Inspiration

I'm not sure where you seek your inspiration.  Magazines, books, nature, the weather...the yarn itself...other knitters...

I tend to be inspired by geometric patterns.  I'm strongly attracted to the modern clean lines of art-deco and cubist art.  I like images that suggest rather than represent...though I'm always impressed when people can represent something.

For my home, I want furniture that is sturdy, well-made and comfortable.

I also love color and am inspired by color.  Sometimes that simply from looking outside and seeing a gorgeous blue sky...and sometimes it's by looking in the basket as I pass by the door of my studio and the yarn pops out.

I've only been knitting since June 2011, so I still feel very new and "beginnery" in a way.  I don't know all the kinds of yarn I like knitting or the kinds of projects, so am still discovering things to look at and try and experiment with.

One thing that has captivated me recently has been home decor.  I want to make pillows and afghans and upholstery.  I want to have towels and dish cloths and area rugs.  And I want all of them to be made by my hands--either through my loom of my knitting needles.

Since I still haven't gotten onto my loom (I'm really hoping this summer will afford me opportunities since I'll have Fridays off again), all of the ideas are going right onto my knitting needles.

And this weekend I had a yarn scream at me to be knitted.  It's been hiding in the back basket under one of the shelves in my studio so I don't know how I remembered that it was there, but it and its mate hollered at me when I went into hang some clothes to dry and low-and-behold it was cast onto my needles and a giant pink fluffy mitered square was born.  Behold, Pearl even wanted to eat it.

I still don't know where this square is going after I've finished it.  It will depend largely on how much of this skein I use in making this square.  I have another skein that I can use to make another square or to finish this one off depending on how things go.  I've pulled some crazy yarns from my stash and will use them to finish off a blanket, or a pillow, or a rug or something.  But for now it's coming along as a lovely mitered square and I'm really enjoying the knitting of it.

Anticipation

I think we're all in a frenzy of anticipation around here.  Spring is here today and that means sunshine, warmer weather, beautiful flowers, trees budding and all the other happy things that go along with spring.

And this week we've had lovely spring weather (though I made the mistake of looking ahead at the 10 day forecast and next week doesn't look as sweet.  Sad, that).

But, you wanna know what I'm anticipating?

YARN CLUBS!  It's almost time.  I mean, like really, almost time!

• Dragonfly Fibers should be shipping sometime next week.
• Vesper always comes out at the end of the month (at least I get something every month with them).
• Cookie A ships at the beginning of the month...that's 10 days from now
• and Rockin Sock ships at the end of the month...so sometime next week?  Maybe the week after?

And I'm ready, y'all.  Ready Freddy, to see what my next month's yarn will be, what I can start making (I'm super excited about Cookie A after last month's socks)

So, yeah, I'm anticipating a real spring, not just the date on the calendar, but more than that, I'm hankering for some new yarn...I feel like I'm just "filling time" until the next wave of lovelies come my way.

--------

I'll give you a hint at the bath mat project I'm working on.  This is the smaller mat when it was in progress. I just made a "magic ball" of a bunch of different colors and knitting that together with the natural "Sugar N Cream."  It's a wonderfully absorbent rug and looks super-cute.  Plus it's the perfect size for that tiny space in front of David's shower...and the kitties think it's the BOMB.  We can't keep it straight now matter how hard we try.

You want to know how I made this?  I'm calling it one of my "just knit it" projects: 

1.  I pulled out a length of yarn and cast on until I was out of my "long tail."

2.  I knitted until it looked to be the right size, measured it in the space, knitted some more, then measured, knitted some more (my visual of what was the actual space was much smaller! ha!)

3.  Then when it was just about right, I knitted another couple of inches to accommodate shrinkage, bound off, washed it and started using it.

I'm curious to how it'll stand up to daily use, but I think it'll be just fine.  Oh, and the thing you can't see in this picture is that I just tied the new ends together and left the ends hanging like little bits of fringe.  It's such a nice touch of whimsy!