Liar! Liar! Pants on fire!

So, my good resolution of sticking with one WIP only lasted so long... To my defense, I absolutely hate knitting scarves, and who wants to work with mohair when it's 30°C outside? :) I'm afraid this scarf is going to hibernate a couple more years... In the meantime, I have started on a new design project I've been meaning to tackle for a while. My first traditional triangle shawl!

I'm working with the three madelinetosh colorways I talked about in the previous post, and I discovered something really interesting while looking for a name for the shawl. I really felt very strongly about using those three colors together, and when I researched the symbolism for red, blue and yellow I found this page about the Korean Sam Taegeuk and its meaning: 

The Korean-style Sam-Taegeuk

[three-part Grand Ultimate] Symbol,

used in Korean Shamanism, Neo-Confucianism, Daoism and Buddhism

Blue = Heaven    Red = Earth    Yellow = Humanity

Heaven influences Earth, which influences Humanity, which influences Heaven...

I thought it was fascinating, since those last few months I've been in this quest to understand how I could live connected to both Heaven and Earth and be a meeting point for the two energies. I've always been very sensitive to color and a great believer in color's power over our moods and energy, as well as our desire for different colors depending on how we're feeling, but this was an especially specific example! 

The shawl is slow going since I'm not used to all this math, and I'm also knitting it first in a $4 acrylic yarn to make sure I like the result. The madelinetosh gets damaged by repeated frogging :) But so far I'm happy! :) 

Also, Spring (or should I say Summer?) is here, yay! 

A historic day!

As of today, I am down to just ONE WIP!!!! This hasn't happened since my first project 4 years ago, and I am using all my willpower to resist casting on something else right this minute. I have to think about what I want to start, considering that this next month is going to be insane, with my one woman show coming up + The Tempest as well, and moving and submitting my visa... 

Pattern: Bridgewater by Jared Flood

Yarn: Hedgehog Fibres Merino Lace (disc.) in Pheasant and Vengeance

I'm super happy with my last FO above, a year and half in the making (that border was looooong!), and now I am tempted to start a new design I have in mind, using three wonderful colors of madelinetosh that I've been wanting to use together ever since I got them, but I'm afraid I won't really have the availability to take my time with it in the next few months... 

Look at those, aren't they scrumptious???

So I think for now I'll just be toiling away on my scarf, that has also been in my WIP pile for a couple of years :) ! I do have a few orders from friends I could get started on (among which a pirate baby jumper and some My little pony socks), but I would need to buy the yarn and I don't want to do that until I move ! :) I am trying desperately to knit up my stash before I have to send half of it back to France in July.... 

Pattern: Wexford by Leila Raabe

Yarn: Filatura di Crosa superior

Why do I always forget how much I dislike knitting scraves? Thank God this picture is from two years ago and I'm a little more advanced than that! Alright, so back to it I go... :) 

Pattern Giveaway

**Scroll down to see the winners!**

To celebrate the release of my second pattern, Soleado, I am giving away 2 copies of the pattern for free!

You have until Friday April 10th to leave a comment on this post telling me your favorite thing about springtime (mine is the bright colors everywhere!), at which time I will randomly choose two winner to send the pattern to.

Soleado comes in three sizes, S, M and L, and is knitted using stranded colorwork. The yarn I used to design the mitts is Koigu Premium Merino, and let me tell you the colors are incredible!

Edit: 

And the winners are n°4 and n°6, Yarngiraffe and Nora!

Thanks to all for participating, I will be in touch with the winners shortly to send them the pattern :)

I'm on a roll !

I have decided to tackle all of my WIPs before I cast on anything else (not counting my own designs, of course!). This Bridgewater shawl has been on my needles since May 2013 now, and this is becoming ridiculous. I'm at that point in this kind of projects where I cannot for the life of me see the end...especially when the end comes after joining an edging around 770sts of shawl ! I'm not even 1/4 of the way around. The only thing that keeps me going is the yarn, a Hedgehog Fibre lace in two incredible colorways (Vengeance and Pheasant), as usual. The picture doesn't do them justice, especially Vengeance.

I used to never have more than two projects going on at a time, but that flew right out the window when I started knitting small accessories. This year, I've always had at least four simultaneously on the needles, which resulted in some projects being abandoned way longer than they should have been, namely this one and a cashmere scarf dating back to 2012! I'm down to those two plus the new pattern I've been working on, colorwork fingerless mitts...

I am done with my Skyline shawl (and so happy with it!) but I'll wait for the Yarn Company to release the pattern to write one big post about it. Speaking of the YC, one of the perks (or the dangers!) of working there is that I usually get access to The Verdant Gryphon (amazing!) monthly crib before everyone else... This month I scored a skein of Firefly Hunt, and thank God I did, since we sold out the whole lot in 2 days...

On the whole "finishing my WIPs" kick, I also finally cast off the Papyrus Cowl I was knitting for the YC. I love that pattern, it is modern and entertaining. Also happy with the result, though I don't get to keep it for myself  :( But I love those colors, and I will definitely use that decorative stitch again, even though it's a bit tedious to work.

