For inspiration in the how-to-photograph-your-knits department, a friend suggested that I look at a blog called Man Shops Globe and at the Anthropologie catalogue . The Sundance page (evidently it's not just a blog but an entire series!) contained a bit about temples in Thailand, and one of them had a lovely bit of trim on the roof that caught my eye.
Wonderful pattern (I am a sucker for pattern) with a nice border on the border (beautiful contrast between the brights and the earth tones) and little dangly things. Little irresistible dangly things. Surely I can knit this. It will make a fantastic edge on a sweater or a scarf. It will take a little engineering to get the right shape to the edge and to get the layers of colors to reveal themselves in the proper order. Three swatches and many pages of notes later, I think I've got it (I am being so organized!). But I can't decide on the color. Certain aspects are clear in my mind's eye, but then logic kicks in to fill in the blanks, and that seldom goes well. And as I narrow in on the pattern for the rest of the scarf, the myriad possibilities must be played with, to say nothing of the question of whether it will it be one all over pattern, suitable for stop light knitting, or an organic mixture of pattern. Sketches for both are required. Actually that one was resolved fairly readily - one all over pattern with a break in the middle where I can do some grafting, since it will need to be cast on from both ends. (Yes, it would be possible to graft within the stranded pattern, but what a pain in the neck. My intution tells me that this is one of those things that actually will end up being a creative opportunity, making the scarf more interesting.) But as I start actually putting the pattern to graph paper, I realize that it's ending up a different scale than I originally envisioned, so I start playing with a bigger scale, finding that there's interesting possibility to transition from the edge into the larger pattern. (Translation: even less repetition, hooray! The irony is not lost on me that seeing pattern makes my heart beat faster but making pattern does not.)
Anyway, here it is, bedtime, and I haven't done the first thing that I planned on accomplishing today.
But the thrill of an idea, how can you compete with that?
Maureen
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