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A long while ago, I started knitting some gloves with my handspun. From the start, I wasn’t thrilled with the colour of the yarn, and as I progressed it became clear that these gloves would never make it onto my hands. The pattern I chose was for large-ish hands, and despite my modifications, they just weren’t going to be snug enough to show the lace panels on the back. The 3/4 finished glove sat accusingly next to the sofa, making me feel guilty, until…riiiiip!
The reason for my new-found zeal is a very similar glove pattern in the fall issue of Vogue knitting. No mucky modifications required, so I’m hoping for a good fit this time. I mean, it’s getting chilly out there, not to mention the number of gross people that sneeze all over the handrails on the skytrain. So I happily cast on some Koigu in my favourite shade of chocolate brown and hopefully will have cozy, germ-free hands soon.
colour bridging and composition exercises
Wow. I spent all last week at Maiwa’s Colour Institute workshop, led by Michele Wipplinger. At the risk of sounding gushy, Michele is very inspiring both personally and professionally. The whole week was simply an immersion in colour, with plenty of show-and-tell: woven, quilted, and dyed items from around the world, books, and yarns. It was like an advanced colour theory class, with tons of exercises using different colour systems (like Munsell and NCS), watercolours, and plain old paper and glue. One interesting highlight was the colour vision test, a test of colour discrimination that left me feeling a little cross-eyed.
In addition to being a colour expert, Michele also has a wealth of knowledge about natural dyes. I see a trip to her Seattle studio in my future. So I’m feeling inspired and trying to scrape together some time to put this new-found inspiration and colour knowledge to work, before it wears off. I’ll be going back tonight to volunteer at Maiwa’s Slow Clothes Fashion Show, plus a few more lectures next week. And then my love affair with Maiwa may cool down for a bit.
sample quilt with hand-dyed fabrics
Last weekend I happened upon a food photography workshop at the Roundhouse.
I thought it would help my knitting photography, as both food and fibre subjects are small, close, and need to look delicious.
Friends asked me: Did I learn a lot? Well, no, but I find that getting better at photography, for me, is a slow process punctuated by the occasional ‘aha!’ moment. The ‘aha!’ from this workshop: the five-way reflector/diffuser. I ran straight to Dressew and bought some white nylon for $6 to make my own.
I’ve finished the Featherweight Cardigan and have been wearing it a lot – it’s perfect for cool sunny weather.
It’s knit in sweetgeorgia’s handpainted lace. It’s amazingly soft, and warm considering it’s made from only two 50g skeins.
I like this pattern much better than Hanna Fettig’s other cardigan, Whisper, which has weird shaping around the armpits. But you should have a look at her patterns if you haven’t already. Because I still consider myself a beginner knitter, I really appreciate the simplicity and elegance of her designs. This one was knit in the round, so no side or shoulder seams to fuss with.
I knit a 1×1 rib for the border around the front instead of the stockinette suggested by the pattern – I thought it might look funny if the edges rolled, and I know I’d be tugging on it constantly to make it lie flat.
The only thing I would do differently is the sleeve cuffs. I shortened them to elbow length, but you can see the perma-wrinkle they’ve developed from where I bend my arms. Complicating the matter is the modified tubular bind-off I did on the cuffs, thinking it would be a cleaner edge. It’s too tight- my ripped biceps have kind of maxed out the ribbing, but the bind-off keeps it from stretching out evenly.
