Not So Fancy Nancy

On imitation, flattery and inspiration

Wow, lofty title huh? Sorry, I'm not planning a dissertation or anything, but this is a post I've thought about writing periodically. Whenever I read blogs that dismiss popular patterns - Oh, I won't make that. It's so ... pedestrian - I get a little miffed. I'm not much for personal attacks (getting enough of that in the presidential race thanks), so I never comment, but since this is my blog, well, I get to let it out here without directing my ire at anyone individually. I'm also frustrated with those of us who are making a popular pattern, but feel we must apologize for for it. That's a "we" because I've done it too. The old "I know, it's all over the blog world/Ravelry, but I think it's cute ..." intro. So today, let me praise imitation, for it is indeed a fine form of flattery.

Photo break. Lizard Ridge is a perfect example of an immensely popular pattern that I'm happy to copy. I LOVE knitting these squares. Blocking is not as much fun, but it makes them sing.

Intending to block about every five squares so it's not overwhelming. Not worrying about outliers until further along.

Of course many crafters join KALs or copy a pattern down to the yarn color or fabric pack and go happily about their way without a worry. This is a hobby. It's supposed to be fun (as we remind ourselves when ripping out). Many times a little mindless activity is far preferable to reinventing the wheel. Other times we question jumping on the bandwagon of an immensely popular pattern. Still, we leap on because that cart is going somewhere we want to go, and we're hoping it's not hell in a handbasket. Yeah, that's stretching the container metaphor, but I couldn't help myself! I've always loved that phrase! It's so visually evocative. Wikipedia says it's of unknown origin, but thought to be mid-century Midwestern, which given my KY background explains why I heard it so often in my young life that I assumed it was Shakespearian.

Then there are some who get awfully snippy about the idea of doing a popular pattern. I have no problem if you only want to knit or sew completely original work - more power to you on your creative journey - but I've never quite understood the need to turn that impulse into indirect indictment of those who choose to be inspired by someone else's creation. Isn't that why we troll Ravelry for endless hours? Isn't that why we read blogs? To be inspired. To see something so intriguing, so beautiful that we just have to make THAT. NOW. And sometimes we see a person who seems to have gotten it just right. The perfect pattern. The perfect color. We don't want a modified version of it, we want THAT. Why not copy it? We'll still get the joy of the creative process.

Here's my in-progress copy of the Flutter Cardi from the new Interweave.

Must admit I've stopped knitting on it over the last week or two since we've had warm weather, then rain. Spent days and days cleaning the old growth from the garden and replanting for spring. February is our April and haste must be made if one wants spring flowers. When my husband came home last week and found me planting by porch light at 9 PM he questioned my sanity, but I crowed the next day when we woke up to rain. For those of you who don't know, here in San Diego County we get 10" or less rain per YEAR. Some years 5" or less. Gardeners here rejoice at the sound of rain. And yes, I am obsessive.

Still looking for a pattern for this Lavold Silky Tweed, but at least I found a good use for Asian pear wrappers. They were almost in the trash, but I held my hand closed thinking There must be a use for these foam nets? ...

Not much in the veggie garden right now, but the greens are still coming on. Kaffe Fassett found chard inspiring and turned it into fabric. I am thankful. My husband put a few stalks in a vase one day to brighten the bookshelf and I just had to photograph them with my Farmers Market quilt.

   

Separated at birth?

I'm honored beyond measure to tell you that my quilt has a doppelganger. I grabbed that photo on the right from Julie's blog, but there are other larger ones at the link. If you appreciate costume sewing you must scroll through the rest of Julie's blog because she and her daughters do simply amazing Renaissance Faire outfits. Julie was very thoughtful and asked if she could make her quilt in a similar colorway. Of course! I'm so sorry it's taken me so very long to say thank you publicly. I just hope that one day our quilts meet for a party.

My newest quilt was inspired by the $700 Ethan Allen Rosette Quilt from last year. It's not on their website anymore but I found this photo from the catalog on a home decorating blog (yes, also copied to my server). For once I'll be able to tell my DH that I'm saving money with my crafting! OK, truth is I cut the pattern down from a 98" x 95" bed quilt to a 60" x 40" wall hanging, but I'm sticking to my $700 price point.

Over the weekend I happened onto the torn out catalog page stuck between pattern photocopies and suddenly knew it was the handwork I was looking for to take to softball and gymnastics. I'd bought this yo-yo maker a while back with this quilt in mind, but it had fallen off my radar.

These are gilded Asian themed fabrics from my stash cut to 5.5" squares. I'm changing the colorway to match my fabric, but following the rhythms of the EA quilt. 14 yo-yos down, 240 to go.

