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February 08, 2006
Olympic Project Finalized and WIP status
After weeks and weeks of swatching the choice is out of my hands~ I received some yarn with which to design a sweater. So thats gonna be my challenge: design and knit the sample for a new sweater. Lorraine had a post today about designing and I found it very interesting because she works with color whereas I work with texture. I like to call myself color blind but really its more a matter of not being very confident in mixing colors. I once knit a baby sweater in blue and picked out a purple for trim. My fave LYS happens to have a former painter on the staff and she informed me that the colors did not go together so whatever little experiments I was willing to make were kinda thwarted. And I still think they look ok together but no I am not gonna show you. Anyway my process is to first knit a st st swatch. I do this to determine what needle gives me the drape I want and to see how the fabric shows knits vs purls. Stitch definition for lack of better terms. If its all fuzzy wuzzy then I am going with a st st based fabric and if everything is crisp then I consider a more complex knit/purl combo. Then the weight and drape effect how take in-ish I am willing to have the knit/purl combos. A heavy yarn, and by this I mean yardage per weight in relation to suitable gauge, can't be further weighted down IMO by a lot of take in. Ugh clear as mud but say you are dealing with a loosely spun or hollow cored WW wool vs a cabled WW cotton~ the wool is good for cables or ribs but the cotton might have a little textural interest but not allover. Anyway I haven't gotten to that point yet and am still swatching for drape right now~ working only in st st to decide what size needle gives me the feel I want before even swatching any stitch patterns. Of course my mind is thinking hmmmm maybe a cabley pattern or maybe a real in your face 3D pattern. Thats where I am leaning but I certainly have not even looked at my pattern books and started drafting. Are you excited about watching me struggle through the design process? yah I know its not as exciting as doing a norgie in 16 days but I have knit half a sweater and then decided I was ever so confoozled and restarted so there might be drama!
I have worked the heel on my Jaywalker socks. Not turned the heel but the heel flap alone. I keep telling myself its Sunday Socks so I needn't stress but I am a bit concerned about the growing pile of WIPS and the incoming ordered projects which I am so jazzed to do mainly cause they are color stuff which I adore but am too chicken to design on own. I also am just a wee bit under the mitten top shaping on Maimu. Nothing to show with either of those yet IMO but progress is being made.
OK toodles and don't forget~ yarny days and knitterly eveings to all ;^>
Posted by Elka at 09:05 PM | Comments (2)