Remember when I came home from Rhinebeck and I had no pictures to post of fiber goodies purchased? There was a good reason for that..........a big chunk of my allowance went towards that large wheeled purchase. There was one fiberish item however that really grabbed my attention.
This stunning rectangular shawl that was hanging in Chris of Briar Rose's booth, jumped out at me. Whilst it was hanging up on the wall and I couldn't reach out and touch it, I knew how highly Chris's yarns were held in regard by another friend, so I took a chance and ordered the kit as it was already sold out by the time I noticed it. (yep, we all loved that shawl it seems!)
Given that my house is always full of yarn, it is really hard for me to justify a yarn purchase, but this one needed no justification, it was stunning all on it's own!
Well....the yarn and pattern arrived this week and it truly exceeded my expectations which were already quite high. The yarn is absolutely divine and the pattern is exquisite!
As I was reading the pattern, I did a Google search on the designer of the pattern. Lo and behold it was a woman who had recently purchased some yarns from me. Susan and I emailed each other a few times once I discovered who designed this beautiful shawl and she agreed to design a few patterns for my yarns as well I can't wait to see what she comes up with as she is VERY talented! Go take a peek!
I am now into my 4th year of blogging and I feel that as a fiber artist I have truly grown because of blogging. I have been incredibly fortunate to meet and become friends with designers that I hold in high esteem such as Anne Hanson, Mim Felton, Susan Lawrence, Kerstin Kapur, Kate Gilbert and now Susan Pandolf.
I have such an incredible admiration for the women who design patterns for us as I can not fathom having the ability to design. The minute I even consider giving it a try, my brain takes a siesta. "Looks like a math word problem, sounds like a math word problem, therefore it must BE a math word problem". You know what I mean......remember that question.....if a train is traveling 200 miles an hour, how long will it take.........see you DO know what I mean!
Perhaps it is one of those right brain/left brain kind of things, but I am grateful that the designs that these ladies come up with inspire not only me, but many of the women and men who dye the yarns that the designers and then ultimately you knit with.
Lately I have sensed a slight wind of change in blog land, where it may not be considered politically correct to show knitting in progress on blogs, but rather wait until you are finished and unveil the newly knitted item in it's finished glory.
This makes me a bit sad, as I really do enjoy watching the process. I enjoy watching the designers show us how they create and I enjoy reading about the process of your knitting.
Yes, perhaps some of it does not turn out the way that we hoped it might, but I believe that we all learn not only from our successes, but from our failures as well. While I would hope that no one delights in someone else's failures, I do think that we all can learn from it. So for now, I will continue to discuss both my success and failures on my fiber journey and I hope that you will too :-).