To finish this:  Artists have copied Mother Nature and each other forever. Yes, great artists produce groundbreaking work, but they build on inspiration. Art isn't created in a vacuum. Knitting and quilting are perfectly suited for sharing creativity. Any work you make will be both individual and part of a greater whole. Don't worry about copying someone. We go out shopping and buy clothes and shoes that literally thousands if not hundreds of thousands of other people in the world are wearing. Even if you're a boutique shopper, there are probably more people wearing that "unique" shirt than have made almost any knitting pattern, Clapotis aside. And why not make a Clapotis? Who cares if 5000 other people have? Isn't it wonderful that a knitted object can identify you at just a glance to other knitters around the world? If it came off your needles, hook or machine, it's yours. Enjoy.

Stash busting goodness

Back in January I started scrapbooking our last San Francisco trip. I found myself working in a constricted area and had to move the sewing machine to claim any possible flat space. Still I kept loosing the photos under paper scraps. This photo doesn't show the real mess off to the right, but you get the idea. I knew it was time for a clean up.

It's been getting easier each time (is there a lesson there?) and I've been able to keep some level of organization, but things always pile back up far too quickly. With the everything in its place mantra I dug into the deep and hidden corners this round. Entertaining fantasies of actually keeping a semblance of order now. Time is the revelator.

For now, the sewing machine has its spot back and the desk is usable. Even the bags full of projects stuffed under the desk are gone! All logged and stored properly. Miracles never cease.

One goal for '08 is to use Ravelry's pattern and yarn database to match every (OK, almost every) yarn in my stash to at least one pattern and build a queue arranged by gauge to keep me on track. A big problem in the past has been buying the suggested yarn for a pattern, only to find my gauge didn't work. Changing needles only alters about 1 stitch per 4" for me and I've learned the hard way that if I have to knit too tightly on too small a needle to get gauge I won't be able to hold that tension throughout the project or my hands will start to get scary sore. The gauge needs to be there naturally. Decided doing it bassackwards is the solution, so now I'm making swatches for every yarn and then looking for patterns that match the gauge, fiber content, weight and yardage. I did some more swatches and a lots of potential marriages have been arranged. Here are the cast ons so far...

This is Sienna from IK Fall '06. Spec'd in Blue Sky worsted wool, but I got the 16/4" gauge with Blue Sky worsted cotton. Every pattern I have for this yarn has an 18/4 gauge, but I found knitting this thick cotton tightly on smaller needles made my fingers ache.

I suspect like many of you, I generally ignore row gauge, but of course it's there for a reason. After getting up to the shoulders on the front panels, I had to rip back and cut the top cable repeat in half so the neckline would start low enough. Tried a few other solutions, but this one looks best without huge frogging. Now it's time to refigure the sleeve caps.

Still waiting to see Knitting Daily's gallery of the new IK Spring '08 patterns, but I think the Flutter Sleeve Cardigan will work on me. This Lavold Silky Wool has been languishing for far too long. The texture and color are a good fit for the pattern. I can get the label gauge of 22/4 using US 5's, but on 6's my gauge relaxes to 20+, which is what is called for in this pattern.

Had a long wait for car servicing yesterday, so I settled into an armchair with a latte at the coffeeshop next door and cast on. Given that the other shopping opportunities at that strip mall are TJ Maxx and Bev Mo I think I made the right choice. Last time I had a long service appt I spent more than the car repair on remaindered housewares, shoes and liquor. Using stash feels positively thrifty. The color above is accurate in low light, and below is pretty close in bright light. This is one of those yarns that changes tone quite a bit depending on the light.

This beautiful verdigris color of Lavold's Silky Wool is also from stash. The yarn is perfect for our weather here, so it's criminal not to use it. This one will be slower going, but I love the Cable-Down Raglan pattern from IK Spring '07.

Finally, I must have a truly mindless project for late night, carpool and social knitting and none of the above qualify. Enter the Lizard Ridge throw from Knitty. I've got ten different skeins of Kureyon I scored on sale. I'll wait until they're knitted up before I add any more colors. I went to my first knitting/crochet Meetup last Saturday and made good progress on one of these blocks. It was really nice get out with other knitters, so I think I'll be going back when I can get free of the family on Saturday mornings.

Quilting alert! Yes, I still love that too. Next time there will be final photos of the Funky Monkey quilt. I sewed the binding on Sunday afternoon. Just need to pull in the loose threads and stage a photoshoot. Whenever I'd stop to fidget with the corners Miss Raven would try to make a nest on the quilt. I'm thrilled to report that the Moda chenille tape really works. You can see it lying flat here (the blue line), but after a wash and dry it fluffed up just as advertised.

