Hand painted swatch of the acorn and leaf pattern.
I’ve been waiting for just the perfect project. I think that it will be perfect for the GreenMan Shawl. Don’t you?
Happy Knitting
Lynette
Tag: creativity
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On the Mend
Nope I haven’t been sick, but I am looking to mend!
I am going to learn how to mend my clothing. Well, I am teaching myself how to mend my woolens mostly.
I have been a sewer, (sewist?) all my life. I started with Barbie clothes and I have made my own and my children’s clothing, at various point of my life, with varying levels of success. I have designed and created costumes for live theatre. And I can mend many of of clothes, as in hem, fix seams, adjust fit and play with anything fabric. But I have seldom mended my clothing, as in fixing actual holes in the fabric! That needs to change.
I also knit. And I have knitted steadily for the last 40+ years. Like most of us knitters I have a stack of woolens to mend. I hate to throw things out, especially now, when we are talking of sustainability and slow clothes and making everything count. So I have been looking at my own pile of clothes that need saving. From woolen undershirts (sorry, they are not pretty enough to be called camisoles) to fine merino sweaters to my handknits – I have things that need mending.
So, over the last few months I have been collecting books and tools to start teaching myself the basics. Okay, not just the basics, in some cases the more interesting and artistic ways of doing things!
Not that I will be starting with the fancy patterns, but the possibilities are interesting. I am also going to learn how to use a tiny punch needle, really a needle for tambour bead embroidery. Beads as mending! you can see that this is a whole new rabbit hole for me! For mending you are supposed to forgo the beads and just use a fine wool to punch through your knit fabric. And I have just purchased a Speedweve style mending tool. A small one (14 hooks), with a bigger one (21 hooks) on the way.
Tambour beading is a technique that developed in Europe in the late eighteenth century. A small hook (tambour hook) is used to attach the beads to the ground cloth, rather than a needle. The word tambour is French for ‘drum’ and is named after the drum-shaped tensioning frame that was originally used.
Plus there are the traditional means of mending as in swiss daring, patching and overdying. Overdying is a great way to recover sweaters that have been stained by life. I have used this method a few times! I would also like to try some leather patching for sweaters, especially hems at neck and sleeves. So, lots of things to explore!
This is going to be so much fun!
And then, this fall, there will be a class at Mad About Ewe Fine Yarns in Nanaimo. After all, there are not many things better than sharing an interest!
Happy Mending
Lynette
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Playing Hookey
So I ditched my other projects just to play with the beautiful BFL yarn.
This morning I transferred the yarn onto a 32 inch circular needle…
I am very happy 😁 with the yarn 🧶 so far! Now I have to focus on some of my other projects.
Happy Knitting!
Lynette
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A Knitterly Start to the Year – part 2
So the Three Skein Project is almost complete – just patterns to complete for it.
So where to next?
Well, I have lots of samples that need patterns – it could be that my computer and I will become best buddies. That is very real. I completed one pattern and started two more this weekend!
Well the classes are coming up;
I am thinking and doing a Double Knitting Class – lovely little cozy cuffs or wristers. They are totally reversible and quite easy to knit. There is no shaping so the only technique to learn is basic double knitting.
And the other class will be some kind of specialized colourwork – entrelac maybe or intarsia in the round.
Do you want see a beading class? A finishing class? A cable class? Our options are so wide and varied – sometimes it is hard to choose.
Now is the time to make a suggestion!
I have started to plan a Spring KAL for the store and I am looking for ideas. It would start in the Spring – after Easter. A shawl, a vest, some kind of relaxed garment I think.
I am starting another sweater style garment for myself – have I finished the last one – well no – but you know – this yarn is calling. I blame it all on Darlene. She just finished a lovely scarf in the same yarn! And another shawl. I really like the way the shape is building up. There is never an end to inspiration!
So how is your knitting year starting? Are you happy with your choices or looking to scrap it all and start anew? Are finishing one before you start another? Darlene has to finish two items before she starts a new project! We both wonder how long that will last! LOL!
Happy Knitting
Lynette
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Work it… Work it….
How do you work? It quiet solitude? In the hub hub of a busy room? On a neat desk with everything laid out? In chaos?
Everyone – creative or non creative has a favourite place and way of working. There are even magazines devoted to creative work spaces! A friend of mine collects them for ideas and dreams of what she would like her ideal creative space to be like. I would really like to know about your spaces. Is it a dedicated space? A shed or studio out back? A room with lots of shelves and space designed just for you and your creativity? A spot in your living room?
