a new skirt, an interview & a question
Each Wednesday, I take stock of the projects I’m working on.
What I’m Working on…
: a new skirt! sometimes project just fall together beautifully – this project was one of those projects (…after I tried & miserably failed to make a hoodie out of this fabric…) This maxi skirt is hopefully one of the many that I’ll make & live in this summer.
: if you missed it on Friday, I was interviewed about knitting & knitwear design by Robin Hunter for her blog and you can read the interview here.
: much of this week spent working on the roughest of rough drafts of an ebook about color (understanding color theory, choosing color, combining colors, mixing colors, etc.) and so, I wanted to ask:
what trips you up or what sticking points do you run into, when you’re planning color combinations or working with color (in knitting or anywhere)?
I’d love to hear your answers! Leave a comment or contact me directly. Talk soon!
What fabric are you trying to create?
One of the things I love about knitting, is that as the knitter, you’re literally making the fabric, (and manipulating it at the same time).
Unlike in sewing, where you start with a flat piece of fabric and remove parts of it to create a garment (or bag, or whatever). Knitting starts with thin air, and some string – you get to create the fabric from scratch.
Each time you knit, you’re creating fabric that has never been created before.
This means if you don’t think about & plan your fabric, you get a (not always awesome) surprise.
I love lace weight yarn, I knit shawls in it, and I knit sweaters in it, but that doesn’t mean I want the same fabric for both types of projects.
I like my sweater fabric open and airy. I like my shawl fabric a little denser, with excellent stitch definition. And I like both my sweaters and my shawls to be drapy – which is why I use lace yarns (but that’s a whole other post.)
For a sweater, I knit lace weight yarn on fairly large needles.
For a shawl, I knit that same yarn on much smaller needles.
A lace weight yarn I’d knit on a US 2 (2.75mm) needle for a shawl, I’d knit on a US 4 (3.5mm) or US 5 (3.75mm) needle for a sweater.
Example!
“Ordo” is a lace shawl, knit with 2 strands of lace weigh yarn held together, on a US 5 (3.75mm) needle, while my No So Straightforward Basic Purple Pullover is also knit with 2 strands of lace weight yarn held together, but I knit that on a US 9 (5.5mm) needle.
Another example!
“Tumbling Deco” is a lace shawl, knit with 1 strand of lace weight yarn, on a US 2 (2.75mm) needle, while my Boring Black Sweater is knit with 1 strand of lace weight yarn, on a US 4 (3.5 mm) needle.
This is because I want my shawl fabric denser than my sweater fabric.
Denser stockinette = crisper lace work.
And I want my shawls need to show off intricate lace patterns.
When you’re creating your fabric, do you want…
dense fabric? drapy fabric? loose fabric? flowing fabric? chunky fabric? thin fabric? textured fabric? smooth fabric? open fabric? etc. etc.
Basically, it all boils down to:
What do you want your fabric to feel like?
(It’s *so* hard to communicate what I’m trying to say with only words and photos. I wish I could hand you the pile of swatches & projects so you could feel the difference. I hope this all makes some sort of sense, and if nothing else, inspires you to go pick up two pieces of fabric and feel the different qualities they exude.)
packing & traveling with a handmade wardrobe – The Self-Made Wardrobe Week 44
The Self-Made Wardrobe is a project where I only wear garments I’ve made.
It’s a year long experiment in getting dressed without clothing labels –
it’s a year about noticing patterns, trying things, and observing what happens.
Day 302 – Friday, May 29th
archer button up shirt // black tank top // vine print skirt
bicycle necklace // bead crochet bracelets // rings // black flats
Day 303 – Saturday, May 30th
2nd archer button up shirt // black tank top // black maxi skirt
robot necklace // various rings // black flats // coffee
Day 304 – Sunday, May 31st
archer button up shirt // black tank top // jeans
robot necklace // bead crochet bracelets // rings // black heels
Day 305 – Monday, June 1st
blue kimono // black tank top // vine print skirt
khaki scarf // bead crochet bracelets // rings // black heels
Day 306 – Tuesday, June 2nd
blue kimono // black tank top // vine print skirt
robot necklace // bead crochet bracelets // rings // black flats
Day 307 – Wednesday, June 3rd
archer button up shirt // black tank top // jeans
black scarf // bead crochet bracelets // rings // black flats
Day 308 – Thursday, June 4th
blue kimono // black tank top // graphic silk circle skirt
pocket watch necklace // bead crochet bracelets // rings // sneakers
Lots of repeats this week – that’s because I spent the long weekend at TNNA + travel days. Like I do for every trip, I packed at the last minute and instead of planning outfits – I just threw my most comfortable pieces of clothing in a bag and walked out the door…
That included: both my archers, my blue kimono, all my black tank tops, my jeans, my vine print skirt, and my black maxi skirt.
The grab comfortable clothes & walk out the door has always been my packing strategy, which is a pretty laid back strategy, but I was amazed that packing for this trip (with a 100% handmade wardrobe) was even easier then packing for any previous trip (with a small but not handmade wardrobe).
Maybe it’s because I made all my clothes and therefore know everything about them, or maybe it’s because I’ve been wearing the same tiny wardrobe for 10 months now – but there was no question about what I was going to pack – which was pretty neat.
(I did at the last minute throw my graphic silk circle skirt & my cascading flowers skirt into the bag – “just in case” – but never pulled them out & didn’t need them.)
PS. if I ever thought finding photography angles in my NYC apartment was hard, it’s nothing compared to a hotel room.
