If your family was like mine, you heard this platitude a thousand times -- "if at first you don't succeed, try, try again." Or maybe this one -- "anything worth having is worth working for." And definitely this one -- "Rome wasn't built in a day." And somewhere along the line, someone probably told you the story of how many thousands of times Edison failed while working on the lightbulb. And then there's that Dyson vacuum cleaner guy who says on his commercial how many hundreds of models of his product he went through to get it right. The lesson we are supposed to get from this is that failure is just a happy an opportunity to create something better. I get it. But I'm pretty sure that none of these folks were knitters. That might not have been so quick to dismiss "failure" if they were frogging, frogging, frogging. Arghh.
I love knitting. I love creating original designs. I love reading knitting magazines and books. I could spend hours in a yarn shop just appreciating the merchandise. I have yarn in my veins. But holy cannoli do I hate it when I knit something that isn't EXACTLY what I pictured in my head and it gets frogged or felted into coasters. So when I did my first version of my magnolia blossom for the Mississippi Magnolia Tea Cozy, I was, well let's just say
disappointed, when it came out of the washing machine almost as big as my head. My husband was home at the time and I think I used some language he hasn't heard since he was in the Army.
Now, there's nothing inherently wrong with a magnolia blossom almost the size of my head. Real magnoloia blossoms can be very large, depending on the specific type. Not quite as large as my head, though. So "waste not want not." (I hear my Mom with that one!) It's a heckuvalot of short row shaping and at 125 yards of wool on size 7 needles, and fair amount of knitting. I can't felt it into coaters since it already felted into shape. Hmmm, dog hat? It would work, but I never put my dogs in clothing. My niece suggested putting it on a choker, but that would only work if I had a neck like a giraffe. A pin? Would probably make me walk crooked from upsetting my center of gravity. I'm sure I'll think of something.....
So it was back to the drawing board for my magnolia blossoms. It's kind of a crap shoot when you're going to felt something with that much shaping to estimate the starting size, so I tried not to think about the fact it was 50/50 whether I'd be starting over from scratch a third time. So I re-worked the pattern, made changes to the construction technique, knitted a new one and tossed it in the washer. The 30 minutes it spent in the washer felt like 30 hours. I held my breath, opened the washer, dug through the towels I had thrown in for extra friction, and out came the perfect felted magnolia blossom. Ah, success. Of course the sweet smell of success in this case smells like wet sheep, but it's a sweet smell nonetheless.
Here they are side by side:
Projects from our Deep South designers are starting to come in to the office. It's almost like Christmas when I open the packages. And you know how I like Christmas! As soon as we open them, we put them on the dress forms and start making decisions on styling and which model will look best in the garments. It's like playing dress-up, but with life sized Barbie dolls that drink coffee with you.
We're also working on our book layout this week, choosing design elements and colors. Erin is doing the technical design piece and we are having a blast creating the look and feel of the book. It's astonishing what technology has made possible with the right software. The options are nearly endless. It's really magical to watch the book actually come to life on a computer monitor. Almost as magical as watching a garment take shape from string and 2 sticks. Hmmm, I think I'll do a little magic today as I knit up the last couple of magnolia blossoms.
ted and ripped out 4 of these darn things. I took a break from the project and worked on the little free pattern for my upcoming online double-knitting class. I never thought that double-knitting would be "a break" from knitting a little wedding garter.
didn't involve the massive blizzards even my Deep South friends suffered this winter. But, it's all relative, right?
that our cars are coated in a nasty film of yellow dust that turns into paste with the windshield squirter. Ah, but the good news is that flowers are exploding everywhere. Nothing inspires me like the colors of nature. Oh, so maybe that's bad news -- I've been sketching like a crazy person and new yarn orders are showing up at my door almost every day. I could save a lot of money if I'd just leave my camera home when I leave the house! You'll be seeing projects inspired by these beauties in the book.
