Making Moments and Fall Class Projects
Do you label yourself? What is your view of yourself? Is it defined by your work, your hobby, your family? How do you view the way you interact with the world?
I know that I define myself by what I do now – what I did in the past helped form what I do now but does not define how I see myself now. For example, when my children were younger I defined myself as a mother. That definition is part of me but is not how I define myself now.
I am a Maker first and foremost. I make things.
Mostly, I knit. And when I knit, I design.
Then there is everything else. I love to cook. And bake. And make jam. I particularly love to make jam. I find it very meditative and soothing. I grow herbs in my garden to add to my cooking. Does that qualify as making? It does in my world.
And I sew clothing for myself when I am in the mood.
Everything I do leads to everything else I do. The colour of the jelly leads to me looking for the colour in my stash – couldn’t find it – so I settle for a bright pink. The colour of the gorgeous sunset last night.
In your knitting are you influenced by your environment? Does a walk in the woods or along a lake make you look at the shadows created by sun and leaves and see a lace pattern or watch the waves along the shore and see the classic old shale pattern?
Or are you more influenced by a direct need or want?
For example my latest Fall Intensive Class started with my students. There was a request for a cardigan type of sweater as a major class. Then other requests – I really want to try a shawl collar – could it be fair-isle – I have never tried raglan sleeve shaping – what about a simpler version of the sweater. As I mulled those requests, I was heavily influenced by my interest in a new sweater for myself. In red.
So the base colour for the sweater is red. And a few of my favourite colours for the patterning. Plus I need to make sure that there are a few other skills involved in making the sweater. So let’s do a traditional Fair Isle sweater, that will also include a steek, afterthought pockets, a belt, plus the requests.
So I designed a long Fair Isle cardigan, with a raglan sleeve shaping and a big shawl collar and the fine tuning details I thought needed to be added. Including a simpler style sweater. One that picks up some of the details of the original cardigan, ribbing, v-neck and raglan sleeve shaping.
Once I started knitting my red sweater I realized I hated my original colour choices. So I ripped out the 4 inches of knitting beyond the ribbing, picked new colours and started the sweater patterning again. Much better colour choices. Umm, my students might have the same problems, so I designed and knit up a gauge swatch hat. Now I have a means for my students to check out their original selections and save them ripping out the sweater itself.
If I could create a flow chart from what I am, a Maker, to how I break down what I do, I wonder what it would look like.
Projects for Fall Classes
These smaller projects are part of the same circle of making. Each one explores a particular technique or idea that can turn up later in a completely different project.
1.) The Grand Shell Collar – due to the popular response to the pattern I have added it to the Fall schedule of classes.
2.) Mosaic Hat – Mosaic colourwork is a fun alternative to traditional Fair Isle – and “look Mum – no stranding”.
3,) Colouring with Cables – I decided to explore the Beret style hat and this hat was an outgrowth of playing around with top-down beret shaping. Which was a total bust – but it became the happy outcome of a really cute hat with fun cables!
The Beret is such a classic shape I decided to give it a really good look this Fall, which resulted in the last two classes of the Season.
4.) Classic Beret – nothing new here just a clear, classic beret with a few fine details, folded hem, dip stitch detailing and felted pompom to jazz it up.
5.) Fulled (felted) Beret – classic beret shaping knit oversize to felt to size. Beret starts from I-cord to create a more interesting edge detail.
Happy Knitting
Lynette
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