A Design Story Continued

Posted on | November 24, 2009 | 8 Comments

Did you see this in the IK Winter 09 Preview or in your magazine? I love this!! Hurray for more sideways colorwork – I love the traditional motif and natural colors. And that collar. I may have to make this:

Sharon Shoji's Heritage Sweater From Interweave Knits Winter 2009

I digress, I was just excited to see more sideways fair-isle – great design, no?

Getting back on topic, along with the swatching to settle on colors, I did a little more sketching to better flesh out my idea:

Note the sleeve detail… I acknowledged fairly quickly that I was going to let that detail go – because I wasn’t entirely sure how to execute a sleeve cap on my own, let alone a potentially fussy one like this. I still love the thought though. I’m a sucker for interesting sleeves. I’m finding that the coolest thing about ideas and sketches is that they don’t go bad, you can always pick them up later in part or as a whole when and where it turns out to be a good fit – I have filed this one for future reference.

I shared the sketch and my swatches from the previous post with our little design group, and got some good feedback, then it kind of sat while I finished up other things. Later in the fall, I received Interweave’s mood boards for the following years Autumn issue and it seemed like this idea might just be a good fit, and plus I was getting to the point in my head where I wanted to more experience with submitting both print and online. So I decided to make the project my first magazine submission. Being completely uneducated in such matters I had no real hope of being published – that would have been a big bonus, of course! I mostly thought it would be a good excercise – I wanted to see if I could put together a comprehensive and professional proposal that I felt good about. And I did, with a little coaching from some friends. In hindsight, thank goodness it WAS rejected. Not sour grapes, truly. I’ve learned a ton with this project and it’s been so nice to take it slow. Though I generally work pretty well under pressure, I don’t believe the results would have been up to my expectations if I’d had to put this together in a month’s time. I’m quite happy with how all the technical aspects came together, and I think that’s a direct result of having the time and freedom to let everything sink in and really understand all the concepts rather than force it. I’d be lying if I said there weren’t times when I was terribly impatient. But I’m working on accepting that these things take time, especially with a busy life and non-math brain (how other people do this and produce a huge volume of work, I’ve no earthly idea!) I probably shouldn’t confess that, hmm? But, so it goes. I had, and will always have a lot to learn. One of the many things I love about knitting.

More swatching ensued:

Hmmm… No.

Yes!

And the submission went something like this:

And now you have an idea of what it looks like (except that it doesn’t really, except in structure – it’s amazing what a difference yarn can make in the look and feel of a project!) And then I waited. And learned that maybe it would be best to work independently on a project that I’m already really excited about rather than wait. Not that it wouldn’t still take me a couple years to complete, you understand. I got my swatch back in July of the following year, and did a little dance (Firstly because, yay! Swatches back, can play! Secondly because my name on IK’s letterhead? Even if it is a nicely worded form letter that reads rejection? Still very cool. Again, fan-girl, yes, I know.)

So this is really only part two (You’ll forgive me for stretching this out, won’t you? I’m trying to keep you interested until it comes out!!). Chapter three starts with Gryphon mentioning that she was working with a mill on a yarn for colorwork…. I’ll save the rest for next time! And I’ll leave you with a question. Have you had a LOOOONG running project (knitting or fiber-related… design… any creative endeavor or goal…) that you just couldn’t let go of? I’d love to hear about it!

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Now playing: William Elliott Whitmore – Hell or High Water
via FoxyTunes

This album was included as a download from our Paste Magazine digital subscription, and I’m loving it so much!

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