.... the tough do some finish work or other project that doesn't require knitting needles. While my knitting mojo is apparently on an unscheduled leave of absence, I still have LOTS to do on almost-finished projects for the book. Like a lot of knitters I know, I get about 95% done with a project and then leave it for what seems like forever before I finally get around to doing the finishing work, even if it's just 10 minutes of seaming. I don't know why, since it never takes as long as I think it will, but I just can't seem to stop dragging my feet. I have the same problem paying my household bills every month -- it takes 10 minutes online but I have the worst time making myself sit down to do it. Ditto folding the clean laundry. And unloading the dishwasher. Oh well, I've decided it's just one of my charming quirks.
So while I await the return of my missing mojo, I'm finishing up some of those last details. Here's a little peek at my very cute, if I do say so myself, Magnolia Tea Cozy. Felted flowers, embroidered and appliqued felt leaves and bead embellished needlefelting that looks like birthday cake icing swirls. Mmm, birthday cake is my all-time-favorite breakfast. But I digress. The tea cozy is such a great project and fun and girly and elegant and and practical and oh-so-Southern. And it's completely finished. Hmmmm..... maybe my mojo needs to stay gone for awhile.
dless. But to do it again? I just couldn't face it. So now I'll admit that I cheated. I went to the back of my yarn closet and pulled out my Ultimate Knitting Machine, a contraption that I truly hate. But that sucker will turn out yards of really nasty looking stockinette THIS fast. It'll be uneven and bumpy and will have dropped stitches, but I'm throwing the knitting in the wash and felting it for Pete's sake, so it really won't matter. I could make excuses and blame the cyst in my thumb from my second steroid shot I had earlier this week. I could blame it on all the time I've been spending potty training this little angel we added to our family this month. (Her name is Chelsea Elizabeth and she's a bichon-poo. Cutie bug!) But honestly, I just couldn't face re-knitting all that stockinette for the second time. 
Dragging out the machine, assembling it, clamping it to my countertop, and trying to get it to knit reminded me why I like hand-knitting. The machine is awkward, loud, and it's damn hard to get a decent even tension. You have to do a sewn bind off and then go back and hand sew the cast on edge as well. I find it stressful and not at all fun. Completely the opposite of hand-knitting. But if you're needing big blocks of stockinette to felt, it will run through a full hank of Cascade 220 in under half an hour. Leaving you many saved hours to hand knit something more interesting. Or do the embroidery and finish work on a really beautiful Magnolia Tea Cozy. If you decide to "cheat", too, I promise not to judge you one little bit!
Yesterday I got this yummy temptation in the mail. It's from Blue Sky Alpacas, one of my favorite yarn companies. I can't wear it here in Florida because alpaca is just so warm and toasty, so thank goodness parts of the Deep South are mountainous and/or chilly in the winter! These color cards were so cool I had to share them with you. They're for Worsted Hand Dyes (50% royal alpaca and 50% merino) and the cards are like little painter's palettes with chunks of yarn tied along the edges. Plush and soft and fluffy and gorgeous. And pefect for my design for an Ozarks inspired hoodie. Of course now I want an afghan for myself out of it. And the bright shades would make an adorable sweater/hat set for my great-nephew. And maybe some really fringe-y gift scarves for next Christmas. See what I mean? It's hopeless. Well, maybe it's just I'm hopeless. But I'm OK with that....
I love knitting. I love creating original designs. I love reading knitting magazines and books. I could spend hours in a yarn shop just appreciating the merchandise. I have yarn in my veins. But holy cannoli do I hate it when I knit something that isn't EXACTLY what I pictured in my head and it gets frogged or felted into coasters. So when I did my first version of my magnolia blossom for the Mississippi Magnolia Tea Cozy, I was, well let's just say disappointed, when it came out of the washing machine almost as big as my head. My husband was home at the time and I think I used some language he hasn't heard since he was in the Army.
So it was back to the drawing board for my magnolia blossoms. It's kind of a crap shoot when you're going to felt something with that much shaping to estimate the starting size, so I tried not to think about the fact it was 50/50 whether I'd be starting over from scratch a third time. So I re-worked the pattern, made changes to the construction technique, knitted a new one and tossed it in the washer. The 30 minutes it spent in the washer felt like 30 hours. I held my breath, opened the washer, dug through the towels I had thrown in for extra friction, and out came the perfect felted magnolia blossom. Ah, success. Of course the sweet smell of success in this case smells like wet sheep, but it's a sweet smell nonetheless.
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