Knitting on Impulse

Wine Bottle Pendant

Here's what kept me busy yesterday once the yarn was out the door:

 

The bottle is handwoven sterling silver with little garnets inside, and a garnet briolette as accent. It's an auction item for the wine tasting/auction Rob's Rotary club is doing tonight as a polio fundraiser.  Rob is off in a minute to MC the event (Can't Say No syndrome again) and I'll be spending the evening packing for the first show of the season tomorrow.  Currently there's sheafs of checklists and tubs of yarn on every flat surface, except for the wee makeshift ironing board on which the man is sweating over his most(ly) decent pair of pants. (He really does iron well, one of several useful skills he picked up in the Canadian Forces.) 

So, with all that going on, the colourway of the week will go up Monday, rather than Sunday and I'm going to take the coming week off dyeing and get caught up on a million-and-one urgent things that have become increasingly crazy-making from being put off for so long.  And maybe steal a few quiet moments to fine tune, reboot, and re-scheme... again... how one person can raise a family, keep a non-shameful house, and run a home studio at a level of production that keeps us in the black without completely burning out. I swear it can be done, and armed with a great pen, my trusty Moleskine, and a sunny patio, I shall prove it. Really. (I wonder if a glass of wine would help...) 

Eye Candy Friday: Going, Going, Gone

 

 

 

The last one's my personal favorite....

Stupid Ideas

A few weeks ago, my son and I were out for a walk, chatting about this and that, when he announced with great fanfare that he had a plan for a Real Business.  (I think our entrepreneurial lifestyle might be rubbing off on him.) 

"The name of my business," he said importantly, "is Stupid Ideas." 

"So how does it work?" I asked.

"I've figured it all out", he said. "People pay me money, and I tell them a Stupid Idea.  That will help them a lot, because they will know an important thing not to do, and they will be safer."

"Intriguing," said I.

"And I've got my first idea already," he said.  "Skipping with swords."

Sadly, despite my support and encouragement, he neglected to compile a definitive list for my own edification, which might explain this:

 

Sticky mohair boucle as warp.  The shed has to be manually pried apart, thread by thread for every. single. pass.

 

The worst part is, it's really pretty, which makes it difficult to justify hacking the thing off the loom.  At this rate, it could take weeks to finish (though avoidance may be playing a wee role there) and I had great plans for some light and lovely silk wraps to take to the summer market.

Sigh.

Caution, Catmayswat

So I'd like to say (though I did, uncharacteristically, manage to reply to (pretty much) all the comments) how much I appreciate the supportive comments that came in to my last post.  I never lost the consumate professionalism that was a vital part of my last career, and despite the fact that I chose this life change (in large part) in order to be a more present mother, I've never wanted to do the "I have kids, so I can't keep my commitments" thing. Which pretty much means I have to take responsibility for saying up front "I can do this... but not that."  It still means a lot to have you write in and say that that works for you, because I really do like to make more happiness in the world.  Not in an unhealthy people-pleaser way, but in a sharing-the-joy way, which of course necessitates the nuturing of a space in which I can actually experience some joy.  Again and again, it comes back to balance - falling over, adjusting, trying again.

Speaking of adjustments, it has lately become moderately hazardous to access the freezer or add to the grocery list:

Beauty vs. Sustainability

I just have to show you this, courtesy of Linda:

 

 

It's Miriam Felton's Andromeda shawl, knit by (sadly blogless) Linda from fingering weight Bluefaced Bliss in a 2 skein gradient of sunset colours I created a while back. 

I am completely thrilled with having had a hand in bringing such a lovely FO into existence.... and this seems like an apt time to talk a bit about the gradient and self-striping yarns and the Rainbow Sock experiment.

