Only two weeks into January, and already I am struggling to keep up with my resolution to publish one blog post every two weeks! It’s not for lack of ideas that I haven’t been blogging … inspiration seems to be creeping up everywhere lately. While listening to the radio on our road trip back from Nelson this past weekend, I heard a snippet of a brilliant interview with a writer who had done a Ted Talks (unfortunately I didn’t catch her name), and she described this concept of writing being like the waves of an ocean. I can’t remember what she said word for word, but it was something like this:
Much like a wave builds up energy and then releases it all as it comes crashing down, it’s the same as writing. Sometimes I won’t write for several months at a time, but even though none of my ideas are coming out on paper, this step is still just as necessary. My ideas are building up, ruminating, getting ready for the eventual time when they will spill out onto paper.
I couldn’t help but relate to how well this applied to not only my writing, but also blogging and knitting! Sometimes I will find myself wrapped up in a project, and knit non-stop, and other times I can take an extended break from knitting but still find myself indulging in the latest patterns and projects popping up on Instagram and Pinterest. It amazes me how some knitters can finish so many beautiful projects in just one year!
Like knitstagrammer extraordinaire Jamie of @knitosophy who managed to knit ten sweaters in one year! How rewarding would that be to have a full new wardrobe of handmade sweaters at the end of the year! It sounds like a dream … 🙂
Although I love poring over the latest patterns and ‘knit trends’, I find it so difficult to actually buy the yarn and start a project, especially when it is an ambitious project like a sweater. I could blame part of this on the fact that I have accumulated a fairly large yarn stash these past couple of years and am reluctant to buy more yarn before using it up. Also, most of the yarns in my stash are only one to two skeins, making it next to impossible to knit a sweater with. At least, that was what I thought until I had the grandiose idea of using several different colored skeins of my Sulka Legato fingering weight yarn to knit the Tegna sweater. I am super excited about this pattern since I have seeing so many beautiful versions of it on Instagram this last year and it will be my first ever sweater that I knit for myself! I am so curious to see how it will look as a multicolored version, but if it turns out as I’m envisioning, I think it will be perfect.
Kirigami by Gudrun Johnston
I love unique and original patterns that feature interesting construction! The Kirigami pattern, included in Brooklyn Tweed’s latest Winter 2018 collection is stunning, don’t you think?
Who knows, maybe once I finish my Tegna I’ll become a full blown sweater knitting addict and will cast this on to keep the momentum going … 😉
Knit Lit
Have you heard of the term ‘knit lit’? I never knew it was “a thing” until I looked it up on Goodreads, and discovered over 300 books that are classified as ‘knit lit’! Judging from the books that are on the Goodreads shelf, it seems that knit lit involves mainly books that feature a knitter as the main character, or books that reflect on knitting. My own personal definition of knit lit, however, would probably be more along the lines of ‘books that are written by knitters’ or ‘good books to listen to while knitting’. You can even get audio books that are tailored to the amount of hours you expect to be knitting.
I received A Stash of One’s Own by Clara Parkes for my birthday, and I am super excited to delve into it! Also shown below is my freshly cast on Tegna Sweater. I didn’t know it at the time, but I had twisted stitches while knitting in the round, and now I have to start all … over … again …. :'(
Another book that has been showing up everywhere, and that I would love to get my hands on is The Immortalists by Chloe Benjamin. Now, although this book isn’t about knitters or knitting, the author is a fellow knitter! There is even a collaboration going on between Quince and Co. and a few very well known knitwear designers to create designs inspired by the book. The color palette of the book cover is beautiful, so I am so excited to see what comes out of this!
Here are a couple of my favorite sneak peaks of the designs so far:
Roadtrip to Nelson
I love roadtrips. Especially when my significant other is more than fine with driving the whole way, leaving me to knit in the passenger seat. This is probably the main reason I was able to get through the main “hump” of swatching and casting on for the Tegna (probably my least favorite part). Driving the Crowsnest Highway also provides some excellent views.
Over the weekend, we drove to Nelson to meet up with our friends from Calgary. We spent the weekend both snowboarding and cross-country skiing, and couldn’t have asked for better conditions. So. Much. Snow.
There you have it. My last couple of weeks have been spent enjoying friends, family, snow, writing, road trips, and the start of a very exciting Tegna sweater that I cannot wait to finish.
