare info that has been pouring in for months already, which I’ve not had the time to properly digest. 

I tackle pattern-writing in a similar way. I’ve been knitting up a growing pile of design samples which will be a collection, either all in one long pattern, or split into two or more patterns.  I am undecided at this point, but I’ll know how to present the designs, once I’m nearing the end of the knitting.

As I design on the needles, I begin with handwritten notes, which, for this new batch of designs, I then write them up in TextEdit, so I can edit the language and decide how the info should best be presented.  Then it gets formatted in iWork Pages.  I used to use, and loved, the old ClarisWorks, but then I’ve been using a Mac since ’94, and have seen a lot of software changes since then!

Once I get to this point, I can see the finish line.  I wish I could produce more patterns than I currently do.  In looking at my finished work, I seem to only publish 3 patterns every other year or so.  I do alternate knit design with spinning and weaving, where weaving also suffers from a lack of production.  With the floor loom still in pieces in the (cold, unheated) upstairs, I managed a flurry of rigid loom weaving, but that now is also on pause, whilst I focus on knit design.  

Life in the past several years has also impacted on my work, as hubby’s health has required some surgeries that resulted in very long recovery periods, during which my household workload increases to the point of having not enough uninterrupted downtime for good creativity.  Another surgery is likely imminent, so that’s another reason I am dragging myself out of the winter repose I really enjoy into making hay mode, as I’ll have more imminent responsibilities again soon.

For the knitters who enjoy my patterns and wish there were more, although I could just limit my fiber work to knitting, so to produce more patterns, I find it beneficial to pause and spin for a few weeks, then pause and weave a bit.  Spreading myself around can, though, leave one *feeling* under-productive, even if that’s not the reality.  

But, at this point in our lives – not getting to do any of the traveling I have yearned for *forever* and had hoped to do at this point in life, and not having the kind of property I’ve always wanted so to have the large gardens I’d love to have – my work is my salvation, so I really can’t imagine giving up any of it.  Life imposes enough limits, so I have no intention on being self-limiting!  

I’ll always be grateful for those who enjoy my work, and thankful for their patience!
Onward!
Dawn