This form of dyeing is great fun (in moderation), and lends itself to imaginative indulgence and cool custom ideas: for example, the 2 skein rainbow sets of sport and worsted weight merino I just sent off to a customer with a BSJ and a Tomten in mind.  Unfortunately, the technique doesn't scale well to high volume production.  I found a few efficiencies over the last month of dyeing rainbow socks, but not enough to significantly mitigate the fact that each skein takes approximately 10x as much time to create as that of a semi-solid colourway, as well as a several fold increase in material usage (including a substantial and unavoidable waste factor), a significant quantity of plastic products, and considerably more electricity per skein than my other dyeing methods.  If I had a dedicated studio space, I could rig apparatus that would improve on this, but that's a year or two away at least.

In a nutshell, it's a great technique for limited edition creative indulgence, but it's simply not viable in volume.  My conundrum is that it is quite popular, and I have observed (via the ever-instructive Ravelry forums) that scarcity of a Good Thing can breed a backlash of resentment and frustration against a dyer.  Not the sort of energy I want to attract.

Here's what I plan to do for the time being: The gradient /self-striping yarns will go to a reservation system, not unlike the custom colourway thing I've got going with the Blackberry and Dark Water.  I will dye them here and there as I'm able (which will slow down considerably over the summer with the kidlets home) and send folk their invoices when the yarn is ready.  If there seems to be mounting frustration or the waiting list is getting unmanageable, I'll either come up with a better idea or call a halt to the whole thing.

Any thoughts?

Expedition

It wasn't much warmer today, so we compromised on the swimming, with armpit-level, fully clothed wading in a glacier-fed lake.  Unlike the pool, adult immersion is optional.

 

Once they were sufficiently frozen, we abandoned the weekend beach crowds for the quiet solace of a trail.

 

In the mature forest, light dapples and dances in laughing swirls, and warm, fragrant air caresses the skin with maternal reassurance.

 

 

 

Restored, renewed, reconnected: a week begins again.

Rinse, Reskein, Repeat

 

Almost done.  Sunny skies beckon, though I maintain that 17°C is too cold for outdoor swimming.  The girl disagrees.  Vehemently.

Saffron

Fiercely sunny heart of the eternally optimistic crocus, exotic spice, swirling robes of enlightenment - there's just something about saffron, isn't there?

Summit sock:

 

Essential Merino in fingering

Sport (new!): 

 

and worsted:

 

There's also a double skein of Essential Merino Aran, which would make a stunning Leafy hat & mitts...

 

There's a bit of merino-silk:

 

Essential Merino Lace:

 

BFL in sport

 

and worsted:

If all that doesn't cheer up a grey and rainy week, I don't know what will! 

Life As Art

 

We inherited the painting from Rob's parents not long ago - I think you can see the attraction, despite the apparent craziness of bringing a sizeable piece of art into an already overcrowded home. 

The painting was purchased by my MIL's parents at the 1965 World Fair in London, Ontario.  I haven't been able to discover much about the artist, William Zierhofer, whether he ever visited the location, or simply painted the scene from a photo.  The fact that my mother spent many years in Morocco in her single days may partially explain why it resonates as though it were a part of my own history, though; I've been irresistably drawn to this image since I first saw it 15 or more years ago, long before I ever began to dye.

Anyway, today seemed like the right day to show you.

Mobius

A craving for something simple, yet luxurious on the needles. 

Wondering how far a skein of SuperNatural Silk will go.

 

A harder truth: wanting a safe bit of knitting to blog.  It has become apparent over the last year that I do not live in a bubble, am not invisible, nor have I been granted special immunity from reality (I did have my hopes), and that if I want to make knitwear design a part of the work I do to put food on the table, I'm going to have to stop blogging my best ideas in advance of developing them for publication.  Which sucks, because narrating the stuff in my head is a natural part of my creative process (just ask my long-suffering husband, who has to listen to random snippets of consciousness all day long.) 

Anyway, since a mobius is an entirely unoriginal concept, I figure it's pretty safe - I'm just playing around a bit with knits and purls, seeing what happens, exploring the math in a tactile fashion.  It's simple enough to be my TV project (because BSG is way too rivetting for chart-following and counting) but not Just Another Plain Sock.