I have that too – a spot in the living room, surrounded by yarn and chaos, where I sit and knit and be part of the family dynamic.
I would like my formal workspace to be tidy – I really would! I seldom achieve that as I would rather be creating than tidying – and when I start to tidy ideas come out of the chaos and bite me in the proverbial a… and all thoughts of tidying go out the window as I dive into a new idea! I have often said that I work best in Chaos. And right now Chaos is my constant companion.
Right now my workspace has achieved the honour of being the messiest and most chaotic it has ever been! Perhaps this is a good thing as I have needed to be more creative in my knitting designs than ever. Its this big new “thing” I am doing. It requires a lot of time and creativity – and as I still am working full time – my housekeeping – never a great deal – has completely fallen to the wayside.!
This big “thing” is a designing job. A largish number of patterns in varying yarns for a largish yarn company – in a smallish piece of time! It has been so much fun and so challenging in a creative way! I will share more as I can! I have had help with sample and test knitting – we all need help sometimes. I am learning how to ask for it as needed.
bees and butterflies There have small breaks where I have worked on my own patterns as I waited for yarns to arrive. Bees and Butterflies was created in one of those breaks. I should have been tidying – but you know how the story goes! LOL!
My desktop – it can barely be seen right now! Much more chaotic than normal! UPDATE – Started this a few months ago – in the height of the crazy creative time. I am in a bit of a lull right now – working on things for myself and looking forward to the next spate of crazy times. Still can’t really talk about the earlier project but the patterns are due to drop any day! Then I will be talking like crazy!
I am almost finished the Shetland Fusion Ebook. I “found” another pattern that I had started before Covid and it is perfect for Shetland Fusion! Summer Shells, a half Pi shawl that features Shetland Lace Shell Patterns! Umm and maybe a few beads.
Summer Shells 
Fascinator 
Shetland Wheel 
Shetland Wheel 
Lizzie’s Hap 
Plumier 2 
Plumier So it has been a good day – so much accomplished – but no housework! LOL!
Wrote a couple of blogs, did some knitting, made a pie – making dinner – how has your day gone?
Be well and Happy Knitting
Lynette
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It’s a New Year
And its a new plan. There is no Retreat this year. It is kind of odd to have that space vacant. I have no planning to do, no sample knitting, my time is free.
Not that I won’t knit, or plan or even have that much free time. I am bound by my creative nature to keep on creating – a new yarn, a new colour, an idea that blooms as I experience a walk, or a book or a conversation – I never lack for ideas! But I won’t have that event to shape any of those ideas around. Some what freeing from my regular focus at this time of the year!
So what shall I knit in the next months? I do have a couple of projects that I need to finish.
Serenity Wave – the pattern is complete except for the cover picture – I need to finish the edging. It will be done before the end of the month.
7 Hats More – there are a couple of small projects left to finish for that book. They also will be done before the end of the month.
I need to complete the patterns for two shawls – Roamin… or Lizzie’s Hap and the Georgia West Hap. I am also aiming to have those done by the end of the month.
Hmmm…. Busy month! Maybe I should add a few extra days to the timeline – anyone know how?
I did muck my initial plans up a little by adding another shawl. A Shetland styled lace stole in BC Garn Bio Shetland. Scrumptious wooly wool with a great crisp hand that creates well defined stitches. I gave myself this last week to work on it and I am almost halfway. It will be hard to put down as I work on the planned completions!
I am not sure what happened to the last couple of months of the last year – not really sure what happened to the last year. I have been struggling to cope – keeping busy does help me deal with the stress I feel. Writing usually helps – but I was too busy knitting – I am working on a balance. Funny – when I read my last post I was working on balance then too! Maybe this year I will be more successful.
My Schiehallion yarn has become Failte – a cozy beanie! What are you working on? How do you balance life and stress right now? I would really like to know.
I haven’t walked every weekend – but more than I was before. I am watching what I eat! Way more than I should this last month! But it is my favourite time of year! And I did do some Christmas baking – I have a little dark cake and shortbread left. Just a little lingering sweetness to extend the Christmas Season. The tree and decorations came down yesterday and the lights today.
So today I start my planning for the New Year – you are part of my plan! Talk again soon!
Be Well and Knit Happy!
Lynette
PS – I baked a blackberry pie today – my husband picked the berries this last Summer. So we are smelling the sweet smell of summer blackberries as the pie cools on the counter. I hope that you can smell the sweetness of the pie and of life too.
