Fearless Knitting 101 - Fearless Knitting 101

Moving On

ninaclock — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 08:01:22 -0700

Fearless Knitting 101 closing down.

Over its lifetime FK101 has been quite the schizophrenic blog. It has had many personalities and purposes. Some time ago I realized that it had outlived its usefulness to me. It is time to move on. Start with a clean slate and a new vision.

I have created a new blog, Piquant, on my main website ninaclock.com. Piquant acts as an open creative journal, full of images and ideas. Stop by and take a look.

The blog archives will stay up at least for the time being and eventually my favorite posts will probably migrate over to my other site.

Thank you for visiting Fearless Knitting 101. Thank you for being interested, for commenting, for being around and sharing part of the journey. The story is not over yet, but this chapter has come to a close.

~Nina

The Vision

ninaclock — Wed, 02 May 2007 06:19:33 -0700

"Cinderella Concept by Mary Blair" courtesy of Peko-Chan

Last night hubby and I had an interesting conversation about products. What our late night talk boiled down to was this: the best and most complex products must begin and end with simple and exciting ideas.

Take the photo above, for example. It is a conceptual drawing by Mary Blair of the transformation scene in Cinderella. What is fascinating about this drawing is that though it does not look like any of the final drawings used in the movie, you could never mistake it for anything but what it is. The idea is there. The idea of graceful movement and excitement and magic, the very essence of the scene are contained in this drawing. And clearly this drawing was kept in center focus while the scene was animated. But, clearly it was not copied exactly into the movie.

The same thing is true of designing knits or software or probably anything. A successful product needs a master vision that captures the vital parts of what will be created. A picture of what you want to create that gives a project focus yet allows for the inevitable modifications that must come as the idea is made concrete.

Comments Not Working...Again

ninaclock — Wed, 25 Apr 2007 11:56:40 -0700

I'm sorry you guys, I have absolutely no idea why the comments never work consistently. Hubby is out of town so it will be a little bit. I'll post when they're up again.

With Only One Skein

ninaclock — Tue, 24 Apr 2007 10:12:46 -0700

What do you do with only one skein of a very rustic, very cheerful, very green skein of Donegal Tweed?

If you're me, you make these:

With the help of a contrasting yarn, I made sure that I used up every inch of this yarn. I love it that much. In fact, this was literally all the yarn that remained from the skein after completing these two projects.

I must have temporarily gained psychic yarn powers in order to know exactly when to switch to my contrasting color on the fingerless gloves.

The hat is roughly based on the Sugar on Snow pattern from Knitty. Such a cool idea; but I like it better in just a plain rib. And the fingerless gloves are my pattern, but it still needs a little refining before I put it up for sale.

I've got to wait till fall before I'll really get to enjoy these two items, but they were fun and fast to knit.

While the Paint Dries

ninaclock — Mon, 23 Apr 2007 06:29:33 -0700

When you're waiting for paint to dry, you really only have short periods of time between coats. I discovered the wonder of watching every single episode of Heros on my computer. I'm all caught up now and ready, waiting, and anxious for the next episode to come out. Is Peter dead?!

I've also been working on the purple sweater design.

This sweater keeps on morphing on me. I've changed my mind about needle sizes, stitch pattern, motifs, lengths, you name it. And yet I'm enjoying very much working on this pattern. The yarn here is the real challenge. I really, really like it, but it was a gift. And like so many gift yarns, it's not something I would have picked out myself. This means that I'm out of my comfort zone, and it's showing in my process. Just about every detail has changed as I've swatched, sketched, and swatched some more. I'm pretty sure I'm finally ready to start knitting. But not today. The shelves need another coat of paint and I need some more time to make sure I've got the idea of this sweater just right.

The Experiment Continues

ninaclock — Sat, 21 Apr 2007 07:02:17 -0700

Here is orphan sock #2. It went pretty quickly. I've been painting shelving. Socks are great for waiting for the paint to dry.

I haven't yet started the second sock of pair #1, though. It worries me a little. Instead I felt compelled to start a sweater!

It must be a sign.

ninaclock — Fri, 20 Apr 2007 16:11:35 -0700

This book has been on my reading pile for a while now:

The other day I noticed this book on hubby's reading pile:

Ever since doing that reading on the bogus clan aran sweaters I've been thinking quite a bit about the idea of a history sweater. It would be quite a challenge to graphically represent my life, or my family's. It strikes me as both a knitting and personal challenge. One I'd like to get to soon.

Oh! And I forgot, I got into a class with Janet Szabo, the queen of cables, at Maryland Sheep in wool. It really does seem like the pieces of a meaningful aran sweater are just falling into my lap!

An experiment

ninaclock — Fri, 13 Apr 2007 11:18:48 -0700

I'm engaging in a little personal knitting experiment. I like knitting socks. I LOVE wearing hand knit socks. And yet I don't seem to be knitting up socks very quickly. It has occurred to me that this is because I get bored. I can even pinpoint exactly when this occurs: approximately 1.5 inches before I start the toe decreases on the first set of a pair. All the excitement is gone by that point. I'm no longer interested in the pattern and the second sock is agonizing.

Now it has be suggested to me by some people that perhaps I just need to "embrace the zen of sock knitting", that is, suck it up and just keep knitting. I have decided to see if there aren't some more pleasing alternatives. I do knit for fun, not self-flagellation.

Therefore, I have decided that I will knit my socks in a slightly unorthodox way. Instead of knitting sock #1 and #2 of a pair, I will knit #1 of one pattern, set it aside and start the first sock of an entirely different pattern and yarn. My theory is that by the time I finish knitting the second single sock, I will be ready, dare I hope, excited to knit the second sock of the first pair. I figure it's worth a try. Sounds a lot easier than embracing things.

Ada Fenick Block

ninaclock — Fri, 13 Apr 2007 07:16:51 -0700

I really like the finished look of the Ada Fenick block. Though the breaks in the two cable columns look a little wonky to me, they are "traditional" to Celtic knot designs. What I like most about this block is the clever use of texture patterns underneath the tree of life. There are, two distinct texture patterns which give you this sense of depth that I find really interesting. Kind of like a horizon line.

This block is knit as one large chart, my favorite kind. Some of the symbols are unusual which made the first 13 rows or so a little difficult to read. But after that it was smooth sailing. I liked how the pattern continued to change throughout the entire block. It kept me interested all the way through.

All in all, the Ada Fenic block was thoroughly enjoyable!

Hints of Spring

ninaclock — Thu, 12 Apr 2007 12:16:28 -0700

I miss you, dearest blog readers! I have been completely overrun in the home improvement project that will not end. This project looked simple enough, but I'm learning that small-space projects make every detail important and also more difficult to execute. In the end it will be worth it. Right?

Anyway, I've got many FOs to share. But for now it will have to wait. Hubby's office must be completed before my normal life can resume. Until then I'm sharing with you my favorite picture from a short, warm walk I took a week or so ago. Despite the recent cold snap, greens like this only appear when spring is on it's way!