Fiber Raven Soiree

The Life of a Knitter is Not Always Easy

I've received two essays so far for the Essay to Acquire Sock Yarn (EASY) competition. See yesterday's entry for rules, and send your words my way!

My first weaving class on Friday was much fun. The Gray One offered to bring me into Seattle on his way to work, and we set out waaay too early, fearing traffic. As it turned out, we stopped and had a bagel, then went to within a couple of blocks of the store, and it was only 8:00. Class started at 9:30. A cup of coffee, some conversation... it was good to catch up.

Outside two women waited in the parking lot for the doors to open. I introduced myself. They introduced themselves, and one of them shook my hand and said "Hi, I'm Gay". I had to look at her carefully before I decided that her name was actually Gay, and refrained from saying anything but hello. Things that lept to mind were "I'm not" or "I'm taken" or "that's ok", but I figured she's suffered enough of that in the past. Gay is actually a very nice and interesting woman who runs a winery with her husband. People who own wineries could be very good to know.

Carol, the teacher and weaver, made me feel right at home. She emanated confidence and the assurance that she knew what she was doing and she knew how to teach it. We learned how to measure and cut our warp, and how to warp our loom. I can't wait until Friday again!

Last night the Feral Knitters ganged up on 3rd Place Books again, a record 19 showing up. We had cake for Janine as it was her last Feral meeting before she moves. It just won't be the same without her.

A real treat for this meeting was Betts Lampers, a tiny local woman and the designer of the cover sweater on Sweaters From Camp. She brought several of her designs for us to see in person and talked a little about her design process.

Now, what I wasn't telling you last week was that I spent hours, hours per day renovating my design based on the Chippendale chairs. I knit, pondered, ripped, knit some more, squinted, knit, ripped, all week. By the end of the week I was exhausted, cranky, still wasn't satisfied and my house looked like it was growing its own carpet with all the hair Grazzi and Jojo and Ginger have been shedding. Dishes were piled up in the sink, laundry was overcoming the bedroom, the refrigerator was empty and the Yarnitorium a disaster.

Then in comes Betts with her beautiful designs, perfect in every way. The cover picture does her sweater no justice. It simply glows. She showed the picture of a painting from which she derived her colors, and explained her process. An entire notebook-- an entire notebook! -- was kept for each design. She kept swatches and notes, then the next swatch and notes. You could see how her original thoughts changed and developed until she was satisfied and it was perfect. The process for one sweater took six months. And she's half the size I am!

My jaw dropped. I looked at my sad large swatch, asking it why it couldn't be more like Betts' swatches, put it back into its box and hoped nobody would ask about it. Later I got it out quietly to show to Felina and ask her input, but she would only say "you'll never be happy with it". Slowly other folks came over and gave their input. The consensus is, keep swatching with the colors I have and see how it looks with a couple of repeats. I'll be doing a smaller swatch! Betts suggested varying the number of rows of background colors even more, maybe even just one row of some colors.

Last week I was a wannabe designer. This week I am a Fair Isle Phobic. Next week I will be an humble swatcher. Who knows where this will lead.

Jojo says, "just get the entry written and sit down so I can have your lap back, ok?-- that spot on the back of my neck is getting a bit itchy."