That's it for now, hopefully by the time I write next post Skyline will be up and running at the YC and I can post some pictures ! Happy knitting ! 

A time of change

      This holiday season has brought with it much turmoil and upheaved our usual family festivities. My beloved grandmother, who taught me to knit and with whom I had a magical relationship, passed away on Christmas Eve. I am so grateful that I was able to fly home early and see her and laugh with her and sing with her one last time. She was the most incredible woman, never said a bad word against anyone in 97 years, and everyone we talked to afterwards had a special story to tell us about her. 

Lost paradise of childhood...

As she left us, we were all around her, and I was knitting her a pair of socks. I was well aware that it was pointless, but I felt that to keep knitting it was a way to stay connected to her until the end. Those half finished socks are now at the bottom of my knitting bag. One day I will frog them, but I'm not quite ready yet.

The lonely, unfinished sock.

     It is the first time I have lost someone so important in my life and, with the grief, it is bringing about a lot of uncomfortable questions about myself, my purpose and the way I experience the world. To remain in knitting territory, I have noticed that instead of using knitting as a mindfulness practice, I've been using it to disconnect myself from what was going on around me. As nice as it is to knit while in class, or while talking to a friend, it puts distance between me and the moment. This is one of the (many) changes I would like to make, as I try to live my life in a way that moves towards awareness. Knitting is a wonderful meditation/mindfulness practice, if it is used as such, and I am determined to do so. I cannot keep ignoring the fact that I go through life refusing to let myself experience it, refusing to trust myself, refusing to make choices, in a constant state of denial or escapism.

        While I was spending a week at my mom's between Christmas and New Year, I gave myself time to dive a little more into designing. My Chrysler pattern is pretty much figured out, I just need the go ahead from The Yarn Company and the test yarn. I also did a first tentative chart for the Mexican mitts I've been thinking about for months now. I'm not 100% sure of it, but it's a start.

      I'm beginning to understand why some designers become dyers. You'd think with all the options available, it would be easy to find the right yarn for a design! But I never seem to find the exact right color/effect I have in mind. And while I usually have no problem buying from the internet, here I'm reluctant because I would like to touch the yarn and figure out if it fits what I have in mind... I'm much more demanding as a designer than as a knitter! I wish I could dye my own yarn, like Beata or Tanis - both businesses you need to check if you like pretty colors... :)

Spun from a braid by Beata... you just cannot go wrong!

 
   Speaking of pretty colors, let me leave you on this, the yarn I was spinning during this whole sleepless week. It is messy and irregular, just like I feel right now. I called it Renoir, because it reminds me of the impressionist paintings my grandmother took me to see when I was no more than five. We both remained in love with them all our lives, and it is one of the many sparks of her that will live in me forever.  

The beginning

So here we are. Four years ago, after a couple scarves in garter stitch, I picked up the Shipwreck Shawl pattern. I had been dabbling in all kinds of crafts for my whole life, but never really developed a special relationship with any of them. Until then. After that shawl, I was hooked. I think it was a combination of the simplicity of it (2 sticks and some string) and the endless possibilities that it allowed, plus the fact that what I was creating was functional and could actually be given a life and a purpose other than to sit there and be pretty. 

My first "non scarf" knitting project

What ensued was a serious addiction to yarn (I once traveled to the US with an almost empty camping backpack, which only purpose was to carry the yarn I had planned to buy. That was back when I had a steady job and no rent to pay!) and a delighted foray into the world of spinning. For some reason, fiber and yarn filled me with ever renewed joy, and the well of colors and materials was endless. 

Spindle days, before I got my wheel... 

I always managed to fit knitting into into my (many!) other activities, and until now I have been content to just follow patterns and enjoy the process. I wished I was a faster knitter, and I wished I had a better memory for techniques and didn't have to look them up every time they reappeared, but all in all, I didn't need more than what I was already doing. 

I did get into more complicated lace after a while...

But then I moved to New York, and I started acting, and knitting became both a luxury and a necessity to stay sane and hold on to a feeling of being productive, even during long hours of sitting in class without working. I moved from huge, complicated projects to small mindless ones that I could knit anywhere, and developed a craving for bright colors, probably due to my spending my days in a basement. I also started to realize that what I liked to knit was not necessarily what I liked to wear, and I came to the conclusion what I wanted were patterns that were at once challenging, practical, and used color in an exciting way. Now there are a lot of those patterns out there, but I could help beginning to have IDEAS... And once IDEAS begin, it is the end of mindless anything...

The $4 yarn from the corner store is great for samples! 

 So here we are. I'm embarking on a design journey, and already pulling my hair out because what I want to do with color cannot be done. Also, I never really paid attention to construction, and know I'm regretting it. But most of all, I'm excited! I know there's a lot of competition out there, but just being able to create a pattern that is my own would be an achievement and a joy in itself! Right now I'm working on a bicolor modern lace/slipped stitch shawl for The Yarn Company, but I have so many other ideas already... I'm going to need more yarn! :)