Sunday, December 17, 2006

Design Process

One of my fiber-sister, favorite bloggers, Jane Thornley, shares some of her design process in her blog, which you can find here. Today she posted "Welcome to my Head" so I thought I would share a little bit of my own head.

This is the beginning of a new design, which I am temporarily calling "Sunset Sweater".
The colors were all inspired by a skein of Koigu Kersti (what remains is a little ball right above the spool of deep burgundy near the bottom left corner of the pile)

The colors remind me of the colors of the sky during the gentle sunsets we sometimes have, after the brilliant colors have sunken down below the horizon and all that remain are the paler reflections.

Toward the center of the photo are the beginnings of the body, knit circularly, and the sleeves, both sleeves knit on one circ at the same time. I am working a wavy stitch pattern adapted from one of my favorite stitch pattern books, "Ripple Stitch Patterns".

I work the body and sleeves at the same time because it's easier for me to keep track of the changes and also, when I finish one part, the whole thing is finished!

My recent visit to The Knitter's Studio for the first time evoked a buying spree that broke my yarn fast, one month earlier than I had promised myself. After that last glut of Koigu, I had promised myself not to buy yarn till after the first of the year. (the 2 e-bay purchases did not count)

But the way Liz arranges her yarn by color broke through my defenses. I had just been talking to Reese about astral colors and the yarns...well, you all know how yarn effects me.

At first I thought I would buy a lot more of the Kersti, and just put traces of the other fibers into the sweater, but I didn't want to wait to continue knitting and the prospect of driving through LA crazy holiday shopper traffic to get back to the Knitter's Studio swayed my decision heaviliy into the 'use what you already have' side of the process, so here it is.

So far I am pleased with the sweater. That's not to say it will reach completion. I have a terrible point in every piece where I think I hate it and consider chucking the whole thing. This happens EVERY TIME I make something, whether it is my own design or someone else's.

Will let you know what happens.