   

Reuse, recycle and WIP up some lemonade

We all have them. Creative dreams tucked into boxes and stuck in the back of the closet. Big ideas gone wrong. The "perfect" project that made you cry in frustration, but you couldn't quite rip or toss ... there was still love there. I won't belabor the relationship metaphors springing to mind since the impending saint's day has driven every advertiser to desperately find some way to tie their product to love and red - no need for me to add to the drivel. Don't think I'm down on love, I just happily celebrated my 11 year anniversary, but if you're not selling chocolate, flowers or Valentine's entertainment options, there's no product tie-in. Let it go.

I know the new year makes a lot of us want to clean up old WIPs. I've been seeing other people's boxes opened on their blogs. Funny how much our unfinished projects tell about our knitting tastes. Something tells me the Maria over at Passing Down Crazy likes colorwork! Go take a look at her unfinished (and finished) projects that she's been cleaning out and get very inspired.

So, what specific dream of mine went wrong? Back in 2002 I was a new knitter with more gumption than sense. Not much has changed really, but experience does count for something right? Anyway, in one of my first Interweave Knits there was a bolero pattern made in Mission Falls 1824 cotton designed by Mags Kandis. The block pattern was modern and craftsman at the same time and I loved it on sight. Problem was that I couldn't see me in the tiny, tight bolero jacket. Decided to expand the pattern out to a boxy cardigan. I copied the chart. I planned. I drew. I bought yarn. I knitted. I learned Fair Isle. I learned intarsia. This was pre-digital camera, but here's a photo from my project notebook:

The Fair Isle sucked - the center blocks pulled too tightly - but the intarsia worked and I loved the fabric it created. I started knitting like a fiend, dreaming of my wonderful coat of many colors. Got past the underarms and realized I'd made a 30" wide monster. Still determined, I machine sewed a stay-line and cut (YES, CUT) the sides off to get a 22"+ measurement. Saved what yarn I could from the cut off blocks and put it all in a box. Some part of me knew that even at a more normal width, this just wasn't going to look good or wear well. Kandis' bolero design worked because of its tiny size and tight fit, but my loose cardi was going to fail miserably. Still, I couldn't bring myself to throw it away, so I tucked it in the very top of my closet.

Over the last few weeks I've been cleaning my crafting area and mind. More on that another time. Two sweaters ended up on my desk with a make something or dump it sentence. Today this intarsia disaster became a success. Here are my notes from Ravelry:

Decided the seed stitched hemline of the sweater could serve as the opening, so all I had to do was figure out the construction for the other three sides. Found a suitable pillow, but needed to add another row of blocks for height, which I did in an afternoon using the leftover bits from the side cuts (would have taken a week five years ago).

Process:
1) Machine sewed a seam around three sides to stabilize the knitting. Trimmed any extra bits.
2)  Rather than knit a back, I cut a piece out of a linen/cotton dress that had never suited me. Used the already finished hemline of the dress as the pillow opening. The width of the dress was a little less than the knitting, but I don't mind the knitting wrapping around the sides.
3) With right sides of the linen and knitting together, machine sewed each side just inside the hold seam.
4) Worked the extra width of the knitted fabric into gathers along the top (pin photo) and sewed.
5) Used velcro to close knitted hem to dress hem.

Deeply imperfect, but FINISHED!!! Ta Da:

You can see how the Fair Isle didn't work in those bottom two rows. The entrelac holds up well with this nubby yarn - I've already run this through the wash to shrink and tighten it.

Here's an outside view of that gathered top seam that was pinned in the in-progress photo above.

Sewing on knitting really isn't that hard. I was expecting headaches, but it sailed right through machine without a catch.

This is the bottom hem of the dress. Major cheat, but it fit the overall seat of my pants approach.

The pillow is about 22" wide. This where I want to use it, but I need a wider, more comfy chair. Anyway, my IKEA chair's pattern clashes with the pillow, so I threw this blanket over for the photo. The IKEA chair will move to my daughter's room and I'll find something plain for this spot. Hope to find something good at the consignment store since I only need a one-off.

For those of you who like my tumbling blocks I want to assure you they're not forgotten. I love those blocks so much that I've decided to leap in and make it a throw. The first strip is only about 24" so I decided to double the width. There will probably be a border too - this is a design-as-I-go kind of thing. Started a new strip and added in the three new colors near the middle so the they'll balance with the placement of the existing colors. For the same reason I ripped back a few rows of the old strip so the new colors can get worked in there too for balance. Once the new strip is equal to the old one I'll graft them and knit as one from there.

The cats help me with almost every knitting photoshoot. The dog could care less, but the felines MUST sit on my knitting or quilting whenever I work on it. First Raven claims her spot.

Then August joins her, both of them studiously ignoring any funny sound I make trying to get them to look at me. Power-play is the game.

Invariably they start wrestling.

Until they hear the dog coming and they're once again a united front against canine invasion.